Five

Size: 36" x 36"Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

2006

No Longer Available

The central motif is a tally. From pre-historic time, through all ages and even today, this is man’s most basic method of keeping a record of a number. By making a mark for each one thing counted, and by making a different mark for every fifth, this universal symbol speaks of our connectedness to all mankind, across the globe and throughout time.

The human brain cannot comprehend a quantity of more than 4 without the need to count. If one were to glance up at the sky and see 4 birds flying by, it would be easy to know, instantly, there were 4 birds. If 5 birds were in that group and you only had a glance, you wouldn’t know how many were there because you’d need enough time to count them…1-2-3-4-5. That’s why all tally marks have something different happen at each fifth mark…to make it clear there was ONE MORE than FOUR without the need to count.

In the background is the Pentagon, the five-sided shape so important to the Pythagoreans.

All the words and glyphs in the background are the names and numerals for "5" in various languages; some of them are: fimf, fil, peti, pis, pump, pesi, cenci, piat, penti, pente, pan, chica, luna, and penkwe. Note the hand, which has 5 digits.