The philosopher sits in her study with an owl - the symbol of wisdom - resting upon her arm. Her bookcase is filled with the works of famous philosophers, including Leibniz, Descartes, Hume, Berkeley, and Anscombe. Friends of the artist may notice the names of some *slightly* less famous Buffalo and Toronto philosophers in there, too! This image was created using black ink on paper.
Available
Prints are available in my Etsy shop
The highly detailed original image was made using black ink on paper. Created in a Surrealist/Dadaist automatic drawing style, the image includes a woman, radiating light and wisdom, who appears to be growing tiny babies - like delicate, flowering plants - beside her. She is surrounded by the dark earth and frightening creatures of various kinds (snakes, spiders, etc.). The man, her partner, is trapped below her in the "underworld." Whatever did he do to find himself in such a predicament?
When the people we love die, or leave us, we are left with a finite set of memories, preserved in the mind like messages in a bottle. The message in this bottle – the message of the figure set out to sea – is “remember me, my sweetest friend.” These words were inspired by Johnny Cash’s cover of Trent Reznor’s Hurt, wherein he speaks of his “sweetest friend.” Reznor’s song is great, but Cash’s version really hits home. He sings:
“What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end.”
So it goes…
Ink and graphite on 14 by 17 in paper
The mind unfolds and creativity takes hold; the roots of a tree (or brain) give rise to branches that reach toward the heavens. Skyscrapers burst through and birds fly by as the boundaries of the mind expands in the grip of imagination.