Wise Trout

I came across a photo of a very battered and crude old Celtic stone carving. In it a fish, which was a salmon or trout, was nose to nose to a man. In Celtic mythology there was a wise salmon living in a dark pool beneath the hazel tree of wisdom, and it lived on the little hazel nuts of knowledge which happened to plunk into the water. This trout is not about to bite his nose, although if you think that it is, it's ok with me.

Begin

"Fire over Water" is the title of a hexagram in the BOOK OF CHANGES, the I-CHING. Much of the imagery I've used recently shows one or both of these elements. I lived next to a lake as a child. One of my childhood playmates was a pyromaniac. I am both frightened and fascinated by fire and water.

Wise Trout

This image idea came from a photo I found in an old book on Celtic Art. In the photo is a very weathered and eroded stone carving of a man's head and a salmon nose to nose. The salmon, wise salmon, was a source of deep knowledge, living in his deep, quiet pool and feeding on the hazel nuts of wisdom which fell into the pool from the overhanging hazel tree.

Fire Work

This diptych, Stuntman's Departure, was in the works for a couple years. It comes out of my sense of a need for personal renewal, but of course there are all sorts of other origins. When I began to consider how people would interpret this image there was 9/11, the bombing raids WW2, and so on. Water is healing by connection.

Guide

Guide is another painting that has been on my mind for for some time. I'm not sure who he is although he might appear to travelers since I met him on a road.

Quote:
"I'm talking about carving out a place in the larger culture where a condition of abnormality can be sustained, where imagining the unknown and unknowable - impossible to buy or sell - is the primary enterprise. Crazy! says someone with an ounce of business sense.
Right. Exactly. Crazy."

- Holland Cotter
NYTimes, 2/12/09

Mr. Cotter's article is very invigorating and thought-provoking - take a look.

Brando on His Art

"One is able to adjust oneself to a situation". Somewhat terse.