Break on Through (Tried to run, tried to hide) - ING Discerning Eye 2020

‘Break on Through’ explores breaking through barriers that have been constructed to keep people from greater knowledge. Throughout history barriers have been constructed to keep certain elements of society at bay, in control, kept at their station and in their place etc. These can be seen as traditional moral codes, the law, or even your own fears/ thoughts/ ideas of oneself. This work also alludes to The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley, who, through mescaline, broke through traditional perceptions of the world around him and entered into different consciousnesses. This was celebrated in the past by the Romantics William Blake, John Keats and Percy Shelley, of which Jim Morrison was a fan, hence the title of this painting. The second part of the title, in parentheses, also from the Doors song, alludes to the history of slavery in all its forms.