This bit of Art Nouveau psychedelia is a composite of two miniatures I made in my 1980 and 1981 journals. I am much influenced by the writings of visionary esoteric fantasy authors from the late 1800s, especially Marie Corelli. These authors often described voyages into the Inner Worlds where the seer would see rainbow arcs of light, profusions of flowers and angels, floating planets, and starry oceanic vistas. I've often wondered whether these authors were smoking or drinking something interesting to obtain these visions. Absinthe? Opium? They were legal and easy to get back then. Corelli was known for her fondness for the booze (and she wrote a whole novel about absinthe addiction and its evils). Corelli got many of her esoteric ideas from the Theosophical mythography which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Books by these visionary authors are hard to find these days and my collection is precious, if only to me. I've had a steady source of artistic inspiration I can always return to, and now in the age of Photoshop who knows what kind of dizzy esoteric rainbow labyrinths I can unleash.
Ink and watercolor on sketchbook pages, about 8" x 5" all together, 1980-1981. Is anyone still reading this.
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