Garden of Earthly Delights, Pop & Fantastical Symbolism, Oil Painting on Metal, 2013

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Title: Garden of Earthly Delights Artist: TheDirtyFabulous Media: Oil on metal with polyurethane varnish Size: 60 x 40 inches / … Read more Title: Garden of Earthly Delights Artist: TheDirtyFabulous Media: Oil on metal with polyurethane varnish Size: 60 x 40 inches / 153 x 102cm Year created: 2012-2014 Societies have long employed images that visualize their belief systems or attempt to encapsulate a narrative of our human destiny. This work follows in that tradition. The uppermost vignette is a silhouette from the nursery rhyme “Jack be nimble”, a children’s rhyme that refers to a 19th century game and a form of fortune telling. In Roman mythology Parcae (plural) were the personifications of fate. They are used in this painting as bookend figures on either side of a cosmic machine that answers questions of fate. Three vintage light bulbs labeled “yes”, “maybe” and “no” sit atop the clock – like machine and illuminate answers to humanity’s eternal questions. At the top of the composition are several re- configured tarot / divination cards belonging to an anonymous person circa 1930’s. The cards here are labeled; satisfaction dark Women, jealousy, dark man and betrayal. The grouping of these four cards refers to both positive and negative potentials concerning fate and offer clues to the viewer on a number of possible scenarios it could describe. The lower portion of the picture contains two silhouetted vignettes on either side of a central image of stars and planets against a dark void. The left image is of two children in a small wagon being pulled by a beetle. This is a reference to Egyptian mythology and the sun god Khepri. who personifies birth / rebirth. Khepri is portrayed as a beetle that pushes the sun across the sky. Here the young innocents take a whip to the insect and begin their mortal journey at dawn. On the right side an aged field hand personifying the reaper stops tilling the earth to take a pause over a few scattered burial markers under a tree. This image is a reference to mortality and death silhouetted against the flat turquoise blue of an evening sky. In the bottom center of the composition, several “all knowing” cosmic eyes tumble out of the bottom of the machine from a dispenser common to old candy gumball machines. The lowest portion of the picture contains a somewhat barren panoramic landscape. It evokes both potential and decay and is meant to bridge the contrasting vignettes above it. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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