This painting is an extension, both metaphorically and literally, of Coleman’s earlier painting Faith (shown in microscopic miniature in the center of this image). Both paintings were created during periods of great despair, yet in this painting the artist has revisited that state in the hopes of reframing it and placing it in a new context. Coleman’s impulse to frame, bind and protect his subjects while at the same time mercilessly eviscerating them is never more in evidence than here. This image becomes an exploration of the impulse of suicide, surprisingly functioning as an antidote to that urge. Each day of working on the painting was a day the artist was too busy to kill himself.

The outer border is made up of charms to keep Coleman alive, but which also taunt him with the pleasures of death. These are objects that give him pleasure in life, but they are at the same time celebrations of death, pointing to a state of existence that is free from despair and torment.

The title Coal Man, which is the etymological source of the name Coleman, suggests someone who searches in the darkest dirtiest parts of the underground for something of “value.”