In The Beginning

Description

In The Beginning was designed, written, and printed in July of 2011. This poster was part of the Myth/Mystery series, funded by the Tacoma Arts Commission. The images on the poster were printed with magnesium plates created from digital files. The human characters are based on the Pioneer Plaques, a pair of gold-anodized aluminum plaques that were placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft,featuring a pictorial message, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 is intercepted by intelligent extraterrestrial life. The plaques show the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft.

The words on the poster read:

He called them, a man made of mud and a woman made of bone, down from the mountain and grew a grove of trees for their home. The grove rose holier than all the earth, with sequoia, chestnut, and big leaf maple. And the bone wife and mud mad lived in the shade for eight years, one month, and seventeen days, until they screwed the whole thing up. He kicked them out on the evening of the new moon.

The first blood was spilled when he killed an animal to cover the shame of the mud man and bone woman. After he drove the man and woman out, he placed on the north side two goddesses. And on the south side of the grove he planted two great lions. And the eyes of the lions never closed. And the two goddesses remained vigilant as they guarded the gates of the paradise grove.

The mud man and bone woman stepped onto Sixth Avenue and felt asphalt under their feet for the first time. And the number-one bus nearly ran them down.