Tormented (Grandpa Garbage) - 2002

This is one of those pictures whos meaning changed for me over time… And I include it here because it's something of a funny, albeit somewhat messed up, story… also it works for great filler…

The work began from the idea, among other things, of somebody being tormented but somehow guarded or imprisoned by a bizarre being, itself tormented and imprisoned in a sense. A dark, or at least dark-ish idea.

So about a year later a friend of mine read me a poem he wrote for class. The poem revolved around (and realize, I'm oversimplifying this) how people allow horrible things to occur because it isn't happening to them, and in turn allow it to spread to them. So after a bleakly dark parade of slave murder, child abuse, and rape, I was a little shell-shocked. In response to the poem, and in an attempt to lessen the dower mood left in the room, I blurted out “That was the worst Christmas ever!”

In something of a response (I think) to the comments, a different friend of mine referred to the character in the picture as Grandpa Garbage… A name which has stuck in my mind since then. He also came up with a really messed family of weirdos, including grandma urine-tester, auntie anal leak-ins, and big uncle cave retard…