Monkey Series
The first monkey paintings were based on a Sock Monkey that I bought at a flea market in Miami. I liked that it was a popular rural toy, a home-made stuffed animal. I got baby shoes for it, and made it into the Monkey Jar sculpture. It was soon broken coming back from a show. I missed it and began making paintings based on the toy monkey image, involving structure, repetition, and reflection. In the twin (double) image paintings, I painted with my left and right hands to make the opposing sides, intrigued to see the results play off each other. The toy monkeys gradually evolved into more human appearing surrogates as I explored the monkey motif's ability to accommodate portraiture, narration, and expressions of the human predicament.

All works © Mark DeMuro.