Lucky Rabbit

Greatness always finds itself in dire peril.

In a world of danger & violence, the Lucky Rabbit abides.

As I write this, Hurricane Helene is bearing down intensely on the deep Southeast, especially Florida, Alabama, & Georgia. In my neck of the woods, there has mainly just been steady rain all day, which made for a nice backdrop while working on this painting from a rural porch art studio. Prayers for all friends & family enduring more intense manifestations of the storm!

I am continuing to experiment with acrylic paints & blacklight glow reactive compounds in this work about a rabbit being chased by as many types of predators as I could imagine in the space of the canvas. I wanted to show a scene where despite all this ‘stormy’ aggression, a pure-of-heart, fleet-of-foot champion “lucky rabbit” somehow miraculously makes it through. He has scored a big carrot from some field nearby. But in risking this bounty for his family hidden in the tall grass, he is hunted by a hawk, 3 hounds, a snake, an alligator, and a boy hunter with a rifle. Life is full of risk & surprise! But he rises to the occasion! This final moment shows him leaping across a creek, apparently dodging bullets, and the claws, teeth, & venom bearing down on him from behind. He has survived!

In my view of art, I am driven to tell stories & to depict magic moments. Art gives us the versatility to depart from photographic naturalism, to contemplate ideas, to utilize imagery to create metaphor, analogy, and deeper meaning.

This is what makes us distinctly human. And every time I go through the process of generating a new idea, developing concepts around it beyond the apparent, and executing a fresh design, I feel as if I have recreated a type of internal universe or order. I have participated in something divine. The Stoics called this process “Palingenesis.”

Interesting thing about rabbits is that while they are possibly the favorite prey of so many predators, and so harmless to any other creature, they simultaneously seem to multiply in such abundance as to suggest that they have a winning evolutionary instinctive wisdom or strategy, or maybe it is just the gift of speed. Maybe they have something to teach us, though, if we look at it from a psychological perspective, maintaining a gentle nature, while being fast enough not to get overtaken by enemies. The idea of gentility is increasingly foreign to the rat race of the modern world but how nice is it when someone is polite when they don’t have to be, or kind when it pays more to be selfish? That which is truly noble almost always has a sacrificial disposition. There is something about the rabbit’s nature that is quicker to win our hearts.

Also, I have been thinking a lot recently about the precarious place we find ourselves in the world today, with so much violence everywhere. Talk of World War 3 permeates foreign policy speculation abroad. Domestic shootings continue. Societal morale & confidence in leadership seems quite low in the US about future prospects of peace and civilized discourse. The world seems overloaded and coming apart. Many humans, across the world, even on home turf, probably feel just like this rabbit here. Set upon on all sides by vicious “hounding,” or stress from work or social environment, it is all we can do to muster the courage to bring home that carrot for the ones who depend on us, and to keep ourselves intact, physically and spiritually. We are the Rabbit!

I wanted this work to contain a positive outcome, where the underdog, or “underrabbit” in this case, overcomes, & succeeds in escaping from all the attempts to destroy or prevent him from achieving his goal, the security & welfare of his family, as provider. If he can fight through to safety without being tainted by the anger and destruction all around, then perhaps we can, too. In doing so, in being like him, we can possess that carrot, as well, and remain alive to continue the good fight until another day, with our souls intact. The Lucky Rabbit is a noble character. The Lucky Rabbit is a gentleman.

From a porch in Coosa County, Alabama, the Royal Road goes on!

Playlist generated during the execution of this work:

Lucky Rabbit: