Predacious Duality September 7, 2008

Predacious Duality

Earilier in the summer, there was a juried art contest that I was wanting to enter, and now I can’t even remember the subject matter, but this is the painting that flashed into my imagination.  I didn’t get it done in time for the contest, but the impetus for the contest was all I needed to begin looking at a subject that I think I’ve been chewing on for sometime.

I want to begin exploring the theme of duality and all of the implications it holds for us–our experience of living in a world of opposites, our penchant for making our worldviews lean more toward a philosophy of opposition instead of a philosophy of unity, the effect that those philosophies have on our beings to name just a few.

A philosophy of duality and opposition was very prevelant in the early part of my life.  Until I was about 28 years old, I saw the world in very black and white terms.  The themes of good and evil, sin and righteousness, right and wrong tended to be the filter through which I gathered information from my world, and that being my filter, that is exactly what I saw.  What eventually became apparent though, is that I am not wired for such a worldview.  Although I’m sure I did not start my life thinking in these terms, somewhere I adopted them and around the age of 28 it began to literally tear me apart.

The symbology of the figure in the painting, standing on point, balancing on rocks that are stacked in the least stable arrangement possible is how I remember myself around that age.  It is clear when you look at the painting what is coming; if not now, very soon there will be a collapse.  The apple in one hand and the serpent wrapped gingerly around the figure signify the contructs of a psyche in opposition, seeing only the things from the natural world that mirror this mindset–the stark contrast of night and day supports the belief that this is all there is to the world, thus making the world she is standing on extremely small.  The river below her seems to be a dividing point, yet it is the one saving grace of the scenario.  If she is fortunate enough to realize upon her collapse that this river lies below her, she can fall in there with the possibility of emerging with a new worldview.