Mixed Growth is a free form painting with strongly contrasting colors and a compelling subject of focus. A menacing object in the corner of the painting dominates the piece. The object has a tumor-like appearance, and its bulging shape suggests a growing, living thing that is rapidly increasing in size. The gray color of the tumor gives it a dangerous, unhealthy appearance, which stands in contrast to the warm, healthy color of the background in which the tumor is set. In fact, the background color is almost flesh-like, and it represents the healthy tissue in which the tumor lives. The red streak running alongside the tumor is the source of energy. The tumor requires a constant supply of blood, which is provided by the healthy tissue around the tumor. This relationship between tumor and healthy tissue is depicted in the way that the bloodstream originates in the healthy tissue and penetrates the tumor, supplying it with necessary nutrients.
Having hijacked the body’s energy supply, the tumor grows rampant. The title of the painting is interesting to note, because the tumor grows alongside the healthy tissue, becoming intertwined with it until it is difficult to separate the two. In this way, the growth is “mixed,” as the title suggests. The bad becomes entrenched in the good, until there is no way to remove one without damaging the other. This is the nature of cancer, and Mixed Growth is a compelling study of the slow, steady entrenchment of a tumor in the surrounding healthy tissue.
©1998-2009 Claretta Taylor Webb. All Rights Reserved
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