Lieying in the garden

Acrylic on canvas :: 175 x 46" :: Diptych :: 2011

When I envision Eden, I choose not to wear the jaded glasses supplied by the fallacies of history. The typo in the title is not an error. I want to set your mind state before we go any further. School will teach you that the stories in Genesis are myths used to explain things early man couldn’t understand. What you fail to learn is that they were written by men, for men, with specific intentions in mind.

We learn that Eve was created from him; of him, naturally subordinate by default. She is too weak to resist the temptations of the serpent, and concedes to taking the apple. Already second in the natural order of things, she is now guilty of creating original sin. We’re only a few chapters in to the history of time, and she has already been subjected to a damning conviction.

Those same schools don’t teach us the alternate story, about Lilith, the original female in the garden. Adam’s first wife, she was created at the same time. Two beings, born simultaneously in harmony and balance. When Lilith rebelled and refused to be subservient to man, she was banished from the garden and subsequently from our history books.

This painting draws on the myth of Lilith, representing the idea that both sexes are equal; in mind and action. Neither party is explicitly guilty; yet for a great deal of history the blame has been pushed to one side. An updated, more intelligent look at the story is in order.

Much like the modern household where decisions are made jointly between husband and wife, in all likelihood so too was this one. They both reach for the apple, prepared to face the reality of the seven deadly sins that adorn the serpents skin. She is decorated with sacred geometry on her arms as a visual expression of the connections life weaves through all things. The concentric circles are the vesica piscis, which together form the flower of life, depicting the fundamental forms of space and time. The triangle illustrates the golden ratio, a number found in all aspects of our world; permeating all structures, forms and proportions, both organic and inorganic.

The numbers and patterns found in sacred geometry are all around us; in the veins of leaves, in a bees honeycomb, the shell of a nautilus, and even in the cycle of our brain waves. This concept is echoed in the faces and profiles scattered throughout the trees and foliage of the garden. Man and nature are one. The flower resting over her womb is symbolic of this connection, the great mother of all that is.

A google search for art based on Eden will produce a plethora of images, mostly with fair skinned figures adorning the canvas. If we originated in Mesopotamia, we didn’t become lighter until we migrated north, and we didn’t darken until we migrated south. Most likely, we were somewhere in the middle. The male and female here are distinctly different; illustrating societies progress toward a better understanding and acceptance of one another.

The tortoise is symbolic of this process; a slow awakening to a new level of thought. No longer kept in the dark by the shell over their heads, people are beginning to see the truth in the light. Unfortunately, sometimes its necessary to hunt for that truth in a world full of lies. The panther embodies this idea, a lethal predator, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.

Sometimes, through good timing and pure coincidence, a parrot will say a word or phrase that fits into context and it makes sense. It can be mistaken for intelligent thought, but in actuality, it is more along the lines of mindless repetition of sound. This concept is similar to the continuation of the accepted story of creation. We mindlessly repeat and pass on, from one generation to the next, without ever thinking about the lies we perpetuate. Everything stems from a chauvinistic point of view, and its time that we adjust our perspective. I hope these first 175 inches are a start.