The artist signed his name in multiple ways creating
a narrative of Body, Mind, and Spirit while using Automatism
Automatism - the Surrealist's use of spontaneity and intuition through suspension of the conscious mind to release subconscious images.
In this composition the artist has embedded a surprisingly clear narrative. As we explore his use of symbols and initials, in this abstract expression, its composition and story emerge. What was once a jumble of unrelated lines becomes a unified image with a deep theosophical message. Smarkusz drew it all at once in wet paint on pine.
The artist applied his technique of automatic drawing (automatism) and free association to create a composition, of abstract elements, symbols, and his own initials, in representing life, death and resurrection. The composition can also be interpreted as representing the cyclical relationship of body, mind, and spirit - read also as nature, man, and God. It also signifies the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost of the Trinity in Christian theosophy.
There are three strong horizontal levels: bottom Underworld, middle Earthly horizon and upper Heavens. The horizon is where all three meet. It is also the artists signature written semi-consciously as to suggest the interplay of the conscious and subconscious realms; also the spiritual and physical; Mind and Body; Heaven and Earth; Logos and Eros (Jung). I have overlaid a dotted line revealing the circulating movement (of essence or Logos) running clockwise from the cross, around the stationary central horizon plane (of existence as Eros). The artist has also placed himself in the center where his abstract “signature” (bold line overlaid) and an implied line connecting his initials intersect (thin line diagonal from large initials VS left of crucifix to small vs extreme bottom right).
There are three main Symbols placed in a triangle which anchor the composition and meaning (highlighted by me with blue discs).
Top and center is the Christian Cross symbolizing the Spiritual (Spirit, Logos, The Word; Christ as God).
Bottom right is the Headless Man which Vincent is using to symbolize the Physical (Body, Word become flesh; Jesus the man).
Bottom left is the Greek Letter Psi which is the symbol for the Psychological (Mind, Reason, the Holy Ghost which mediates Body and Spirit).
All three have arms reaching out for the other and with each representing a separate reality;
All three are headless and incomplete without the other.
The three “heads” or logos are reunited upper right in quotes as the “Head”ing, the Word, the Title of the composition.
The three are one. In semi quotes (quote within a quote) 'I-I-I'. Vincent's Trinity, also his "Me, Myself and I".
Thus the title "Three Symbols"
The description which follows is intense and not for the easily distracted, but please follow it if you can:
I will take you through a sequence of visual movements which will illustrate how the artist may have created the finished composition, but of course the final arrangement was complete only after a sequence of seemingly random here-and-there placements of particular elements (automatic drawing). His actual sequence of assemblage will never be known, and remember, the goal of such an endeavor is dependent on the uninterrupted, one shot expression of the piece without reworking. I suppose he did add a short line or two after it was done to finish it, but it appears quickly as a whole, scratched into wet paint on wood, without reworking and with very little forethought. All action.
He may have placed the Three Symbols first, then finished the composition “all at once”.
The eye is first attracted to the Cross Symbol and the 'I-I-I' which reads left to right, beginning the clockwise movement.
It is then attracted to look down at the human figure Symbol and tiny VS in the lower right.
But the eye needs to first acknowledge the horizontal jumble blocking the way; 'Body'.
It tries to go left but the composition causes it to fall right and it breaks through to the bottom right getting trapped in the corner.
Next it escapes left in the new open space provided and soon hits the bottom left Psi Symbol; 'Mind'.
The eye then quickly ascends up the left side of the frame and across the very top, free to survey from above; 'Spirit'.
This all happens unconsciously and instantly before the viewer is even aware he has done so.
The circular movement has been established and the viewer begins to explore (clockwise, counterclockwise, diagonally, etc).
Trying to make conscious sense of the composition we first see symbols and letters.
The symbols become obvious; three human figures with arms and three heads without arms (the 'I-I-I").
The clearest but smallest letters are the initials lower right, the largest VS upper left, and the Z mid right.
The largest V, bottom right, is followed by an exclamation point which is the torso of the man figure. Another signature!
There are several V's flying like Birds from bottom right, across left, then up to the top and across.
Again the circular pattern is reinforced.
VS letter pairs accompany each of the three symbols from smallest to largest; from body to mind to spirit.
The small VS is lower right, with which the artist also signs the piece, near the headless body.
A medium VS is lower left, near the Psi Symbol of mind, and it is also underlined.
The large VS upper left, near the Cross Symbol for spirit which brings us to the beginning again.
The Alpha and the Omega.
A circulating pattern with a stable triangular composition; the fluid and the fixed; spirit and body; essence and existence.
Whereas he only initials the work for the uninitiated, near the headless body in the underworld,
a mixture of symbol and letter is used to “signify” the artist from the large VS to the Z.
“He signs it once across the horizon clearly ending with Z",
and from a large VS, diagonally down, to initials we can barely see".
This dual signatures as horizon represents the two movements of Mind - the losing and regaining of consciousness.
In "Death" the Body falls from the Spirit thereby dissolving the Mind (losing ones identity) and descending to the Underworld.
In "Rebirth" the Spirit rejoins the Body thereby reconstituting the Mind (regaining identity) and ascending to Heaven.
The horizontal one starts off ambiguously, negotiates obstacles and then drops off precipitously after Z end, as does identity in life.
The other moves from large VS diagonally down to small vs - and back up again from the "headless man" to his identity VS!
Vincent also suggests his signatures again across the top, left to right with a large V and long line, and across the bottom in reverse,
right to left, again with a large V and long line - reinforcing the cyclical movement of Spirit through the Bodymind.
The very large Z is followed by ign - Zign, which points down to his tiny initials (vs) completing the art's "body", and the artist's "identity".
(We see the "incomplete" Vincent standing just inside the corner of the "picture frame" which bears his initials on the bottom right).
I am obviously approaching the free associative state when rhyming begins, so let me take you on a journey through the mind of Vincent T. Smarkusz as he may have spoken to himself while creating this piece. It is my own attempt at capturing it's essential meaning in verse:
I AM
I am here, there, and everywhere,
seeing Me, Myself, and I;
Escaping from the underworld,
transcending earth and sky.
Again I fall into the deep,
where naught is ever seen;
Where knowing is not yet,
and doing has yet to be.
Having not forgotten,
Beginning to sense the way.
Blind and barely living,
Feeling the rise of day.
Moving along the bottom,
with the weight of the world above.
Glimpsing lights glimmer of hope,
does lift my heart with love.
Lifted up on new found wings,
I am free of body and mind.
Soaring high as Spirit sings,
transcending space and time.