Navigate Eternity

Work in progress

This one’s about tenderness in death.

I think this piece emerged from me beginning to process a long period of fear of tragedy that lies ahead.

For so long, the sense of fear of what inevitably lies ahead for me as for all;

A child within, with the sense that if I beat myself up enough I can somehow rise to the occasion, do what needs to be done to stave off that with which I find it hard to imagine coping.

 

It’s ok, time to stand down. You’re not responsible for the fact the universe will take your loved ones from you. Just go with the flow, flow with the pain.

 

So in this moment I was a little calmer, looked those feelings in the eye, began to allow myself to see the tenderness, beauty, and the rich ecstatic tapestry of life that spreads out across the cosmos.

That abstract sense of the soul that somehow merges back into eternity, into everything, the journey after death.

A work in progress image of a series of comic panels depicting a coastal sea burial. a living man touches the hand of the deceased before sending him off in a boat. The cosmos stretches above.

This early concentric circle design had several things going for it. It unified the composition better, and at the same time unified the cosmos, giving it a centre. But at the time it didn’t capture what I envisioned – meandering cosmic pathways to be navigated towards that centre.
It also looked quite celtic which worked really well with the scene and the sailor aspect of it.
I wasn’t going for traditional celtic patterns, but something more along the lines of Harry Clarke’s intricate patterns.
I think some of this initial idea needs to be brought back into the piece.

Searching for the best position for the moon

Looking for ways to represent connectedness and connected pathways in the heavens

work in progress
A work in progress image of a series of comic panels depicting a coastal sea burial. a living man touches the hand of the deceased before sending him off in a boat. The cosmos stretches above.