Ancient Passageways, 2nd Edition, Statement
What is on the other side? This may be a simple question to ask, but it is one that engages the imagination and often invokes wild flights into fantasy. The collection of works presented here attempt to entice the viewer to ask and then answer this very question. All of these are based upon passageways, from ancient to medieval times, which were captured during my travels through Europe.
Each passageway suggests the results of an attempted pilgrimage, either as an open-ended story, or one that had abruptly ended. Each image palette and treatment presents its own aura of history with a sense of obscure, time-worn mystery.
Within the series story line, we wander through the entrances depicted in the first images. Once inside, we turn in different directions, trying to proceed through other passageways only to find some barred and others closed. In other images, some are only partially open, perhaps in reluctance, while others are completely open, perhaps in abandonment. And still others are more openings than doorways. Finally, we find ourselves before the memorials of life in the ending loggias.
But we must decide for ourselves why this passage as a story line has led us here. We have been on a journey between frozen fragments of time that progress from one opening to the next until we come to this ending. But where is that ending? And is there any lesson metaphorically that we can learn from the barred and closed passageways within our own lives? If we listen close enough and long enough, we may still hear the faint echoes of the lessons learned from our ancestors as they walked these Ancient Passageways.
*** Any image found in this series or on my website is available as a print purchase! Just email me at jerrygrasso96@yahoo.com.