"In the face of war"

Robert Petrick’s "In the face of war" is a virtuoso painting that employs abstraction to face, deal with, and emotionally capture the anxieties we all face about the threat of widespread and terrifying war. If any of you readers are remotely like me, then you too will have spent the last month with a dark cloud of agitation over your head about the possibility of genuinely horrifying and all-encompassing war. To capture these feelings in beautiful and kaleidoscopic washes of acrylic is quite a feat and indicative of Petrick’s skill as a painter. What might appear so incongruous about the color allure of the painting is how can beauty be employed to discuss such a dire subject matter? However, how miserable would it be if he didn’t? I don’t want to talk to people who are decided against the possibility of a bright and better future. "In the face of war" is about hope more than fear, and I love and appreciate that.