This work was painted in oil on canvas. It was given to a friend.
When I did this painting I was contemplating emptiness while living in poverty with chronic illnesses consuming my resources faster than these could be replenished. Today, both of my chronic illnesses are in remission and my income this year should end up being above the poverty line. I can afford to eat every single day. I can afford to replace my worn out shoes. There is a great deal more abundance in my life than there once was.
In a physical sense, then, the emptiness I painted here has become more filled. But there remains a deeper form of emptiness evident throughout society that has little to do with any person's individual ups and downs. This is an emptiness related to the stories we tell about the world and our place in it. It is a poverty of meaning.
Mainstream narratives consistently fail to fill this void. Religious perspectives are undermined by the horrors perpetrated by the religious and their institutions. Worldviews purporting to be grounded in science are in fact grounded in abstractions of randomness, which is to say nothing at all. And the rhetoric of wars -- on drugs, terrorism, a virus -- produces only bad outcomes. It all looks like emptiness to me. Like a wasteland where meaningfulness dies on the vine.
Society itself is a rigged game that we have no alternative to. Our human ecology is filled to overflowing with the illusion of choice while real choices have largely disappeared. Just a few megacorps run the show. This is as true of the food system as it is of national politics. It's nonsense. But it's nonsense people accept because our society continually fails to tell accurate, meaningful stories about what's happening.
I recently learned that the story about George Washington's wooden teeth is a total lie. His dentures weren't wooden at all. In fact, they were partially composed of the teeth of slaves. For literally hundreds of years, this lie about this founding father's wooden teeth has been told and retold. A widespread lie like this, masking such a vicious reality, makes it difficult to trust any system through which this lie was spread. The education system and pop culture appear especially culpable.
More and more, the arguments I see online or hear at the coffee shop seem empty to me. It's not that these arguments are unimportant. Some are and some aren't. But such arguments can be important and still be devoid of meaning. They can articulate relevant power contests without advancing real understanding of the world or our place in it.
I'm of the opinion that the stories we tell should advance such understanding. Particularly the big stories. A widespread epistemological shift might be necessary to make that happen. How to actually bring such a shift about is an open question.