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| "Wisdom," by Ted Fullerton. |
Artist's Note
It is difficult for me to recall Wisdom as a defined teaching growing up. What I do remember is observing certain decisions made and discussed by my parents that were based on previous experience, good judgement, intuition, and a moral perception. I was also fortunate to have friends in secondary school that expressed opinions and actions in a way that I admired. As a result, I intuitively understood that wisdom is something that is “taken in” and expressed when empathy, life experience and “understanding” are recognized as an important perspective to share during opportune and relevant moments personally and with others.
Intuitive and acquired knowledge are important aspects of making insightful, intelligent, ethical, and wise decisions that can culminate in a condition of “understanding." Empathy and perceptive insight along with these two aspects of understanding allow wisdom, from my perspective, to manifest itself within. The colour blue is symbolically associated with “knowledge” and is used to define aesthetically the two head profiles in this painting. They meet head-to-head in understanding - one grounded in experience and the other connecting from a place of “evolving time." Their “meeting” or “connection” are defined with a gestural red brushstroke, suggesting a compassionate and affectionate “spark” of empathy and awareness - a breadth of knowledge that is universally “understood” as “wisdom”.
The artist’s palette inserted onto the canvas is telltale and emblematic of the span of colourful experiences and associative actions that express symbolically the experience of life - “visualized” anew. The three primary colours - red, blue and yellow, prominent on the palette, collectively define a combination of three which is considered a “perfect” number - the number of harmonies, understanding and wisdom. Primary colours are the source of all other colours. They can symbolize - in their combination of three - beginning, middle and end - past, present, future - body, mind, and spirit - belief, purpose, and relationships - humanist principals of a “collective understanding” - Wisdom.
It is difficult for me to recall Wisdom as a defined teaching growing up. What I do remember is observing certain decisions made and discussed by my parents that were based on previous experience, good judgement, intuition, and a moral perception. I was also fortunate to have friends in secondary school that expressed opinions and actions in a way that I admired. As a result, I intuitively understood that wisdom is something that is “taken in” and expressed when empathy, life experience and “understanding” are recognized as an important perspective to share during opportune and relevant moments personally and with others.
Intuitive and acquired knowledge are important aspects of making insightful, intelligent, ethical, and wise decisions that can culminate in a condition of “understanding." Empathy and perceptive insight along with these two aspects of understanding allow wisdom, from my perspective, to manifest itself within. The colour blue is symbolically associated with “knowledge” and is used to define aesthetically the two head profiles in this painting. They meet head-to-head in understanding - one grounded in experience and the other connecting from a place of “evolving time." Their “meeting” or “connection” are defined with a gestural red brushstroke, suggesting a compassionate and affectionate “spark” of empathy and awareness - a breadth of knowledge that is universally “understood” as “wisdom”.
The artist’s palette inserted onto the canvas is telltale and emblematic of the span of colourful experiences and associative actions that express symbolically the experience of life - “visualized” anew. The three primary colours - red, blue and yellow, prominent on the palette, collectively define a combination of three which is considered a “perfect” number - the number of harmonies, understanding and wisdom. Primary colours are the source of all other colours. They can symbolize - in their combination of three - beginning, middle and end - past, present, future - body, mind, and spirit - belief, purpose, and relationships - humanist principals of a “collective understanding” - Wisdom.