Our Time In Eden

Our Time In Eden

This piece sat around for several weeks unfinished, and was intended to be part of a trilogy of sorts, this being the first part. I have dabbled with what I have affectionately termed "plant man" before, first, a year ago, for "The Strength To Push Like Spring." which had very little going on other than the development of the application of this texture overlay technique.

A year later, I wanted my plant/man creation to do more, to say more. I started three pieces with him, the one, another one that is still unfinished, and "Because It Is A Desert," which I shared online a few weeks ago. The idea was to take this character and put him in environments which, in relation to the living metaphor he is to plant life, could tell some sort of story or infer some meaning.

"Because It Is A Desert" was the first to be released, but this should have been first. This image represents harmony, home, surety, and a time of fertile growth. It represents, I suppose, youth, and all the strength and vitality that goes with it. There is a freedom implied, an idyllic landscape and sense of release. Hence the title.

The title was nicked from an album by 10,000 Maniacs, and though I never owned it or particularly cared for the band save a song or two, it is one of those titles that say so much, or could. Eden of course is the paradise in the Book of Genesis, the utopia and origin point (according to the Bible) of man, living in harmony with all living things, before the expulsion from paradise, before the first sin was committed. It, in itself, is a symbol of unspoiled youth.

If I am to finish this little trilogy, and perhaps I may, "Our Time In Eden" would be Act One, paradise, wellbeing, and "Because It Is A Desert" would follow our leafy friend into a dry, arid place where nothing grows - Act Two, in other words. Act Three has yet to be worked out. Perhaps he will find his way home, perhaps the elements will defeat him, or, more likely, he will move on and look for some new place to root and take hold.

Model: Gilberto Mendez