the dog days of summer begin, 92x122cm / 36×48″, acrylic on wood panel, 2025

wiki describes the dog days of summer as “the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius, which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck.”

you try to grasp the moral lesson of mythologies in which pigs fly around strange horse-people that kill centaurs (people-horses??), but you can’t really make heads nor tails of it.

so you just go into the endless feed of your phone to avoid the situation. Anyways the canines are guarding the vase, so maybe you don’t need to worry about it. The endless natter on tv along with your superstition seeps in. It’s hot & sticky, so you smoke & drink more coke. But you can’t stop worrying about Sirius rising & mad dogs & bad luck. Anxiety sets in.