FOUNTAINHEAD

This piece is an embodiment of various contemplations on the nature of human consciousness. The blue head and everything that comes out of it, as a whole represents the same force that both breathes life and takes it away. It’s the idea that perhaps one day my essence, my life force will return to the same source from which it came from, aka the intangible, indescribable “fountainhead”. Minotaur, half human half beast, represents the human struggle between the rational, civilized mind and the primitive, pleasure seeking, impulsive mind. The lotus above minotaur’s head symbolizes the temptations of impulsive pleasures as described in the The Lotus Eaters from Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus’s men come to an island where the natives only eat intoxicating lotus leaves, causing anyone that ate the lotus flowers to sleep in peaceful apathy. The contradictions that minotaur stands for are meant to highlight the human struggle in creating a meaningful existence which requires effort, dedication and focus, while learning to how to enjoy earthly pleasures without succumbing to them fully. Furthermore, as we seek that balanced existence, we do it while being painfully aware of our inevitable mortality. That aspect of our inescapable mortal fate is why I’ve included the unbreakable chain of skulls connecting minotaur’s wrists. It is a memento mori of a sort. The human blue head and the minotaur together also represent the human psyche. This highlights my view on the possibility that human consciousness could simply be a byproduct of our physical body. It’s a similar idea explored in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” where the creator or God is surrounded by various elements that as a whole create the shape of the human brain, as to subtly comment on the possibility that god might only exist in our minds. Lastly, the random painterly shapes that are placed over everything are meant to represent glitches and holes in my perception of reality. The more I question things the more I see that there is so much more to this human existence than can ever be fully described or understood. (Fountainhead. Acrylic on Wood Panel. 16 x 20 in.)