Neuromancer

"Neuromancer", 40 inches x 40 inches, Oil on Canvas, by Lui Ferreyra

The inspiration for this work began with a mental image of hands and feet, cropped in isolation along compositional boundaries, implying through omission of the body, a figure reaching for her feet. After reviewing numerous source photos, I chose two: one became a drawing and the other evolved into this painting, "Neuromancer".

While refining the composition, I had a nagging feeling that I had seen this image elsewhere. After scanning my own mind, I vaguely recalled that I may have seen a similar composition by Euan Uglow. Upon finding a painting by him entitled Ali online, I was both relieved and delighted to see that while my composition bore some resemblance, it also diverged significantly from his. Rather than avoiding the similarity I decided to embrace it by appropriating Uglow’s original background, knowing that in the end I would deploy my own fragmented style and color variation.

The result directly references Uglow’s Ali, which he completed in the late 1990s when I was still in college. I would not, however, encounter his work until 2010. My version of his background now strikes me as particularly digital, evoking the structure of a microchip. This connection is very likely why I decided to reach for William Gibson’s title, Neuromancer.

I first read William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel in 2012, but decided to peruse the Wikipedia entry to evaluate the title’s potential relevance. Within the article I found the following quote referring to Gibson’s invention of the word, which he defined as “... a portmanteau of the words Neuro, Romancer and Necromancer, Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Necromancer. I call up the dead.”

Upon reading that quote I felt the title would be fitting for my painting given that I was figuratively calling up the dead, in referring to Uglow— an artist I deeply admire, who passed away in the year 2000. It felt to me like a visual dialogue across generations—between a living artist and one rooted in history.

In hindsight, integrating Uglow’s background functions not only as homage but also as a playful comparison. While maintaining a substantial uniqueness in approach and style, the comparison underscores shared virtues: a penchant for precision, a careful exploration of form, of color, of compositional balance, a blending of realism with abstraction, a not-so-subtle geometric sensibility, and not least a veneration for the human form.

Aside from the nod to a digital dimension and giving me permission to “call up the dead”, the title "Neuromancer" is deeply resonant with our current cultural moment. What was once speculative in Gibson’s cyberpunk vision now feels imminent, as Artificial Intelligence teeters on the edge of unfathomable breakthroughs. One can only hope that the encounter between technology and humanity can find a harmonious path forward and avoid the dystopias imagined not only in so many science-fiction plot lines, but within our own paranoid and frightened psyches.