One Year Ago Today; Japan's Earthquake & Tsunami

Since this is the anniversary of that horrible event, I thought I would share this. I created this piece about a year and a half before the Japan earthquake; however, it seems strangely prescient. It's a toned cyanotype, toned with tannic acid to give it a slightly warm cast. It's from an on-going art series called Esoterica and Esoterica II: 2012.

"The abysmal waters" or "the gorge" is the name of I Ching hexagram #29 you see in the lower right corner and refers indirectly to Hokusai's famous woodblock prints, one of which is a variation of image one of Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. The seismograph is of the 1989 California Loma Prieta earthquake, which I witnessed first-hand because I was living in Santa Cruz at the time, so this is kind of a personal piece.

The Esoterica Series is about fate and the unknown, and how people often turn to the occult, esoteric knowledge, and pseudo-science when under stress or when life becomes a series of personal (or natural) upheavals.  I have added many symbolic images and a few pop-culture references, including the Mayan calendar, Planet X, hurricanes, and all kinds of fun stuff to these art pieces. I'm currently working on images 15, 16, and 17. I will post images of the new pieces over the next few months!
Enjoy,
Reb