A BOTTLE IN FRONT OF ME OR A FRONTAL LOBOTOMY?

This painting represents addiction and the destructive process of selfmedicating
with alcohol or drugs. Painful feelings are difficult to process.
Addictions work temporarily to deny or avoid acknowledging painful feelings
by numbing the brain and disconnecting the awareness of emotional pain.
Self-medicating is an unproductive, unhealthy, destructive coping mechanism
which never permits effective acknowledgement or processing of the
underlying feelings. The brain is injured by chronic abuse, like having a frontal
lobotomy. Meanwhile, the melting Daliesque clock depicts time ticking away,
as the anonymous individual avoids the opportunity for emotional healing
and recovery.
This painting was inspired by my frustration and heartbreak over my
brother and sisters’ self-destructive addictions. Andrew and Dana each died
prematurely from the combined effects of drug abuse, cigarette smoking, and
compulsive eating disorders. I tried to help them but was ineffective; they
never fully embraced my attempts to intervene.