Another influence on Shipman’s presentation is the work of German composer Richard Wagner, in particular the epic opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, in which Nordic legends and the River Rhine are central.  Der Ring  dramatizes the struggles among warring forces of spiritual powers in their pursuit to gain ownership of the ring, which is forged from the gold of the river Rhine and represents the force that opposes the gold. These forces are also at play in the opera Lohengrin, in which Elsa is commanded to trust her knight but not to ask for or seek to know his name. A thread that runs through much of Wagner’s work is the idea that compassion of a mortal man can bring deliverance from the curses that weigh upon the characters. The contrast between this and The Bondage of the Will molds the ideas that pervade Mr. Shipman’s artwork.

A course on the ideas of German philosophers taught by Dr. Steven Martinson at the University of Arizona during Mr. Shipman’s undergraduate studies provided valuable insight into his understanding of Wagner’s work.

From The Gold in the Modern-Day Spirit of Old