In
1986 one of
Mulleian’s
most popular paintings,
“The Orphan”, was awarded the ASI award by Artist Society International
and presented by Charlotte Mailliard at
a gala event at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
It
is out of
a uniquely
poetic imagination
that Mulleian asks questions about time, but questions also about feeling
and transcendence,
about loss and isolation, about mortality and metaphysical realities, about
spirit and light,
about creativity
and destruction, and quite certainly, about hope and transformation.
More
than any of his other works, the one painting that
manifests virtually all of these characteristic qualities is The
Orphan, the award winning, sensitively romantic work that was completed
in 1986 and became one of the public's most favorite
pieces, and for good reason.
Deeply
melancholic, strangely hopeful, and essentially mystical there is a poignant
vortex of time depicted here in universal themes of profound loss and gradual
decay set among the ongoing, majestic cycles of nature.
Placed
in such a context, human intention and suffering are as transient as the nettles
in the field, as richly meaningful and inevitable as the passage of a sudden
autumn shower. All are necessary, in fact, essential to the whole.
In
warmly romantic, gently muted colors, the dappled, richly sensuous play of light
caresses the weathered, skeletal remains of a rapidly deteriorating wooden house.
At the threshold of the ruin the spirit of a child sits dreaming. How many hopes,
how many memories, and how lovingly remembered?
Past,
present and future are all presented here, but the prevailing mood is one of
overarching serenity. There is an implication that natural cycles of life, though
majestically unrelenting may also be understood to be sympathetic when seen
in a larger than personal context.
As
evidenced in the witness of an onlooking squirrel and a gently arching branch,
Nature, in her seasonal breath of autumn, seems to reach to shelter and comfort
the child. In transcending the human loss, yet embracing the spiritual force
that governs it all, what appears to be a separation may, in fact, be quite
the opposite. In one poignant moment, all becomes one, and matter and spirit
have found a balance.
As
the artist quotes: Structural permanence, falling away to time, is the very
brace that weathers against the elements of impermanence. A perfect paradox.
The
Orphan
This
1986 painting,
entitled
"The Orphan"
by Mulleian
quickly drew
public
attention
during the
1980s and 1990s.
It's popularity
became
apparent
while on
display for six
months at
one of the largest
west coast
exhibits after being
nominated
for the ASI (Artist's
Society
International)
Award. This monumental
art competition
drew fifteen
thousand artists
nationally
and internationally,
and lasted well over
a year.
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