I brought up a reference in last week’s Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery that I would share here again. It’s about a posting that appeared here about five years ago, one that focused on one of the paintings from my Exiles series from around 1995. It’s a painting that I would never part with for many reasons but mainly for the meaning it holds for me in changing the course of my life at one point.
In 2008, I wrote:
I thought I’d take a moment and show this painting, Cain, another from the Exiles series that I’ve discussed in past posts. This is a smallish piece and one of my favorites, one with which I will never part.
He is based, somewhat, on the biblical story of the original exile, one expelled from his homeland after slaying his brother to create a new world for himself, never to return. It is also based on the novel Demian by Hermann Hesse, a book that meant much to me when I went through a trying time years ago. Actually, it seems a lifetime ago.
In Demian, Hesse uses the mark of Cain as a symbol for those seeking the truth in themselves. He also discusses the dual nature of man, an idea which has had a very formative aspect in my growth as a painter. The idea of opposing forces, light and dark, being contained in one element, one being, always struck a chord in me. It made sense of the struggles that I observed in myself and many others.
He also made a statement that resonated like a gigantic bell tolling for me.
Whoever wants to be born, must first destroy a world.
Without going into detail, that small sentence was a revelation. It changed my world forever.
I realize this is a fragmented explanation of this painting and the book that influenced it. I merely wanted to illustrate what personal meaning some pieces can have for an artist as well the serendipitous nature of moments when art and one’s real life converge.
Maybe I will elaborate in the future. Maybe not…
Redtree Times 