Carle Hessay, "Alpha Wolf" (title by Walter James Burton), 1966

This panel was nailed to the construction fence of the old Langley Library construction site, where it was submitted as part of a local contest. It was painted on a 4 x 6 foot sheet of plywood.

Burton's title reflects the sequence, in various scripts, of the letter "A" which turns into a "wolf's head at the bottom. It is a whimsical but nevertheless insightful take on the history of the alphabet which, normally, would have evolved from visual pictograms to phonetic letters.

It also plays on the idea of the Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, interpreted as Jesus in Revelations 22: 12-16. In John 1: 1-14 the Word of God is made flesh, effecting Creation.

In the surrounding abstracted rectangles on this panel painting are snippets of the alphabets of various cultures, further exploring the basis of language and meaning.

While Carle Hessay earned his living as a sign painter, which explains his competence in the execution of the letters, this work also operates at a deeper philosophical level.