Tuesday, September 4, 2012

SHADOW ON SHADOW




SHADOW ON SHADOW
oil on canvas board
9" x 12"

In Plato's analogy of the cave the prisoners only looked at the shadows of life and called what they saw "reality".  He wanted to show that the role of the philosopher was to turn and look at life in all its complexity and bring that back to the shadow gazers.  
Suppose instead  I were to look at only the shadows and bring that to those who are viewing life in all its complexity?  Is there something to be gained by only peering at the shadows?


Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.
Friedrich Nietzsche

2 comments:

Sheila Vaughan said...

It's funny, for me I think our feelings are the shadows of our thoughts (the other way round). To me our thinking often tries to rationalise and our feelings let things be. I also wonder about complexity and whether sometimes we confuse it with complication. I really like this piece Nancy. Have you seen the work of Werner Pfarr? He has been drawing only shadows for a long time. You will see the link on my blog.

postcardsfromthemainline said...

Thank you for showing me the work of Werner Pfarr. I love it.