An Bradán Feasa/The Salmon of Knowledge
(14" x 30")
Completed August 24, 2006

In Irish mythology, the first thing to ever come into Creation was the Hazel tree, within whose branches flowed all the knowledge of the Universe. Beneath this tree a great well formed, and within that well a great Salmon slept. From time to time, the Hazel tree would drop its acorns into the well below, and the Salmon would awaken and eat them, one after another, until it too knew all the Universe's secrets. As time went on and the world unfurled, men came in search of the Salmon – seeking to capture it in their nets and swallow its secrets. But the Salmon knew whose net he was promised to, and stayed below.

            "...A couple thousand years ago, a poet named Finnécas came to the well, thinking that he would be the man to finally hook the Salmon -- it was prophesied that a man named 'Finn' would be the one to do so. For seven years he sat at the edge of the well, casting his nets and baiting his lines, waiting for the moment when he would outguess his quarry and claim his reward. But the Salmon was all-knowing (something the stories ignore), and waited for its time to come.
            And then, one day, a young boy named Demne came to Finnécas and flattered him, saying that in all of Ireland there was no man better suited to teach him the ways of the poet, and begging to be taken on as his apprentice. Finnécas agreed, and Demne became his pupil. Within days the Salmon was hooked, and the poet gave it to Demne to cook, warning him not to eat even a bite of it. And so the Salmon and the boy were left alone. Demne put the fish over the fire, but almost immediately its skin began to blister. The boy pressed down on the blemish with his thumb in an attempt to keep his master's meal from being ruined, but the blister popped and Demne burned his finger. Immediately, the boy thrust his thumb into his mouth to ease the pain.
            When Finnécas returned and Demne presented the fish to him, the poet noticed an odd light burning in the boy's eyes that he hadn't seen before, and immediately knew that the prophesy hadn't been meant for him, but the child. What the old poet hadn't know was that Demne had another name, given to him by his mother: Fionn, her fair-haired one...."

There's more to the story, but it doesn't apply to this piece. This is the exact moment when Finnécas has caught the Salmon. From it flows an ultimate understanding of the universe, which is why most every line in the window is radiating out from its eye. In the halo around its head are the colors of the hazels, reflecting that all its wisdom was grown from those acorns. But, part of that knowledge is that it is about to die, and so the world above the waves is on fire. The Salmon was cooked, after all.

In this piece, I did a bit of cultural borrowing...that's definitely not the kind of salmon that'd be swimming in Ireland, and there are a number of Haida elements mixed throughout the piece, as well as a bow to a page in the Book of Kells with the halo.

This piece appeared on the cover of GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator (magazine) Issue 1