Ascension Day

After graduating college, I wanted to create paintings that celebrated some of the books and poems I studied, highlighting various themes that inspired me. Ascension Day illustrates a scene from ETA Hoffman's short story The Flower Pot, published in 1814. The story is divided into two realms: the earthly and the transcendant, and some elements of both worlds intersect. On Ascension Day, the young student Anselmus is on his way to the rathskellar to celebrate the occasion by drinking beer and looking at pretty women with his friends. In his bumbling and careless way, he runs into a food vendor's cart. Forced to make reparations, he gives away all his money, and his celebration plans are diverted. Reflecting on his bad luck, he sits and smokes underneath an elder tree. There he encounters three glittering gold and green snakes with blue eyes that tinkle with the sounds of crystal bells. At this point, Anselmus glimpses another world - one where he could transcend his troubles from the earthly realm.

You may be familiar with another Hoffman tale - The Nutcracker and The Mouse King.