Episteme of What Truth
1190.1mm x 1925.5mm x 57mm oil on canvas 2005

This picture is a representation of more than one time and knowledge over that time of how time has changed to humankind.

The viewer is in the same space as the picture, trompe l'oeil. When viewed from straight ahead 10' away. A trompe l'oeil therefore can be used to mix the inner space of the viewer with the actual space of the painting. At this position elements in the painting are distributed proportionally to a golden spiral. Along with the system of perspective the painting is using this shows the seemingly absolute that occurs with perception of rules.

The opposite of these absolutes is the flow(arrow) of time. When things are looked at over time they are seen to be more relational

The need to represent both the absolute of an instant and the relativity of time led me to try using historical context from different eras and symbolic objects

Because this is in the same space as the viewer I worked out everything from a particular viewpoint

If you could fly like a bird this is what the painting would look like. It actually looks quite coherent as a space

The Hermetic Tradition

Hermetism is derived from the name Hermes. Hermes Trismegistus is said to be the founder of Hermetism (not Hermeticism), and was known to the Egyptians as Thoth and the Greeks as Hermes. Hermes Trismegistus is accredited with the name Trismegistus, meaning the "Thrice Great" or "Thrice Greatest" because, as he claims in The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, he knows the three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe. [21] The three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy. Hermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the writings of Hermetism.Hermeticists take to heart one of the primary ideas of Taoism, yin and yang. The implementation of this Taoist principle, which may or may not have been discovered independently, has been split across many teachings.
Yin and Yang, the shared concept between Hermeticism and Taoism
The primary place where it has had an impact is in the principle of duality. Duality states that everything has two sides, two opposing attributes which make up the same thing. This idea is sucked up into the concept of polarity almost immediately:
"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled." [33]
Polarity takes duality and moves a few steps further, saying that there are an infinite number of degrees between one side of a duality, and the other side. If you pick two things of different temperature, something else can be hotter than one of them, and colder than the other. [34] Likewise you can turn one side of a duality into another, but not into a different thing. For example, hot and cold being opposites, you can turn hot into cold, and cold into hot, but you cannot turn hot into sharp, or sharp into cold; nor can hot be turned into courage or fear.

As above so Below

These words circulate throughout occult and magical circles, and they come from Hermetic texts. The concept was first laid out in The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, in the words "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing." [37]
In accordance with the various levels of reality: physical, mental, and spiritual, this relates that what happens on any level happens on every other. This is however more often used in the sense of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm, and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one (usually the microcosm) you can understand the other.

Information is power. This is the idea behind hermetism The image is hidden behind layers of compression. In this case in the form of pixelization and