Original - Not For Sale
Price
Not Specified
Dimensions
40.000 x 54.000 x 2.000 inches
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Title
Where Oh Where Dear Pistis Be
Artist
Terrance DePietro
Medium
Painting - Oil On Linen
Description
2016 final image, to '100 Days of Summer' series: Fitting to the series as an event of summer; as a marker, summer, speaks to 'hope'; hope of a good crop that yet has time to mature; then after, to come to harvest; so to be consumed, once thanks has been given for the bounty...
And in the titling, 'Where Oh Where Dear Pistis Be?', there is what might actually be: suggest. Suggest of the deep and foreboding implications of our time, its zeitgeist, that might be questioned.
So simplistic, so consequential and yet so lacking; and how is it not recognized is reason alone for a beseech that the quality will soon be remembered and confirmed by every media availed to humanity. And so the following notion is proposed:
A NOTION OF PISTIS IN OUR TIME
Pistis was the personification of good faith, trust and reliability, in ancient times, times no better than our own - except that they then, attempted to face the ungracious, unkind truth of it's absence.
Of course it could be argued that 'Pistis', early on, fell to a lower level of usage in it's adopt to Greek rhetoric, persuasive pistis: to induce 'true judgment'... and on-n-on it developed as such and is so remembered.
Further and further the necessity of the word's original mythos diluted, in the flow of time and the flow of the developing notions. Concepts, that are implied in the hearts, minds and guts but forever victim to the eschew of our linguistics and its expressed notion.
In this case what is left to the dust is that Pistis, in personification, held the notions that constituted what we today call 'integrity'; then regarded, as stated above, 'good faith, trust [trustworthiness] and reliability'. Today mere to a technique, a rhetorical syllogism; or its other context, as concept of Christen 'faith' [yet another usurp].
Note, I really have no quibble with a notion of 'usurp'; all I ask is that the original principle not be lost, bypassed or swept under polyester rugs, mimesis or other...In this specific instance, what is more important to my questions is: Why we have no evidence of a specific personification of 'integrity' from early on, gnaws at this gut; or might its imply have been enough for Pistis?
Poor Pistis fared relatively well in Roman times as Fides [goddess of trust and bona fides (good faith)] but we also know, by then, the notion was common, in 'dilute' correspondence; then, and forever more it appears. And when was the origin of the notion, so old that it must have been of oral tradition? Wherein was the principle that shaped it's imply?
Qualities, of substance, 'Trust, Honesty, Faith, Trustworthiness', wrapped into the mode of earliest times as personification [imaginal image]. In fact, by then, she was known by humans, who were denied her qualities! She represents a privation of the trust, honesty and good faith.
The spirit, Pistis, had escaped Pandora and her confine, box; and promptly fled back to heaven, abandoning mankind. Yet her opposites, who personified 'deception' and 'lies' remained, tainting the air, et al. So why, if we with reason and wisdom understand the necessity of such qualities and the problems of privation; why have we not produced a personification or notion of which would become halo to the principles to hold steadfast?
So coming to these implications has a hint of meaningful coincidence in present times. Integrity, the very grandeur of the notion, is expressly relevant and specifically necessary to every feature of our civilized scheme. Yet, with all our knowledge, understanding, Pistis remains, self-exiled, imaginal to heaven; and not even evident in the most righteous possibilities to chose from! As if joined, in exile, by Dikaiosyne and the Horai [Dike, and sisters, Eunomia and Eirene], once more depriving humanity from the deportments of righteousness, justice, good order and Peace!
But that is the subjectivity and conjoined serendipity, the part of Nature which remains hidden, unless it is being looked for; and which is 'known' more as a result of faith, than its product. One is never certain of what image might bring with it; or at what layer it will reveal first. One does not create image as such; merely aides its inevitable arrival.
None of the above directed this image into being; unless of course the notions of intuition, feeling and imagination are given amplification to a notion of 'imaginal'...And as if that too was already understood, in the midst of cultivating the image, in those Hundred Days of Summer, a qualifying essay was presented to me, assisting me, as I assisted the image. Henry Corbin's paper, 'Mundus Imaginalis' from his opus study, has me still investigating the implications of imagination, far beyond our current definition - further still, leading, in its imply, to contemporary notions of 'Prospecting', prospecting-subjectivity and 'next', by yet other authors...
If the above implications are not suggestive enough, that a better understanding of imagination, intuition and purposiveness might be prudent; then perhaps this: The current direction of science is to realize, and install, what is called 'Artificial Intelligence' - a mimicking, hybrid brain.
But as yet they, science, are far from understanding the delicacies of intuition [for one, its consort with an Autonomic Nervous System], feeling and imagination [given the current definitions of 'imagination', which lacks 'imaginal' imply]. Such a development would be nothing short of an abomination; an implication more grave than all the above combined!
Images and the creative venues that have evolved of modern times, present beyond 'beauty'; they present further than was recognized as 'sublime'; there is now recognized the 'imaginal' potency, that layers itself into these fixed perceptions; and I propose them as similar to any papyrus of knowledge; ever excavated from the fragments of humanity's recorded perceptions...
This paper, its findings, is in consequence to the image, 'Where Oh Where Dear Pistis Be?'[2016], yet there are more than sixty images in said series; each reflecting some amalgamation of imply; each potentially layers of imply yet imaginable. If they, in some way correlate to each other, what bounty, volume, of inform might yet to be discovered. All of that potency, multiplied by how many viewers; over how many generations? At relatively no economic impact to the artist, society, humanity or the planet! - 5feb17 tdp
Copyright Terrance DePietro 2017 all rights expressly reserved.
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February 1st, 2017
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Comments (2)
Reed Novotny
What a great write up for such an interesting piece of artwork. Your writing talents match your artistic abilities. Bravo!
Terrance DePietro replied:
A humble thank you; each is its own struggle... And in the end we can only hope and guess if the strokes of paint tell more of all that we have forgot about this self-challenge we play with; call it Art or other. Happy that you visited my works, thank you. - tdp
Susan Brown Slizys art signature name
Your work and words need a 4 walled gallery audience. Pistis, leaving us in the earthy realm of deception and lies, does speak to the condition we now find ourselves in this world . Media spans the globe and fragmentally trys to guide and misguide us. Imagination ,will become the savior of humankind. But if the pandora box of artifical intelligence is released ............ FAV your art Susan
Terrance DePietro replied:
Susan, I thank you for your kind words and assessment of my works...As you say 'imagination' might well lead us from our imprisoned thinking to a more reasonable posture; human-ness weighs in the balance and anything less is but a void. Dear Pistis might yet have occasion, but not yet...En tout cas, hope remains. Best-of-Life, Terrance