«Love»

In 1973 the US Postal Service put Robert Indiana's LOVE on an eight-cent stamp. Four letters, two stacked on two, the O tipped sideways, and the most private word there is became something you licked and mailed to anyone. For me that stamp is the whole problem of love pop art: the most private feeling, printed for everyone.

That stamp is the starting point of this canvas, only my take is much less polite.

The room is almost black. High on the wall hangs a huge framed portrait of a dog with wide, ringed eyes and a nervous grin full of teeth. The frame is thick yellow paint with a cracked relief, and the picture inside is bright blue. The dog's face is sliced into glitch strips that have slipped out of line, with a few small black squares on top like a bad signal. Below it stands a green chesterfield sofa where a couple is caught in an intimate moment. A small brown dog stands on the pink and lilac floor and watches. A synthesizer keyboard lies on the floor, a plant waits in the corner, and pastel pixel blocks float on the wall.

Interiors with a quiet witness are an old habit in painting. Hockney's Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, from 1970 to 1971, puts a couple and a white cat in a flat full of furniture. I wanted the same domestic stage, but with the loudest thing in the room hanging over everyone's head.

The title promises one thing, and the picture lets you decide what love is here: the couple, the staring pet, or the portrait. It is an original pop art painting in oil and acrylic, 120×90 cm, from 2024 and my collection «Good luck have fun», and it works as statement wall art in a living room.

Most of my original paintings are already in private collections, but I paint originals to order in any size. To ask about this one, message me on Instagram or by email. There is also a hand-finished lithograph, ordered through Instagram or email.