My dark places

From title to the depicted scene, this painting is a homage to the homonymous American writer James Ellroy’s autobiographic book. A compelling albeit disturbing account of the author’s search of his own mother’s death. She was a single mother, she was red haired and she used to spend nights at bars. All of this bears the reminds of a post-war Los Angeles, from pictures, to movies and iconography. It is also a quote of Edward Hopper’s celebrated “Nighthawks” painting. But colors are different, and shiny L.A. neon signboards, the headlights of a passing car and the stereographic segmentation of the bartender’s movement are clearly next to us by two decades. All is movie, all is scene. And the lady, the one we know was found death, ah well, she’s staring at nothing and at everyone in the bar, her life already passing away.