Daniel McCoy, Jr.
The Chain Of Being (diptych) , 2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 72 x 3 in
152 x 183 x 8 cm
This diptych was created right at the end of 2016, it was the beginning of producing paintings with intense linework over simplistic fields of color. I believe that this linework or technique has taken myself right up to where I am now painting. The painting is a visual critique of the Western Chain of Being, a hierarchal structure of all matter in life. It begins with God, Angelic beings, Upper echelon of mankind, Mankind, Beasts, Animals and Sea life, Insects, and lastly Minerals. This philosophical concept was derived by Plato, Aristotle. Plotinus, and Proclus around 2400 years ago in classic period ancient Greece. The idea came out of a discussion in a museum studies class. The class was discussing the philosophy of this order and how it still relates to many western beliefs existing today. Comparing these ideals to traditional beliefs from my Muscogee background, I suggest merely that the order may be backwards and some additives to the ancient philosopher’s order are Irrelevant. On the left side of the diptych is the story told from the Earth’s point of view, on the right side the order is expressed inside a copperhead snake, a poisonous snake that I grew up in fear of. I discussed this idea with my Wife Topaz for a year, then obsessively painted the painting in the Winter of 2016.
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