Unfortunately Bert has painted a lot of really negative and depressing paintings over the years. In many ways the act of creating art out of pain was therapy for him.
Dimensions: 20x27cm
Painted: 2009
Materials: Acrylic on MDF board
Private collection
The story behind Loneliness
Loneliness is a terrible thing to experience. In our overcrowded modern world, many people are lonely; and the problem is only getting worse. I am someone who has suffered from loneliness throughout my adult life. At times it is quite mild. Sometimes it is at an indescribably painful level.
With this most serious of subjects, I try to convey the sense of isolation and emotional pain that I feel when struck with loneliness. There is a feeling that very lonely people get to experience – it is that many people surround you, but you are almost invisible to them. Another part of loneliness depicted here is that those that are many other lonely people in the community. They too stand apart from those around them.
In this painting, the viewer is looking down on a community of people. Each person is a small dot, and the closer the dot is to another, the less lonely that person is. There are the occasional diffuse clouds and shapes that are representations of cultural groups that people belong to, that provide a sense of being for the people within it.
I am at the center shining brightly – but dying from loneliness. In this powerful work of abstract expressionism, I am bleeding from the thousand cuts of isolation – a pool of blood surrounds me. I am also not the only isolated and lonely person.
Bert Ernie