Johnny's Wedding

This is the first painting I ever painted where I had the intention to give it away when I was done. This was difficult for me for some reason, as a lot of time and energy go into these things, and I'm enjoying their company so much. I have no desire to sell any of these pieces, so giving something away is somehow even more abstract(I've really learned to put a price on my artwork and time, being a professional artist will do that I guess). The target for this painting is someone really special to me, and I was going to be unable to go to his wedding (him getting married is the equivalent to witnessing a religous miracle, an alien spacecraft, and Bigfoot all at the same time... it was previously believed to be impossible, so missing his wedding is pure craziness). I painted this for Johnny Dimartile, a colleague and a friend, almost a brother, and a very very special guy. Obviously the concept is hell freezing over, which is appropriate in celebrating Johnny's wedding, but the double joke in there is that Johnny is a Catholic (An Italian Catholic, ash on the forehead, Pope is infallible, Italian Catholic), AND a loyal friend so he will undoubtedly feel obligated to hang this somewhere in his house... and I love the idea of a serious Catholic having a picture of the Devil up somewhere in his house. This painting is 12" X 12" acrylic on canvas, and is full of drybrush technique with the snow and ice everywhere. This piece took about 40 hours even though it's the smallest piece I've done, a lot of small details and a lot of drybrushing. Congratulations on your marriage Johnny!