"The Inner Sunset"
20" x 36" Oil on Canvas, 2011



This piece utilizes the natural cycles of the heavenly bodies as a metaphor for the cyclical transitions and transformations of the opposing poles of mans inner psychological natures.  The opposing poles can be viewed as good and evil, positive and negative, or light and dark, good and bad, etc. 

The men with the light suits represent the sun, the men in the dark suits the moon.  The shirtless man represents the womb of the night sky to which the sun must venture daily.  This transition has been likened by many ancient cultures as the sun god dying to traverse the unknown areas of the night sky, giving reign to the moon, only to be reborn again in the morning.  This death of the sun is represented here by the violent puncture of the sun figure as well as the obvious backdrop of a sunset in the composition. The sunset is represented by the sun figure dropping it's rose petals, symbolic of the suns rays dropping below the western horizon.  The roses therefore symbolize the two luminaries, the warmer hued roses the sun and the cooler hued roses the moon.  When seen on the ground they represent past suns and moons, when held in the hands of the opposing figures they represent future suns and moons. 

The robed men represent the Sun and the Moon in an eternal or archetypal state presiding over a ritual of self sacrifice, transformation, and rebirth.  Standing in a pile of past days, they read from texts, pronouncing the daily ritual of the voyage of the sun  and inner light through the night sky and inner darkness.