Life+Times Presents: Dan Colen, A Retrospective

“Holy Crap,” 2005-2008, Oil on panel, 9 3/8 x 10 inches

“When I discovered this image of Gepetto’s work table, I remember wanting to use it as a reference for a body of work I was thinking of pursuing then, loosely: portraits of God. My ideas developed, and I decided to make the candle talk. At first I planned on it saying ‘Yo mama.’ In this painting, the candle is saying ‘holy crap.’ By now I’ve made a series of these speaking candle paintings.”