Journey Home 

Editor: Michael Parkes' "Journey Home," a watercolor painting, presents quite a fantastical scene. A woman sits in a boat shaped like a swan, sailing on choppy waters with a sea serpent nearby, all under a watchful moon-being. What do you see in this piece? Curator: This piece is steeped in visual language. Consider the vessel itself – a swan, long associated with grace, beauty, but also transformation in mythology. She’s a vehicle, but also a symbol of change, perhaps a shift in consciousness. The serpent too, a powerful image, can represent primal instincts, chaos, or the unknown depths of the psyche. Editor: The moon figure definitely feels significant. Is it an allusion to something specific? Curator: Indeed! The moon, cradled by what seems to be a winged figure, often symbolizes the feminine principle, intuition, and the cyclical nature of time. It is the illumination in darkness, but also in some cosmologies connected to the god Thoth, knowledge and wisdom, especially hidden knowledge. Does the woman look like she knows the answers? Or she is on the journey to knowing? Editor: That's interesting. She looks contemplative, maybe even a little lost or worried. Curator: Precisely! The combination of symbols creates a rich narrative around inner journeys, the negotiation of our subconscious, and finding our way "home," whatever that may mean on a personal level. Editor: It makes me think about how we constantly use symbols to navigate our lives and tell our stories. Curator: Exactly! And how artists throughout history draw upon that shared symbolic language, shaping and reshaping it to reflect our ever-evolving understanding of ourselves. Editor: I'll definitely look at art differently after considering that. Thanks for the illuminating interpretation. Curator: My pleasure. Art, after all, is a mirror reflecting back at us.