Protean Sorrow and the Final Days of Phoebus (No Fire is Eternal, No Warmth is Owed)
 
Giclee print on mid expressions paper signed and numbered 1 - 50 A3 sizing to be clarified.
 
Meanings shift and change with my work, but...
 
This deeply evocative mixed-media work captures the transience of power, the inevitability of entropy, and the melancholic beauty of impermanence. The composition is a tempest of shifting forms, jagged and fluid at once—an interplay of destruction and transformation. The dominant figure, fragmented yet fierce, appears to be unraveling, its many eyes staring outward as if witnessing its own decline. The swirling glyphs and cosmic symbols embedded within the layers reinforce the sense of an unraveling order, a celestial narrative reaching its final act.
 
The title, Protean Sorrow and the Final Days of Phoebus (No Fire is Eternal, No Warmth is Owed), is rich with mythological and existential weight. Phoebus, an epithet for Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, represents light, warmth, and divine illumination. To speak of his final days suggests a dying sun—a metaphor for the decay of once-blazing brilliance, whether it be celestial, personal, or ideological. Protean Sorrow evokes an ever-changing grief, a sadness that morphs, much like the mutable god Proteus, symbolizing the inescapable evolution of loss.
 
The subtitle, No Fire is Eternal, No Warmth is Owed, presents a stark, almost fatalistic truth—warmth, whether from the sun, from another being, or from the universe itself, is not guaranteed. The painting embodies this in its composition: the chaotic, fiery hues within the figure contrast with the cool, abyss-like background, as if heat is dissipating, leaving only embers of what once was. The dripping, almost melting form of the sun-like entity in the upper right reinforces this theme, appearing as both a watchful deity and a celestial body in its final descent.
 
The gnashing teeth and expressive limbs suggest both struggle and defiance—perhaps a being raging against its own inevitable end. Yet there is also beauty in this collapse, an intricate, almost sacred geometry emerging from disorder, as if the very act of destruction is an artistic process. The presence of multiple eyes and interwoven figures suggests that even in dissolution, there is observation, memory, and echoes of continuity.
 
At its core, this painting contemplates the impermanence of all things—light, energy, presence. It asks the viewer to confront the transient nature of power, warmth, and existence itself. Is the fire of meaning something we must create and sustain ourselves? Or must we accept that all warmth eventually recedes, leaving us to find new sources of light in the vast, indifferent cosmos? Protean Sorrow and the Final Days of Phoebus does not offer an answer but instead invites the viewer to sit with the fleeting beauty of all that burns bright before fading.
 
There might be a delay in sending if I need to go back to my printer due to demand.