Titled from a playing card handed to me by a friend as I was painting. The card contained these two words that I ripped away and attached to the painting…giving a name to what was already emerging…painted over now

Big Joker is an old friend who keeps me real in my life and is honoured in my work, painted and written.

He is shape-shifter, zen master, court jester, town fool, coyote and trickster. I never know when he will next foxtrot into my life and art, but I count on him to keep me walking on thin ice.

He reveals the truth behind the rabbit from the top hat trick, the colours and illusions of who i keep thinking i am and the wonder of the absurdity of it all and he juggles me around until I actually get it, if only for a golden minute and I laugh and laugh despite the pain.

He always begins his cosmic japes with the pretend serious face I have painted, but I can tell when he is conjuring up his next joke and muffling his laughter behind his hand because bubbly tentacles grow from his head…

(When i was a kid i believed that if i stifled a sneeze my brain would explode).

…my life has been,

And still is

Filled with bubbly tentacles…

Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

Big Joker. 18″x14″. Acrylic on paper on panel. By clinock