omphalos

In this painting Bird flies top center as Sun-God. Leigh leaves for India in just a couple weeks!

"Unfinished." I'm doing this large painting in remembrance of Brancusi and Kristofer. They both loved playing with dual-sex imagery, integral spirituality, and alchemical hermaphroditism. That is Mt. Ishizuchi in the background; a real place. Leigh Bird took the photo I'm drawing from, and Bird flies top center as Sun-God =). We had just climbed the holy mountain and the mist suddenly rushed in. It was the perfect "Eastern" scene, the pregnant mountain vanishing, and the sunlight hovering directly in front of us behind the mist like an angel. On stage is a mythic creature made of van Eyck's Sheep- Christ, The Sorcerer, Maiastra, and prehistoric Goddess figurines moonwalking while giving life-blood to the world (a very "Western" scene). When the performance is over the mythical, phallic creature goes back into the solid, red box, yonic and vaginal. Dandelions at the bottom are also directly from the Ghent Altarpiece, which is a nice coincidence--I love painting dandelions. They are great distance markers, they take me back, and they are a kind of memento-mori/reincarnation story. The Ghent Altarpiece is significant not just because of its sacred symbolism but because it is by the van Eyck brothers who invented oil painting. They are the First Patriarchs, so to speak. The Sorcerer and other cave paintings were also oil paintings because their paint was made from dirt and charcoal mixed with spit and animal fat. However the van Eycks were the first to use glazes and whatnot. I want to go to Belgium to study the original so badly!