Bullies No More

"Bullies No More"

acrylic on birch panel

20 x 20 inches

2015

$1,100.00
info@moderneden.com to purchase

Here's my painting for "Storybook", curated by Michael Cuffe of Warholian for Modern Eden gallery in San Francisco.

For this show, each artist chose a childhood book to reinterpret in their style.  I picked my favorite children's story, "The Littlest Rabbit" by Robert Kraus.  I've loved this simple, illustrated tale since childhood, and not only have used it as inspiration for another painting in the past as well as this one.

In "The Littlest Rabbit", a tiny bunny's life is made miserable by the bigger bunnies just because he's smaller.  When he finally grows, he seeks revenge against his bullies and stands up to protect the new littlest rabbits against their foes.  The title in this piece comes from the line in the book,
"All bullies are cowards!"

In my painting, I wanted to focus on the dark, ominous tone of the book, despite it being a children's story.  My Littlest Rabbit sits between altar candles lit upon the bullies' skulls.  Black magic may have been used to off the foes, who stand guard over him now, in death.

In the book, the Littlest Rabbit was described as being no bigger than a flower, so I wanted to use a lot of Floriographic (the Victorian language of flowers) imagery to compliment elements of the story; sunflowers (the bullies' haughtiness), morning glories (the evanescent loveliness of life), plum blossoms (courage, happiness, perseverance), and iris (promise).

The Astral Ones

"The Astral Ones"

acrylic on cradled birch panel

12 x 12 inches

2014

$900.00
available HERE

Here's my painting for Modern Eden's "Universe: The Art of Existence" curated by Warholian's Michael Cuffe.

For this piece I wanted to step a little bit outside my comfort zone and paint my ghostly animals as constellations among the stars in the sky.  There is also a reference to Hecate, in the triple moon symbol at the top; the triple face goddess.

The show opens this Saturday, April 12th in San Francisco and boasts an impressive lineup of artists' interpretations of the universe and cosmos.

Eight of Pentacles

"The Eight of Pentacles"

acrylic and silver leaf on birch panel

11 x 14 inches, deep set panel

2013

$600.00

(SOLD)

Here's my painting for the Eight of Pentacles card for Modern Eden's show, "Tarot: Art of Fortune", curated by Warholian's Michael Cuffe.

This is the traditional imagery of the card:

Per Wikipedia, the divination usage is as follows:

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.  

Divinatory meanings:  Work, employment, commission, craftmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage.  Steady patience with achievement kept in mind.  Reversed: voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury.  It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.

On learntarot.com, I found that the card means diligence, knowledge and detail.

So, for my interpretation I wanted to create a creature that represents knowledge and wisdom, hence the eight winged-barn owl.  The creature is based on Glaucus, Athena (the Greek goddess of wisdom)'s owl, that was seen as a symbol for wisdom and vigilance for it's ability to see in the dark and keep itself awake at night.  

My owl has a third all-seeing eye, silver-leafed pentacle for each wing, and represents new knowledge overcoming old, dead ideas (the skull that it is perched upon) and clutches a magnifying glass to better read by candlelight. It wears the 4th Pentacle of Mercury talisman around it's neck, which gives knowledge and understanding of secrets and hidden things. 

Along with the magnifying glass, the owl holds a bunch of clover (signifying hard work and education in Floriography, the Victorian language of flowers), rosemary (wisdom) flanks the pentacle above it's head, and blue salvia (wisdom) and cherry blossoms (good education) peak out from behind the book.

Here's the flyer for the show, opening this Saturday, March 16th in San Francisco.

It will be an amazing show with a ton of fantastic artists interpreting the tarot.