 This is the first finished painting of three. The other two in finishing stages and hopefully will be able to finish them after moving to a new apartment (or into a tent) and the visit of my brother.
Continuing doing cut ups in paint but the first three where much more loose and these ones come in a more concise, painted flavor. The process is to find images by accident that appeals to the main theme and incorporate them into the painting in a way that Works compositionally in one way or another. I do break rules of composition and use any means necessary to make things work, overally binding the whole painting together. This one is a reflection on the Demon Marbas from the Lesser Key of Solomon. Started getting into the western side of magick again after doing some work investigating Vodou. Felt bad about it, feeling guilty of appropriation. Even though interestingly enough a lot of western magick was appropriated by Vodou. Vevés in Vodou comes from the sigils of western magick. This being introduced as an idea from french magicians wanting to learn about Vodou and Haiti being a French colony this cross pollination was made posible. There is even some Grimoires from Europe that are still being considered important for some practicioners of Vodou. And yes of course there is the enforced integration of Catholosicm… In either case Vodou does stretch so much, much further into african roots and being a White person born in Sweden and serious practicioners of Vodou spend childhood and years and years of living and breathing Vodou I could not justify dabbling in it. So here I am back to European roots even though there always be Baron Samedi from vodou that I will still work with in my art as that is something resonating with me… and for some reason I do not feel guilty about going into that. In either case Marbas is mainly a Demon that is famous for causing harm or to heal and mainly known through the Grimoire The Lesser Key Of Solomon. If you enjoy this one for sure the other two will be appreciated as well.  This is a painting that have been on the back burner for some time now…
It was meant to be cleaner when it got started but having started painting in a new direction this painting got dragged into it and as such it is somewhere inbetween. So it is William S. Burroughs in the guise of Baron Samedi of Vodou fame. The head honcho of the dead forgotten. There is a lot to say of both Burroughs and Baron samedi to get into here as I am too lazy to spend two days writing about it! But for sure some will get the connections and if not just investigate and be fascinated for aeons to come!  It seems that my painting is taking a new turn and feel very excited about it. It have been brewing for some time but is now taking shape and will dominate my output even if there will be deviations. It can also be a direct response to have been working on digital painitng the last months producing prints to sell. They are definitively the opposite of these paintings... (They are also for sale look under prints...) It bridges my interest in doing abstract painting but never been able to let go of the figurative. Also very freeing to not have any directives except to have the painting work and just throw anything into it. The interesting thing is that it works as doing cut-ups in writing. If you have tried to do cut ups and use certain sources it will make sense and relate to the material that gets chosen.  Have written lyrics for music doing cut ups and for example used romance novels and it gave me a poetic love story in twelve lines. Used The corner (the book the Wire was based on) and it was distilled into condensed gangster drama that worked etc. Most interesting results I got, guess was using pornographic stories juxtaposed with technical manuals. In either case it seems that the same principle occurs in these paintings. They do get the same feeling depending on what source material there is laying around and how it interacts with the main attention grabbers of the paintings.  The first one was made around a copy of a drawing my daughter made when she was four and it is called Sophia dreaming.
The second one based around the sigil of a entity used in magick called Emluzias. The main focus goal of that entity is to help you with art, potential and prosperity. So the painting is made as an invocation of Emluzias. The third one has no basis in anything and just started with the skulls (a lot of skulls painted since starting to think about the Ghede and Baron Samedi of Vodou fame) added a bear and then another drawing that my daughter made. It really came out easy and is less complicated than the other two but there is not really anything else to add. I guess by default the painting has to go by the name of Catmaker as I heard the word listening to a documentary about Hieronymus Bosch while painting. Is it possible that there was a mis-hearing?  The Marassa are two twin children important in Haitian Vodou (and probabaly in other Vodou traditions as well).
In bigger Vodou cermonies when you do not know which of the Vodou Loas are going to show up normally there is sacrifice like candy and other things to the Marassa. Because if they show up and they are not happy they can cause trouble as children may do when they are displeased. I hope they like the painting! |
