Holy Icon

"Sedona Cathedral Rock", Acrylic on canvas, June 2013

This painting is dominated by two mountainous masses, as well as the orange and red colors of the rocks, which are the most obvious/objective elements of the scene. These come into a dialectic relationship with the earth, which is mauve and bordeaux. To the right is an arrangement of rocks, which are painted surrealistically - they take on a variety of shapes - balls, spheres, and are portrayed in such a way as to give them the sense of not being heavy, and of radiating light.

At the same time, each piece of the bordeaux colored sand is painted individually, each one with its own shadow, and strong light, so that the sand radiates light just like the rocks. There are two ways to view the painting: on the one hand, we view the entire scene as a whole, on the other hand, we view each individual part on its own - such as each piece of sand, each of which gives off light. In order for this to work, the piece needs to have a dark blue sky, which provides the appropriate background so that the orange rocks are prominent. So there is a dialectical relationship between the objective level of the picture (the picture as a whole) and the subjective level of the individual, unique parts. These unique elements give us the sense that nature can change form and give off light, which is borrowed from the way nature is portrayed in Byzantine iconography.