"The painting’s title is taken from the Leonard Cohen song of the same name. The figure to the left is a self-portrait (draped in a Marimekko fabric). The background image is taken from a screenshot from the film ‘Double Indemnity;’ Fred McMurray’s character waits at the window for Barbara Stanwyck. The figure to the right is Boris Karloff in James Whale’s ‘Frankenstein,’ which has Queer subtext. Each of these figures wears the same shirt; I view this as a triple self-portrait. The yellow horse is symbolic of a beloved ex-lover. There are several recent paintings in which he is represented by this color. As always in my work, there is not meant to be an explicit narrative; there is, however, the scent of a narrative, one which is centered around desire, love, longing, loneliness. I have enjoyed exploring the bright colors that have appeared in my work in the last couple of years. My earliest influences were the German Expressionists, painters to whom color held a lot of meaning. I’m also interested in the tension created between such arresting hues and an atmosphere of inaction and quietude." _ John Brooks