Sunday, May 2, 2010

Source of the Spiral, Part 3

The rock carvings in Tanum were painted red which created a striking connection, in my mind anyway, between the cup symbols in the rocks and the seemingly random dots that decorate the Elmelunde Church on the island of Møn, Denmark. You can see them in the two close-up shots below. Six dots circling a central 7th dot creating what looks like a little flower. But I immediately felt that those dots must have been drawn from the pre-Christian cup marks that, flattened into two dimensions, are dots. And it seemed to me that a simple, but powerful symbol was transported from one way of thinking to another. Brought forward in time even if it lost it's meaning shortly thereafter. This is total speculation on my part. The great thing about being an artist is that I can make a connection like that and run with it. It's not terribly important that I'm right (although I'd love to see someone follow up on that idea) but just that it gives me something to think about. In this case how critical symbols are maintained through major social changes like new religions and political upheaval.







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