Searching for Proginoskes
My latest collection of paintings and drawings is a tribute to the character Proginoskes from the book A Wind in the Door by Madeline L’Engle.
Proginoskes is a multi-winged, many-eyed cherubim seraph who helps the main protagonist, Meg, save her ailing brother from Mitochondritis, an illness afflicting the mitochondria of his cells. He is also a "Namer", whose role in the universe is to love and name parts of creation.
The drawings came about when I was doing some random sketching and doodling random lines and circles with a purple marker. After looking at it, I realized it reminded me of Proginoskes and that’s when the wave of inspiration hit me. For the last month or so, I’ve been obsessively drawing many depictions of this cherubim seraph, mostly in purple, which signified the surreal and supernatural.
I’ve drawn Proginoskes in different styles with the idea of how he would be depicted if he visited different civilizations at different points in time. In this way, Proginoskes belongs to everyone and is not just representative of cherubim seraphim of the Abrahamic religions.
I’m also drawn to Proginoskes because of his role in the novel. A Wind in the Door is the classic story of good versus evil within the context of a cellular illness. Meg and Proginoskes must face off against the Echthroi (which in ancient Greek means “enemies”), who are evil forces that wish to extinguish creation. As mentioned in the book’s predecessor, A Wrinkle in Time, those that fight back against this evil are the artists, teachers and creators.
Given this theme, it feels so appropriate to work on this series in these tumultuous times, where marginalized people are under constant attack, rights to bodily autonomy are being chipped away, and our climate becomes increasingly unstable. I like to think of myself as one of many artists who push back against annihilation through making life affirming art.
