How might we show family lineage as a cycle rather than a linear path?
How might a family tree layer past with present, helping us experience multiple generations simultaneously?
Inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, I was curious how layering water color washes might lead to a similar Magic Realism as the book—melding family across multiple generations. In this study a tree encircled by a family of birds is in both the foreground and the background. Could the viewer experience both of these moments in time simultaneously?
A fractal family tree
Family Tree
In the foreground the family of birds encircle a tree.
Each one in their own field….
…yet connected by a shared current
Layering Foreground and Background
The Tree of Life is both in the foreground and the background on a shared horizon line—a shared body of water.
The golden bird is approaching the tree both in the foreground and in the background. As the viewer we zoom in and out of the painting, experiencing two birds at one moment in time…and one bird at two moments in time.
Time becomes a resource we have control over. Fast, slow, or a complete standstill as we migrate through the painting.
Perhaps Magical Realism can free us from the shackles of a fixed moment in time.
