Memory Babe 2 Painting

Some people might think this is a painting of my old school friend Neil Ruane, or former French Rugby Union player and coach Marc Lièvremont. But no, it’s an homage to the author Jack Kerouac – my second attempt at capturing something of his essence, based around the swirling worldview of beat sounds, Buddhism, sport and Catholicism from On the Road. When I first read his books as a teenager the promise of escape from small town inertia was intoxicating. His work maybe doesn't have the same effect on me now but that's because I don't bound from one experience to another with excited wonder (except at the Steam Fair which comes once a year to our local park, but even that isn’t quite as much fun since they started using tokens instead of old pennies in the slot machine arcade). Anyway, I've got a dodgy knee and a cricked back from sports injuries, so bounding anywhere is a bad idea. But I still love the idea of Kerouac as a force, or an attitude. Dharma Bums is my favourite, though for its heady mix of indoor sprinting techniques, doomed love affairs and mammy's-boy sentimentality, check out the sublime read-it-in-an-hour-and-a-half Maggie Cassidy. For a while when I was 17 I certainly believed that this was the greatest novel of all time. I still enjoy it too, more now for flicking through to the sad/lyrical passages about Kerouac's home town. Part of my ongoing Irrational Portrait Gallery project.

Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:19.7 W x 19.7 H x 1.6 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.