In Silence, 2021

32" x 24" Acrylic on Board; Basic Frame

I started this piece in the summer of 2019. Initially the three-fold figure had shoulders and was set on a mars black background. Although I thought it seemed finished at the time I was never fully satisfied with the results. In January 2021 I revisited the piece and brought some dramatic changes. Painting over the black and setting the faces on the shore of a mystic sea brought out the stillness and silence of the figure. Three-fold deities are common in world mythology; examples include the Hindu Trimurti and Tridevi, the Greek triple goddess Hecate, The Morrigan of Irish mythology and the Christian Trinity. On a personal level the figure represents an internal archetype of merging, healing, balance and rest. Of the three faces only the center one is complete while the two extremes are half blind or share an eye with the center. The work could be considered a meditation on radicalized ideology versus balanced thought.

Reverse: A distressed unicorn-fish swims through a kelpy cluster of spectral, grasping hands. In this snapshot from an unknown hero's journey, the viewer is captured in the creature's tormented gaze and compels the question: "Am I the prized mysterious creature or am I the grasping hand?"

F. Forrestall