Toxicity

gouache and marker

14" x 11"

"Toxicity" is about the darkness and weight that words carry. They are heavy, like smoke. When words like 'ugly' and 'toxic' or phrases like 'stop eating' and 'I don't care' are used, they have a lasting, negative impact on the person it was directed onto but not on the person who was saying it. Those comments are butts of cigarettes for the person saying it, easily thrown out, but burns on the other. This piece uses a roughened figure smoking cigarettes that carry truly toxic words, that never impact him but spread out around him.