For our color theory final I chose to paint a scene showing what I believe to be the story of humankind. Humans, since their earliest incarnation, have always been unsatisfied with what they know and by this lack of satisfaction strive to know more than they did before. What is interesting to me is that as we explore further into the depths of the universe and further into the deepness of the atom we find not answers but only more questions. The more we know, the more we can question and the more we realize how much of a mystery it is that we are here.
A constant companion on our search for pure truth has been logic. 2+2=4 all over the universe and the unbroken consistency of this fact has been a map allowing us to find patterns and rhythms in our environment. However, pure logic such as this has always seemed to be something external from us, a carrot leading the way towards something else. I think that this "something" is the realization that logic is not external but also internal and all through-out everything that ever is, has been, and will be. It is only when we truly realize this that we uncover the truth that has been looking us in the eyes. We are everything.
In my painting there are four main elements. The red arm, the brown desert floor, the blue sky, and the black and white stellated octahedron. The meaning of each and their color is as follows: The brown desert represents the dull lifeless beginnings of this earth. Brown is the color of dirt and the earth. Humans came from this brown earth and are represented by the red hand. The hand is red to represent the passion that humans have. Red is a passionately sensual or violent color and the fact that it can be so bipolar but still stay passionate is a symbol of our ability to apply quality to everything we know. Things can be good or bad, but they really aren't. It's just how we think of them. Passion is also a messy thing, the hand is crafted as such to emphasize the untidy nature of our emotions.
The red hand is reaching up towards the black and white stellated octahedron. A stellated octahedron is two tetrahedrons inverted and placed within each other. A simplified 2D design of this octahedron also resembles the Jewish Star and the Masonic Symbol. This geometric design represents pure logic; black and white. It is perfect and can be no other way for then it would not be what it is now. The red hand of passion is reaching towards this perfection and as it reaches upwards it also ascends into the darker deeper mysteries of our reality, represented by the ever darkening blue sky.
As we reach towards logic, away from our primitive beginnings, we find deeper mystery in everything.
Maybe.
