This oil painting was done for my good friends Michele & Chris for their wedding.
The DNA Candle image is one I began using with Symbiosis, a painting of mine recently featured on the online magazine, The Eloquent Atheist. It's one of my favourite concepts that I have come up with. Back in March 2007, when I was frustrated that I had not done anything with my art and I started this blog one blustery day, I almost chose the name "DNA Candles" instead of The Flying Trilobite. Yeah, I'm proud of these.
Vanitas painting is an old tradition, especially popular in the Northern Renaissance. Usually, it is a still life, depicting perhaps a skull, a broken watch, a candle just snuffed out with the smoke trailing in the air, a book half-read, a tipped over water glass....Pieter Claesz, trained by Franz Hals, is one of my favourite masters of this art style.
The image is one of mortality, with a kind of knock-you-over-the-head symbolism. The message intended is a kind of carpe diem, or "seize the day".
After reading about how telomeres may play a part in the aging process, and that their ends snip off when they replicate, I started coming up with the DNA Candle image. I remember reading something in the 90's that suggested if one could extend telomeres, one may be able to stave off death. The candle melting and the telomere shortening just seemed a natural image. I used DNA as a wick since it is more readily recognisable by most people.
So the ultimate message of the DNA Candle Vanitas is one of seize the day, life is beautiful but finite. The candles are lit and glowing, a loving image and the wax has melted together in union.
Variations of this image will return to The Flying Trilobite from time to time. The banner below and in my sidebar give a detailed view.
2 comments:
This post made me explore.
Appropriately, it is the time of The Day of The Dead.
'All is Vanity', by Allan Gilbert has always been a fun favorite of mine, though hardly a classic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_%28symbolism%29
When I first viewed the candles, Magritte came to mind immediately.
That's good company, yes?
Thanks so much for the compliment, Leslie! I love Magritte.
C'est nes pas un Glendon.
This is not a blog comment.
That Allan Gilbert piece is a spooky one I haven't seen in years.
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Posts over 14 days old have their comments held in moderation - I've been getting an unusual amount of spam for a guy who paints trilobites. I'll release it lickety-split though.