What exactly is innocence? I asked myself this question several times since I created this piece last year, and my opinions have adjusted a little. Here is a brief summary of the thought process behind the comm.

Toothy, the client, desired an image of the moment at which Innocence is obtained by his fursona. Fought for - he wanted to see his character breaking free, say, of “laws that bind.”

Colours and dynamic diagonal lines symbolize the forces that affect us and force us away from “Innocence” as a state of purity. This would be similar to the Innocence of the Holy Fool of Tarot, who is a sort of emblem of complete freedom and possibility. As some popular Tool lyrics as well as the history of Television would indicate, black and white comes before colour. This is my felky way of saying that the purity outside the manifest universe is where Toothy’s head is reaching, gasping. Is there something lighter than air that he is breathing?

The pose, in how the figure seems to be climbing and expanding, was very fun to figure out. Toothy indicated that he would associate aggression with violence, darkness and calculation. But aggression would, in part, have to be employed to get there - so this is just after that. The lungs or ribcage, like our mundane shell, are almost bursting. This is a reference to Pneuma (The Fool again; Spirit-Wind-Breath) and Thymos (a bit like emotion, soul, breath. I enjoyed Julian Jaynes’ passages about homerian terms.)

Toothy knows math, my own understanding is shallow. I chose the Dodecahedron to “imprison” him, and it is breaking apart as he frees himself from this kind of egg. I added purple lines that attempt to reference the appearance of certain models of the 120-Cell, in an attempt at referring to fourdimensionalism. Though honestly, I can’t say for sure if I even got that part right. I remember staring at all sorts of VHS-quality animations on YouTube for an hour and realizing that to research this properly would exceed the scope of a sketch commission. Personally, I think now that the shape simply “breaking” is a little naive - but we’re always learning.

Some people want to talk about things that are near them, some people want to talk about remote metaphysical concepts. I respect both sides - but I have to admit that I’m more comfortable with the former. When reading Tarot, it's easy to lose sight of the experiential. And if any such thing can be said to have occured here, I would fully take the blame. Nonetheless, I am glad that Toothy still enjoyed the piece as it is - I had fun with it myself. In a way, that’s really what the Fool wants: He is impossible to grasp, but he’s also full of joy and lightness. Whatever this might mean, I'd rather leave up to others to figure out :)