Cheryl Eggleston | Pillars of Salt & Sand

The canvas is gallery wrapped.

Standing large and impressive but vulnerable to crumbling or dissolving into nothing.

While I painted this piece, I couldn’t get a song out of my head. You might think, because of the title, that song is ‘Viva la Vida’ by Coldplay, but no. The song was ‘Mad World’ - the Pentatonix’s version*. Their plaintive a cappella version is mesmerizing! The lyrics:

I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World.

I try not to watch the news. But while I was painting this, something big was happening. The world watched as the Afghan government fell to a take-over. I saw fearful people run in circles and I thought, it is a mad world.

When I sat down to write a commentary about this painting, I still did not have a title for it. I was sure the piece did not want to be called Mad World. I looked at this painting and I knew – “Pillars of Salt & Sand” had to be the title. In a flash, I clearly heard that lyrical phrase of Coldplay’s song in my mind. ‘Castles Built on Pillars of Salt, Pillars of Sand’

From its inception, I subconsciously split the painting in two. A pillar of salt and a pillar of sand, looking large and impressive but vulnerable to crumbling or dissolving into nothing. Like Coldplay’s castles built on pillars of salt, and pillars of sand, kingdoms topple down. Anxious people run in circles.

And it is a very, very – Mad World.