(Ocean Heart)
Anonymous
Found 05/2015, Goodwill (2222 and Lamar)

Love has the power to wound and to heal, and both of these find their place in the dark imagery of (Ocean Heart). We are placed in an alien and abstract world: the dominant figure seems organic, it may be a heart, two strong arteries under the shape suggest that vital organ. Its deep blue eye weeps, its tear, its iris, all the same deep and turbulent blue of the surface of the water. Does this strange creation have a second eye, or had it one? Its right eye is shut, but the injured hand that holds the eye shut suggests that it may be missing, another victim of art.

The blue of the sea is echoed in a valentine’s heart, perfect in its symmetry. This heart holds down the lowermost point of the creature, becoming in a sense the heart of the creature itself. The deep unknowns of the ocean can symbolize emotion, powerful and subconscious and barely controlled. The layers of water here all suggest the power of the mind. Deep emotions of pain seem bottomless, compared to fleeting moments of joy, and the power of these dark feelings—temporary stings like a mote in an eye, long-term injuries, and the perceptually endless darkness of despair—rule the heart. Joy is a fleeting, surface thing.