The simplest painting I have made, and the hardest to look at. On pure white lies a close-up of a green leaf — every vein visible, the whole net of nerves that carries life through it. At the top edge a safety pin is stuck through.
There is no blood and no drama. Only a small metal object where it has no business being, and that is enough to make looking unpleasant.
This is what I have to say about what we do to plants thoughtlessly and without ill will. Plants do not scream, so it is easy to decide that nothing happened.
The panoramic format and the white ground make the work read like a poster — unambiguous from a distance and difficult up close.
Oil on canvas, 50 × 100 cm. This work has been sold; it stays in the archive to show where the paintings available today came from. Similar motifs are in the oil painting gallery.