Knowing that Portland, Oregon–based artist Eric Stotik grew up the son of Lutheran missionaries in Papua New Guinea, might go some way in explaining the painter’s recurring interest in images of human subjugation, imperialist torture, and exotic blood ritual. On the other hand, it explains not at all many other facets of the artist’s work, such as his bygone painting style, or his use of discarded paper and wood as material ground. While Stotik’s images are clearly objects of great personal obsession—maybe even born of his colonial youth in the land of headhunters—they also stubbornly