This painting explores ways for a government (represented by the crimson edifice) to function optimally.

 

Concept palette:

The painting explores the indigenous view of having a minimal effect on the earth as you pass through life. Governing a nation is complex and difficult, needing more than mere deterministic laws. How can a government cater for the most evolved individuals as well as for those struggling the most. Who is actually setting the aspirations for a society?

 

The coloured balloons represent the different needs of the majority of the population and they are well shielded by the bulk of the edifice. The balloons are tethered to the land, whereby irrespective of their differences, at the end of the day the territory they occupy becomes a common and highest aspect of their identity. One of the outliers is a child kept closest to the government's base – needing to be helped to feel a part of the nation. Another of the outliers, a gray balloon may not benefit from the policies implemented for the majority and for this balloon the edifice has an additional, smaller component to manage the gray balloon.

 

The government holds in one hand a pen and a paintbrush, used to formulate laws to manage the nation. The pen and paintbrush, highlights that formulating laws is both an art and science to cater for the structural underpinnings of a society but also to cater for the underlying emotions that drive all of us.

 

The other arm, which is missing, would have been used to set the vision or direction for the people and the nation to aspire to something greater, to fulfil their true potential. This arm is missing (it appears instead in the painting titled, Migration and adaptation).

 

The clear balloon represents the most evolved or adapted individual so their presence on the earth is minimal – not needing anything from the environment for their existence and therefore they float free.

 

Read more of the description of the painting, Adaptation and Coming Ashore for a continuation of this theme.