"All Souls"

'All Souls 1', Oil on canvas, 6" x 6", Available

'All Souls 2', Oil on canvas, 6" x 6", Available

Hi friends. Continuing the series started with "A Vast Similitude", here are two of six small paintings that comprise a work titled "All Souls". Like "A Vast Similitude", the title comes from a Walt Whitman poem called On the Beach Alone at Night.

This series (like the poem) is about how we're all connected - all souls, all nations, all civilizations, all lives and deaths, etc. Of course Walt Whitman said it best in his poem. My job is to convey it best visually.

Each painting uses multiple circles to convey connectedness. Connectedness is also underscored by the use of multiple canvases for a single work. "A Vast Similitude" spans 2 large canvases (a 'diptych'). "All Souls" spans 6 small canvases (a 'polyptych', or 'hexaptych'). The paintings are designed to hang together or to hang individually.

On the theme of connectedness, here's a current example from my life - Fifteen years ago while on some business trips to Tokyo I befriended a wonderful woman named, Mayumi O. We met at an English-speaking cafe (a place where Japanese people go to practice their English, and visitors go to meet Japanese people). We spent quite a bit of time together then, and kept in touch by mail every few years since. Well, a few weeks ago, out of the blue, I got a telephone call from Mayumi. She was thinking of coming to San Francisco and could she visit me? Yes!!! So she's staying the better part of the week in my house; we're having loads of fun getting reacquainted and touring the local sights. What a special experience. We're all connected!