"The Whole is Equal to the Sum of it's Parts"

After looking through a bundle of old photo albums I wanted to do a ton of paintings of my youth, but rather than doing all those paintings I decided to do a painting about wanting to reflect back on all those visual reminders. I find it interesting to contemplate on all the influences that come into our lives and I loved putting some of those figures(literal and symbolic) into the same painting. Any painting that has Honest Abe and superman is my kind of painting. There is about 30 references here, I came across so many others but it was getting out of hand. This on is Oil on Canvas and 55"x55".

Saturday Morning Soccer Self-Portrait

While painting a large Self-Portrait I came across this old Photo and I felt compelled to do a painting of it. I imagine I was about 5 or 6 when it was taken. Notice the Spiderman shoes, no cleats or shin guards needed. And I believe I had shorts on but hard to tell. The Eighties... no car seats, lead paint and who had ever heard of a bike helmet. How did we ever survive?