ARE YOU USING THE FISH AS A METAPHOR FOR CHRIST?

The Sacrifice probably does convey a somewhat ham-fisted surface point about what organized religion has done to gut and abuse the original teachings of Christ. However, it didn't start out that way. It was a picture of a man cleaning a fish and the obvious only seemed obvious later. The same with Le Pêcheur, which to me, was a picture of a man in red carrying a big fish. It wasn't until I was finished with it and went to name it that I discovered that "le pêcheur" can mean simply "the fisherman," or, with the other accent, it becomes "le pécheur" or "the sinner." How could I resist?

Fish carry a lot of symbolic baggage in the world. Long before I was aware of the Christian use of the fish as a logo, I knew the fish from old fairy tales and legends books that my grandmother and great-aunt gave me. My great-aunt translated fairy tales from other languages and I was her lucky test-child, who got to sit by the fire and listen. There were lots of different variations, but the gist was always this: the foolish, egotistical, or greedy human catches a magic fish, who, in return for its freedom, promises to grant three wishes. In almost all of the stories, the human somehow abuses or squanders the gift of the fish and winds up far worse off than when he started. Because the fish and its captor/executioner are not confined as characters to just one culture, then the question of how you see any of the fish paintings would probably depend on which legends are foremost in your mind's eye.

Of course it's also just a fish, and that alone makes it fair game. Fish have fins, tails, gills, scales, and funny eyes. They come in every possible size and shape as well as an infinite variety of color schemes. You could paint only fish with no ulterior motive for the rest of your life and never be bored.