Marion Drennen
Quantum Connections
- Title: Four
- Size: Quadriptych 42” wide × 26” tall (each piece is 21” wide × 12” tall)
- Medium: Acrylic on Board
Four panels make up the Number 4 painting. In the center is a square (4 sides) with one of the Arabic Glyphs for “4”. There are 4 Noble Truths in Buddhism: in this piece, I see these 4 truths in the panels:
- Upper Left
- Suffering Exists (I see all the words and glyphs for the # 4 as being the constant chatter in our heads … the absence of quiet space)
- Upper Right
- Suffering Arises from Attachment to Desires (the 4-sided pyramid is an “object” and so represents materialism)
- Lower Left
- Suffering Ceases when Attachment to Desire Ceases (more quiet space, holy readings/teachings, and the allowing-in of the “bubbles” from the 4th panel …)
- Lower Right
- Freedom from Suffering is Possible (I see the “bubbles” as the sheer potentiality of Quantum Physics, where the space is filled with and surrounded by the # 4, but they move freely, even moving up into the material-based panel above)
- None of the panels is just one thing … each has the elements of the others.
In the upper left panel is a large Indian Glyph for “4”, with Arabic, Ancient Greek and Mayan. In the upper right panel, an Ancient Greek Glyph, the 4-sided pyramid, and the Babylonian 4 Glyph. The lower right panel has a square with a hill shape in it, the Chinese Glyph for “4”. The writing:
- The number 4 is a quantity. It represents “the first born thing” because it is the “ … product of the procreative process” multiplication. 2×2=4
- A four-leaf clover
- There are 4 directions in the geographical coordinate system.
- Four beasts of the Apocalypse, Connect 4, 4-Wheel Drive, The Final 4, Mah Jong: Chinese game of 4 winds
- Square Dancing: Hands 4, 4-Star Generals, Hotels and Restaurants, Degas’ 4 Dancers, As a form, 4 is a square and represents materialization. F. D. Roosevelt’s 4 Freedoms: speech, worship, want, and fear. Dogs are our 4-legged friends
- The 4 preferences: Extroversion/Introversion; Sensing/Intuition; Thinking/Feeling; Judging/Perceiving
- 4-year College Degree Program, 4 Dimensions: Breadth, Width, Length, Time
In the square in the lower left panel, the writing:
- The four elements: air, water, fire, earth
- At Seder: 4 cups of wine, ask 4 questions, read about 4 sons
- The 4th utterance of redemption
- Aristotle’s 4 causes: Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final
- 4 — a Rational Number
- The 4 Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
- 4-Letter Words are Bad
Words in different languages used in this painting:
- Sanskrit: catvaras, catasras, catvari, catur
- Avestan: cathwaro
- Tokharian A: stwar
- Tokharian B: stwer
- Armenian: corkh
- Ancient Greek: tettares, tessares, tetores
- Oscan: pettier, petora
- Latin: quattwor
- Italian: quattro
- Spanish: cuatro
- French: quatre
- Romanian: patru
- Old Erse: cethir, cethoir
- Breton: pevar
- Welsh: pedwar
- Scots Gaelic: peswar
- Gothic: fidwor
- Old Icelandic: fjorer
- Swedish: fyra
- Old Saxon: fiuwar
- Anglo Saxon: foewer
- English: four
- Old High German: vier
- German: vier
- Church Slavonic: cetyre
- Russian: cetyre
- Czech: ctyri
- Polish: cztery
- Lithuanian: keturi