Mulleian
poses subtle questions about the past and the future. Indeed it is this exploration
of various aspects of time, its passage and its effects upon our inner experience
of life, that give his work such a timeless, universal and yet unique quality
expressed through a broad range of subject matter and variations in style.
When
one takes in a visual analysis from any portion of Mulleian’s Stone Statue’s
Epiphany, and compares it with any portion of a description of the artist’s
mystical experience in Vietnam as described in his biography, the deeper, hidden
meaning in this painting becomes evident. Upon close examination there are glaring
similarities described in three separate segments of Mulleian’s biography
which seem to provide parallel reflections in the painting that enrich themselves
on an ever deeper subliminal level. In comparing these segments in the biography
this becomes quit obvious. To illustrate this point, the first line reads:
“I
cling ever so closer to myself, trapped in a corner inside this bunker, as I
shake with fear, waiting for it to come”.
Stone
Statue’s Epiphany suggests the living spirit depicted in a stone torso.
One could conclude from this image a profound sense of elemental captivity within
circumstantial limitations of its own mortality in imperiling dilemma. Immobile,
powerless and in despair, the spirit is suddenly confronted by a climactic conversion,
transformative dynamics nothing short of a divine intervention, the effects
of which are seen here frozen on the face of the statue.
This
paradigm in the making is also reflected in this second segment of the biography
that seems to mirror the painting’s overall theme:
This
description is amplified in the abyss of its surrounding background of the painting.
Here the artist emphasizes unknown moving forces that surround the stone statue
which cradle the subject matter, giving it a compositional support by focusing
energies that seem to substantiate an essence that is bigger than our capacity
to know. At the same time there is produced a sense of enveloping assurances
from the acknowledgement of higher sources, which bring the viewer’s attention
to the statue’s face.
“Knowing
that this is the premonition foretold to me and in my frantic despair, I reach
to rip open my shirt as I pray, trying to climb out of my body as I sank into
the depths of my fears. Grabbing my helmet off of my head and my soul tries
to hide into the abyss”.
In
the third and last analysis describing this segment of the biography, once again
this comparable signature is reflected in the painting.
“Suddenly
I am enveloped in a strange sence of comfort. I gaze up at a heavenly source,
surrounded by night that reaches for me through a three foot hole in the ceiling
of an old bunker that was blasted open by a 75 millimeter recoilless mortar
two and a half feet above my head. Warm, thick dust slowly unveils a flickering
light that reveals a lonely bright star, big as Jupiter, as the words that I
spoke ceased, leaving me in a state of bliss.”
This
last paragraph is clearly mirrored here in the most essential part of the painting,
were the artist reveals, not in stone but in living flesh, that which gives
it’s epiphany a face. Mysteriously gazing upward in absolute focus, as
if to witness the unfathamable in a portrayal of unseen forces, envisioning
oracle, the stone statue’s eyes.
At
the time this painting was created, the artist dident realized its direct connection
to his prophetic experience in Vietnam until 40 years later. This staggering
revelation concludes that the power of our subconscious obtains more influence
over our conscious minds then we could have imagined; in this case, in visual
form. Its all here in Stone Statue Epiphany, a visual metaphor. To quote the
words of Carl Jung:
"The
stirring up of conflict is a Luciferian virtue in the true sense of the word,
conflict and engenders fire, the fire of affects and emotions, and like every
other fire it has two aspects, that of combustion and that of creating light.
On the one hand, emotion is the alchemical fire whose warmth brings everything
into existence and whose heat burns all superfluities to ashes, But on the other
hand, emotion is the moment when steel meets flint and a spark is struck forth,
for emotion is the chief source of consciousness. There is no change from darkness
to light or from inertia to movement without emotion."
STONE
STATUES
EPIPHANY
Out
of the
womb
of
uncertainty
Wherein
resides
a penetrating
force
By
immortal
grace...it
Opens,
Like Ghiberty
doors,
to a
star within,
Bringing
about
the
liberation
of hope
Through
the gates
of paradise,
Revealed
in a stone statues
Epiphany.
|
Artist
Mark Mulleian
Stone Statues Epiphany
Oil, 34'x 41", 1971
