The Sun's Nocturnal Return

6/28/2024

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The Sun's Nocturnal Return 30x30 Acrylic, charcoal, conte, archival pen on collage on panel.

The Sun's Nocturnal Return 30x30 ©Leslie Peterson Sapp

If The Nebra Sky Disc and Tree Burial I had a baby, it would be Tree Burial II.

Artistic Progeny

Then if Tree Burial II had it's own baby, it would be The Sun's Nocturnal Return.

Guided by my inner bloodhound, I followed the trail of symbols and themes I discovered in the first three pieces, and it led me here, to The Sun's Nocturnal Return.

To read more about these seminal pieces, click the titles below:

The Nebra Sky Disc
Tree Burial I
Tree Burial II

My Artistic Process

I launched forward with confidence. Following my inner visual impressions, I used charcoal and white chalk to draw in the general idea.

But, when I painted the boat in, I felt such over whelming distaste, I accused myself of handling paint like an 8th grader. (I'm not sure why now, it doesn't look as bad as I remember it!)

Overcome with a haunting repugnance, I went into my studio later that night and scratched the paint away with a razor blade!

But, surprisingly...

It ended up looking really kinda cool!

It looked like a super-nova in the center of my sky-and-sea-scape.

Following my impulses and laying aside self-doubt, I went forward with what I had inadvertently created.

I was having a heck of a time being able to depict a Nordic petroglyph in a way I found satisfying. Most of the images I saw were filled with red paint and photographed in daylight. This is a great way to show off the images to viewers.

Madsebakke-schiff Solar boat petroglyph, Bornholm, Denmark.

But then I watched an online lecture about the petroglyphs and learned that the red paint is a modern treatment, and that if the petroglyphs are left clear, but photographed with raked light (such as dawn, sunset, or at night with a single light source,) the viewer can have a far richer experience.

Sotetorp 3561. Tanum parish. Bohuslän. After Almgren 1983.

This image is from a site named Tanum Sotetorp in Sweden. It depicts a solar ship, with two horned creatures with axes and swords flanking a crew of anonymous, peg-like rowers. Hovering above the ship is a man or creature or god executing a back-bend or a flip.

I learned doing Tree Burial I that a dancer doing a back-bend may have been symbolic of the sun on it's return journey, a reversal, a cycle.

It seemed perfect for The Sun's Nocturnal Return.

Using charcoal and white chalk, I was able to produce a more satisfying rendition of the solar boat.

With all this supernova nocturnal energy, I wanted to cool it all down with another tracing of the Hjortspring Boat. As I wrote in my blog entry about Tree Burial I, I love the graceful, precise elegance of the boat plans and how it contrasts with other, more expressive elements.

From here, I elaborated on the constellations above the scene. These are Gemini, Taurus and Ares. This is because these are the same constellations from the grand-daddy of this piece, The Nebra Sky Disc.

I write more about why I chose those constellations in my blog entry about it.

I also went to town elaborating on the water-sky marks that look like splashes, bubbles, or heavenly bodies. I did this by spraying or sprinkling rubbing alcohol on the acrylic paint, waiting a moment, then rubbing it off. The alcohol temporarily breaks down the acrylic so that it can be removed. The result is the speckling effect.

I love doing this. It's so fun.

Adding Text

Next, I engaged with the text.

Using some typewriter-style stencils, I wrote text across the sky and under the sea. It is a bit off-kilter, and uneven in its color, as if your typewriter became possessed and tried to send you messages from beyond.

The Journey of the Sun Across the Sky

The Sun's Nocturnal Return

Across the top and the bottom on the piece, I inserted text, as if a storyteller was accompanying the visual language of my art.

The Sun's Nocturnal Return

Next, I added the same text using gold "interference" paint. Interference paint has a pearlescent, iridescent effect that changes depending on the angle you view it, and is very difficult to photograph. I also enclosed the back-bending figure in an iridescent orb, reminiscent of the sun.

I bandied back and forth with how pronounced or obscured all the lettering would be. A lot of painting, then wiping off.

The Hjortspring Boat - Deposited in a Bog as a Votive Offering

In addition to the sky-sea text, I included text in reference to the Hjortspring Boat. in contrast to the crazy, possessed typewriter font in the sea-sky, this text is very clear, calm, and of this world.

Utimately, I have created a tiny, animate world, where the stars leap across the cosmos, the sun is ferried by a boat full of oarsmen, and we on the earthly plane try with our orderly plans to make sense of it all.

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