inked

Inked
by Barbara Sullivan

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Looking back on the history of tattoos I understand tattoos became popular during World War II with Navy men, especially a particular, tough, elite group called the Hells Angels. They came back from the war and went to work in factories and other blue-collar jobs. Missing the excitement and camaraderie many of them started riding motorcycles - hence the tradition started. Here I visualized someone working late. The challenge in this painting is for your eyes to initially focus on the motorcycle first and then let your eyes drift to the rest of the painting. To accomplish this I painted and glazed the background several times to make the visual impact secondary to the bike.—Barbara Sullivan