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| Fire and Ice 8 x 11 Colored Pencils |
"There's a story there! I just know it is!"
Yeah, there is a concept, an idea; some message hidden in that image, your design, in your DNA. History lies there, old traditions and quite possibly, spanning cultures. One thing I have found to be true is no one person, people, nation or ethnicity has a corner on truth and beliefs. It is amazing, when I spend time with people of different cultures, once we get past the 'niceties' - "where are you from, what region is that, how long have you lived in this area" - you find out many of the same human characteristics exist from society to society. Certainly there are varied customs and not every tradition crosses the cultural barriers. But in so many ways, we are the same.
The image above, I rendered some years ago. It started as my trying out colored pencils, something I used extensively in college. As I "scratched" the pencils across the paper, I noticed there seemed to be an image of fire forming. I thought "it would be interesting if there were a contrast of ice against it." And as I rendered, trying to catch the 'designs' of both fire and ice, I wondered who wins in this epic battle? Will the fire melt the ice or will the ice, melting into water, douse the flames? At some point, it became clear, the story would not be resolved by this rendering. Like a reporter, my role is to capture the moment, not define the story - at least not in this picture.
It is a struggle for many; the conflict between warmth and cool, passion or logic, emotions versus cold reasoning. In truth, both are necessary, though we all struggle with expressions of the two elements. But look further, dig deeper; there is more to the image, more stories and concepts.
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