This is the only piece of art I have ever done. It is a doodle done over my second year engineering timetable. If you look closely you can still make out class times and miscellaneous formulae. As you well might guess I was not terribly happy about my lot then, but worse was to follow.  It was inspired by the bight of the Black Dog.


commentry:  things to look out for, the hand of creation , a garden, the holy mountain, the Shah of Iran (he was still in the news in 1980)  standing in for the Emperor of the World,  Byzantine mazes, Fortune,Dante's incription on the gates on hell.   Inspiration...who knows, I call it paranoia.  Later I read Dantes Divine Comedy. It is clearly an impression of the Malaboge in Hells' inner circle where the violent in life , tyrants,  murderers, et al  are confined. In Dante's scheme they loose their human form ( having taken it from their victims in life) and their shades are manifested as insane reptilian monsters biting, and rending away  all of eternity.  In the Quest , Dante is unable to to address the monsters because of their insanity.

original material:   pen, ink, bond paper, emulsion
copyright Ralph Klimek 1980
all rights reserved, republishing for bona-fide academic work permitted

.....eternal love created me and eternally I endure...
Dante Alligheri , The other inscription on the entrance to Hell (the bit rarely quoted)





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