The idea for this painting came from my father. He was pondering what sort of subject matter would be readily populated by my particular brand of imagination. A prison yard was a quickly reached conclusion. Given my aversion to taking such suggestions and advice, this idea remained unexecuted for some time. Until the point where I almost forgot that it was not my own and could just about convince myself that I came up with it myself. The scope of the idea probably also had something to do with keeping me away, as completing something like this requires quite a bit more commitment and vision that I had been accustomed to put forth in my work. But, when it came down to it, I surprised myself in being able to pull it off. The main idea aside, coming up with the little details to give the painting some substance was also a tricky affair. Prison guards and prisoners playing their respective roles was more or less a given of course, but not altogether disturbing enough. So, a strangely rendered oversized baby got put in just for the hell of it. That pretty much sums it up, there wasn't much reflection on theme or purpose, just whatever seemed like a good idea and doable at the time was shoved in. Now perhaps on some subconscious level my mind was taking into account those complicated things and putting forth ideas incorporating them without much effort on my part, but who can tell really. There was one willful attempt at cleverness and significance, but it was relegated to a pretty minuscule portion of the piece. Namely, the window to the left of the reaching baby is a changing room of sorts, filled with both prisoner and guard uniforms and quite identical people freely changing into both. A not altogether original idea sure, but sticking it in tickled me the right way.