Title: "Human Nature" and "Human Nature (Inverted)"

Date: 2002

Artist: Dennis Wittrock

Media: Watercolor on paper, mirror (CD plastic)

About the Artist: Mr. Wittrock studies Philosophy, Art, and English in Bremen, Germany (home of Beck's beer). He is a member of Arbeitskreis Ken Wilber and co-coordinator of an integral youth initiative.

Artist Statement: "This painting is an example for what Ken Wilber would call 'transpersonal symbolism'. It symbolizes the human potential for growth and interior development. I stood in front of my white sheet as I recognized the shadow of my head in front of me. Having read intensively on 'Headlessness' (Douglas Harding / www.headless.org) I thought it would be a good place to begin with the contours of my head filled with black spaciousness. You can think of the red spiral as the lower chakras moving up to the mind. The mind with its organic associating structure is symbolized by the green wings above the eyes. Above that you can see a kind of flame with subtle differentiations - a stairway to God. In the centre of the picture there is a round mirror symbolizing everpresent awareness or the mirror-mind. It is the 'third eye' on the front of your head. If the spectator looks at the picture from an appropriate distance it reflects his/her own two eyes melted into one. (There is a mysterious quotation by Jesus that somehow goes like this: If thy eye is single you have reached the kingdom of heaven.) In the background you find holarchical structures and fractal-like currents of subtle energy. The two stars with the red triangles pointing upwards and downwards symbolize the ascending and the descending path.

The inverted version is simply the negative of the former. I liked the colours."