Hooded Falcon 1997 
Acrylic on canvas, copper frame  36 x 29 1/2”  

This painting was done as part of a group of paintings of “sport animals.”  And while the sport represented here is falconry, the painting is actually symbolic of something completely different.
   It’s about nasty tempers.  People’s tempers in general, and my temper specifically.  It’s about tempers that can be quick and strong and merciless and nasty to come into contact with.  Tempers that can be tethered, but never completely controlled.
   The nature of falcons is to hunt.  They are quite skilled at that.  They are quick and strong and merciless and nasty to come into contact with if you are the object of their rapacious instinct.  And although birds don’t really have “tempers” in the way that humans do, the falcon seemed an apt symbol for this particularly human condition.
   The falcon here is hooded and tethered, but his strap is not completely fastened to the hook.  He could take off at any time and fly blindly around wreaking havoc.
   So it goes with my temper and the tempers of many people who try to control them: some success, but some small fear of the day when it takes off to fly blindly around wreaking havoc wherever it lands.