Achilles was tutored by a man named Phoenix. I laughed when I learned this. It makes me wonder if the city in Arizona is named after the tutor of Achilles, or the fabulous firebird at home in nearly every mythical tradition on the Eurasian landmass, as well as in Northern Africa. In the mythologies of ancient Egypt, Persia, Arabia, Greece, Rome, China, and India, the phoenix appears. Sometimes wearing the head of a duck and suckling its young…at other times looking somewhat like a rather svelte peacock, and—in some cases—wearing a distorted, human head. The phoenix, according to local traditions, is either immortal and arises from its own ashes, or—like any other bird or “lower animal” simply reproduces in accordance to the demands of a particular biological cycle. There are myths in which an adult phoenix arises from its own ashes, but in other myths, an egg emerges from the ash, from which a young (exceptionally independent) bird hatches. Neon abstracts don’t have very much to do with birds, but as I worked on this particular image, I was struck by the feeling that a bird stared at me from within the darker depths of this image. I’ve written a story centered on a biologically-feasible take on the whole phoenix idea, and as bits and pieces of this story filtered through my background thoughts, I noticed what could be seen as the front of a bird’s head. I won’t point it out, as I’m probably the only person who might easily see the “face on” view of a particularly curious (or supremely disinterested) bird. There is, however, a bit more phoenix symbolism in this image, and I suspect it’s enough to support both the title of this particular neon abstract, and my ramble on the topic of the phoenix. As with my other neon abstracts, this is a spin-and-jiggle-induced image. I took it just last week, but as I’d already posted a neon abstract, I held back on posting this one. And now, much later, I’ve taken a long look at this image. I still see the phoenix, though now it looks a bit like some type of vulture: not surprising. The ancient Egyptians worshipped vultures, and they are cute in their own distinct, stoop-shouldered way; well, they're cute to me, but then I'm the sort of person who finds teddy bears rather disquieting. (Vultures are amazing creatures with the strongest stomach acid of any living animal. Vultures don't suffer from food poisoning, of biological origin, as nothing can survive inside of a vulture stomach.) I suppose, then, that this neon abstract can serve as a subjective rendition of the rare, North American Vulture Phoenix with incendiary gastric juices…okay…maybe not. But when I look at this image, that’s what I see, and so there you have it. I’d say a lot more about this, but I can’t really think of anything, and so I’ll just do the sensible thing and shut up. But, as always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.