This stamp (being from the future) is not so much a
commemorative stamp as a protocommemorative, perhaps
a new genre to many. It will be issued to celebrate the Republic of
the Moon's return of the seas of the lunar surface into viable salt water basins. The Loonese are a very positive people and believe that protocommemoration is the best means of getting public works projects completed.
1974
by Eric Whollem
watercolor and gold tempera on paper
Collection of the artist
8 9/16" x 11" Copyright by the artist
The Legends of the Incas
Previously on this blog I have posted articles about Manco Capac, the first king of the Incas of Peru. I have long admired Peruvian and Central American art. The art of the Nazca is some of the best in the world.
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These links will take you directly to these previous posts:
California Indian Rock Art INFLUENCE ON MY ABSTRACT ART
Petroglyphs and pictographs have long been a major interest of mine. Not many people know that California has more rock art than any state in the Southwest. Perhaps because the settings of the rock art of the Southwest are often so spectacular, it has gained a larger place in the public eye. California rock art is frequently very abstract. Much of it looks like writing.
View my video about pictographic abstraction.
I have attempted to do for Native American rock art a bit of what Miro and Klee have done for the paleolithic art of Europe. Many of my paintings and drawings are pictographic abstractions.
Heizer's book, The Prehistoric Rock Art of California, is a good source of information on the subject.
1985
by Eric Whollem
gouache and wax and plastic emulsion resist on paper
Collection of the artist
9" x 6" Copyright by the artist
Blissful Spirits
The imaginary beings in this painting are related to the sort of imagery that one finds in the pictographic arts of peoples such as the Huichol Indians of Mexico.
Marc Chagall's otherworldly use of color always intrigued me. The viewer will recognize what I mean here, noting the blue face of the Caryatid.
This work was created using a blunted linoleum cutter as a palette knife. I engraved through thick layers of pigmented wax, expressionistically modelling this figure.
Neither Consciousness, Nor Form, Nor Feeling, Nor Perception, Nor Awareness
1984
by Eric Whollem
watercolor and wax resist on paper
Collection of the artist
9" x 6" Copyright by the artist
An Esoteric Work
When an artist creates a work, he often names it based upon those things that were being imprinted on his mind at the time of the work's inception. This could be music, landscape, events, or philosophical ideas, as in the case of this work.
1985
by Eric Whollem
Collection of the artist
9" x 6" Copyright by the artist
A Visionary Fantasy
A number of people have told me that this painting reminds them of the Beatles' animated film, "Yellow Submarine." I saw that film when I was in college.
1999
by Eric Whollem
oxides on white clay
Collection of the artist
11 1/4" Photo copyright by the artist
A Kore of the Sea MERMAID MYTHOLOGY
This sculpture incorporates bas relief images of seahorses and dolphins. Many ancient Goddesses were mermaids: Atargatis, Amphitrite, Derceto, etc. Many Goddesses have been associated with the dolphins. Demeter, the Great Mother, was such a dolphin Goddess. Amphitrite, a wife of Poseidon, whose name translates as Triton of the Waters, was a dolphin mermaid.
Though it is little recognized, Persephone may have been a mermaid. Persephone, from the Eleusinian mysteries, was depicted fish-tailed in a sculpture left by Greek Colonists on the coast of Southern Italy. Barbara Vivino related this story to me, having seen it.
Thus we can interpret the "Descent of Persphone" into the Abysos, as the descent of Persephone in her mermaid form. Thus is explained the watery element of the River Styx, the subterranean river: it was the vehicle of the soul of Persephone, the Initiate.
