|
 |
|
|
 |
|
| |
Shrine Of Ishtar
Stone Riley
Full title:
Shrine Of Ishtar Beneath Jerusalem's City Wall
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 24 inches, framed as shown.
The soul's true yearning is to make itself known.
That is a common thought among our most poetic thinkers. After all, it makes such lovely sense of our intimate experience in inward contemplation, when we go to find and understand things within, behind the masks which we ourselves present the outward world. Go in courage through dark places seeking truth about yourself, and familiar but forgotten forms do stand forth from the dark toward light and consciousness. Hidden faces do appear and even speak.
And it makes such lovely sense about the hidden nature of all things. If the soul of all the world, like her daughters for each being, yearns toward the unity discovered in the flickering but brilliant candlelight of consciousness, then we are the Hieros Gamos. We are all a holy bride and groom.
And it makes such lovely sense about the way before us. Do we lose the wit to do good in this world? Do we close our hearts and fall among the evils here? Does the bridegroom stumble on the way to bed? Only for a moment. If we simply truly love, then ecstasy is in our reach; passion and compassion lure us truly on.
The soul's true yearning is to make itself known.
And about the painting:
I was yearning for some clear depiction of the moment when a deep inward journey brings you to the Lady Guardian of the Veil. For me the place where that occurs is very shadowed and dreamlike so I did the surrounding setting with a kind of heavily colored sketchy cartoon style like William Blake used in his great graphic novels. But I only know one way to illustrate the intense intimacy which I feel so palpably with that great spirit then; so I made the center of the painting a full-on realistic human face. So in this working viewers of the painting may experience two voices, of the spirit and of the place, through two different kinds of visual comprehension. Somewhat as though you simultaneously recited poetry and sang.
The title's reference to Jerusalem also is from William Blake, elected Chief Druid of London for many years and one of my heroes. He sometimes used the phrase "New Jerusalem" to mean the ideal state of an integrated self-motivated person.
Here's an historical essay you might find interesting: http://www.stoneriley.com/TOMW/QueenOfHeavenAndOfEarth.html
Or some more thoughts about the act of looking at her:
http://www.stoneriley.com/TOMW/BeingManyVoices.html
Or a novel about some lovers seeking her together: http://www.lulu.com/content/353352
Or here's a book of other writings: www.stoneriley.com/TOMW.html
Or the home website: www.stoneriley.com
|
|
| |
|
| | |
| | |
|
| |
|
Cart
