"Personal Space"

6 x 12 Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

This guy was on the beach a couple of weeks ago. I got a kick out of him for some reason. Not sure why. The sunglasses, headphone, mustache and the crossword puzzle just showed so much personality. He was actually surrounded by people, but he definitely looked like he would rather be alone. Soooo I gave him his space in this little painting that I did for the Little Neck Art Show and Sale this Sunday. Hopefully the paint will dry by then!

I tend to like the beach on the days when no one is there and I can barely see another human being because it is so quiet. Not that I am not social. I am, very....However I always find it interesting from an anthropological point of view how people lose their sense of personal space at the beach and it doesn't seem to bother them. In general humans have a certain space around them they are comfortable with not having other people in. At the beach, people strip down to little more than underwear, show off their svelt (or not so svelt) bodies and abandon all self-conciousness as they sit sometimes two feet from other half naked people and talk unabashedly about their lives. Hmmmm it is funny. And yet I do the same thing (assuming I having gotten lucky and found the beach empty).