Amulet #39

image: 3” diameter, watch: 3 ¾” x 3 ¼” x ¼”

2016

metal pocket watch, acrylic painting, rhinestone

“Amulet #39” is now part of my ongoing project, “The Annals of Peregrine White.”  Peregrine was the first child born on the Mayflower when it was docked in Massachusetts Bay.  Peregrine White’s world will be a plausible, alternate universe, similar to our own in its complexity, yet much more spiritually-oriented and forgiving.  As more works appear in this series, more will be revealed, in the same way that Biblical scriptures or the Koran will further enlighten us through informed study and new interpretations in the years ahead.  Traditionally, I only share titles with the owners of each amulet, but I have sometimes referred to this work as “Geoffrey.”  The despairing man pictured, at one time a friend, is similar to Job in the Old Testament.  I wrote a poem about this painting, which follows here.  “Endlessly streaming, bloodletting tears, / His grandest hopes but a failed spate / Borne of inordinate suffering and fears— / Could this be illusion or cruelest fate? // Along one crimson road descends / A behemoth of shadows rife. / Its hand, which once forebode, extends, / Now beckoning his fretful, shattered life. // And if he leaves, fractured and flawed, / The stars will still be as brilliant as before. / But the heavens will look down from twilight, awed / That with his passing light, I should love the night more.”