Like other pieces in my “Metaphysical” genre, “The Master’s House Has Two Doors” is composed of water coming out of the center, the “Water of Life”, flowing into the water on the outside, or the “Infintite Ocean.” There are two outlets from the center, flowing in a spiral around the surface of the pot, bisecting the surface as it flows into the ocean. The two resulting areas are divided into “The Jungle Side” and “The City Side.” Symbolizing that which is created, the jungle side features a lush tropical nightime landscape. The city side imagines a traditional city, perhaps of Medditeranean or Middle Eastern geography, seen during the day; it symbolizes that which is created by the created. The title, “The Master’s House has Two Doors” was suggested by the beginning of a story written by the Sufi philosopher, Shurawardi, who was executed in 1195. (See The Mystical & Visionary Treatises of Suhrawardi, Treatise II, “The Sound of Gabriel’s Wing”, translated by W.M. Thackston, Jr., The Octagon Press, 1982.) In the story, when the narrator is still a young boy just having out-grown the restrictions placed on infants living in the women’s quarters, he is overcome with despair from a dream and wanders until dawn in the men’s part of the house. Then he has a desire to enter his father’s khanaqah, or Sufi Lodge. The khanaqah has two doors, “one onto the city and one onto the field and orchard.” He closes the door to the city and opens the door to the field. And from there the narration continues with what he saw and what he experienced.
19.5″ x 12″
Private Collection
