;)
This painting represents the two Irelands in the form of a diptych, the north on the right side and the Republic of Ireland on the left. The most important symbols being the ’anthropomorphic’ peppers, representing the colors of the flag… the green on the left which looks vaguely like a torso with arms, and the orange colored pepper on the right side for Northern Ireland.
Having just spent some time in Galway, a fishing town on the western coast, I have used Lough Corrib as the background of the painting. A fisherman sails in a row boat (painted with the Irish flag colors), and a colorful fish protrudes from the canvas, along with the Irish flag jutting out from a cloud is on the left side of the painting. A Celtic cross is found on the summit of the mountain and ’the spire’ from Dublin reaches up to the heavens and through the sky - which turns into drapery and ties the two parts of Ireland together. If you look closely at the mountain (and it’s reflection) form lips, and a bird the bottom of a nose representing my mother; there is also a female figure of a mannequin just below it.
On the right side, the English influence is represented with the album cover of John Lennon’s Mind Games album (with 2 Irish 20 cent pieces resting on top), a Wild Irish Rose represents that wine and a tendency to imbibe, a dry stone wall frames the diptych, an ’Eurasian blue tit’ bird sits on top of the canvas… (one of the most common birds seen in Ireland), and the egg with yolk represents the start of life, where my personal heritage came from (the north - Ballymena, county Antrim).