Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl

John Alexander, Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl, 1985, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of United Stationers, Inc., 1995.70.1
Copied John Alexander, Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl, 1985, oil on canvas, 90 1⁄8 x 120 in. (228.9 x 304.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of United Stationers, Inc., 1995.70.1

Artwork Details

Title
Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl
Artist
Date
1985
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
90 1⁄8 x 120 in. (228.9 x 304.8 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of United Stationers, Inc.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Animal — fish
Object Number
1995.70.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1995.70.1

Artwork Description

The tangle of brushstrokes in Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl brings to mind the clotted, suffocating density of swamps in John Alexander's native Texas. The goldfish bowl represents life's generalized paranoia and viciousness, as well as the specific pressures of his career. This painting captures the dark humor of a man who says that artists, like "thieves and hoodlums," earn their living after midnight. Alexander admits that the scale of his paintings contributes to the anxiety he experiences in the studio, where he veers between pride and doubt. When he isn't painting, he watches the great blue herons waiting to snap up the koi from his pond, and thinks of his critics' judgments: "Try opening up on the canvas, pour yourself into it, and then let 300 to 400 people come in and reject you or praise you."

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006