Text and Illustration: Arthur Pease

When painting, I am drawn toward images in which a disaster is unfolding but is nevertheless invisible to the protagonists, thus the name of my favorite painting, “The Mystery of Innocence.” The explanation for this juxtaposition of threat and obliviousness is that the disaster is, in actuality, in the future. Thus, only the viewer – powerless of course to alert the painting’s protagonists – can see this.