The Least You Could Do

2 Dec. 2024
acrylic and oil pastel on canvas

27in. x 22in.

This is how it feels to be asked for too much, and do it anyway. Senior year of high school was crunch time. At one point I had two jobs, I was working on my art portfolio, and I was the president of a club and a member of two others. After four years of stretching my boundaries, exhausted and overwhelmed by my responsibilities, I inched toward the finish line. I felt that I needed to push past my limit if I wanted to go to a good school and be successful. The person in the painting crawls toward the light, that is, opportunity. This causes anguished, ghostly figures of exhaustion, madness, and stress, to manifest. All of this is voluntarily, as represented with the green hand, offering the person up. The phrase, “The least you could do,” symbolizes the high expectations put on high school students to be an appealing candidate for universities. Despite the figure’s current situation, they look toward the light. They’re in the midst of suffering, but persisting in hopes of a better future.