Watercolor Pencils created from December 2008 to March 2009.
Knowledge is power, it is true, but it depends on what you know , how you know it, what you do with it, and when you do it.
Symbolism and Ideas
Inspiration was Buddhist Sutra or teaching about Kriya Yoga, literally meaning work, working towards Yoga, which we can understand as a union, bridge, connection between our inner selves, which we all have to some extent, and the outer world, which is everything else, from your face to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
“The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot. If the horses are very strong and do not obey the rein, if the charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then the chariot will come to grief. But if the organs, the horses are well controlled, and if the rein, the mind, is well held in the hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the chariot reaches the goal. What is meant, therefore, by this mortification? Holding the rein firmly while guiding the body and the organs; not letting them do anything they like, but keeping them both under proper control.” –The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The purpose of the Stonehenge in the background is to characterize abstract ideas. Humility, in the bottommost layer, fellowship, the mid layer, and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the top layer, written in stone, as it were, embodied and connected to the cosmos by the mystery, reverence, and timelessness of Stonehenge.
The waves emanating from the hoof symbolize reflection, the passing of time, and the interdependence of everything.
The orange flame colors in the horses and spirits in the chariot alludes to a Buddhist belief originating in the Atman, or no self. The proposal is that nothing exists in and of itself for its own end.
All are conventions created for our understanding , a sort of painted reality. There are infinite levels of organization of infinite levels of things and everyone understands and sees things differently, with their own conscious and subconscious conventions, and some things are understood by multiple people or animals or even plants, as conventions. So, the question is, if we don’t exist what am I that I am still here?
