Call Before You Dig – Barry™

Acrylic on Canvas, 4’H x 5’W

The rupture has already happened, but the moment we see is not the explosion—it’s the quiet aftermath, the settling dust, the unspoken judgment that lingers in the air. The hole gapes behind them, a smoldering wound in the land, a testament to Robin’s eager, reckless miscalculation. His shovel, still in hand, feels almost ceremonial—a tool of both creation and destruction.

And then there’s Batgirl. She isn’t furious, not exactly. No righteous fury, no pointed accusations—just the exasperated amusement of someone who already knew this was going to happen. The weight of her look is not in its intensity but in its absolute certainty. She called it. She always calls it. And now, she gets to enjoy the moment.

The farmhouse behind them remains intact—physically, at least—but the real damage is in the dynamic. Is this about trust? Inevitability? The futility of good intentions? The composition borrows from Grant Wood’s American Gothic, yet where his figures carried the weight of tradition, these two carry something more fragile: the burden of shared history, the predictable rhythms of mistakes and blame, the comfort in knowing exactly how the other will react.

A collector will ask, What is Barry™ revealing here? Is it simply humor? A love letter to superhero absurdity? A personal confession, wrapped in dust and irony? The answers exist—but only in full, for those who own the original.

For the rest, a print will have to suffice. You’ll still get the question. You’ll still get the knowing smirk. But the full truth? That’s reserved for the one who digs a little deeper.