Carl Dobsky, “Ship of Fools”, 2014-2015, Oil on Canvas, 72 x 108 Inches
Carl Dobsky, a realist artist who is also the proprietor of the Los Angeles based Safehouse Atelier, showed his recent six-by-nine-foot canvas “Ship of Fools” at John Pence Gallery in June 2015.
“The theme for the work has been around for a long time, but kind of comes into it’s own in the 15th and 16th centuries with works by the likes of Hieronymous Bosch and others. It usually depicts a boat without a pilot filled with deranged or people who are kind of oblivious to their situation. In some cases, it has been used as social commentary. To
I wanted to show them in a situation where they were caught between an ideal vision and a practical situation. In this case, the practical situation is obvious enough; they’re about to wash up into the rocks if they can’t take care of matters at hand. To show the vision of the ideal, I chose the symbol of the butterfly for it’s delicate and fragile beauty. The thought to use butterflies came to me after reading about Chuang Tzu’s dream where his identity becomes interchangeable with the butterfly.” – Carl Dobsky