When asked about the meaning he intended to convey with this painting, Gross says “I like to let the viewer make their own interpretation of an image.” Fair enough. I feel that as viewers we become more involved and attached to an image when we have to spend time with it to deconstruct it – to find its meaning. I personally read into the scene that in a world marred by human activities and climate change, people in the future will be elated whenever they find something ‘natural.’
Gross goes on: “What I can tell you is that the main image originally was inspired by a poster I saw in Japan. The four people in Spores were based on the smiling, happy Western-looking people in that advertisement. The shit-eating grins were just so ridiculous that I had to snap a photo of the poster when I saw it. The actual spores in this piece are simply pollen spores magnified tremendously, but I think that they appear to be something much more sinister.”
