El Vicio el Placer y el Ron

“I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”-Jessica Rabbit.

Not all paintings are short treatises on man’s vices and pleasures, even the ones that look that way. The initial inspiration for this painting was the bottle of Rum we’ve had in our home for years. It was picked up in a garage sale by my wife. A quick search online didn’t yield anything meaningful about the company or this particular bottle. So I started adding props. A cigar seemed to go well. A Spanish style playing card also seemed to go well, etc. Soon I was thinking that I had a few vices thrown in here, alcohol, gambling, smoking. But they don’t all have to be vices, some people enjoy these things as occasional pleasures. Which got me thinking about pleasures and vices, some would say my vice is painting. I’ve known people whose vice was reading, do you see what I mean? Towards the end of the painting I was thinking about my three grandfathers. Yes, three. One on my mother’s side, one on my father’s side, and my grandmother’s second husband who I grew up with as my grandfather. I’m sure none of them were complete angels, but I have fond memories of all three. I also regret that I was a less than ideal grandson. But I think that all three would find something to appreciate in this painting, although one of them would have to have it described to him, since he was a blind poet.