Cave Painting on Rabbit Hide -- Listening with my Eyes Open in 2021

 

On December 5, 2020 on my photography blog I posted my last essay for the year. It was about seeing patterns in our surrounding which may mean little to others. I discussed the importance of such observations for photographers who either anticipate patterns to come together and form a “capturable” moments; or, the actual interpretation of patterns that already exist and can become a story the camera can freeze in time.  Here is that essay for which I received quite a number of comments from more than two continents surrounded by oceans:

https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2020/12/epiphany-in-photography-role-of.html

So, I wanted to paint my first 2021 idea on a small cottontail hide that was ready to serve as canvas. A lot of ideas about the pandemic, friends I miss, friends I will not see again and unrest around the world were swirling in my head.

.. I always look at my “canvas” before painting what I have in mind because the surface, colour, wrinkles and folds of the natural hide have a message that I need to decipher first. On a sunny afternoon in the high desert of Arizona, I took the rabbit hide to the veranda to examine.

In the above picture there may be nothing noticeable (other than my large dog always following around the house….) but at close look an imperfection on the left of the hide caught my attention. Here it is:

At first it reminded me of Petri dish cultures I have known in my previous life as a healthcare professional. But then, when I slightly turned the canvas, I saw the head of an eagle.  Hmm, was it epophenia as I discussed in my December 5^th posting the link shown above?

Actually the beak is not genuinely an eagle’s beak but there was soaring movement. Here are a slight touches of colour to enhance the eye and beak:

I decided to make it an eagle as perhaps an eccentric painter would have expressed on the cave’s wall. The colour and texture of the rabbit hide was perfect in resemblance to a cave’s wall.

Finally, since the eagle was either soaring or getting ready to dive upon a pray, I painted an imaginary prehistoric animal. I laughed a lot after I drew the contours of its face with my painting knife as it looked like a man I know in town!!

Anyhow, 2021 started as unsettled as 2020 ended and this phantasmagoric depiction of prehistoric survival struggles seems most reflective of our hopes, expectations and fears.

 PS/ When I sent a draft of this page to a friend with ample imagination to compete with mine (!), she replied "Did you see the face of the painter on that wall? Look closely -- it is like the famous moonface! You see his left eye looking at you, his round ear and facial contours. He is even wearing a hardhat as anyone should when in a cave... This rabbit hide is haunted!!!"

Ha! So, here is the famous prehistoric painter -- I am sure this is the first cave painter identification, ever! 

January 16, 2021

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021