Revelation of the Moons– Coming to the Principle Gallery
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
–H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
I take great pleasure in painting these multiple moon paintings, yet I struggle to fully understand them, let alone explain them. And that makes me somewhat happy because I don’t think we are meant to understand everything nor should we attempt to explain everything.
Things sometimes are what they and we should honor the mystery.
Though we want to know the answers to everything, perhaps having all knowledge would change our lives in adverse ways that we could not possibly foresee. Maybe, like Lovecraft wrote, there is mercy in our ignorance. If all the truths of the infinite universe were suddenly revealed to us, we might then immediately recognize our own insignificance. This sudden knowledge that we are neither as high nor mighty as we envision might be too big a comedown for creatures who have long convinced themselves they are the apex of all lifeforms.
Knowing that we are little more than dung beetles in the eyes of the universe might cause us to question all we thought we knew. The very meaning of life might change or even be extinguished for us.
How we would react to such revelations is unknowable. Maybe it would result in madness or a new Dark Age as Lovecraft predicted.
But then again, maybe it would go the other way. Maybe we would then see that that the leaders of faith who now connive and manipulate our fears and expectations possessed no more insight or power than the rest of us dung beetles. They just have a bit more dung in them than most of us. Maybe this would lead to an age where cooperation and community ruled the day.
Who knows what dung beetles will do in such a situation?
I just realized how misanthropic this sounds. It is not meant to be. Okay, maybe a little. Let me bring it back to the context of this painting, Revelation of the Moons. What I see here– and this is just my own personal reading of it and nothing more– is that the person on the roof in their search for the ultimate answers is suddenly faced with a night of multiple moons, something that is both remarkable and frightening. These moons silently communicate to this person and give no response to the questions posed. Instead. they simply tell this person to honor the wonder and mystery of this place in which they live.
Live a simple and good life that harms no others.
And get off the roof before you fall.
That is the revelation of the moons, as I see it.
Of course, I am just a dung beetle, so what the hell do I know?
This dung beetle will be giving a Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA this Saturday, September 26, beginning at 1 PM. This painting will be part of a select group of new work I will be bringing along with a painting of mine that will be given away in a drawing at the end of the talk. And some other stuff, too.
Could be some good dung beetle-type fun so I hope you can make it.
Here’s a favorite song, Be Thankful For What You Got, from William Devaughn that I have shared here a bunch of times before.
Maybe that is the actual Revelation of the Moons? Maybe. Who knows?
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