Lost Journey
The sound of thunder from a restless
storm finds calm in the stillness of a virgin sky.
Unseen forces bring alive old relics upon a
prairie that holds secret tales in a trunk.
Sealed forever is the story of a lost
journey that still rides across
foreboding horizons led by
undying promises gilded
in gold from a
setting sun.
To study blowup details of the painting
click any of the following areas:

Trunk
Wagon
Wheel (Center)
Upper Clouds
Bottom-left Grass Area
In this mysterious peace entitled "Lost Journey" Mulleian presents an image of impermanence in mans endeavor of reaching for something higher, a challenging aspect in its self. Is the artist statement of mans voyages into the unknown, much like what compels our small planet that voyages around our sun? are we going around in circles into a journey without a destination? If so why? And what is this force behind it? In this painting the artist seems to pose this question of mans quest for unattainable knowledge driven by a thirst to know the unattainable. Is destiny influenced by some force? If so the artist has given this mysterious force a face that only the eyes of faith could see.
Reflections on mortality and impermanence continue Mulleian’s dialogue with the world in the work entitled The Moccasins. Out of a gently undulating sea of sand emerge a pair of worn and weathered moccasins the color of burnished gold. The subject is echoed in Lost Journey, where the sea is the undulating prairie and the vessel is the wagon, the prairie schooner. In both works the question quickly arises, what has become of the humans who inhabited these forms? One has the sense that the answer to such questions is, in the end, of relative importance.
Humanity is but a conscious witness to the greater forces of time and nature, a temporary participant, for better or worse, in the greater pattern. There seems to be a graceful reminder here that man, and nature too, will greatly benefit by our becoming conscious of, and honoring, the need for balance in this relationship. Is this perhaps the hidden secret held within the trunk in the painting Lost Journey?
By Paul Deegan