Judgment of the Demiurge - 2003
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This is the second of what I plan will be a series of paintings. First, thematically, all will deal with the notion that it is the mighty who write the histories. Hence, they look at what the reality behind some oft-told myths might have been. In Judgment of the Demiurge, we have the instant when the theological and the cosmological are still intertwined, in the moments after the big bang. From a cosmological perspective, we see the basically quantum building blocks of the material universe beginning to reveal themselves as a continuous reality. Already, asymmetries are seen to be forming. Theologically, one is reminded of the early Gnostic Christians, who, in essence, believed that the god worshipped by the Israelites was, in reality, the demiurge; the creator of the material universe, and hence, subservient to Sophia (wisdom), the Supreme Mother Spirit/God. The Sabbath goat or Baphomet of Eliphas Levi shows the devil as having female breasts, but this tradition dates back much further; perhaps an early attempt to vilify the feminine. In my short story, "Three Aspects of Lucifer," the devil says: " I am the sacrificial oil, prohibited by nature from ever mingling with the pure water, but essential to the process of forging the consummate spirit. . . . Did you expect the arrogance of Dante? 'Fuck you, God, I'd rather reign in the lake of fire?' Pride it was--but arrogance? Never! . . . The eternal prohibition from beatific vision is no sentence a loving God would pronounce on any spirit. This is a volunteer mission. Only one character trait is necessary: pride. Lucifer's sin was the infinite pride to believe that he could provide this terrible service--the infinite audacity to believe he could bear the terrible price: eternal separation from the light." In Judgment of the Demiurge, we see Lucifer taking her first look at the material world-at perdition. At another level, I have always been intrigued by the pop-culture "op-art" of the 1960s and 1970s, but have sought a way to present it as an integral part of a more complex composition. The visual conundrum presented by the optical components provide an interesting format against which to explore the interrelationships between pattern, color, and movement. Painting is 44" X 32", acrylic on stretched canvas, ready to frame.