Strange Dog Fights Painting

In this striking and bizarre piece, the artist morphs strange solid bending lines into an animal like shape. In layers of thick black and dripping gold the strange creature is embellished by small bouts of poetic memories imagined by the artist Zoe. The title piece reads "All I really saw was strange dog fights" here Zoe refers to her upbringing in Birmingham where a culture of dog fighting existed near to her family home. Zoe also encountered much of this animal violence first hand growing up in a home with a large number of territorial dogs. This line is bitter and striking as the artist phrases "all I really saw..." to suggest she presented some other reality but this was her secret jarring truth. In a lower area of pale blue Zoe poeticises "I loved you through kiwi branches, dreamt of you under rainy olive branches" this refers to Zoe's pleasure and romanticising of nature and the luxury of fruit, drawing from the joy of exploring gardens inside the city of London where she lives and works. She refers directly to the kiwi branches at Hampstead heath's hill garden and the olive branches of the Horniman gardens. She goes on to finish with "I'm not leaving this place without you my love". Here Zoe very charmingly refers to her child self, as if asking them to come along with her, into better lands away from dog fights and into kiwi and olive branches. In admitting this internal dialogue, Zoe quickly and largely notes a silly truth of her state of mind with the line "I was high". This work is available unframed, and can be framed on receipt by the buyer The dimensions stated are for the image space itself, not the entire excess canvas.