Mayan Hieroglyphs
Serti technique on silk.

In this piece I sought to create the feeling of a Mayan Stelae, the colors of stone softened and washed by time.

I will translate one of my favorite glyphs in this painting. It is in the cartouche at the center bottom. I’ll go from left to right. The first circle with the bright white edge, with a C above it and below it - is the moon, represented in 3 phases. It is pushing on the next small circle - the sun (which includes the Mayan hieroglyph word for sun in the artwork so we can’t misunderstand it). The sun edges up against a horizontal Y of sorts. The top half of the Y is heaven and sky and the bottom half is the earth (again it shows the Mayan words in the pictograph images). The sun (being followed by the moon) is pushing between the heavens and the earth. Once you know this picture, you will know the word the next time you see it painted or carved on a temple or stelae. Sunrise.

Pictographs evolved into hieroglyphs, so there is always a blend of the two in the later Mayan writing, with some meanings simply lost to us. Imagine in 2000 or 3000 years someone coming across a sign we have posted everywhere – a black bar with a wavy line near one end, a red circle around it, and a bar diagonally across it. They may believe, because of the frequency of its use, it must have been a high point in our civilization, possibly even something we may have worshiped. Non-Smoking. You had to be there. With many Mayan glyphs you had to be there to understand the image.

*The Imagekind watermark is not on the print. To view my artwork without it - visit savannaredman.com This artwork is also available as custom murals on kiln fired ceramic tile. Visit savannaredman.com for more information on paintings on tile.