Around 13,000 years ago, in the Cave of the Trois-Frères, Ariège, France, a painting was created on its walls that has since become known as The Sorcerer. While the true nature of this enigmatic image will forever remain unknown, there are two often-cited explanations for what it may represent.
The first and most plausible is that what we are looking at is an ancient Shaman - a type of magician or "Sorcerer" in a trance-like state covered in animal skins. The Sorcerer acts as a bridge, catalyst and activator of inner cosmic knowledge and spiritual transcendence. The second, and perhaps most fascinating, is that this may be the earliest surviving depiction of a deity on Earth - an animist god of our ancient ancestors. But whatever the true meaning of this depiction is, it was undoubtedly an important creative expression of an ancient human who used crude materials deep in a fire-lit cave.
The goal of this painting was not simply to re-paint this piece of history in a new context, but to depict a hybrid form of both interpretations: the Shaman in mid-transformation from his human body into a sacred and spiritual form. This new image, with its dimension, colors and contours, may be what our ancient ancestors saw in their mind’s eye when painting the artifact on the cave wall.
The two images are separated by roughly 3,500 miles and 13,000 years in space and time.
"THE SORCERER" 72" x 60" x 1.5" Oil and two mirrors (eyes) on canvas
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