Thursday, September 20, 2007

Conundrum

Okay, so there have been some interesting side-effects to creating a MySpace account. One of them is running into unexpected new friends. Paul Mellender is an artist I met on a writing forum who happens to be a remarkable artist. One of the things he always tries to do is infuse some mystery into his pieces. His paintings are riddled with obscure (to me, anyway) historical and mythological references that give the viewer some work to do with everything he or she enjoys.

Take the picture Le Sacre Du Printemps, for example--and this is, of course, a completely random selection from his work. It takes some concentration (and focus, I might add) to determine what this gentleman is holding. If you look closer (at the vase--FOCUS!) you will see it bears an illustration which, according to Paul, provides futher clues to the story behind this portrait. He says it is also called John 3:14 which, of course, means I am out of the running to figure this out.

Therefore, I turn to you, my vast audience, to solve this riddle. I can't tell you what prize awaits the one who unravels this alluring figure's story, but suffice it to say it will be HUGE! And one last clue: Pay attention to the appendage near his head. (Oh c'mon. You people are impossible.) Here is a close-up for advanced study. Now, get to work!



[Ignore the "read more" teaser, here. I don't know how to turn that off on individual posts, yet.]

2 comments:

Nancy Dietrich said...

Thanks to Mary: John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

On a pedestal? So now we need to find a mythologist. How hard can that be?

Paul Mellender said...

I think it is interesting that Jesus must be lifted like the serpent is lifted. Why would a barzen serpent be lifted, and then that has some effect. When Nazarites finished their service, they held up a bull's leg. The constellation Ursa Major was known as the bulls leg. When the Nazarite raised the leg they were imitating the constellation. It makes you wonder about lifted things. Like why is it bad that a man is left hanging on a tree after sundown?