Art Explained: Midnight Epiphany

J. Antonio FARFAN Midnight Epiphany Thinker Series, No. 10 2019 3 x 30.5 in. ( 7.62 x 77.47 cm) Acrylic, oil and transfer on maple 2900. framed

After a long time of profound searching, the light fulfills its purpose and shows itself at a most inopportune moment, lighting the night, showing itself supernaturally, giving an answer in full clarity without the smallest element missing. An epiphany has no regard for time or conformity, and will show itself when the connection to reality is as truthful as that of the transcendental.

At its base, this painting depicts the twenty four hours of the day, where mid day would theoretically be in the middle. A green faced emoji is the recipient of an epiphanous moment granted by the extended hand of the Prime Mover lighting a symbolic candle to illuminate and grow the mind. The concept of time is stretched across a series of twenty four scallops, the ones on either side denoting a half day and suggest a connection to the other either side. Various systems of measuring time, including the Egyptian and Hebrew method of tracking divides the cycle into light and dark and twenty four hours starting at twilight when the morning light illuminates the horizon to the east and ending at sunset to the west. In this painting ancient systems overlap allowing the concept of the painting to maintain its aesthetic quality and its relationship to Renaissance depictions of time.