Halloween!

O.K.! I am officially excited about Halloween! I have created a bunch of cards in plenty of time for my favorite holiday! I could just keep going... We will see. I even created a Halloween themed station on Pandora to inspire me, but Pandora hasn't got the hang of it yet. Anyway, so far, I have a wiccan ceremony in which a chalice is displayed in worship of the mother goddess (this was meant to illustrate the fact that the use of a chalice (the holy grail) predates Christianity. Although in fairness, the Zoroastrians also used it as did the Roman spin off Mithraism, early Hindus (also evolving from the same culture as the Persian Zoroastrians aka the wise men visiting the baby Jesus) as well as the Greeks and basically everyone with a cup and a Deity to worship. But I digress. This is the first painting that I utilised my favorite celestial object the cone nebula; which lends itself nicely to being raiment for the Goddess. The Priestess embodies and becomes the Goddess. That painting is from my student days in days gone by.
Next, I painted specifically for this Halloween, another rendition utilizing the cone nebula, this time as the Goddess herself manifesting over a field where thirteen fires represent a coven of wiccans summoning her. In this piece, I made use of watercolor pencils that I received as an anniversary gift from my girlfriend. I suspect I may have freaked her out a little with my near obsession with witches and witchcraft (in July no less! It's only Halloween to me!). If I did, she had too much grace to let me see it.

At this point, I decided to paint a picture of a black cat. I searched the web, the library and the used book stores looking for the right cat. I think I found one that was relaxed, yet stared back at the viewer in a challenging way that may confront the viewer.
Then, continuing my focus on witches (Halloween may mean dress up and Frankenstein, but it was originally a Wiccan holiday; one of several sabots or witches' Sabbaths - Black Sabbaths. It's the most important holiday on their calendar, so this has been my focus. I may lighten up a little after this. However, before I lighten up, I painted a picture of a girl in Puritan dress circa 1692 Salem Mass. She is at her hearth where a cauldron hangs. she sits with a black cat at her lap and a giant pumpkin by her. For fun I gave her a corn cob pipe. In one of the cards I created, I included a quote from one of the women executed for witchcraft: Mary Easty. She was later exonerated. "I know not the least thing of witchcraft, therefore cannot, I dare not belie my own soul."

Then, finally relenting to the urge to have a laugh, I made a cartoon of Monster proportions. As I'm going to display it with the others, I won't describe it as explanations of cartoons tend to diminish any humor they may possess.

More Weight.

Well, it had to happen; sooner or later I was bound to create another post for my blog. Surprise surprise: I have been painting and creating cards. I painted a cat for Halloween. I think painting may take more out of me than I think, but it's hard to follow up a painting by coming out of the shoot running. I really like this painting. I call it "Bad Luck." I went through a lot of scrap looking for the right cat. I bought a book about cats, which is good because I like cats and will probably paint more.

Next I want to paint a witch; but of course I can't just paint a green skinned, pointy hat wearing, broom riding mother-in-law. No. I want to paint a woman from Salem Mass. circa 1692. I know, I know... these women (and men) were killed for being something they weren't: witches. At least most modern experts agree they weren't guilty of "bedeviling" their accusers. But it is precisely their martyrdom that makes me want to paint them. They were the oppressed, the marginalized. They were the easy targets. There are several quotes which illustrate their courage. One man was pressed to death. This means he was placed between heavy stones and unless he would name accomplices (more innocent people to be tortured and killed), he would slowly be crushed to death. His final words were reportedly; "more weight."

It is really hard to find period costume for the area. I have looked at pictures from "The Crucible," and books containing colonial art, and realised that the time period is the Baroque, and the clothing is similar to Dutch and lowland costume of the same period. This means Rembrandt and Vermeer. Yay! Rubens was Catholic and the Puritans were Protestant which is what the Baroque means to me. The clothing is still similar.

I painted a mermaid for my friend's birthday. I've also been trying my hand at sanskrit caligraphy. The above is pronounced, "Namaste." which means; "the holy in me salutes the holy in you."