Commissioned by author and activist Shelly Tygielski in response to her book Sit Down To Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World. The book is structured in three movements. Me, the inner journey to the self. We, the outer journey to community. Us, the rising up to collective action. Cronin built the painting around that architecture.
The composition is full of motion that refuses to resolve. A gear that is intentionally not circular, questioning the closed cycle. Eight references to constant movement, figure eights, and arrows running through the field. Some of the arrows are broken. Some are crooked. The painting asks whether the shortest distance between two points is actually a straight line, or whether the path matters more than the destination.
At the center, three words. Me. We. Us. The individual, the group, the collective. The painting holds them in the same frame.
48" x 30" · Oil paint on board · 2021 · Signed verso
