Managed to complete a first draft of The Many Beautiful Worlds last night, and have ordered a proof.
Today, a steady day working on the underdrawing and composition to a painting tentatively called Volcanism & Social Media. While working on it, the title of 'Ethics in the Time of Revolution' came to mind because there is a lot of pressure and social judgement in the painting, a connection to the theme of 'Cancel Culture' which, I noted today, is a manifestation of the same young vs. old emotions present during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, even if, in the latter case, this was intentionally rationalised and encouraged by the government. I want to explore this more from an ethical perspective; perspectives on the philosophy of kindness. This is a separate issue from perspectives on the philosophy of democracy, which is (and was) equally pertinent. A strong component of 'Cancel Culture' is not ethics, but a division between individual determinism, the libertarianism of 'mob rule', vs. parliamentary determinism where groups elect experts to govern.
The painting will be a tiny comment of this subject which is worthy of a lifetime of masterpieces. I finalised the drawing before noon and spent the next five hours preparing the panel and tracing it over. This job so tedious; eye and hand straining. I listened to music while doing it: Novella by Renaissance, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Alan Parsons Project (which was notably better than Renaissance, though, in general, I prefer the former) and Vulnicura by Björk. These works were unified by the quality of the lyrics, the Alan Parsons one the only one to hold together as a musical whole.
Oh for more time and more resources to create.
