"This piece is loosely based on the practice of sin-eating, whereby an individual (the "sin-eater") would remove the sins of a recently deceased person through ritual consumption of food and drink and take them into himself, allowing the deceased person's soul to rest in peace. In this case, the sin-eater is the stag, who (reluctantly) bears the dead man's injuries as well as the weight of all his troubles. The piece is also loosely inspired by the themes in the song "Cheerleader" by St. Vincent. The actual painting took me a couple days, but coming up with the idea and sketching took a couple of weeks. " - Julian Callos
