Golden Birthday, 1993, oil on canvas, 76 x 114 inches

Your "Golden Birthday" is the age you become on the birthday that falls on the day of your birth. If your birthday is , say, August 12th ... your "Golden Birthday" was the year you turned 12. There was very little likelihood of my death resulting of an overdose of marshmallows and fast food as has this poor lad!

The significance of the painting is that the subjects are all Chris's friends at age 22+23 in 1993. His "thesis" is that he will paint himself and his friends in the realm of Popular Culture throughout his life. Having 8 characters in this painting is a delight and rare. They have all been seen in many other paintings.

The boy in the white T shirt holding the "birthday boy" played "Jesus" in the "Stations of the Cross", and the dead birthday boy was one of the "suits" in the series. Look for them here: http://www.dianefarrisgallery.com/artist/woods/ex96/index.html

The fellow anguishing on the upper right, Bob Fugger, now has considerably less hair (sorry Bob) and was the husband (with his real wife) in "Billboard". Bob also made a film documenting the project which was shown on Bravo! television. See that project here: http://www.dianefarrisgallery.com/artist/woods/news/billboard.html

Well, you get the idea.....look through Chris's pages on our site and see who you can spot through the years! http://www.dianefarrisgallery.com/artist/woods/index.html