Always haunted by Durer’s woodcut The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse I’ve wanted to deconstruct the image. I kept wishing that each horseman had his own setting rather than crowd all four men and horses together. Historic images often depict the action of a scene and rarely reveal the results. Babylon is the first source of this end of the world prophecy where the gods send diseases, famines, in severe cases a flood whenever they desire. Groups of people and cultures after picked and chose the features from this and added and modified it to what their beliefs and views would be. There is a formula to the world ending. First, a cataclysmic event, a transition and the result is paradise. Modern cults prepare by bunkering down and stock piling resources and weapons. Both old and new age beliefs have a notion of balance, that transgressions committed in our known time of existence will be righted and made pure.

 

As a young child I had panic attacks if I thought about death. I would sob when my goldfish died because I had to come to terms that that is going to happen to myself but also my friends and family. I chose to draw horses because they have nothing to do with human events often suffer the consequences of our actions. When training a horse trust is earned. Once established the horse will follow their rider anywhere. Being involved in the training of a few horses I wanted to show their loyalty. For these reasons I have depicted the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the following ways: Conquer’s horse has been shot by the enemy. War’s rider has died and is searching for them though it is too late. Famine has lost his rider and has run too far into the desert. The horse depicting Death/Plague is roaming the liminal realm with grief and doom following in the dust trails.