Still Water
( Size: 33.5" x 26" Oils )
The painting tries to portray peace, tranquillity, calm, mystery.
Subjects in the painting:
The "Boat" is for journeying, life and death.
The "Image in Attire" represents the adept, the seers and prophets.
The "Black Hole" for the unknown, the abyss, darkness, fear.
The "Stairway" leading upward, heaven bound.
E.W.Powell 19.7.98. Painting completed 9/11/91.
Complexity comment:
Water is a magical substance. Not only essential for life, but a liquid with
strange properties. Like all liquids it exists in a state between solid and gas,
between a static state and a chaotic one. In complexity theory we call such
a state the 'Edge of Chaos' and systems in this state combine both stability
and flexibility. Systems that are able to adapt, are found to self-organize from
either a static state or a chaotic one to a state in between. This movement
is natural for both physical systems and human, a consequence of the need
to explore the environment and maximise adaptability.
Human beings are complex creatures. We have a need for peace and tranquillity,
yet also for variety and novelty. We operate very much on the 'Edge of Chaos',
sometimes relaxing in a static, meditative, mode, sometimes erupting into a
chaotic, creative, frenzy. Neither state is 'correct', the essence of complex systems is
diversity, self-organization exists at all scales, structurally and temporally.
Page Version 1.1 October 1998
The "Boat" is for journeying, life and death.