The Sacred Cycle

The Sacred Cycle, ( Oil on Wood Panel, 20" x 24")

I always seem to have several themes going at the same time. The Sacred Cycle is obviously related to the other paintings in this blog: Twilight Dream and The Mystery of Angkor Wat. I like the spiritual feel to the theme of these paintings. 

Books that were influential to this theme are: The Alphabet Vs. The Goddess, by Leonard Shlain and The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. Although these books discuss ideas created by humans: literacy, war and understanding our place in the universe, I like to imagine the sacredness of nature. What spiritual ideas are present even in humankind's absence? Are there ideas without human existence? 

Representing the thinking of a human-less spiritual order tinkers with my thinking. There is a simplicity involved. It feels like a new language, even though the language of art has been a textless endeavor for me. What I think would be important in our absence are the cycles of the sun and the connectedness of living things and their environment. 

I feel like I'm expressing myself as the Lascaux cave painters did more than 17,000 years ago! There was magic in their paintings. They look magical and these ancient tribes did believe that creating animals in great numbers in picture form would increase the herds for the hunt. Today, the magic needed is not necessarily for the hunt, but for the prevention of extinction. 

Although the manmade world is depicted in the painting The Mystery of Angkor Wat, the story is of human evacuation and the natural order reclaiming the land.