The Farmer, The Sage, and Guayasamín
The Fire
November 11th, 1998
Michael Kelly Salon was burning.
Inside—every piece of artwork I had created up to that point.
G O N E
With a deep celestial breath, four elements are brought together by the universe, magnetising, bring about this body of conception – the farmer, our human conceived: the KING (flesh), earth-bound ambassador of breath; BONES (root), the base manifestation and collection of earthly elements; the SAGE (path of light), the continuous reminder of the action of illumination in this life – inhaling the present, exhaling to the next; the ANIMAL (love), nourishment of light to keep this illumination.
39” x 39”
Spirit Ideal (creativity and abundance) brought forth by the Universe
to fill this new vessel through breath and action.
63” x 62”
The boy, older now, holds the necklace brought by sorrow, taunted by his ego,
and entangled in self-pity. Guayasamin dives and swoops, reminding the boy there is another way,
that the Spirit Ideal (“creative abundance”) is always available to him.
The Sage comes to remind the farmer’s spirit of the true nature of things
that the illumination is found in all manifestation, that we are simply Bone on this plane,
and that our action, if of intent breath, will unavoidably lead us to creation and abundance.
He is to persevere and enjoy.
29” x 99”
Now the farmer, as a young boy, begins to feel his feelings. He hides behind a beacon to his Spirit Ideal, in wait, watching the growth, transformation and movement of this little girl. She, who is inherently given to the trust of creation, is guided to the farmer by Guayasamin (the crow) to help him begin creating his life, by first calling in love.
100” x 51”
The moon, washing this moment white, hints to us the evolution of the relationship
between the farmer and his wife (shown through the rungs of the bridge,
spanning this precipice and leading to the choice to create together).
They honor each other at the cliffs edge.
50” x 26”
Something has gripped the farmer.
His choice in this partnered creation has stirred up and illuminated the very elements which bind him
those he has not moved through – confusing him, closing him off from love and wife.
He calls to his breath to guide his next step.
63” x 86
Determined to be moved from the grips of this old self-pity, resentment and fear and come to a state of presentness, he chooses to begin a quest to decipher these skeletons and truly observe the fabric of his existence.
100” x 68”
The farmer gleans the road and stands, for once, clearly before his choices. To the viewer’s left, a decision of taking the Sage’s knowledge (the umbrella) and traveling the half-seen road with his love, who has retrieved from beneath the tree of his past illness, to come through the valley with her and the Animal, continuing with Creation. OR he could go to the viewer’s right, on a path lead by his karma or cycle (the dancing Skeleton), which urges his singular obsession, laying his love at the bottom of the lake and following his skeleton to the center of his woods, abandoned by Guayasamin (the Creative Abundance), left only with self and its entanglements.
204” x 68”
Group of Eight Narrative Paintings
(each 29 x 25)
The farmer, as a young boy, accepts the necklace of self-pity, resentment and fear from the Deep Blue Sorrow. Guayasamin, (his spirit guide and protector), embodied as the crow, hovers nearby, reminding the boy that his Spirit Ideal is near and that he doesn’t have to fall victim to the sorrow’s gift.
The boy, older now, holds the necklace brought by sorrow, taunted by his ego, and entangled in self-pity. Guayasamin dives and swoops, reminding the boy there is another way, that the Spirit Ideal (“creative abundance”) is always available to him.
The boy is now a young man under full assault by his Ego. Guayasamin, still the benevolent presence that guards his life, but once unheeded, is seen here to be more remote from him.
The young man (who will become the farmer), is now in the darkest despair, all but lost to himself, paralyzed by ego and fear. Guayasamin comes in and lifts the sorrowful necklace from him, doing what he cannot do for himself.
The farmer’s Ego, having terrified the young man, is afraid he has gone too far and killed his vessel. Guayasamin, the crow, is seen returning, Bringing the farmer his hat, emblem of an awakening to a new experience of being.om him, doing what he cannot do for himself.
Having undergone a rebirth of spirit and having accepted his new identity, the young man has become the Farmer. With his hat firmly in place and his Spirit Ideal perched on his pitchfork, he is ready to begin a new day. The Ego offers a prayer for the farmer’s resilience.
Under the Tree of Life, the Farmer and his Ego sit in prayerful meditation, the crow secure in his lap, a balanced entity, now reconciled.
In the final painting of this group, the Farmer, grown strong now, sets forth on his new life’s journey. The abundance of crows represents his unity with his Spirit Ideal, the full flowering of creative abundance.