:::this is the way the world ends:::

3 Explosive Disruptions to the Intuition

From the studio of Ned Gannon.

Click on the image for a close up of an exploding dragon.

3_Explosive_Disruptions_to_the_Intuition.jpg

6 Comments

  1. J.E.

    Every new painting you share with us delights me, but this one enthralls me.

    I hope you don’t mind — “3 Explosive Disruptions to the Intuition” has replaced “The Road to Calvary” on my desktop.

    I’d love to know what the text is. I can’t quite make it out on the image you sent.

  2. Ned

    The text box that is more visible in the image contains two definitions for “vanishing point” that I found rather interesting. One: the point at which all perspectives and lines converge into one, and Two: the point at which something ceases to exist or disappears. This apparent contradiction seemed quite appropriate to my rapidly circulating thoughts recently. There is another text box at the bottom in the Eau Claire river that has a defintion of the word self: one’s consciousness of his (yes the dictionary used the gender specific) own identity or being; the ego. This is my first painting of a dragon. Thanks for your comments, J.E.

  3. Pete

    This is pretty incredible really. I had to look closely to realise this is all paint, not a mixed media piece. would love to see more close ups or a larger reproduction. I find the first definition to be fascinating. amazing work, master artist!

  4. Shotts

    Tremendous to see this work from Ned! The river landscape alone is excellent–and then adding the fantastic element is very interesting, and fits with the previous Gannon images of floating trees, etc. Just amazing…

  5. Tobias

    Ned, as always your use of color and technique blows me away — I wonder what I’m doing with my life.

    I love this painting in particular. Some of the more recent work of yours that I’ve seen has engaged my imagination in a subtle way through shifts in realism. This has seemed to flow from small shifts of “un-nature” in natural settings to something that is more overt. I, in particular, love all of your modes…but this more overt iteration I feel is the most successful of all.

    Perhaps because the painting links all of the practice through our years of drawing dragons, the idealism matched with innocence we had then, our invincibility….

    The quote I’ve been ruminating on a lot recently is “the child is the father of the man.” I thought I understood it in Ferguson’s classroom, but now I feel like I understood it better as I think of myself more man than child. Anyway, I see the ties in your work of childhood to who we are now.

    Anyway, love it…even if you weren’t one of my best friends.

    (Please feel free to correct my interpretations.)

  6. Ned

    Toby and all,

    I have been and always will be one of your best friends. I think that your interpretation is perfectly valid. Sometimes a painting is kind of like life; we think we know what it’s about, but then we really make sense of it in hindsight. Kierkegaard talks specifically about this when he says, “Life can only be lived forwards and only be understood backwards.”

    I think your comments on the quote from W.W. are perfectly valid as well. I realized as I painted this that I had never painted a dragon before and certainly grew aware of how that harked back to my youth.

    It is interesting what having a child does to your sense of being a young man or just a man, at least for me. I have always thought of myself as young, whatever my age. But having kids has chaged that a bit.

    Eliot, apparently, was waiting all day on Friday for me to get home so he could listen to number thirteen on the Devotchka cd. When I arrived home without it, he paced through the house lamenting “Oh, no! Devotchka! Oh, no, Devotchka!”

    It’s also been interesting talking to him about the painting. He pointed out that the dragon’s blood was blue, to which I responded, “So is yours before it comes out of your body.”

    Thanks, Toby, and everyone, for the comments.

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