Red God part 1and 2

“Red God 1” describes Animism the concept of giving every living or inanimate entity its own soul this was our sole idea of spirituality for a 100,000 years.

Thanks to Dr Seuss and baroque ceilings for for there help in the narrative.

“Red God 2” describes the last 6000 years of developing belief, polytheistic and monotheistic traditions growing alongside the original animistic beliefs. If we can avoid being distracted by the branches in our face we can see the tree as a whole.

Thanks to Ferdinand Hodler’s “The chosen one” for his help in the narrative

“Red God part 1” 2013, charcoal and acrylic on canvas, 1500x1700mm

“Red God part 1” detail

“Red God part 2” 2013, charcoal and acrylic on canvas, 1500x1700mm

“Red God part 2” detail

I am interested in universal social behaviors and looking at them from a sociobiology perspective. If we can see our behavior as an adaption that gave us an evolutionary advantage then we can step outside of ourselves and view our behavior in a clearer context.

The “Red God” works look at the evolution of spiritual belief, emphasizing the development from one to another, there interconnections and common behaviors over there differences.

In the distant past when a small part of humanity left Africa they were small enough in numbers that they would have sustained only one belief system, the subsequent explosion and spread of population around the globe and back has left what seems, I would suggest wrongly, like a vast and irreconcilable array of human belief.