Our planet is a tremendous gift to us and other living creatures. We wake each day with the sun rising, reminding us that this is a new day, and we should go forth shining as best we can.
More than 1400 years ago, taking advantage of a more easterly location, Japan's ruler downplayed the Chinese emperor's superiority by terming his own small kingdom "the land of the rising sun."
Further, an ancient Japanese myth that preceded that time recognized the supreme importance of the sun to life. A story goes that the land's two demiurges created a child to rule over the islands. But the child, Amaterasu, was so brilliant the gods sent her instead to command the heavens.
Although the sun as a symbol in ancient African art appears to be quite rare, because the sun's light and warmth are the sources of plant and other life, Skyler imagines sunrise must have evoked a deep feeling of reverence and awe in our first humanity. Particularly as the sun's rising and setting reminds us constantly of our mortality and time-constrained creative opportunities. There are only so many (sun) hours in a day!
As such, in "rise" the artist tries to imagine seeing the sun as an early man. The artist has executed the work in a simple watercolor style with dabs of color like rays of light miming the gelling of elemental consciousness at the moment of the sun's apotheosis.
