What am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going?

6/12/2010

What am I? Where have I come from? Whare am I going? 2010

I worked for two weeks exclusively on this painting. Finished and delivered it to the Gallery on Thursday. I started it some time ago and took a break from it for several weeks while I finished off some other paintings that had been at a point of no progress for a long time.
What am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going? is a painting that has been in my head for about three years.

Both theme and title are taken from Gauguins large painting - Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The other main visual influence on the painting is the Mayan mural at Bonampak Mexico (2). This mural has faded badly over the centuries but mainly due to damage caused by human intervention since it was discovered in 1946. There has been a virtual restoration done recently that supposedly gives an accurate indication of the original colours used. It was upon these colours that I based the colour scheme of my painting.

Whereas Gauguin's work is a collective consciousness take on the question of human existence and religion. My painting is intended to be more from the perspective of an individual's struggle with existential thoughts. I wanted the subject in my painting to be alone while acknowledging his/her relationship to humanity through the ages. So, although he/she is isolated in an imagined landscape, the majority of the pictorial space is taken up bu the vessels, masks and relics of human existence from the past.