This painting was a continued exploration of the theme I first explored in August 2025 in the larger oil painting, Sperm Whale & Diver.

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​A significant part of my work involves an iterative process of uncovering mytho-visual language. Once I've identified a subject which has mythological significance for me, I like to approach it several times to see whether I can develop a sort of "glyphic portrait" of the subject. This is a technique which comes not from the academic art world, but from the cultural tradition of icon-writing, or the transmission of archetype through visual scripture.

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What exactly do I mean by that phrase: the transmission of archetype through visual scripture?

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An archetype is a proto-form: the first form in the mind of a given thing. It is a psychological instinct toward a recurring motif or conception, like a melody, which in the craft of song may be elaborated, transposed, harmonized, inverted, or otherwise treated as a form of currency of meaning. The image, repeated and made glyphic, becomes a heavy token. At its best, if it is well-made and retains the integrity of its value, it can be traded to the far shores of other artists, visionaries, and cultures across the endless gulf of time.

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Visual scripture is the use of image-making to speak of the sacred. My scripture does not refer to the world religions of history, but rather to nature itself. Nature is our first source of the sacred and profound, because it is the essence of our identity. Nature is our locus as a species, and it is the context in which all of our actions take place. Therefore, nature is the fabric of our existence, the stuff we are made of, and all that we perceive. Nature is the primary source, living itself out in a kaleidoscope of materials and physical processes. I can think of no other thing to which I ought to refer with my visual scripture.

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Everything I paint is a way of getting at all this.

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By iteratively painting new versions of these glyphic portraits, or archetypal icons, I am able to keep the symbols alive. They slowly morph over time as I reflect on their personal meaning to me, their significance as representatives of aspects of my inner life, and how they change their tenor in the light of other figures, forms, and settings from the material world. This is the magic of art.​

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This original painting, Sperm Whale, is sold.