The Kings and Queens of Swords
The “Kings and the Queen of Swords” is part three of my series, following “That Old Bald Cheater”, and “The Gambit of Gaia”.
The initial thought for this piece came with the idea of changing power dynamics in the story line.
A large part of the story stems from the inspiration that I drew from the last line in the song “Changing Of The Guards” by Bob Dylan. As the song has very surreal lyrics full of rich imagery, it is open to interpretation, and may not 100% represent my artwork, but much like art, music can also be interpreted in our own way based on our own experiences, and this is what I have done in this painting.
The last verse in the song is:
Peace will come
With tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords
My false idol is my irrational fear of death and money, but more importantly and not so irrational, my fear of the old ways of thinking. Something I wanted to add into the mix in this piece.
So much needs to change in this world, and I would go as far as saying that a large part of this artwork quietly targets inequality. The stone wolf in this piece represents the wolf at the gates and a new way of thinking is growing.
That Old Bald Cheater is in exile. He has taken a seat and is now bending to another way of thinking, much like myself on a daily basis.
The ladies with sunflowers are Gaia’s minions, overpowering the old ways and bringing in rejuvenation with every position they take. Yet still weilding a sword to force the solution which could also be interpreted as a forceful and undiplomatic way of problem solving.
Much like myself, I have often taken drastic measures to force a solution. An example of this could be throwing yourself out of a plane to cure a fear of heights.
The addition of playing cards in this third installment also represents the unknown of the decisions that we all make. Society is currently gambling on almost everything we do, and one thing I have come to learn about humans is that no one, no matter how high or low on the ladder truly knows what they are doing. Including our world leaders.
It is almost terrifying, but in a way I often believe that most people are honestly doing their best based upon what they know. To think otherwise is problematic and often unfounded.
It also brings me back to one of my favorite quotes of all time, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” … Socrates.
An afterthought….
The battle against fear, money and time are represented in most of my work, and in many ways these concepts represent most people. I am not unique, but I love telling this story.
I want to talk about time in art. This has been one of my greatest challenges in life and if I was to impart some important knowledge to any young artist, this would be it.
When I started out, I battled time and money like no other artist out there. I pushed to harness as much energy out of myself as possible, time was money and money added time. They were the two posts holding up my own personal hamster wheel, and I couldn’t seem to get off it. This went on for years.
If I can paint ten artworks taking two hours each, then one artwork taking twenty hours has less business value. I can make ten faster sales with ten smaller pieces, get more clients, eat more food, pay more rent, buy more drinks…. money….aaaah.…. the end of the month was always coming at me like a freight train and it hurt.
It led to permanent desperation and constant fear of what was next. Tomorrow was always coming too soon and not soon enough. It was a painful existence and something I was willing to fight my way out of at all costs. Even to the point where I’d be standing in a park, on my feet for 16 hours a day with no breaks, a bunch of art on easels trying to meet everyone I could who showed interest. I would stand there until it was dark and cold and I was clearly alone. Sometimes these days, and often weeks, lead to $0. Yes there were tears.
The turning point for me was when a painting idea gave me a nice sum of cash on weekends. Finally I had bought myself time. The money could get me through a week somewhat comfortably and now I could change my story from the 4 year cycle I had been in.
So in 2016 I finally had time to put into my art and therefore finally set a date for what I call my first solo show and Willaim D Higginson’s launch. My new Bill.
My weeks were spent laboring on new ideas, designs and paintings with a date set far in the distance to get them out to the world. Not that I'm not proud of all the work that came before it, but adding anywhere from 50 - 150 hours to a painting had only one outcome. The art was simply better.
Money has been my limitation and it still continues to do so in many ways as I grow as an artist. I have more in me, I know it, but again this is not a unique position to be in. There are so many artists out there who are limited by time, but it is a battle we all have to face.
I paint time in my art often and my battle for time has been the endless chase for the money to do so. The reason I say this in regards to this artwork is because I had more time to create it. I went way over budget for this piece, but only because I could. I had free time to turn this piece into my best artwork so far and I really feel it shows. It gave me such an incredible sense of satisfaction to see this piece come out of me, but it only makes me wonder…. What if I had more time for the next piece…… Now that’s getting greedy isn’t it? A concept that I need to explore.