“The Fool”
April 1st
38 Crosby #2
5 - 9 pm
The Fool…
“Not to take even a step outside the ordinary path laid out for you by society. You might not get back again” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick
For those willing to be the fool life may have a lot more to offer than that.
In the Rider- Waite tarot deck the Fool is shown as a young man, walking unknowingly toward the brink of a precipice. He is also portrayed as having with him a small dog. The Fool holds a white rose (a symbol of freedom from baser desires) in one hand and in the other a small bundle of possessions, representing untapped collective knowledge. – Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom; Gareth Knight, The Magical World of the Tarot; Robert M., The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination.
“The fool on the hill sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round” - Paul McCartney
In regards to the tarot, It is easy to view Lucas Moran as a practitioner of cartomancy. His paintings can be viewed as cards in a deck. Each one tells a new and different story about the human condition, and how we relate to the world around us. Like the Fool's journey, Moran is guided by his gaze, and consumed by his intuition. He steps forward boldly, resolute that his path will put him towards every following picture or subject. His mix of curiosity and life experience makes for work painted with an overall sensitivity. The perspective of a person that “has seen some shit” but never tires of wearing it on their sleeve. One can’t deny that having a genuine investment in painting is a life only a fool would live. Moran’s work is bluntly aware of itself in that way. Each painting is a blindfolded move onward with ultimate trust that a story will in fact be told. These works appear under the guise of realism but offer a refreshing take on what we consider “American” painting. Moran employs the grit of Ashcan, the harsh silence of Hopper, and the personal intimacy of Sheeler to enforce a type of cradling sentiment. Things have gotten normal again, but how could anyone care about superficial woes after what we’ve all weathered? A seething undercurrent of brooding isolation is still with us. We’ve moved on to “back to usual” yet some of us (maybe all of us) are going through the motions while bearing the scars the pandemic has left on our psyche, and constitution. That sentiment helps these paintings feel cathartic and healing in the way that a reading from a psychic can be. The right words for the right moment. With all the wear and tear these paintings carry they still provide warmth, and be it a stretch… Optimism.
A fool's errand perhaps? Moran leaves it to the viewer to decide.