This is my most recent piece...the most painterly...and the most energetic I think i've done in a while. At first I really didn't know what I was doing, not that that's rare, but all that experimentation is still visible in the final piece. The darker reds are abstract lines that once covered the whole surface. The black is a layer laid down just before the doors opened for the purpose of covering up some white paint. The drips are all remnants of working fast, loading the brush and slapping paint on without a care.
In fact, I think the layering, mark-building and investigation took up about 95% of the time, with the man, serpent and sun only appearing in the last half hour. The ribs came naturally, the sun emerged from a tangle of marks, and the serpent was added last of all, inspired by a swirling yellow stroke.
The piece is meant to tell a story of a man who has everything, appreciates none of it, and always looks to the next thing. Holding "the serpent and the sun" is supposed to signify good and evil...showing that the man is "above" those concepts and that he wishes to control everything. The background, the aesthetic, and the wild nature of the piece is meant to evoke the utter impossibility of this goal, showing that no one person is powerful or just enough to be in total control. As we seek power, we lose that which got us there...and as we lose that base, we lose credibility, understanding, grounding and all of our foundation loses it's strength and integrity. That which we once controlled become unrelated...and the power we now hold becomes a shell of what it once meant
The man who holds the serpent and the sun has lost his grip on everything else.
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| The piece in the "studio" |
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