Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.
—— John Ruskin
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These words from Ruskin might have meaning in both a practical and a spiritual sense. Simply put words of advice for the traveler: Move forward while the road ahead is visible. Words that apply also to the internal traveler, those trapped in a twilight world inside where they always seem on the edge of darkness.
I think this fits this new piece that I call Knowing Darkness. It’s a small painting, just 6″ by 6″ on masonite, done in a style that I have used periodically pver the years, most notably in my Outlaws pieces of a few years back. The Outlaws were singular figure, some with handguns, all done in this same dark black/sepia tone where the image is not really light painted on but darkness carved away. The technique is a throwback to my earliest attempts at painting when I was still thinking of the surface as being a solid surface in which the image was sculpted.
While these pieces are always darkly introspective, they always seem to bring me a certain excitement in doing them, as though the bits of light being revealed are new light for me as well. Like I am pulling away a certain personal darkness with each bit of white surface that breaks through. In that respect, I find these pieces more hopeful than their outward appearance suggests.
This piece is no different. When I look at this piece it says to me that you can know darkness without dwelling in it.
Redtree Times 