Forest of Gods

I call this painting the Forest of Gods – it is a painting about an allegorical forest of magic candle-trees, anchored with their sinuous psychic roots in the dark night of life. A vivid moon (the symbol of the enlightenment – far above and distant) is shedding its mysterious light on this scene, which is not belonging to any time or space. Just as the darkness is present and felt, so too is the feeble light of the noon. With the little light we have, we can visit from far this place and a strange scenery unfolds. Archetypes of gods are seen in each candle flame, they are growing in the light of each candle-tree, in a different way for each of them. A certain brightness apparently comes from the light generated by these god-like silhouettes; however, another truth lurks in the shadow of these manifestations. It’s the beings trapped in these candle-trees, populating these strangely living paradigms, who (the beings trapped) are feeding this light into each god-like figure. Even more, it's their enchained being itself, their commitment to their cages, the acceptance of their own existential conditioning, their complicity with their own darkness and light, their play in this game that is actually what enlightens their gods. It’s their fights and defeats, their own astonishment and bewilderment and their quest for peace which are defining the god that was created in the night of their existence. It's them determining which light is surrounding their own Gods and how far deep this light pierces their night. But only some of the trapped are able to transmit enough force through their own spiritual candle-trees to light them up, to make them burn; there are others, further into this forest which are mere shadowy stems, the possibility of non-existence having taken over after they fell from their own existences for mysterious reasons; they are empty, we cannot see anyone being inside, even trapped, no light, no sense of hope, only the smoke of their demise. The god-like figures, religious and non-religious, are the embodiment of the fears, hopes, nightmares and dreams of the souls attached to their cages. The light of enlightenment is the radical exit from this night and the liberation from the perverted need to always personify our psychic content and coagulate it in shape of icons. On another note, a powerful thought that must catch our attention by following the meaning of this painting is that the divine and our gods (which are the mere representations of these god notions) are very different realities. This painting implies different layers of meaning and more than one conclusion. Other paintings will follow in this series to continue this amazing story.