Alchemical Correspondence
© 1998 Ruary Allan
24" x 48"
acrylic on canvas

This piece was inspired by primordial memories of fire and the astonishing results of its' adoption as a tool, specifically culture. A suggested timeline from the Paleolithic to the middle ages runs vertically. A pair of snakes insinuate their way through this space to emerge and embrace at the cathedral with a golden spark, suggestive of the alchemists' grail; the transmutation of lead (base matter) into gold (spirit) through the union of opposites. Perhaps we can still discover "the name of the rose" and reunite the archaic male and female figures. Like many of my paintings, the symbolism here is personal, sociological, spiritual and in any other realm the viewer finds resonant meaning.

The cathedral is painted after that at St. Andrews (the birthplace of golf) in Scotland, where I went to university supposedly to study geology. A major religious center in the middle ages, it was also a place of tremendous bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants. This seemed an appropriate setting for a painting dealing with division and healing. Fortunately, academics took a limited role in my time at St. Andrews. Somehow I found my way to the path that originally gave us the word university and gave education its' meaning - finding your place in the universe.

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