Wedding Ring

Hello... divorce present, anyone?

Wedding Ring

When I painted this, I partially had in mind the divorce rates and what these tell us about the "marriage myth".  Obviously, something has gone wrong in the last 50 years or so with marriage, based on the divorce rate.  But I also had in mind the highly stressful ritual of the wedding, with the emphasis that is so frequently placed on making everything perfect in an incredibly rigid way, so that people spend ridiculous sums of money getting married and stress themselves out with worrying about what everyone else will think of their special day.  So much of what goes on doesn't make sense...

This painting includes most of the elements of a traditional Western-style wedding.  There is obviously the bride and groom, and the Minister, along with the bridesmaids, parents of the bride and parents of the groom, and various other guests and relatives and, on the table in the lower right-hand side, wedding gifts (not visible in the photo, which has been cropped). You can see the white dress and veil, the bouquets of flowers, the flower girl and ring-bearer... The only thing I did not include was the wedding cake.

This canvas will be on display at Bezpala Brown Gallery on March 26 and March 27, 2011.  It's part of the March "Last In" exhibition which the gallery holds, from time to time, throughout the year.  Bezpala Brown is at 17 Church St near Front Street East in Toronto.  Phone 416/907- 6875 or info@ bezpalabrown.com..

I'll also be re-exhibiting my canvas "Rats! (She's winning)", which won the Best Last In; Jury Award at the February exhibition.  You'll find details about Rats!  in the January 28, 2011 post on my blog.

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer