This painting is the second I completed in a five part series depicting the Platonic solids. The Platonic solids represent an early attempt to explain the basic mechanics of reality. They embody the four classical Greek elements: fire, water, earth, and air. The Dodecahedron is associated with the fifth and most inscrutable element, the aether, quintessence, or the fundament of reality. These geometric structures represented the idea that beyond the messy veil of our world is a perfect and unchanging substrate that composes it. In conceptualizing this series, I enjoyed the idea of creating a visually pleasing image that could be taken at face value or explored for its esoteric meaning. This concept acts as a metaphor for the platonic idea itself, which presumes a deeper reality beyond our superficial world.

The Platonic solids are described in geometry as “regular, convex, polyhedra.” In simple terms they are three-dimensional forms, in which each side is composed of the same shape (for instance, a cube is made of six squares). Of the infinite number of polyhedra, there are only five Platonic solids.