The Last Lion of Arabia
The Last Lion of Arabia
Limited Edition of One Hundred
Man im too tired to write well, but Ill give you a brief story of the inspiration behind this piece ….
I spent a month with a tribe of Bedouin in Jordan. They were a remarkable people, surviving out of time in a land they belonged to, but which no longer belonged to them. My host was the son of the former Sheikh - the tribal leader - I gathered the title did not pass to him because the title ceased to exist when his people were forced from their homes in the cave dwellings of Petra to a slum of impovereshment out of sight and mind from the hilton Hotels and tourist masses which come to explore the dead city of the ancient Nabateans.
I was shown a photograph of my host’s great-great-Grandfather - a black and white and time-stained photo of a bearded man with gaunt features sitting atop an Arabian Stallion with his robes billowing in the dry wind. It dated from sometime in the late 1800s. My host claimed this man killed the Last Lion of Arabia - I didnt even know lions existed in Arabia. Shortly after (speaking in terms of decades), the British came and rallied the tribes to fight the Ottomans and the Bedouin way was crushed by the sands of time and currents of industrialization and the politicizing of nations by colonial influence and god im just too tired to write right now. Find me in person and ill tell you all the more.
I call this piece The Last Lion, not for the actual animal this man may or may not have killed, but because in the destitute living room of my host’s home, a room with two cushions and no spoons (he sold his spoons during covid) - I looked upon this faded photograph wondering if this man was the last lion of his people.
This oil painting kicked my ass and I loved it. I got to invent so many different colors. Probably took around 200 hours. The original measures 90x90cm.
These prints are fancy. Pinky out fancy. Thats all you really need to know. Fancy freakin cows. I scowered the world for the right printmaker, accepting nothing less than the absolute best. I found a shop in the UK that met my standards. The paper is Homborgious Rag, its textured and thick and oooooo ya baby. Giclee print - archival as fuck. Will last longer than I will thats for sure. That second ‘e’ in Giclee should have a fancy dash above the e because its a fancy french word for fancy fuckin prints. They use 12 colors to print it, which I think is more than I even used to paint it. The color accuracy is *chefs kiss. Maybe you can tell im starting to lose it just a little bit. Being an artist is hard man. You dont just come up with the ideas and paint them and execute them, then you gotta go market them and set up your store and make sure it works and test and quality control and then go dance on tiktok with your freakin cow painting so hopefully someone other than my mother will buy one and I gotta do all this while being a basic stupid meatsack of a human. Ill be tucking whatever is left after I pay my landlord and buy another sack of beans to save up for plane tickets and night vision goggles. I want to go back to the jungle and look for the night tigers. No one looks for the night tigers. Theres also a dinosaur in the congo I want to go look for and a cave in vietnam big enough to house skyscrapers and I suspect a portal to another world. I want to go to kyrgestan and buy a horse and hang out with the nomads and I still have to go back to the Amazon to conclude my business with the spirits. So buy yourself a Bedouin King.
Ships in about one week and delivers 1-5 business days after.