Jose Acosta was born in Cuba. He moved to the US at the age of three. However, his paintings carry the bright Caribbean colors. They are, as the artist say "bright and festive." This time, Jose Acosta speaks about economic recession and financial difficulties through a very different painting, the "Wolf at the Door."

Who is the “Wolf at the Door”?

The Wolf at the Door is like the character from the story of the three pigs with the wolf at the door waiting to eat them. But my Wolf at the Door, you’ll see, it has a bag with bills. It’s somebody that’s there to collect something that you don’t have at the moment. It's like the mailman, or the delivery person or the bill collector or it could be the tax assessor. That, however, should not give you the idea that the money would not be there, or that the money would not come in the future.

In life, everybody goes through ups and downs. I had my wolfs at the door plenty of times. I married at a very young age and started a family. The bills started coming. Sometimes you have more bills than money coming in, and you struggle.

Was there a particular event or situation that made you paint “The Wolf at the Door”?

When I painted this painting in 2007, I was doing pretty well. At that moment, I was actually away from the Wolf at the Door and I was planning on just keeping my head above water. I was happy about everything that was going on, so I said to myself, “Let me just paint this painting so I do not forget that things can slip and they can go backwards." This painting was a reminder for myself.

And I know that the United States had the Wolf at the Door too, but now, a few months later, we are looking back and it seems like things are getting better. We are not as scared anymore.

Did you actually predict the recession?

I don't think that I predicted the recession. I knew co-workers and artists friends that were doing very well, and all of a sudden, there were no more sales. Things were slowing down. A lot of people didn’t want to see it that way, but I think some saw it coming. Even from 2007 I knew the recession was going to come.

How did you deal with your Wolf?

I’ve dealt with him in the past by just not getting overwhelmed, not to be scared of it. The bill would always come in, and if you couldn’t pay it this month you’ll pay it next month. But it would always get paid and you go forward.

Nowadays, I deal with it by being proactive and saving money. I try not to overspend. I keep the money there so that I don’t have to deal with the Wolf at my door.

Is the Wolf at the Door worse for the artists than for everybody else?

This year a lot of artists have seen the Wolf at the Door. When the sales slowed down, the ones hardest hit are probably the artists that had the biggest art sales. They lost the most money because they were the ones generating the big sales of $30,000 or more. But even the less famous ones have been hit hard. Despite all of this, we have to keep creating and stay inspired to get through it.

Why does this painting have the American flag on the door?

It has the American flag because it is actually my door, my home. It looks just like it. My door is blue and my house is beige, and I have that American flag on the door. However, I wanted to represent that it was for America. I was looking at it as if the Wolf was coming and it was going to harass all Americans. And it did. The stock market crushed and so did everything else. At the end of the day, I know that the Wolf will be bitten back because I have bitten it back before and I know it will happen again. This month I’ve already seen a lot of changes, and I think that by this time next year, everyone is going to be doing much, much better. Maybe then they will even be able to learn something: to save a little bit of money to be ready for the Wolf the next time it comes around. Because life is a cycle, it is going to happen again. Ten years from now or fifteen years from now, things will go bad again and, hopefully, people will be a little bit better prepared.

Do you still have the painting?

Yes.

Would you ever sell it?

I would sell it only to the right person. I always believed that if I paint something, eventually it goes to the person that has the right feeling for it, someone who would like it and appreciate it.

I can see that it has a different look than most of my paintings, which are more festive and party like. Some people would say that this painting is scary, but when you look at it, it’s not that scary. It’s a little different than other paintings of mine because the topic was a little stronger for me at that moment.