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mythfits — Power
Published: 2007-10-14 04:13:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 5974; Favourites: 87; Downloads: 0
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PowerOctober 2007
May our meditations on the form and face of power ripple across the global mind, awakening the charge of power's awesome responsibility, and freeing each of us to manifest our highest good in the reflection of all.
We shall all sacrifice.
Freedom is the power and the knowledge to choose the sacrifices that we make.
With the exception of the "observation boxes," all elements were either drawn in pencil and then digitally hand painted, or painted completely with a Wacom Tablet in PS2. The observation boxes were first constructed as a sculpture and then photomanipulated in PS2. No over tracing was used throughout the piece. Text design was done in PS2.
Most of the details are lost even in full view.
Links to Detail Frames:
Full image at screen size
Lower Left
Middle section
Lower Right
Stage
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Comments: 22
astonishing work... so well done 
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Definitely does justice to the truth that "we are spiritual beings on a human journey..."
Exquisite work
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Thank you. I like your connection between the piece and your quote.
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thats so incredibly detailed, and the concept is pretty damn deep man
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Thanks for sharing this awesome piece, I've added it to my favs so I can study it more...
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Thank you. It's a privilege to make these artful connections.
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For all the weight of subject this piece conveys, its overall effect on me is light, is joy.
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Thanks for sharing this. There is much power in the light of joy.
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Well crap! I have spent the last 20 minutes writing about this piece of work and just now hit the stupid mouse pad on my laptop and lost every bit of it. Oh well, let's just say "Man, this is a fabulous masterpiece that should go in a gallery somewhere for the whole world to see!" I am sure my thoughts were pretentious anyway. Who cares? Right?
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I care. Thoughtful reflections are among our greatist gifts. There's nothing pretentious in honesty.
I'm sorry you lost your post. It's so frustrating. Thanks for taking the time.
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Wacom tablet?!?!?! Wow, that's something I have not heard in a long time... (as when Ben Kenobi reminisced about the last time someone referred to him as "Obi-Wan")
Wow!
I just love it when artistically skilled people are intelligent, and when intelligent people are artistically skilled, but most of all when intelligent, artistically skilled people have wisdom and find ways to create in the world and to share it with others. Something meaningful, deep, thought-provoking, soul-provoking, powerful...
POWER.
What a tremendous undertaking, to "fit all of the elements in without exploding into clutter..." I dare say you have pulled it off my friend!
Your visual work is a lot like your drumming. Complex, brilliant, precise, refined, and a lot of inspiring content.
In a way I find the work to be a modern mental mandala. There are the images to perceive individually, and then as a whole in relationship to each other. The same applies with the words and symbols. Layers, and layers... Certainly a clear message, but also enough to allow for contemplation and for the beholders to extract, project, and find their own meaning in it.
I agreed witht the suggestions about atmosphere. Even with all the layers and different elements, it feels just a bit flattened and 2D. I think I say that because everything is in focus, in the foreground, and it's all right out front. Perhaps I'm too photo oriented, but a little more depth of field (could be attained through controlled blurring --- not burning) would/could really pop this piece out!!!
I find it interesting that the stage is water with an iceberg and a burning bed, with four black daggers as bedposts and a temple in the genital area... And the baby demon (perhaps similarity to the demon Upasmara -- the one that Shiva Nataraj is dancing on?) in the bed with a remote control in hand...
You have a way of showing me things from different perspectives, and inspiring me to find attraction/beauty in things I probably would not have on my own... Ah... The purpose of art as expression, reflection, and communication...
I'd like a poster!!!
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Thank you for taking the time to give my your thoughtful comments. I so deeply appreciate the opportunities to share and grow.
The more you look, the more you'll find.
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Love it! It has a similarity to my fraternity's crest, the scale balanced on one side with the few and the other with the many. In ours there are two phis (Φ
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It seems you are piercing into the divine nature of this concept - power - along with the other vocabulary you have explored. These massive words - power, excellence, virtue, love, death - maybe even all words - are divine. I am not talking about a kind of platonic Idea, but the unobstructed meaning of a word.
Your weaving together of spiritual and political symbols works very well (the burning monk strikes a deep chord). The phrases scattered throughout the composition entice the viewer to explore the work - a technique that I would to explore. A problem with 2-D artwork is that a viewer can just glance at it and continue on, yet I think words on it can have just enough magnetism to pull a viewer into the image for some time. Wow, I want to try that now.
Something I think you can work on is atmosphere. All of the symbols and parables saturating the work are very straightforward yet they seem somewhat like puzzle pieces. Techniques like lighting effects, color reflecting off different elements, or just linear styling can unify it even more. For example, in the reflective scale cups you could add skin color and the blue architectural form's color onto it to tie it together. And, you could add some of the surrounding colors onto the white spiders, which stand somewhat separate from the composition. Also, use the flames from the burning monks to illuminate their surroundings, add orangey highlights, etc. Basically, you could weave the colors together more, use more lighting effects.
Have you recently looked at Alex Grey's Cosmic Christ? Power reminds me of that, and your general composition of an ascending storyline.
Honestly, I love the work, and have contemplated it for a while. If you're not dead-set on it being complete, I think with a relatively little more work it can be enhanced even more.
(PS How did you headline the critique box with "Advanced Critique Encouraged"?)
namaste
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I made some of the changes you suggested. Thank you once again for helping me to grow and express. I haven't updated the details yet.
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As always my friend, I'm grateful for your thoughtful reflections. Unification of these elements, without dividing them into quadrants, as in Grey's "Cosmic Christ," was part of my goal as well as my challenge. I've always wanted to climb inside the visual environments so that my eye can explore the map from the within. I found it to be an enormous challenge to simply get this many different elements into appropriate intellectual and aesthetic harmony without exploding into clutter. I think your recommendations regarding the lighting effects are on, and they will help me to further refine my work, and perhaps this piece. Can you help me understand a bit more of what you were thinking in regard to the "linear styling," or was this just for general consideration?
On the use of language, I find that it is important to have real clarity about the symbols and words that are being orchestrated. Complex ideas, both visual and conceptual, represent architectures of meaning. When I am integrating ideas in this way, I think that is essential that I am clear about what it is that I actually have to say. I pay close attention to both my intentions, and my latent expressions as they are revealed in the meditative/visionary process. The symbols and words are all meticulously positioned and aligned to stimulate particular patterns of inquiry, streams of consciousness, emotional response, and diverse narratives on the nature and face of power. A significant portion of my life has been spent constructing and analyzing these conceptual edifices in their written form. Their visual expression presents new opportunities and new puzzles. Where academia is concerned with the high fidelity of complex communication, visual art and mythopoetics invites much more subjective opportunities for resonance.
You can select "advanced critique encouraged" when you upload your images. I think you can go back and select this from the edit deviation menu as well.
Thanks again. I so look forward to your next creation.
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