The Runaway Pig 1979

Jamie Wyeth's painted this scene of a pig making a break for it, but when I look at this work I think about the quiet potential held in marks of brown and beige. It’s like Wyeth has found a way to make mud feel like a whole world of its own. Look how the rough texture of the fallen tree trunk dominates the middle ground. The light catches every nook and cranny, making it feel ancient and solid. Then, you’ve got this tiny burst of pink energy below, a pig in full sprint. It’s a fleeting moment captured with so much earthy weight around it. That contrast gets me thinking about how we pin down moments, how we try to capture life's little dramas. It’s like that old Jasper Johns quote, "Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it." Wyeth is following a similar kind of approach here. In my own work I’m always aiming for that push and pull between accident and intention, the same kind of dance I see in this painting. I think that sense of life's little dramas is maybe why it reminds me a bit of Pieter Bruegel, or another artist interested in the rhythms of the everyday.