2009 martyrdom of the artist

This is a highly emotional piece, dark and intense. The high-contrast does relate to the Barroque movement (as I see it, for the contest). The pallette you chose and the brush strokes that appear at first sight are very expressive. There is passion all over.

At first sight, one can only wonder to whom all those toys belong(ed) to, and if the center figure is intended to be a toy at all, a vudu doll or a person.

With the extra information you give us, we have more for interpretation: The title "2009 Martyrdom of the artist" is not only situating us in time (now, this year) but also the word "martyrdom", with its iconographic significance beyond religious images: suffering as a sacrifice for a greater belief or ideal. Therefore the image in the center is not a doll anymore, but a human being in great pain.

Then you relate this painting with others in your past (and we see the exact same toys), and tell us it belongs to the self-portrait genre: so it is there, we don´t have to wonder anymore, it is a self-portrait, in which the artist -you- is portrayed as tiny as a doll, suffering among familiar toys/beings.

I get this intense feeling of pain and watching yourself as a toy (of life? of society? of family?).

As a viewer, I don´t know if this is completely true ('cause I don´t really know you, you might as well be now happily having a beer with friends), but if it is, I do hope this painting is cathartic...