Half Sinner, All Saint︙Isabel Pardo

Jul 15

In both Eastern and Western ancient civilizations, the trinity of science, mysticism, and philosophy developed into various forms of alchemy. Though later deemed heretical by the church, alchemy became a significant thread weaving all spiritual traditions together, specifically in its iconography. An exploration of the synchronicities between western alchemical, mystical, and Catholic imagery, Half Sinner, All Saint follows the seven stages of alchemical transformation, the symbolic chemical creation of the philosopher’s stone as a direction to spiritual actualization. In the steps of Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation, the Prima Materia, one’s spirit-ego, is broken, remade, tested, and ultimately reborn.

Through overlapping symbols including serpents, divine fire, blood, and the cosmos, the common narrative of spiritual development found in alchemy, tarot, and natural philosophies to find spiritual harmony and awareness, becomes parallel with Jesus Christ in Christianity. In this series, I use the principles of alchemy to separate and conjoin visual elements of these iconographies, a final narrative emerging which is half sinner, but all saint.

Serpents

Fire

Dove

Fountain

Chalice/Vessel

Hermes Trismegistus

Sun, Moon, Earth

Above and Below/ Heaven and Earth

Cherubim

Jacob’s Ladder

Holy Trinity

4 Elements

Tree of Knowledge

Stigmata

Alchemical Marriage

*Have you heard the tongues of the Sacred Flame?*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

Two candles burn as a dove flies through a serpent into the flames of a sacred heart, the host of devotion and sacred fire. Though the dove in alchemy can represent the spirit of mercury in the chemical process, it also assumes its iconography as the Holy Spirit in some interpretations.

*In this Bleeding Heart I Have Seen More Life Than I've Never Known*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

The Stigmata of Jesus Christ border an Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail, a symbol of eternal death and rebirth. The central image mirrors the composition of the Ace of Cups in tarot to embody the blood of the covenant, similar to an alchemical fountain’s message of spiritual energy.

*The Great Gift of the Garden is a Divine Mortality*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

Around the Tree of Knowledge and wreath of thorns, two serpents cycle between night and day or the conscious and unconscious, symbols of transformation, rebirth, and growth.

*In What We Make Ourselves Each Day, We Become Ordinary Gods*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

*In the Dream There is a World Above and a World Below and We are Their Creations*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

An alchemical marriage of the sun and moon, or divine feminine and masculine, sometimes likened to Jesus and the Virgin Mary, blooms from the roots of the Tree of Knowledge.

Similar to the story of Jacob’s Ladder where a dream reveals a ladder to heaven, a key aspect of alchemy is to climb the ladder of planets to reach a physical and spiritual perfection. The earth is punctuated by a serpent and the heavens with imagery of the Holy Trinity interacting with the sun, moon, and stars.

*Upon the Sounding of The Trumpet, The Prophet Revealed The Trinity*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

Stage 6 takes imagery from Hermes Trismegistus, a figure possessing the 3 parts of wisdom of the world. A combination of Hermes, Thoth and considered the alchemist’s Moses, he is often seen with a staff with a globe or a caduceus with wings. A teacher of mysticism, the Cherubim and trumpets on the border punctuate Hermes Trismegistus’ connection to divine wisdom.

*The Philosopher Learned the Secrets of the Universe and They Became the Magician*, 2022
Ink, gouache, and metallic watercolor on paper
18 in x 13 in

A compilation of all the colors in the limited palette of this series, Stage 7 marries the earthly and divine with the end goal of chemical alchemy, the philosopher’s stone. Encompassed within a vessel of two intertwined snakes along with a globe and all knowing eye, the stone is the result of divine wisdom meeting earthly creation in a balance of the above and below.

About Isabel Pardo

Born in 1999, Isabel Pardo is an artist and curator currently based in Baltimore. She has a BFA in Painting, Art History, and Curatorial Studies from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Curatorial projects include “This Is Not The End,” a virtual exhibit in January 2021, MICA’s 2019 Exhibition Development Seminar’s ‘Historically Hysterical’ at Baltimore’s Peale Center; “Stigma” at the Alhamra Art Center in Bernardsville, NJ; and “Epoch” at the Farmstead Arts Center in Basking Ridge, NJ. Inspired by surrealism and alchemy, her studio work investigates the relationship between classical and contemporary art through painting, collage, and abstraction. She strives to create dynamic experiences for the viewer through multimedia paintings and immersive assemblage installations.

Website: www.isabelpardoart.com

Instagram: @isabel.pardo.art

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