Redtree Times

Eye of the Trickster— At West End Gallery

You have but little more to do than throw up your cap for entertainment these American days…. Farmers’ sons will stare by the hour to see a juggler draw ribbons from his throat, though he tells them it is all deception. Surely, men love darkness rather than light.

–Henry David Thoreau. The Succession of Forest Trees speech, 1860

This is another Little Gem that like King of the Night Forest, which I featured here several days back, is a bit of a departure from my normal landscapes. Like that painting, this one, The Eye of the Trickster, is based on a mythology not yet fully formed. Not sure it ever will be completely fleshed out.

Maybe it doesn’t need to be. I think we all understand and recognize the role of the trickster, the charlatan, in our world, though it is seldom, if ever, a necessary or beneficial role. Maybe the purpose of the trickster in myths around the world is to warn us about being deceived by diversion or sleight of hand or of being too trusting of those who promise us magical results. 

I hadn’t thought of this until just now but perhaps that is what the eye in the upper right-hand quarter of this piece represents– an appeal to us to keep our eyes sharply focused on the trickster, to not fall prey to his attempts to divert our attention away from the true nature of his actions. 

As I said when writing about King of the Night Forest, I enjoyed working on these unusual pieces as well as how they emerged in the end. Going into each piece, I never know who or what is going to emerge. Or why. Maybe that uncertainty is what makes it a very satisfying process, along with the fact that it takes a lot of focus to maintain a constant balancing of color and shape and marks.

I end up feel a little like the juggler Thoreau referenced in the passage above. A lot of balls in the air and when done, I will pull a seemingly endless multicolored ribbon from my throat.

Maybe the Trickster here is me? 

Could be. I never said I wasn’t. A true Trickster would never admit to that.

But then again, maybe the trick is on me and everything that seems real to me is just illusion. I end up not being the trickster, only a pretender. 

Hmm…

Here’s a song that kind of ties into this. It’s a song to which I have always responded strongly but for some reason often falls out of my listening rotation for many years. This is The Pretender from Jackson Browne.