Poison Envy
"Everything seen, experienced, each word / Addressed to us in infancy, before / Before we could even know or understand / The implications of our wonderland. - Nothing Is Lost, Noel Coward"
Medium : Acrylic, Marker, Color Pencil
Date : 2019
Original Size: 8” x 10”
Poison Envy is the second painting in my set of Emotions. Whatever Happens, Cherry Blossom, and Ojalá are the others. Each containing blocks of color, flowers, and a short poem.
Poison Envy shows a beautiful girl, glancing at the viewer. Her expression to me is a kind of muffled sensual and angry emotion. Perhaps that combination equates to being envious.
For the record, the difference between envy and jealous is this: “Envy is “the painful feeling of wanting what someone else has, like attributes or possessions.” If you're jealous, you feel “threatened, protective, or fearful of losing one's position or situation to someone else."
I like that this painting is paired with Noel Coward’s poem. Our illusion of separateness makes us forget our wonderland. It is all already within us, constantly — but our mind, the stories we tell ourselves, lead us to comparison. And like President Teddy said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”