Pavel and Peter Throw The Bride to the Wolves

About this artwork

This is a painting of an episode in a novel by Willa Cather called My Antonia. I’ve always been obsessed with this surprising Russian fable nested within an American context, and felt compelled to paint it. It is as if I could have no peace until I did it, and I am sure it expresses some kind of deep anxiety I have always had, probably about marriage or sexual politics or gendered vulnerability.