A fascination with using a Chinese Dragon in an allegorical Garden of Eden painting emerged about this time of year in 2015 … over these five years the concept has been incubating, moving on and off of my to do list. So as work on the Garden is well under way again, I’ve been studying early notes and sketches. The composition has now drifted way off the early concept, which focused only on Eve and the Serpent. Now Adam is on the scene as well. But this early sketch still draws me in … maybe there will be more than one Garden. Ferlinghetti’s iconic Chinese Dragon poem was part of the process back then, and I’m studying it again this morning over coffee … ironically it’s my escape from the morning news, to an apolitical place … of which the great poet and painter would not approve …. certainly not in these times!
