This 39.50 inch x 50.50 inch oil painting called ‘Life’s A Bowl O’ Mercury’ was a by-product of the tumultuous time in 1970’s America - with the Vietnam War and our generation striving to find a new way of approaching life.

I was angry about the war, angry about crooked Nixon, confused (at that time) about the vast sums of money spent on the Space Race when people were starving, concerned that people didn’t believe in evolution, and felt that ‘Blind Justice’ was being held hostage by the older generations, at gun point!

The ironic thing about this painting is that one can look at some of the images and think it is a painting about 21st century concerns, except it was painted in the 1976 Presidential Election year.

I hope you can enjoy a spin around the next 6 detail photos below and also keep scrolling for more curious works from 1976 to 1979.

See more paintings from 1976 - 1979 below.

Around the same time as the ‘Life's A Bowl O' Mercury’ painting, I determined to do a deliberate experiment in what I called ‘subconscious’ painting to make my 1976 Self Portrait; an oil painting. I began the process about 2 months earlier, and then waited to see what I might paint for a self-portrait. The result was a surprise; certainly a bit of a reflection of the times.

Keep scrolling for four more paintings from the late 1970's.

By late 1978 and ’79 I lived in the old mining town of 'Triumph' outside of Sun Valley for a few years. Now, a tiny residential community, it had a history of stories of ‘Outer-space sightings’. That culture sort of permeated the environment there. Also Triumph sits at the base of a mountain called ‘Mindbender’, so called because it is so much bigger than it looked as seen from below. All this mystique found its way into my work and the titles of these next two paintings. - G.P.L