In its simplest terms, this painting is about all that we don’t know, individually and collectively.
I call this 20″ by 24″ canvas Chaos and Order. In it, the Red Tree dwells in a land that is apparently in order, a clean landscape of neat rows in the fields and a clear path that takes one through it. It is seemingly the master of its domain, possessing knowledge of all things within its reach.
Yet, by merely looking into the night sky and seeing the great patterns of chaos written upon it, the Red Tree realizes the limits and boundaries of its knowledge. It tries to make it fit into some sort of orderliness, something that it can understand on its limited terms but the patterns are too great and come at it like the cacophony of a thousand different languages being spoken at once.
What is the message here? That we are small and weak before the power of the universe?
Yes and No. Yes, without knowledge, with only a fear of what lays in that chaos, we are weak and small. But I don’t think that is the message I see here. It is that we are merely searchers, still learning the secrets and languages hidden right before our eyes. The great chaos we see before us might be daunting but we will always try to make order from it in order to find our place within it. That is simply who we are.
This is another painting that will be at my show, Into the Common Ground, at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA, opening December 5.
Redtree Times 