This Semester's Studio Goal
...and a step toward an ultimate quest for a thesis subject.

Triptych know as The Garden of Earthy Delights - Hieronymus Bosch ca. 1503-1504

In reviewing the successes and failures of my work, both current and in the past, it has come to my notice that those of my works which have more depth and interest to the viewer have been based on my interpretation of works of literature which have inspired me. My goal for this semester (and a consideration for the subject of my thesis) is to generate some serious artwork which is inspired by, but is not intended to illustrate Dante Alighiere's great 14th century epic poem Divine Comedy, specifically the section Inferno.

The Inferno - Canto 22 -  Gustav Doré - 1857

This great work has been a popular subject for illustration and artist's commentary since its writing, and perhaps a great pitfall to avoid by any prudent artist. I am sure that artists with more talent and prowess than me have failed in their attempts to do justice to this great work of religious sarcasm, hence my decision to not attempt to illustrate the work and be trapped in the realm of illustration, but to merely allow myself to be inspired by it.  Obviously another source along the same line of reasoning and contemplation of the religious tenor of its time is Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron. Written half a century after Divine Comedy, this work was obviously inspired by Alighiere's work and shares the disdain for the apparent crimes of the clergy and laymen of the culture of Christianity of the 14th century.  

The Story of Nastagio Degli Onesti from The Decameron by Boccaccio - Sandro Botticelli - 1483

Clearly this commentary on Medieval Christianity is germane today and there are those, this writer included, who believe that nothing much has changed in the political landscape of the The Church of essentially every denomination.  This in itself is good reason to avoid the pitfalls of commenting on a subject that is emotionally important to many people of today and my goal is not to insult the viewer's religious proclivities, but to achieve a subject that is as universal to human experience as is possible.  This underlying theme of the work of both men is clear and clearly universal: death.  An Episcopal priest I knew well once gave a sermon in which he simply stated "...the mortality rate in this world is 100%."  Death is an experience in which we ultimately all must participate, and I believe that we are all at least curious about what that experience will entail.

I have used the subject of death in my art extensively in the past.  Some of my works have been blatant in their imagery of death, such as the works using mummies and skeleton images related to my major in anthropology.  Other of my images have been much more subtle, as in my more recent "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" suite.  It is obvious to me that the more successful of the two approaches is the intellectually more complex, emotionally more subtle method, and this will be the basis for this semester's oeuvre.

My first piece of the semester is in the works now. I have had several false starts, but I believe the basis of what I want to do is established in my mind now. I will post the first study if not the first work in this post when it is complete.  Critique is welcome.

Richard