Just completed a new piece called "Monday Morning" (22" by 18")

I'm pretty sure Waldo doesn't know where he is either.

work in progress

concept behind the "Art of lethe Series":

The series that I have been working on ever since the transition into allocating a significant amount of my time to art about a year ago occurred is called “The Art of Lethe”; and it is now apparent that that title and my identity as an artist have become permanently intertwined. Anyways, to distill the underlying story to its bare bones, the image series is meant to document a journey through the underworld that ends along the banks of Lethe, a river in the Greek version of the underworld that induces complete amnesia in spirits directly prior to their reincarnation. Thus, the point at which cupping a handful of water and consuming it with whatever emotion is specific to the personality involved happens has the station of being the absolute final act in a person’s passage through strata of diminishing corporeality and a headlong plunge into a new feature bereft of memory baggage.

It can naturally be assumed that, as a one gets closer and closer to the point at which identity will be forever erased, thoughts will become more and more drawn to the past and those surviving monoliths representing memories of significant moments, thereby generating for the traveler a landscape perceived through an emotional lens that serves to distort, beautify, or mar. In order to display the degrading quality of human memory and its ability to alter/distort, all of the structures denoting memories in the series are noticeably deteriorating. Moreover, it is a documented phenomenon in the neuroscience of memory consolidation and recall that the frequency of recollection has an inverse relationship with memory accuracy. That is, more and more false details get added and true details deleted whenever a memory gets dragged to the fore of consciousness, rendering the final form a near total simulacrum. I’m sure that many of you can relate relative to the unrealistic loveliness or horribleness (depends on the experience obviously) that memories of past relationships with a high level of emotional investment can acquire as the years go by. So, those pieces in the series with greater levels of decay apparent represent events or people in my past that I keep revisiting for whatever reason.

The actual character that is taking the underworld journey isn’t shown until “Future Disregard”, which is the final piece in the series where the act of drinking of Lethe is shown. Her name is Mordra (the female version of the Arthurian character called Mordred), and I will explain her significance and role in the series via a short story that will soon be posted on the blog. I promise that the language will be more concise and Hemingway-esque as opposed to my usual convoluted babble.  Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the art!

-Quinn

New Website

I just finished making a website that will hopefully provide a more official portal for art viewing. You can access it by clicking the link below. Thanks!

artoflethe.com