Aporia of St. Jack
Jack Kerouac Series #2
30" X 40"
2004
original sold
(click on picture to make larger)
Notes on Aporia of St. Jack
The term, aporia, as I intended it for the title
of this painting, is defined as "an irresolvable internal contradiction
or logical disjunction". Most of us have internal contradictions
and logical disjunctions, but we try to keep them hidden from others and
from ourselves. Many of the "Subterraneans" not only present
their internal contradictions in their writtings for all to see, but seem
to sometimes glorify those disjunctions. I am not sure that Jack Kerouac
was as aware of many of his internal contradictions as were some of the other
writers in this group.
Without exhausting thier meanings too much let's look at
several of the disjunctions or contradictions that I have tried to present
in this painting:
The central figure of Kerouac is "St. Jack". He is portrayed
as a beat saint painted as
a Tibetian Buddhist "thangka"which would seem to
represent the end of a lifelong journey. The start of the journey is represented
by the zero (0) tarot card. This card which is sometimes named "The
Fool" is shown here as "The
Bhikku". The Bhikku or
the young wandering Zen Buddhist monk, is at the beginning of the spiritual
journey and just as the young fool can at the end of his journey become the
"Holy Fool" so the bhikku can become the Zen master or the hermit
possessed of "crazy wisdom". Contrast the other Kerouac, who ended
as somewhat of hermit, put off by fame, highly patriotic, and constantly
inebriated, draped by an American flag, a tiger-headed curmudgeon ranting
against the other beat writers and the so-called "beat
generation"
as a bunch of leftwing commies.
In this painting
we see the two major representations of the feminine for Kerouac:
whores or saints. On the left side of the painting we see the sexual objectification
of the feminine shown as both anonymous and dangerous throught
the use of the "Dracula Orchid" in
place of her head. Behind the nude is Kerouac hiding behind a mask, or public
personna that does not show his true feelings. On the right side
of the painting we see Kerouac's other concept of the feminine in the guise
of a plaster saint or Madonna with a sacred heart that is being pierced by
daggers. The feminine as suffering in silence. Behind
her we see Kerouoac as uncompleted...unfinished.
Kerouac, the stay-at-home, tiger-headed curmudgeon, is confronted
by a "day of the dead" representation of a bride, a bottle of wine that contains
"the blood of Christ" and a statue of the Aztec god of hallucinogens, "Xochipilli".
His younger, more social and gregarious self, is digging the music of
a sax player....maybe Charlie Parker. He is painted in black and white because
he represents Kerouac's self as he appears in his and other "beat's writings.
In this painting we see the two major representations of the feminine for Kerouac: whores or saints. On the left side of the painting we see the sexual objectification of the feminine shown as both anonymous and dangerous throught the use of the "Dracula Orchid" in place of her head. Behind the nude is Kerouac hiding behind a mask, or public personna that does not show his true feelings. On the right side of the painting we see Kerouac's other concept of the feminine in the guise of a plaster saint or Madonna with a sacred heart that is being pierced by daggers. The feminine as suffering in silence. Behind her we see Kerouoac as uncompleted...unfinished.
Kerouac, the stay-at-home, tiger-headed curmudgeon, is confronted by a "day of the dead" representation of a bride, a bottle of wine that contains "the blood of Christ" and a statue of the Aztec god of hallucinogens, "Xochipilli". His younger, more social and gregarious self, is digging the music of a sax player....maybe Charlie Parker. He is painted in black and white because he represents Kerouac's self as he appears in his and other "beat's writings.