Whirlpool

Essay by Jim Starrett

I have spent time looking at your Whirlpool drawing. It feels/looks somewhat autobiographical… maybe not current or literal, but symbolical. Hence the young man who is Caucasian. He is face up on his back, and that is a pretty vulnerable position. He is naked, and this adds to his vulnerability… he is basically blind, not necessarily self-imposed but perhaps at the hand(s) of someone other then himself. The covering over his eyes is intact, but the rest of the fabric strands are in a stage of coming apart, and so one could surmise that to some degree he is regaining some of his freedom, and maybe the end result will be the release of the fabric covering his eyes. The worst of his situation is that he is caught not just with being in a dangerous whirlpool, but as a victim coinciding with all of these other impediments.

The whirlpool is a decidedly deadly situation to be in, and the viewer is reminded of that because there are exposed hands and feet of other victims who one would have to believe are either dead or struggling in the final throes of death by drowning. It's a horrible way to die. Who are these other humans? We don't really know if they are male or female.

The flying fish can be seen as a symbol of freedom. The flying fish unlike the man in the whirlpool can exist in the water, and potentially fly out of it to safety. Unfortunately both the flying fish AND the young man in the whirlpool are both trapped, and in a diabolical way. The flying fish are immobile, they are tied to the mans hands and feet which also happen to be those parts of our anatomy that might enable us to SWIM out of the whirlpool. The man and the fish are doomed except for the fact that the fabric that had been restraining the man is in a state of unraveling, but again there is no assurance that it will…. just observe the situation of others who most likely were unable to survive the effects of the whirlpool.

One of the larger questions in the content of the drawing is why the individuals who have already succumbed to the strength of the whirlpool, but are still holding onto the flying fish… however in this case the fish are not bound by ropes to those individuals who are just grasping them. There is a lot going on in this drawing and like a lot of visual art statements there may not be a definitive answer or specific resolution to the inquiries of the viewer.

Another important question is how and why did this young man come to be in this very dangerous situation. We fall off of cliffs, we fall into quicksand, and perish much like the man in the whirlpool. It seems on some level to be about STRUGGLE, and the dilemma of attaching ourselves to a situation that has it's motivation in security, and freedom, but in the end we bind ourselves to it, and refuse to let it go. We are often blinded by our mistakes, and find ourselves in a situation where there does not seem to be a positive solution. We are often aware of individuals in history who have faced the same problems that we are seeking a solution to. We see others who have also drowned only because they held onto the wrong path / belief system which led them (us) to making the same mistakes we have made. The drawing has a definite feeling of human misfortune… a real tragedy.

Addenda:

I went back and looked at Whirlpool again… the flying fish, four of them attached just to your hands and feet, could act as the thing that gets you out of the whirlpool like a drone. It's not as though the flying fish are trapped because they are bound to you… I'm suggesting they are a more positive symbol of helping you to gain your freedom.

- Jim Starrett, November 2020

Jim Starrett is an artist/educator residing in Venice, California. Jim has exhibited his work in innumerable galleries and museums nationwide, and has taught many years in prestigious studio art programs across the country, including CalArts California Institute of the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design and North Carolina Sate University.

To see and learn about Jim's artwork please visit his website at jimstarrett.com