Visonary

     Visionary; John The Baptist.  Originally this painting was created upon request, but I was never satisfied enough with it to give it over. It has been kicking around the studio for almost a year now.  I don't normally think of winter as a time of renewal or opportunity, but things of that nature have been happening lately and so I find myself circling around to it once again. 
     This is one of those pieces where I feel concept has usurped composition and I do not feel there is a balance~ therefore it is not a finished piece.  I have painted other versions changing sizes of the elements,  but I am not sure what is missing in those that is present here.  I am not sure what element is not working here either, but I feel an incompleteness... 
     He is named Visionary first, as this was where my thoughts went first.  I thought of the desert~ hot, and unforgiving; and the vision quest~ many cultures share this kind of raw spiritual journey. I kept coming back to the effects of deprivation that roaming a desert would cause and yet there are cultures that live and have lived effectively in such harshness.  The heat, the sun, the divinity of the water, the miracle of survival, the answers to Life...
     I also jumped to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the idea of the "hippie"~ the nonconformist.  Having lived near Woodstock, NY for several years, my modern (and very loose) interpretation of a hippie is someone who lives by their own vision, uninterested in the judgements of others, but very interested in the conscience of the society they choose to participate in. I felt that was similar to a prophets' fate in society; judged and unaccepted yet still wanting to convey knowledge.
     This is oil on canvas board, 11in x 14in, a modest size.  I wonder if scale is holding it back.  It is not for sale at this time.