The Ace of Spades

The Ace of Spades

The Ongoing Circle of Joy & Pain

 

The ace of spades is traditionally the highest and most valued card in the deck of playing cards in English-speaking countries. However, in the French fortune-telling tradition, an ace of spades indicates bad luck or death in one's future. This superstition eventually led to the ace of spades being known as the "death card."

Between being the most significant element in life and the reason behind personal end is quite chaotic. It is simply like love that one moment makes one feel lighter than a feather, walking in joy on the clouds, and in another sad and blue beyond words, to a level that you can not move your feet, and when you breathe you feel an ultimate pain in each breath!

The central piece of my two-part artwork Ace of Spades. shows a bird made of five pictograph symbols: a man and a bird trying to fly away, while an arrow wedge-shaped head symbolizes a female going through the bird’s heart.

 The bird is also surrounded by three pictograph symbols: the three mountains represent alienation, a dark crescent with lines of rays representing the night, darkness, and hardship, while beneath the bird is flowing water that represents hope.

             The technique is quite captivating because it mixes the visual texture made of layers of ocher oil color on top of many fast strokes made by many acrylic colors mixed with freehand touches made by drawing tools and a litho round etching needle.

 The central piece is placed inside a shape made out of strips of fabric that are crossed intricately together to symbolize home in pictograph symbols. The home which represents a comfort zone is located inside the main frame in ocher, representing the land (earth). The home also contains troubling forms, i.e, snakes and other ambiguous shapes that give the viewer the sense of instability.

     This artwork represents the endless struggle between life and death, love and depart, and joy and pain!

 

Subject: The Ace of Spades

Technique: Acrylic on Canvas, Stretcher Bars, & Burlap Ribbons

Measurements: 36 x 24 & 9 x 12 Inches (Need to be installed)

Date: 2006

Price: $20,000