Pairing My Fingernails

Poster has the details. I made art, which I wrote about for Tara and am reposting below:

The Jacket of Knowledge, oil and acrylic on wood, 18" x 24"

I am excited to be a part of this and to contribute to Tara’s vision. I am thankful to Tara to have been invited to collaborate in this manner, coming up with a visual meditation and interpretation of her album. I’ve been listening to songs from the album all summer, and after having done so, contemplated the story being told and came up with this painting.
I love stories. Stories for me are full of mystery, and yet still can point to truth. In Tara’s story about Cordelia, I see parallels to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The jacket reveals things to Cordelia, and similarly, Eve is tempted by the fruit of knowledge, wanting to know things she was not meant to know. In particular, being tempted by knowledge, and having that temptation lead to a corruption the soul. In my everyday life, I am constantly bombarded by information, made easier by the Internet, cell phones, computers, television, etc. Thus I have become needy of this stream, needing to read the news so I know what’s going on in the world the minute it happens. Or needing to know what happened during each football game as each play occurs. Wanting to read e-mail as soon as it’s sent, checking the computer constantly, or worse, having it delivered to a device that buzzes in our pocket every few minutes. This need for knowledge becomes a leash, a tether, that keeps me from being able to pause, to quiet my mind, and to listen to life. Making art is one way in which I can quiet myself, be at peace for a few moments, and converse with the transcendent.
This painting in particular is my conversation with this story, this way in which too much knowledge overwhelms us; burdens us; it clouds and disrupts; and ultimately keeps our thoughts and meditations away from being at peace with our true selves and our places in this world. This tension in which the soul seeks to dwell in Mystery, of NOT knowing, while the brain consumes information with an insatiable appetite. In our current technological age, it simply can be too much.