Photini

On and off over the years, my work has been inspired by graffiti.

Derived from the Italian word graffio (“scratch”), “writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.”

Some of the other concepts that I play with a lot are quantum physics: photons and quarks and waves of light, the building blocks of all things. As we scratch the surface of anything there will always be something deeper found; scientists once thought an atom was the smallest thing, only to discover it wasn’t.

Another inspiration, and something that is constantly on the periphery of my thoughts, is the spiritual. Many years ago, I read ‘The Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra. My twenty-year-old mind was blown by the marriage of science and supernatural. It opened the world of the mystical to me, and a hunger to pursue deeper truths. It inspired me to read the Bible (before this I couldn’t even conceive of trying, nor did I want to), as well as other ancient teachings.  

My understanding is that the ancient Holy books in this world are full of much deeper and profound meanings than what we see on first glance, and we must scratch the surface to reach the hidden treasures. It’s from that point that I come when painting.

Hence this painting, and the title, ‘Photini’.

Photini, I discovered, is the name given to the woman at the well, in the Bible, who Jesus Christ meets and talks with (John chapter 4). She’s not given a name in the western church, but in the eastern church tradition she is known as Photini. She’s the one to whom Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

My understanding when reading ancient books is that they are allegorical and speak past the literal understanding; pushing in to reveal that which is below the surface. To drink the living water is to sit with our own thoughts, to go within through self-reflection, moving past our discomforts and racing thoughts, past turbulence to life-giving streams. The way to reach that place has often been called meditation or prayer.

Photini is a variation of the word ‘photon’.

Quoted here from Wikipedia :

‘The photon is a type of elementary particle. It is the quantum of the electromagnetic field including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always move at the speed of light in vacuum. The photon belongs to the class of bosons.

Like all elementary particles, photons are currently best explained by quantum mechanics and exhibit wave–particle duality, their behaviour featuring properties of both waves and particles.’

Photons are light particles, the quantum “stuff” that our universe (and us) are made of. (Divine Matrix, Gregg Braden).

Also incorporated in this painting are the letters ‘xx’ and ‘xy’, the female and male chromosomes; and the Hebrew letter ‘Tet’, the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Tet is a paradoxical letter that reveals both good and evil. The form of the letter is “inverted”, suggesting hidden goodness, like that of a woman who is pregnant with child. However, sometimes the potential goodness is perverted, and impurity or filth results. (https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Tet/tet.html)

Good and evil represents duality, the concept that for goodness to exist evil must also have room to exist.

Tet is the least used letter in the Bible and is first used in Genesis 1:4

“And God saw the light, and it was good, and God divided the light from darkness.”

‘Tet’ is like a womb, and the womb represents anything creative being birthed. The mystical realm of creating something from apparently nothing. This mystical realm is the imagination, all things created by humans first starts in the imagination.

Allegorically, one perspective of what ‘women’ represent in the Bible are conscious thoughts. As I ponder these ideas, I imagine light particles ignited with imaginative energy birthing ideas that come into existence.

So, this is a little insight into how I think when painting, and these are the components that came together to make this painting. A study on light particles, chromosomes, and the letter ‘tet’, light exploding and creating, and of course, the bad-ass woman at the well, who has a name, Photini.