Pisces: Year of the Ram
Artist John Abel portrays an archaic fragment, an iron age vision of hybrid life in past seas. The ancients held firm beliefs in mythical life, especially that ruled in the oceans by Pisces’ planet Neptune. These combinations of Eastern Ram and Western Pisces are adrift in what could be an ancient mosaic of Pompeii or Ravenna, their clear colors the brilliant ones of bright Mediterranean tiles. Abel shows us strong images beautifully constructed in a linear diagonal: the fish swim in alignment with shafts of seaweed as their frame. But Abel’s colors also change in a more mutable fashion; the green melds into a strong horizontal line of rich blue.
Abel’s fish are solid; their horns do not look especially out of place. Unexpected, but certainly within the realm of our imagination. The sea is dark, sapphire, moving up to clear green and finally yellow green as it approaches the sun. The light penetrates the water, capturing these strange fish in a timeless moment. They certainly have the quality of legend, the kind of sea life fishermen have reported for thousands of years. They are dream-like and strangely magnificent in a secret and allegorical way.
Significantly Abel paints a pair. If ever there was a combined zodiac sign who needs a mate, it is Ram-Pisces. That exterior armor is for protection. Pisces is born of the water, is fluid, perhaps passive. The Ram is gentle, born a natural wanderer, a little bit hesitant and sometimes dependent. Perfect marriage material for each other, together they become strong, and these two creatures capture our imagination by their very boldness, even as they maintain the mutability of water and life. This is an altogether brilliant example of the Ram-Pisces — an intriguing and unusual personality riding dramatic seas.








