“Any progress toward the salvation of humankind will
probably begin from the bottom—when our gods have been devalued to the
status of refrigerator magnets or lawn ornaments.” ― Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror
Oil on canvas
9″x 12″
(2019)
The title actually comes from a David Sylvian/Robert Fripp track of
the same name, which contains the lines;”Born in darkness-Built on
shame-And hurting”. Wow. Potent stuff.
The painting was borne out of quite an old pen and ink drawing from
2015 I think, resurrected as a sort of lodestar for my next series, but
it struck me recently whilst eliciting research, that the meat and
sandwich of the whole end quest, was going to be some sort of reckoning
with God-a visual trial by fire if you will, and by that same task= man,
since y’know…chicken and egg.
Like I say, potent stuff, so our primate here is a little totem of modern piety, a paradox of hypocrisy and sanctimony.
It’s available in my store for a different kind of song from the following link. HERE
It's the 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl today, so one could be forgiven for thinking that this study was painted as a response to that.
In actuality, it was more generally about paranoia, the notion that depending on one's belief, something all knowing, omnipotent and powerful sits forever on the periphery watching our every move. It could be God, Big Brother or Extraterrestrial depending on your preference.
As a nice aside, My wife thought it looked like the cover of an old pulp novel, so I threw together a quick comp, just for fun in Photoshop.
Title: Trinity Size: 11" x 14" Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
As Nietzsche said "if you gaze long into the abyss, then the abyss will gaze back at you"..In the shadows of my abyss are the triumvirate of friends I lost to colliding cars and disease. The temptation then was to give the piece names like some sort of plaque, but then to do so would be to suggest a monument to heroes, and as much as they were to me, there is nothing heroic about an end snuffed out prematurely. In the crevices of these melting angular craniums, there are echoes that there is no open armed three-tiered father figure to kiss away the rich vestiges of fleeting life with a new one. What the fuck could such an entity say to indemnify such cruelly snatched fate anyway? For the concept is as empty and brittle as a skull. A fossil of something that was once vivid, animated and filled with potential. A wasteland where nothing will ever grow. Almost certainly, this will be one of the scaled pieces for the shows in October. I've been listening to Big Audio Dynamites brilliant classic E=mc2 and feeling like the angry young man of my teens again, suffused with rage for the robbery of living at the hands of power brokers and merchants behind closed doors. Which is why I shall not be revealing the next piece until tomorrow, because its informed by some of the vitriol I've been feeling lately about the 'situation' here in the US, and as such could be possibly seen as controversial.
The piece continues to evolve, taking on new facets of meaning with each stroke. It's something I'm struggling with, because I'm not wanting to compromise too much the equanimity of the minimalist approach. My temptation to layer on the baroque symbolism in the past is something I'm at pains to avoid. I see far more immediacy these days, in the most simple forms and iconography.
With the paint still thick and glistening on the canvas and the turpentine heady in the air, I began another piece which I'm calling 'Retribution'. In the most simplest terms, its a study of war in the name of religion.I'm using a childs eye for reference, as I think a smiting deity, always makes me think of a petulant brat throwing a tantrum.
