It looks like a boat. It looks like a water strider—those bugs I used to see skate around on the surfaces of ditch water after big rainstorms in Nebraska. It also makes me think of the Mahayana and Hinayana, which are boats, or vehicles, figuratively, in Buddhist epistemology. It looks like the boat could be seen as traveling across a large body of water on the surface of a planet. You can see the curved horizon of this planet on the right side of the picture. I like how the boat appears closely to you as the viewer, but the planet appears as if it’s tens of thousands of miles away. It gives it the sense of multiple points of view—an expanded sense of perception—as may be experienced in dreams while observing something.
When a string on a cello or a guitar is plucked, it vibrates back and forth in order to produce the sound it makes. The string actually moves in a circular motion, like a jump rope might. I have noticed that vibrating strings make the shape of a boat or ship between the insertion points. Physicists have taught us that matter is really just non-physical energy at sub-atomic levels. Some theorize that matter is fundamentally made of superstrings as theorized about in superstring theory. Thus all matter is just countless superstrings harmonizing and cacophanizing everywhere.
In Judeo-Christian literature, you can read about Noah’s Ark, and the story about the world flooding due to God’s wrath. I don’t want to try to prove the veracity of this story here, but I do want to make associations and correlations for artistic and intellectual purposes. The bow of a ship is designed to “cut” through water with the least amount of resistance as possible. Thus they have narrow wedged rostrums. The idea of the least amount of resistance is also found in Taoism, as Lao Tzu wrote that water seeks the path of least resistance as it travels down the folds, crevices, and foothills of mountains.
The idea I want to emphasize here is “the least amount of resistance as possible.” This is actually a strategy that applies to people—us—manipulating and managing matter and life in general with the best outcomes in mind. For example, when I enter into a new social situation, I like to scope and gauge things before I start accepting more responsibility, management, and control. It’s my method—one of several—of attempting to create harmony.
Getting more abstract here, I imagine that certain combinations of sounds, melodies, and jingles can act as codes in environments so as to produce certain effects. Codes, perhaps, to open doors or to lock them. Basically, waves of all kinds—physical or non-physical—are patterns, and if they are harmonious with other wave patterns, then I believe they have to potential to create beneficial situations. Beneficial to knowledgeable users of course.
Specifications:
Title: Staggering Stride (version 1)
Source mediums: Water-based ink, alcohol-based marker, pencil, water, and rubbing alcohol on paper, manipulated digitally with Photoshop
Print medium: Hewlett Packard printer ink from Hewlett Packard DesignJet Z2100 printer on Hewlett Packard print paper (Note: print can be made with archival paper and printer if requested)
Digital manipulation completed: 4/10/2018
Dimensions of print: 45 inches by 34 inches
Number of limited edition prints: 25
Contact me: artofevan@hotmail.com
Art of eVan 