CHECK-MATE - A Commentary On Dating Leading To Marriage

                   CHECKMATE: A Commentary on Dating leading to Marriage  (SOLD)

This is my Second in the in the "NOTEWORTHY SERIES" of Twelve Paintings. The blossoming romance has come to its conclusion and is taken to the next level of making it legit. So one follows the tradition of a religious ceremony (notice the presence of a Bishop) to make it into a Holy Matrimony soon to discover that the alliances made are of the most unholy kind. But that is the topic of another later painting in this series. Let us enjoy and analyze this concept.

Here I feel empathy for the King who is left with no choice but to accept his fate and surrender to the pressures of a traditional marriage or to perish alone unloved and unwept and leaving no legacy. Once the paper is signed, the Game is literally over. That could actually be a good thing or a really bad thing. If it is a good thing, then the union is of a divine kind - the Marriage made in Heaven and a brand new chapter in life together as partners begins as you will witness it in my next Painting in this series. However, when it is not a good thing, the differences that once looked so endearing now become repugnant and unbearable. The grand realization starts to sink in that the person one thought one is getting married to is not that person at all but a total stranger. One feels violated on many levels and the downward spiral begins. That is when one is forced to reckon with the situation and accept the fate that the Honeymoon is over!  All there is left at this point is COMPROMISE.