Final Touch

Victor Bregeda's painting 'Final Touch' is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek metaphor for the Christian cosmogony.

We see God's smiling face in the verdant hillside on the right side of the painting. He looks upon his creation of the world with pleasure, now that he has added that "final touch."

Upon the table top are the traditional fruit and wine components of a still life - pears, oranges, a cut apple, and a bottle of wine. The wine bottle has a very old look to it, covered with moss and appearing to have emerged from the earth itself. There are tree banches growing up from under the table top, some protruding through and around the wood. The bottle of wine is not really sitting on the table as you would expect, but rather is held by these branches - a contribution to the creation from the earth. The table top is simultaneously part of the earth and part of the sea, as if to represent a transitional dimension.

The paper origami-type pieces, which seem to be unfolding and turning into sailing ships as they recede in the distance, represent the many paths, options, and possibilities open to the creation's "unfolding" in the future.

The final touch is, of course, the woman who is being splashed onto the canvas by the man twirling the wine glass. She appears to leap from the wine glass into the center of the painting - the feminine energy to balance the male energy, a woman to accompany and complement the man, the yin to make the yang complete.