The original concept of the New Prophets were to be as ethical heroes to augment those boasting of fame, wealth and power. To these heroes, one is born with talent or not. Chance or circumstance, privilege or connection are beyond our influence. While contemporary icons are more often successful at revealing our shortcomings rather than our aspirations, who is left to help us illuminate our own unique qualities outside of economic gain or narcissistic celebrity, hero worship and envy? The answer is found in Presence.
The New Prophets then, direct the individual to find his own path and her own unique self. This information is available to everyone rather than only the gifted few. Three prophets ensue, attended by three separate predella paintings. Media Liberator speaks of how to find one's own information. Bearer of Information speaks of the responsibility attached to that information once found. The Prophet of Presence tells of where the information is located.
The Experience (Under the Influence of Presence)
oil/leaded panel
39"x 58" 1997
This predella illustrates living in presence. For the most part, humans live on a horizontal plain of activity east, west, north and south. But a fish, for example, lives in a horizontal/vertical field, adding up and down to the four directions. So it is represented in The Experience that in presence, we also live in a vertical /horizontal -- spiritual/ physical field. The male swimmer lingers in the womb shaped sphere which nurtures present tense spirituality. As an embryo of thought will delight in every aspect of oneness with Presence, this condition morphs into the field of rationality, allowing for endless participation of the eternal now, held as it were, by the force rings of the unseen.
3rd New Prophet: Prophet of Presence
oil/leaded panel
26"x 48" 1996
Using force rings exclusively, representing "All that exists which is unseen", the Prophet is so arranged as to elicit no image, nor direct to any focal point that evokes a single entity, godhead or personality. The Prophet of Presence tells us where spiritual/physical information is found: In the point between past and future. It is here where spiritual and physical realities intercept. It is in motion and cannot be rationalized or analyzed. It is where ego does not exist because ego, or will, is an activity of history; events have already passed before they can be processed
into rationalized action. The closer one aligns him or herself to present tense, ego and will become meaningless and the process of living and breathing makes evident a spiritual participation.
Prelude to the Prophet of Presence (The Picnic)
oil/canvas
38"x 42" 1996
A day-in-the-life representation of the family in repose, absorbing and considering the weight of information found. By striking on their own to connect with the harmony of Presence this information is now woven into the fabric of their shared experience.
Corollary to the Bearer of Information
oil/canvas
34"x 48" 1995
Corollary, is a repeat of the homestead landscape located in the vertical shard of the Bearer of Information. In this winter landscape on the left, two profiled and opposing faces in the shape of modified force rings, lock eyes in knowing, shared information of father and son. Through the thicket of pussy willows (the collective), the hand of the son connects with that of the child who, in turn, receives the same information.
2nd New Prophet: Bearer of Information
oil/canvas
48"x 42" 1995
Once having placed the antenna up and are receiving information of the present tense, what more potent information can be experienced than the death of
a loved one. It is a sonic boom of true present-tense spiritual reality. It changes life courses. It forces priority shifts. It strikes a stunning realization of how alive one feels. Without examination, unrehearsed, unfathomable.
In the image, the waist high profile of a man holds his hands up as antennae. The weight of the moon in 1st quarter phase rests upon the Prophet's shoulders representing the specific day of his Father's death. Shards of information rain down upon him while the shard piercing his bowls (looked upon sideways) shows the homestead of his youth. Two symbolic wires emanate from the Prophet's heart and mind connecting to the outside which disperse information found.
In your forties there is lots of pain
people you love are dying and die
in the forties a lot of rain
as information from the sky
Born in the bowels of mid-west
in evaluation sacred temple
I shall issue forth from my breast
and pass on through example
1st New Prophet: Media Liberator
enamels/canvas
39"x 54" 1995
Fashioned after "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian", who was martyred for his faith, Media Liberator instructs us to unplug from two dimensioned reality, which is subjective and carries with it an agenda. This information has already been filtered through someone else's mind. It does not matter if the information is altruistic or self serving, it is an historical record and out of the realm of here and now. To this, the prophet instructs to place one's priorities on their back (the collective) and strike out on their own, eyes wide awake to their own unique experience. Only in present tense can one discover information truly her or his own.
The predelles at the bottom read from right to left in a blue spectrum shift, with the information coming toward you. As the two dimensioned plane rotates, what appears are hands upon a keyboard typing up the one who is shooting the arrows into our prophet. The feathers of the arrows are cuff linked. It is the purveyor of two dimensioned media that has the most at stake in keeping information controlled.
Painting iconography includes: the restrictive glass of dogmatic thinking, being shattered by the prophet's escape. The arched shape is the roman arch used in constructing the earlier Stations of the Cross. Prismatic shards are again used to create chaos in the field of appearances, even as force rings reassemble to create a new reality. Red, the color of heat and acceleration pervades the canvas. In Presence, thinking is outward in a red shift.