Mysteries of the LotusMaiden Published by JonathonArt.com A Limited Second-Edition of Fifty Books Copyright © 2017 Jonathon Earl Bowser All Rights Reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The author does, however, grant permission for this book to be printed at home or at copy centers in single copies for personal use only. (and if you enjoy what you’ve read, a $10 donation at JonathonArt.com would be appreciated) Manufactured in Canada Includes Bibliography ISBN: 978-0-7795-0244-8 4 Dedication For Alphonse Mucha and Thomas Moran, who taught me about painting; For Carl Sagan and Joseph Campbell, who taught me about thinking; For my Mom, my Dad, and my Wife, who taught me everything really important that I understand about the world... 53 Mysteries of the LotusMaiden 6 Table of Contents Dedication 3 Primeval Geometry 246 Primeval Moonlight 248 Table of Contents 5 Into the UltraViolet 250 Chasing Butterflies 256 Introduction 7 Achieving the Surface 270 Geometry of Eternal Creation 272 Goddess of the Vale 12 Apotheosis 274 Sanctuary 16 Cascade 18 Final Thoughts 278 Goddess of the Tides 22 Invariance and Enlightenment 26 Still Falling from the Hidden Country 294 Blue Invariance 30 Earth Autumn Winter 32 Bibliography 298 Song of the Hummingbird Muses 36 Isis - Child of Earth and Sky 40 Photo Credits 300 Angel of Capricorn 44 About the Artist 302 The Journey thus Far 48 Order and Chaos 50 The Blue and the Red 66 Pastoral Symphony 68 The Return 76 Celestial Apparition 86 A Beckoning Light 92 The Awakening 96 Forest Light 114 Ancestors 128 Eurynome and Ophion 130 Desire 134 Waiting for Parsival 136 Forest Mist 140 Tears of Waialeale 142 RiverGenesis 146 LotusWood 148 Cathedral of Illusion 160 Children of Eternity 184 Transcendeffervescence 188 Lotus of the Eternal Night 192 Tending the DragonSleep 196 Parsival’s Lament 200 Cloak of the Maternal Sky 226 Matrix of Eternity 230 Gates of Valhalla 232 Seeds of Blue Stars 236 Creation of Adam 242 57 Mysteries of the LotusMaiden 8 Introduction trillion-trillion electron-volts of creative energy, the of them were discovered in my search for conceptual pat- Big Bang, and the stupefying immensity of space- terns that make apparently dissimilar kinds of things also, Atime: the universe came from something or it came in some unexpected way, strangely similar. Perhaps it is from nothing. Both propositions seem equally absurd, but because the job requires me to spend so much time alone one of these impossible origins must actually be true. It is (and solitary people can make friends with strange things), no simple matter to find meaning in the baffling beauty and but I delight in finding a secret bridge between distant horror of the world… ideas. I am fascinated by the mysterious repetition of com- mon motifs and patterns that appear in the natural world * * * around us, in our behavior and biology, in our societies and religions, and even in the ethereal worlds of mathematics he businessman regards his chosen vocation as the and physical law. Seeking to understand these mysterious most interesting and consequential endeavor hu- connections is an integral part of my creative process. It Tmans pursue. This is analogously true for research is perhaps unrealistic (or even foolish, many would say) to scientists, who gather often in academic forums and talk expect a painting to have that kind of explanatory power, effortlessly for hours, even with complete strangers, about but writing helps me - to clarify and focus my creative ob- their adventures in scientific inquiry. I expect this is also true jectives. This personal inclination, however, need have no for athletes and politicians, chefs and home-builders, and so bearing whatsoever on your experience of these artworks. on. It is perhaps not surprising that humans, who give so These writings are important only in as much as they have much life-force to a chosen profession, should reflexively made a significant contribution to the evolution of these inflate its importance in global affairs. It is also not surpris- images. They are included here to document that process. ing that so much of the establishment media landscape is And if, when viewing a particular image, you find yourself populated with industry mandarins shouting into bullhorns, wondering just what the heck I’m trying to say, you may sharing a portentous worldview of problems and solutions find the companion writings edifying - and perhaps even with the similarly-minded. The lawyers and bankers ap- interesting. plaud. There’s a cable channel for almost every job, telling I am often similarly asked what these paintings are you what the world looks like from this perspective or that. about, and the answer to that question is also what this book The soldiers and the protesters nod in agreement. But none is about. Joseph Campbell, the great scholar of compara- of those many influential, apparently incompatible opinions tive mythology, once observed, “The best things cannot be describes life as a simple painter sees it. Where, then, are we told, the second best are misunderstood. After that comes to hear about the artist’s view of the Enigmas of the World? civilized conversation…” As I write these words, I have What follows is a collection of artwork, and a few been working alone for about 25 years now, and I confess words of description about this artwork. If the imagery that my skills with “civilized conversation” are rarely used herein is interesting to you, then I invite you to enjoy these and not well developed. Alone in my studio, hunched over paintings as they are, without further reference to any other my easel all day every day, I am free to ponder, at consider- material present in these pages. Viewing instructions are able length, these mysterious best things, and how to portray not required, and you can and should interpret these im- them. Musings on such lofty matters inevitably tend to the ages - or not - according to your own natural inclination. pompous and self-important; it is indeed presuming a great I strongly believe that art is the resonance that happens deal to suppose we can know much more than our own between a painting and an observer; it is only when people mind, but surely it is legitimate to ask a deeper version of are able to bring their own life-experience to a picture that the simple what-is-it question we routinely ask of every meaning can enter into it. My understanding of a particular other thing we encounter: What is the cosmos and what am picture may not be relevant to a different but equally valid I? Answers to beguilingly big questions are not easily told, understanding. but my contemplations, visual and literal, fill these pages I am often asked, as I suppose most artists are, where in an attempt to examine and understand the nature and I get my ideas. Inspiration is a difficult concept, and I’m philosophy of Goddess Mythology in the Age of Science. not really sure where these images came from, but many That sounds like a contradiction in terms: in contrast 9 Mysteries of the LotusMaiden with the crude Neolithic mentality from which Goddess my- the world - science - and asks questions like “What is the thology first emerged, the modern world now possesses vast world made of and how can we bend it to our purposes?” knowledge about neural processes and perception, nature The other is directed beyond the world - religion - and asks and evolution, the world and the universe - an understand- questions like “Where did the world come from and what ing of natural systems unimaginable to our ancestors. The is it for?” Both modes of inquiry are equally valid, equally Goddess spirituality dreamt up by early planter cultures essential, but the tools of one mode are invalid in the other. about 10,000 years ago is a comparatively simple way of One system distills down to the fundamental assertion that thinking - uselessly limited, many would say. What possible “the world came from nothing,” and the other to “the world message can stone-age primitives have for we sophisticated came from something” - it’s a leap of faith in either direc- inhabitants of the nuclear/space/information age? And can tion but you can’t jump both ways. Science and religion, this ancient way of thinking find any new inspiration in the it seems, are bound like the circumference and radius of a 21st century, any reason to endure and yet enrich our experi- circle: some intimate bond clearly obtains, but the irrational ence of the world? I believe it can, as I hope to show. relation between them prevents you from defining one with The artworks in this collection defy easy classifi- the terms of the other; you can pursue one mode of thinking cation. They often have a landscape, but they are not just or the other, but a deep understanding of both is not possible. simple landscapes. They have figures, but they are not The world is obviously here, and both sides agree it classical figurative works in the academic meaning of the wasn’t always, so some cause made it. One view says “God term. Some people call such works fantasy, but I dislike that made the World,” the other asserts that “Natural Processes description also because it seems to exclude any thoughtful made the World” - and each then asks of the other, “but examination of the “real” world - which I certainly endeavor where did this mysterious cause of yours (god or natural to do, albeit with images that do indeed seem, at first glance, process) come from?” Neither frequently blustering opin- rather unlike the usual world of common experience.