"The Riddle" started as a sketchbook drawing. My goal was to create an image that was a step from my abstract dimensional work toward representational surrealism. I wanted the piece to have an implied but abstruse narrative, with composition and lighting inspired by the paintings of the Dutch masters and classic comic book art.
I did not preconceive the characters or narrative. As I sculpted and arranged the elements in 3D, I let them evolve and reveal themselves and the relationships that generate the emergent narrative.
Here's my interpretation. In a transhuman future, an exoskeletally augmented green suitor has journeyed from afar with his trusty red star, to obtain an audience and possible courtship with a mystical feminine entity somewhere in the translucent pink forest. The suitor recoils from the unexpected reception by the indigo guardian cat squid and the shiny blue observer blob that hovers in the gateway formed by twin techno trunks. Blocking the gateway are a spotted translucent protector tree and three thick black barrier vines. Lurking beyond them is a raspberry sphere amalgamation that might be the mystical feminine entity herself.