Christmas With A Bullet

An older work, this is one of a half dozen made of a photographic capture of a Christmas wreath. This was my brother-in-law's favorite from that series. Notice how it looks like a bullet hole with a bloody smear? That's why he liked it.

At the time I would have contended it was just a visual exercise, not intended to impart a heavy meaning, and in fact was more playful than anything else. But, looking at it now, it reflects how time impacts what we do as artists. Maybe done playfully then, the impact of gun violence removes any innocence from it. Just an exercise though it may have been then, now it is colored by this 'war on Christmas' nonsense. I hesitate to add overt political or social opinions to this post - I think my semantics well illustrates my sentiments. My point is to illustrate the weight art may carry over time, irrespective of what might have been intended at its creation. It will be interpreted and adapted as fits the times and individuals who view it. The artist is merely the origin, like casting free a message in a bottle.