These are the times...

I walk from our house to my studio (which is 4 blocks) and pass our neighbor's yard where they have erected a beautiful statue made by the famous Italian sculptor Willy Verginer based on the Grimm's fairy tales "The Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack." The sculpture is about the Gold-Ass. When my neighbors put the mask on the boy and one on the ass, I just had to paint it! I named it "These are the times..." To me, it shows a defiant strength that we all need to get through this pandemic. The boy on the back of the ass could easily get kicked off, but there he is, surviving the odds.