Roger Rabbit.

I chose to do Fred Stonehouse's Untitled (Kiss/Beso) painting of the rabbit getting shot with many arrows and crying. This painting was one of the first pieces I saw and I immediately knew I was going to choose it over the rest of the works of art. Untitled (Kiss/Beso) was created in 1992 and done as an acrylic on panel.

Earlier in class this quarter, we have read about the many massacres and wars authors have had to deal with: Rowlandson, the Iroquois Constitution, and the Great Swamp Massacre. My connection between these articles and Untitled (Kiss/Beso) lies within the arrows and tears. I took the arrows to mean to different massacres and wars that the United States has had to deal with, the tears exemplify the sadness, and the droplets of tears and blood symbolize the aftermath of each war and what it has done to the pride and emotions of our country.





What first intrigued me about this painting were the arrows lodged in the rabbit. They were sticking out in ways that were not symmetrical with the other pieces of weaponry. I'm assuming that each arrow or the arrows as a whole represents massacre, loss, or inhumane actions, since no one would impale a rabbit with so many arrows. What was also interesting about the rabbit was that it wasn't dead, even though there were three arrows shot inside the rabbit.

The tears on the rabbit were another interesting part of the painting. I was confused why Stonehouse would paint so many tears falling from the rabbit's eye; maybe it was to symbolized the sadness and cruelness of the actions of what I can assume to be a hunter. The droplets of blood and tears interested me as well. Are they supposed to show the effects of these horrible actions on the rabbit? If the blood is left behind it means this tragedy was never forgotten? I would've liked to ask the artist these and numerous other questions.

I thought that the Beso sign above the rabbit was meant to symbolize the kiss of death and that death is tragic. I thought Stonehouse was trying to incorporate the injuring of the rabbit with a common phrase--the kiss of death. The only thing Stonehouse failed to do was put in the perspective of the hunter and why he/she/it chose to hurt the rabbit. This information may have helped me understand the painting more.

One question I am still left wondering with is why a rabbit? Why did Stonehouse choose the rabbit instead of another forest creature: skunk, squirrel, bird? What did the rabbit symbolize and mean to Stonehouse? These questions are still left unanswered and were on my mind as I left the MMoCA.

This painting created questions and debate in my own mind, and I enjoyed looking underneath the surface of this piece.