Space Clutter

A quick "painting" in Photoshop this evening, about an hour. There's clutter in space. It's kind of like my apartment, but in seven dimensions. 

Iris of Angelic Air

Around the early 90s I did many flower pictures, especially of irises. I was new to the Washington, DC area and I was delighted by the abundance of flowers in spring there. I visited gardens and an entire farm devoted to growing big iris flowers, the kind known as "German bearded irises." I took dozens and dozens of photographs and then did studies of the flowers in all the rainbow colors they came in. I often added angelic, fairy, or other fantasy elements to my irises, and this is one of them. It's called "Iris of Angelic Air," and was painted in 1991. Watercolor on illustration board, 7" x 10". These pictures were successful at fantasy convention art shows and I sold every one that I made. Like my esoteric angels, I don't do them any more, but I wouldn't refuse to do another one if I felt like it. 

You (my handful of readers) may be wondering why I'm putting up so many archival pieces on "Art By-Products." Am I slacking off? No, I am working on another project which I hope to show in 2009, not on this Blog but on my "Noantri World" sub-site. I'll tell you more about this as soon as I finish it. It has to do with modern architecture, so stay tuned.

Kabbalistic Colors

Back in the late 80s I did a lot of esoteric (not really the same as "occult") studies. I learned about Kabbalah both from the traditional Jewish perspective and from the Western Esoteric tradition that adapted the Jewish philosophy in the Renaissance and centuries afterward. One of the schools of Kabbalistic esotericism (which in no way resembles the cult-ish stuff professed by various celebrities) involved a lot of colorful mental visualization. Since I like spirituality with bright colors and good designs, this attracted me. It was not at all Jewish; it was actually 19th and early 20th century English, and most of the proponents and writers were English. One of the books I worked with was a Kabbalistic inner visualization manual called "The Book of Celestial Images," by a gent called A.C. Highfield. This book is out of print but it's available used at various online vendors. It was a treasury of images that I could put into artwork. 

In those archaic days before Photoshop, I assembled graphic designs from cut paper that I glued onto an airbrushed background. The colors were provided by "Color-Aid," which some older designers remember. It is still available, as the site shows, but it is expensive. Color-Aid paper was thick and the color was added to the paper by silk-screening rather than actually coloring the paper. That made a nice flat non-reflective surface. You could use it plain or draw or paint over it. The trouble was that the surface was fragile and if you bent it, the color would flake off. Many of these compositions I did with Color-Aid have deteriorated, especially if they were stacked against each other. 

This one is well-preserved and in my own collection, dated January 1987, 7" x 10". The colors were determined by visionaries who synesthetically saw the Hebrew letters not only as colors, but as parts of the human body, both male and female. Therefore the colors in this figure correspond to the letters in the name of the angel it represents, which is the "Chai Ha Kodesh" (Holy Living Creature) of Kether, the top station on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The symbol-system got quite complicated as color was stacked on top of color and Hebrew letters became emblems and elaborate scenes were built from names, symbols, and characters. After a while for me it got too much like work, so I moved away from it. I still have the books so I could return to the symbol-world if I got the inspiration.

Photoshop practice

Here's something I created in Photoshop to practice modeling and texture. It has a slightly mid-century-modernist look to it as that's what I've been paying a lot of attention to these days. The central red thing is inspired by a pepper. 

In other news, I managed through persistence and patience to finally find and download the "legacy" driver for my Zen Xtra Creative Nomad MP3 player. It is now functioning again and is not yet on the scrap heap. I keep wondering what "Creative Nomad Zen" would look like. It is one of the more impossible and intriguing cultural mash-ups as a name for a commercial product. Maybe it doesn't fascinate you as much as it does me. 

Edouard Mesert in memoriam

I received news today that a long-time friend of mine, Edouard Mesert, passed away from an unspecified illness on December 14th of 2008. I don't know how old he was, but I would guess in his late forties. He was a fellow fantasy fan as well as a devout Christian and a member of my religious group. He loved "traditional" horror characters such as vampires and werewolves, and he also loved antique cars. He once owned a Chevy from the 1970s that he called "Vlad the Impala." Edouard enjoyed fantasy costumes and would dress as an elegant vampire at conventions. He loved the vampire stories of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and the Darkover books of Marion Zimmer Bradley. 

In 1995 he commissioned me to do this portrait of him, lovingly embraced by a sexy werewolf. (Watercolor on board, 9 1/2" x 11".) I enjoyed putting a "real" person into a fantasy world. Later on he and his partner Charles moved to Phoenix, Arizona, so I didn't get to see him that often, though he did make it back East in 2006 for the annual retreat of my religious group. He said that being with our group brought him great spiritual solace and renewal.

Now Edouard, who was so involved with the world of the undead, is now with the world of the dead, or perhaps more, the world of the imaginal, meeting his beloved characters on an equal level of reality.  

Anael, the Green Angel

Here's another one of my nametag miniatures from many years ago. I encountered the Archangel Anael during some of my esoteric studies in the late 70s. Anael (sometimes cited as "Haniel") was one of the seven main archangels who didn't get into the Bible or the other religious writings of the time. He was the angel of the planet Venus, and of things that were green and coppery (since copper rusts to a green color). He was also guardian of this time of the winter, around the Solstice and Christmas. For a while he was my personal choice for guardian angel so I did this miniature in his honor. He's holding the monogram (built from my mundane name) that I sign my artwork with. The black bar originally had the Detested Mundane Name but I have erased it and left it blank. Anael is no longer my guardian angel and has not been for a long time. I'm not sure who occupies that post now. 

Watercolor and ink on thick paper, 3 1/2" x 2 1/4". Dated November 1981 (on the back).

Bargain Bubbly

I have been knocking out the signs by the dozen during the holiday season. On Christmas Eve (Wednesday) I did four signs, about one every hour, for "bargain bubbly." These are inexpensive sparkling wines that you can buy a lot of to pass around at New Year's. The signboards are about 2 1/2 feet square, and the writing is done in opaque acrylic markers on Masonite painted with black "chalkboard" spray paint. I think that Trader Joe's must keep Rust-Oleum in business by using far more chalkboard paint than would be called for in "normal" uses such as classrooms or kids' rooms. I think about how much of the stuff we use when I have to go get more. Our markers are also "re-purposed" (there's another good 2000s buzzword for you). They are originally marketed to crafters who like decorating wooden knicknacks. When I order new supplies I wonder what the vendor (a craft supply place called "Woodcrafter.com") thinks we do with all the dozens of markers we buy. I helpfully added on one order that we were signmakers, just to keep things from being too unnatural.  

Oh by the way, Merry Christmas everyone, and a happy Solstice and Chanukah too.