Return Of The Grey Man
- Theartist Henley
- Aug 9, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 6, 2022
When you write a blog, you learn all sorts of interesting new (to me) concepts. One such concept is that of the Grey (or Gray. Actually, 'grey' is the British spelling. I prefer it, although I'm not British-lol!) man. When I mention Gray Man, I don't mean the new movie with Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling.
As a real-world concept, Grey Man Theory is that of being able to blend into the environment (typically urban) so that you don't stand out or draw any attention to yourself. It's often touted as a survival tactic in times of civil unrest or disaster. Now, I'm not going to debate the utility of such a tactic here. Rather, I'd like to bring your attention to another Grey Man...one of my own making.
You see, I noticed recently that a nondescript male figure, neutral or grey in color, had quietly become ubiquitous in several of my paintings. The Grey Man had become a theme.
He first appeared as a decidedly non grey man in my painting, Vitruvian Man 2013 A.D. Still, though, he was appeared as a rather nondescript black man, bald with a goatee.
The next time you see the Grey Man is in Indomitable. Here, he is indeed in his final form (grey). With dark clouds and the storm brewing around him, he shows just how indomitable he is. For me, the idea of being indomitable is a journey or goal toward which to strive, much like perfection. In this day and age of 'me-ism' and every Joe and Jane Average being a 'boss babe', a 'king' or 'queen', the idea I tried to conceptualize here is one of constant striving and moving forward despite the obstacles we face in life, despite the fact that we are not the the infallible beings society and social media pushes us to deceptively think that we are.
But, despite his flaws and imperfections, the Grey Man continues to fight the good fight in Indomitable. And to show his readiness to continue, he even has the kanji for power tattooed on his chest, power that he needs to continue the struggle despite the storm which rages around him.
The Grey Man also shows us how to experience and maintain a fiery zeal for life. As seen in A Fire Burns, the Grey Man embodies the passion and drive we must have to achieve our desires.
In this painting, the Grey Man is consumed by fire, not from the outside, but by the fire within himself. I go into much more detail about how the desire to achieve our goals can be like a consuming flame with this post. Suffice it it to say that here our Grey Man takes on that role for us.
At times, The Grey Man has had a Grey Woman stand in for him. That's exactly what happened in my painting By Any Other Name, Shades of Grey. Just as the Grey Man could be a stand in for anyone, so to could the woman represented in this painting be a stand in for a woman-any woman.
Her race, creed, socioeconomic status, etc. - none of that matters. She is a woman, and she is beautiful-just like a rose, by any other name.
Currently, I'm working on yet another Grey Man piece, and it was this very piece I'm now working on that made me realize that the Grey Man had indeed become a theme. It's not quite finished yet, but I can give you a snippet of it, along with a clue...it involves kintsugi (I got the inspiration for it while I was working on this post).
It's been a tumultuous last couple of years - and the Grey Man is here to help us get through it. He's here to show us why we still need art, and he does it by becoming a stand in for each and every one of us. Like his real life example, he takes our pain and our stress and our anxiety of living in a post-modern world, and pulls it into the background with him so that we can be free of it. All hail the Grey Man.
See you in the next one.
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