Tree of the...

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 3, 2018 at 7:04pm

Curator’s Comments: 

 

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was painted several years ago, but as I was looking back through older images, the flash of crimson red caught my attention. The elongation of the pale figure’s hands and ruffled Elizabethan collar reminded me of the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, and his depictions of sin and Godly grace.  The rich iconography in this piece carries through in your other work; good and evil are literally depicted on either side of the subject.  The dead white dove may have been overcome by the choice presented to the viewer.  Yet the black raven looks neither responsible nor complicit in its counterpart’s demise.  I do find it interesting that despite its inverted/fallen position, the white “innocent” bird is held up higher in the pictorial space. The tree limbs that form the subject’s crown suggest the Biblical crown of thorns, but may also conjure more mystical/pagan references. It is a provocative portrait.  And as such, I do hope you post more work in the New Year.