Artists of any genre have an opportunity to communicate their unique perspective of the world around them in ways that bring new understanding to those who read their books, hear their poems, or watch them dance.
Groups who traditionally rival each other often unite to protect themselves from a common oppressor. An injury to anyone taints the injurer. In this nurturing and dangerous world, accidents of birth, resources, geology, climate, and other factors determine whether we flourish or wither, live or die. This painting is dedicated to Mumia Abu Jamal. Mass incarceration is a crime against humanity. We knew where this was going. Creativity and imagination generally occur in the right side of the brain, which controls the left side of the body. Artist, poets, dreamers and other right-brain-dominant people can easily feel stranded and unsupported in our left-brain-dominant culture. The caretaker of a saltwater(?) aquarium was refilling the tank and forgot, or didn’t care, that he had already added (salt) to the water, and added some more. The fish, sensing that they were now poisoned and doomed, began to indiscriminately eat each other whole. Some were eating fish so large that they died in the process. I reached in and poked the back of a large pudgy fish, so it regurgitated another fish it had nearly swallowed. One small fish was hiding in a crevice under a rock, knowing it would soon die of contaminated water, or be eaten. I added fresh water to the tank to dilute the poison, though probably too late. 
Our aqueous bodies respond to exterior forces, such as the moon’s pull, and electrical currents. When we lead diverse lives, attending to different inputs and energies, we lose vibrational community. Though we share physical space, our humours diverge. In this dream, the world had become so crowded that many people had no space in which to move around. When the tide went out they moved about on the beach, going about their business, enjoying that part of their lives. When the tide came in they moved uphill, back into the town, and again there was standing room only.
Ann Erpino Fine Art 