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.

Huginn and Muninn Print

"Huginn and Muninn Atop the Oracle"

 print made from professional scan of the original painting
original 2011 painting is not for sale
12 x 16 inches
archival acid free rag smooth fine art paper by Craine
100% pigmented and archival ink
150+ years life

EDITION of 25
each print is signed/numbered by the artist
white border matte
professionally scanned/printed
2012

This painting depicts Huginn and Muninn, the two ravens (I made them a two-headed raven here) from Norse mythology who fly around the world everyday and report the events to Odin, the chief god. "Huginn" and "Muninn" mean "Thought" and "Memory", respectively. 

The imagery also contains tarot cards (The Devil and Death) with the original designs that I have treasured for a long time. They belonged to my parents and I always loved using them as a teenager. The crystal ball oracle contains a goat skull, sometimes a symbol for Satanism.

The flowers, narcissus, represent self interest (hence the name) in Floriography (the Victorian language of flowers) and I felt that was rather appropriate with the other Satanic symbols.

Print ships flat in cardboard

email corylou311(at)yahoo(dot)com for inquiries

Catapult Art Mag

Here's my pages in the new Issue #5 of Catapult Art Magazine!

Click HERE to read the whole issue!

Protect and Create Flanking Sight

"Protect and Create Flanking Sight"

acrylic on birch panel

10 x 10 inches, framed

2011

For Modern Eden's "Woodlands" show

Modern Eden Gallery

403 Francisco St

San Francisco, CA 

Show opens Saturday, December 10th 7pm-10pm

Runs through January 15th, 2012

SOLD

Here's the progress shots again:

This piece deals in a small part with my own teenage experiences with the Ouija and Tarot cards; Saturn's seal of protection that the kestrel on the left is holding was something we used to protect ourselves from bad spirits when we used the board.

  

The kestrel on the left (Protect) deals with protection; besides the protective seal, the flowers in it's claws all represent protection in Victorian flower language or floriography (heather, Queen Anne's Lace, juniper), and the bird on the right (Create) represents creativity/artistic expression; the tarot (the five of wands) it holds symbolizes creativity and will, as does the bunch of oregano in it's claws.

So, overall the piece symbolizes how using the oracle signifying Sight (Ouija planchette with the all-seeing eye) to communicate with spirits can lead to artistic inspiration, but you have to protect yourself against evil.  I think that could be an even larger metaphor in itself...

Maybe it's 

"that which inspires can also be dangerous, so you should be on guard". 

New Painting Progress

Here's a piece I'm working on for "Woodlands" at Modern Eden Gallery next month.  This is the first piece (besides a small wooden door hanger) that I've done with the wood grain showing, and I'm absolutely loving it.  I'll definitely be doing more pieces like this in the future.

This piece deals with my own teenage experiences with the Ouija and Tarot cards; the seal that the kestrel on the left is holding was something we used to protect ourselves from bad spirits when we used the board.  

The kestrel on the left deals with protection; besides the protective seal, the flowers in it's claws all represent protection in floriography (heather, Queen Anne's Lace, juniper), and the bird on the right represents creativity/artistic expression; the tarot (the five of wands) it holds symbolizes creativity, as does the bunch of oregano in it's claws. 

So, overall the piece symbolizes how the oracle (Ouija planchette with the all-seeing eye) can lead to creativity, but there should be protection nearby.