THE MAGICIAN OF ROLLINS

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, 1988

(Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, Florida)

The Magician of Rollins was created primarily as a tribute to a former Rollins' President's love of magic and, accordingly, it depicts a magician performing a trick of changing a white ball into a rabbit.  Above the magician, on the rocky arch, an inscription in Latin paraphrases the famous Cartesian saying--Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am).  In our version, the inscription reads Artibus magicis fruor ergo sum (I delight in magic arts therefore I am). Besides a gallery of animals watching the magician, there are no other participants, unless we count the tight-rope walker in the distance, a reference to Philip Petit, who performed breath-taking aerial walks in New York and might have been an early inspiration for the magician. A careful observer will notice the fox statue which refers to Fox Day, an annual holiday and a break from classes at the college, when students and faculty celebrate the occasion with a barbecue.  The statue of the fox features an inscription spelling Rollins College's motto Fiat lux (Let there be light) and the artist's initials.  The  motto is also indicated by radiating suns on the top of the fence in front of the painting and behind the magician. Other objects related to magic are shown on the table and some may still be in the trunk behind the magician.  The books refer to the magician's love of philosophy, literature, and magic and to his favorite book, The Art of Perfect Balance, written by his brother.  The balloon in the background hints at the magician's balloon trip over Provance a few months before the painting was completed. 

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