This is an original full color artwork in acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 18" x 12" plus 1" border and signed bottom right corner. To me, it's simply a "tour de force" of imagination, horror-wise. Ask Terry, however, and you get this explanation (which proves beyond doubt that Terry is as talented a writer as artist): "the original inspiration came from a short story by Samuel Beckett, called IMAGINATION DEAD IMAGINE, which describes a kind of claustrophobic craft travelling through space, inside which lie two figures - one male, one female - back to back, suffering alienesque, controlled temperatures and lighting variations implemented for the purpose of their survival. John Calder, Beckett's late, longtime publisher and friend, suggested the figures could be that of Adam and Eve - but, I thought, if that's the case, which Adam and Eve? Are they the original pair, or are they a 'new' couple, sent to restart a doomed humanity, possibly after some kind of man-made universal catastrophe, or maybe a global warming event has taken place? Hence, the reason for the nuclear explosions, as another possibility, spread over the surface of earth in the painting, which prompt the return of Adam and Eve, trapped alongside the coiled serpent, and transported by the symbol of ever present dissolution: the death skull. So, the painting is a whimsical, satirical message to whatever demiurge is in charge, suggesting he/she/they try again, following the destruction created by myopic, hubristic, technology-blinded homo sapiens. LOL!"
Terry Oakes: If At First You Don't Succeed
ships from the artist in Wales