New drawing: Vivisection of the Seraphim

Today’s drawing : “Vivisection of the Seraphim “, pencil and gouache on toned illustration board, 15 by 19 inches .

A friend recently mentioned that she didn’t believe in the existence of the Soul . This set me back a bit , I’ve heard this argument before , heretical from my position , that the soul, not actually something sacred but instead an entanglement of the nervous system. This materialistic perspective nonetheless upset me a great deal, leading me to uncomfortable rumination. Given its Holy Week and reflecting upon the soul appropriate, this image ultimately made its appearance.

The cold , hard science worship of our age with its mechanical “logical” detachment, cannot adequately discern the essence of a soul . For the Trust-the-Science crowd , such close scrutiny of the sacred would be as fruitless and as brutal as dissecting an Angel – you’d be left with little aside from disenchantment and some bloody feathers .

The soul is ineffable , wilting under the demands of the empiricist , but I have faith in it and the fact that you cannot be an artist without one.

Speaking of the intangible , the conventional depiction of the Seraphim , here illustrated from the Petite Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, conveys the fragility of their nature. I attempted to capture that shredded-butterfly-wing tragedy in my drawing.

Details of my drawing follows :

Sending forth warm Passover and Easter greetings.

Author: babylonbaroque

I am a painter and printmaker working towards creating a body of work that reflects my own developing aesthetic. New work ,first link. The second link is an on-line portfolio. View all posts by babylonbaroque