You may be thinking, “What’s with the famous painting of the guy in the bowler hat with the apple in front of his face?”

Well here’s the story behind it.  For starters it is called “The Son of Man” and was painted in 1964 by Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte as a self portrait.  In the full painting he is seen standing in front of a small wall with the sea and a cloudy sky in the background.  Some have speculated that the hovering green apple obscuring his face represents the loss of identity.  While Magritte was depressed and this is likely true, I like to think the apple is meant to evoke a sense of mystery, force one to imagine what lies beyond it and question why it is there.

As it relates to this blog you could say that the blog represents the apple in front of my face.  It is merely a digital facade obscuring my true identity.  Whatever you want to think I would like you to simply take it as inspiration to ask more questions in life, of yourself, of others, etc.  More on this in a future post…

“The name is believed to have derived from the modern businessman being the son of Adam (from the Abrahamic creation story) and the apple representing temptation with which one is still faced in the modern world.”  “The Son of Man” is privately owned.

In Magritte’s own words: 

“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, ‘What does that mean?’. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”

“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well….”