Rendering Unto Caesar

This painting is about the way the male imperative dominates and corrupts our society .  It’s based on a bust of Julius Caesar, arguably the ultimate personification of that imperative. Everything else in the scene is merely what our culture accepts as the way a man of wealth and power accessorizes. The mansion, the car, the fur-wearing blond are simply what we expect a man to want. But what about the female imperative?  How can our society reconcile what we encouraged someone like Marilyn Monroe to become, then destroy her when she wanted to become something more. While women have made great strides in recent times and have certainly proven to be the equal or better of men in almost any arena, the female imperative and all it entails are still grossly subjugated to the male’s in our society almost as much as in less developed ones. And it is this imbalance that leads to tragedies like Marilyn’s and those of millions of others less well-known. The title is from Christ's reply to a trick question about to whom one should render one's support:"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

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