approximately 4 1/4" x 6 1/2"; ink on paper.
This is the first piece in my 21-part Jerry's Book (aka The Brown Book) project. There's a lot that I could say about this piece, though I fear that it might become rather redundant fairly quickly... so please bear with me. ;)
First off I should say that The Brown Book actually consists of 24 pages, but I decided to limit the amount of pieces to 21 because I was more in tune with that number on a symbolic level. I was all the more happy to limit the amount of pages after I had worked on the second piece and just wasn't "feeling it". So I scrapped that page, which brought me back to 23 pages... and at that point I just decided to take the opportunity to give myself some extra leeway and "remove" two more pages. It should also be known that the second piece I was working on on page two didn't get totally scrapped (at least the idea didn't)... I reworked the piece and completed it on the third page, which I refer to as the "second" piece. I know, this is all terribly fascinating... ;) I've just decided to let these art posts be as detailed as possible. ;)
So I chose the Guardian as the first piece of the book because I wanted to set-up this idea that the book would act as a sacred tome of sorts, and I needed a symbol that would act as a charm... a protective charm. If it's not readily familiar, I patterned the symbol after a bird... in my mind The Sun Bird. In keeping with this idea of sacredness I was relying on the heavenly connotation of the bird symbol to drive the point home. Although the symbol's fairly simplistic, there's actually a lot going on here...
The body of the bird is meant to feel mechanical. In some ways, I was hoping to call to mind the idea of a barrel... much like the barrel of a gun, because I wanted the idea of mechanism to play a part in the piece. I specifically thought this guardian, like all guardians, would not be soley concerned with denial... but also acceptence. He is a lock... he protects the door... he decides who comes and who goes. In this thinking I was drawing heavily from this idea of divine struggle and illumination... which is why the bird holds The Pair of Opposites in his claws. In her left: joy, life, pleasure, water, red, green, etc. And in his right claw: sorrow, death, pain, fire, white, black, etc. Those who are allowed to pass through this door must make no discrimination between the powers... all are the same powers working under different masks. This is why the "orbs" look exactly the same.
The birds tail is also meant to reference this idea of illumination... or at the very least the journey toward. The crosses are meant to reference the crossroads. The point between to places... in this language, a point between two thoughts. Heaven's path lies one side... and Hell's to the other... obfuscating the true path to illumination, the union of Heaven & Hell. The third cross, the middle cross leads directly to the heart of the beast... to the door's lock. There you find three holes... or keyholes. Two are meant to house Wisdom and Ignorance... at his shoulders, the Discrimination Principle. The central hole, which is connected to the third path houses the Indiscrimination Principle. With both principles in mind... the "three" powers in hand, the lock opens...
Again, it's hard to express exactly what it is I want to... I would like to go on from here to explain in further detail the "mechanics" of the symbol... but I don't want to diagram anything... it would just become too complicated... especially when I feel I've offered up the gist of the philosophy of the symbol. So there you have it... The Guardian of The Brown Book.
p.s. Unlike David's Book, the pieces in Jerry's Book are heavily ruled and planned out... which is why I offered up a cleaned-up version of the symbol, so as to offer the greatest impact on first sight. But I also didn't want to disregard the original entirely... which is why I offered up a thumbnail version of it with all it's guidelines and such. ;)
DS333, unlocking.
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