Posts Tagged ‘Art’
Happy Halloween!
Posted on: October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween everybody! I just love the energy of this day of the year. The veil is really thin and I do feel more presences around than usual. The air is thick with spirits – you watch out 🙂
Timing couldn’t be better for my newest piece. I wanted to give you a sneak preview of “Plutonia”. Plutonia is like a female version of Pluto, the God of Underworld. It is my unofficial mythology. Since I create Goddesses and not Gods. Enough of Gods. Enough of father figure divinities… God this and God that.
Since Halloween has its roots in Celtic lore, I thought also it was appropriate to celebrate the
“Goddess Below” as it is called, the Goddess that resides in Underworld. Just because she is in Underworld, and she is dark, does not mean that she is evil. Maybe terrible – perhaps, sometimes, but certainly not evil. She was also an inspiration for the piece I am working on. And faeries… did you know that two times a year they change their residence, on Samhain (Halloween) and on Beltain (1 May). It’s supposed to be a dreadful sight, to see them move around, and woo to those who see the Faery procession… they can be snatched away to Faery Land or be turned into stone. Maybe that’s how it came about that Halloween is a spooky day. If you ask me I would stand outside screaming, “Hello, take me, take me!” but it did not happen until now. All those Halloweens I spent outdoors… they could not care less. Sigh.
I was asked to tell and show more of how I actually make IT. The Art. The answer is I dunno. I just make. There is no technique as such an no magical formula. I can share photos of pieces as they progress, I can answer some questions. “Plutonia” is now half-way there, I still need to make some figure adjustments.
© Karisma, Plutonia, 150x100cm
Today was a blessed sunny Halloween day, I even had no heating on in my studio. My black cat Aschi was assisting me by lounging in the sun rays…and now candles are lit, I am sipping my tea as I write this post and once I send it, I am back to my studio to flow with the Spirit of Samhain.
wooooooo
Don’t forget to fly by my website http://www.karismartic.com or join me on facebook for more Goddess talk http://www.facebook.karismagoddessart.
Faux Flowers and Creativity
Posted on: September 24, 2012
Creativity is just around the corner. In fact, it is not just around the corner, creativity is our intrinsic nature. Staying creative seems hard sometimes, because we put ourselves into the box, limit ourselves with thinking about what is and what isnot creative, and how the creativity should be expressed. Especially it concerns artists. We tend to think that we should follow this way or another, or stick to a particular technique. But sometimes, that kills all the creative juices that are ready to bubble up and flow.
Once in a while it does not hurt to use an unusual mixed media. If this idea comes to your mind, trust it, don’t be afraid to break your routine! Follow it, it is YOUR art after all and it is your creative expression!
The Universe had a peculiar way of showing me this by an experience that I in Brazil. Once upon a time (and more precisely, two years ago) I found myself in Abadiania, Brazil. This is about 100 km away from capital city Brasília. Upon my arrival from Europe I discovered that the customs expropriated almost all my art supplies (as they were too flammable perhaps) and I was left only with a few tubes of oil paint. The nearest art shop worth visiting was miles apart in Brasília. I was guided to a shop in a nearby town which could have something close to what I needed.
My suspicions were justified – a 30 min taxi ride later there I was in the nearest town faced with shelves upon shelves of... faux flowers! Most were tacky and gaudy beyond description. Strangely enough, they also had stretched canvas and a wide collection of sewing and decor materials to offer.
So the idea was born to combine whatever was offered in this strange boutique into a collage! With a limited choice of oil color I had, the faux flowers and some Swarovski crystals I have created one of my favorite pieces – “Mother Mary of the Casa” – in a unique and crazy style of my own.
Faux flowers is such an unusual medium for me, who is used to paint in Old Masters technique, classical oils and tempera style. Personally I find faux flowers super cheesy, I can’t even tolerate them in public toilets; but – and here is an example of transforming mundane to sublime – even a fake flower can become an object of art. It is just about how you use it.
This piece was really divinely inspired, and perhaps the Providence guided me to the faux flowers, or maybe it was Mother Mary herself. It seems like a string of seemingly dull events can lead you into something inspiring and divine, if you allow yourself to be receptive and alert enough to see behind the curtains.
Something of the energy in this piece makes people stop and look at it for a long time. It was reported by some that it had opened their hearts and the 3d eye chakra. Would I not lose my art supplies that day, I wonder, would all that magic happen?
Thank you for reading, please enjoy my “Maria de Casa” below, 100×70 cm, oil on canvas, mixed media and if you would like to see more, visit my website www.karismartic.com.
Mo-o-o-o-o-dern
Posted on: January 14, 2009
- In: Art
- 5 Comments
Happy New Year! It is going to be the year of the Ox in a few days (by the way, my year :)) so maybe it is due to this fact I find so many references to cows in outer reality. For example, in a word “modern” in reference to art. Everywhere I turn my ears, I hear “mo-o-o-o-odern”, sounds like a heard of cows, with a slight variations on “post-mo-o-o-o-odern” theme. What is “modern”, anyway? To me it means “contemporary”, “fresh”, “new”… Is that art what we call modern, is it that new? It already has been a few decades… and the term “post-modern” sounds completely absurd. And what about what comes after that? “post-post modern”? So I am an artist, painting today, for my contemporaries (myself included). Am I making modern art?
I am including my latest couple of paintings, and asking the readers to tell me, what category does it fall into? I think it does not fall into any. I think real art is an eternal thing, it is never just “modern” or “post-modern”…
The first one is the beautiful Yemanja, the Patroness of Brasil, the goddess of the sea and the moon. She is also closely related to Nossa Senhora Aparecida, a dark Madonna of Brasil. They both have dark skin and are associated with water. And the mermaid on the right is your humble servant 🙂 I painted this recently in Dec 2008, while in Abadiania, Brasil, at the healing center of Joao de Deus. The energy there is amazing and the painting was saturated with the healing Light of the place.
The second piece is Divine Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of Love and Beauty, and the patroness of arts. I feel very closely connected to her, she has been my inspiration for many years. This piece is 150×100 cm, oil on canvas with golden leaf ornamentation.
Magical Art
Posted on: November 4, 2008
- In: Art
- 4 Comments
This is my very first art blog ever! Exciting! I am going to dedicate it to my two most favorite subjects – Art and Magic. What do you get when you combine Art and Magic? You guessed right, Magical Art! Art essentially is magic; when we create, it is as if we become the co-creators with the Divine… creating our own unique universe. There are moments of a profound mystical revelation that come upon me when I open my mind and soul and let the energy of the Universe flow through me.Isn’t magic really an application of one’s will to mold the forces of Nature? Isn’t that the same we engage in when we paint or sculpt or use any other media for our creation? We can bind our heart’s desire into the image, and that image becomes a talisman. It becomes a trigger for our subconscious mind. It becomes a battery, it becomes a point of attraction for the Universal forces, harmonious with the subject of our magical artwork. Higher the force we invoke when creating our magical art, better the result would be… some sort of invocation of the Divine is compulsory when creating a magical piece of art. It need not be complicated: it can be a prayer, it can be an appeal to the Divine to assist with the task ahead. Some of you may already be experienced magicians with a ritual of their own which they may perform before creating their magical art.
I personally like to appeal to the creative force of the Universe, to the Divine Feminine, which for me is the Egyptian Goddess Isis, the Goddess of magic AND of art (they are the same). So… I simply say “Isis is all things and all things are Isis” and try to bring her powerful creative energy from beyond the aethyrs, into the crown of my head and let it flow through all my chakras; as the energy reaches each chakra, I vibrate the name of Isis. I see it as a blue scintillating Light, and as the light hits the chakra, with each vibration I feel the chakra grow bigger and brighter. I try to charge up my chakras as much as possible and then, when I feel that the power is sufficient, and I could not hold it anymore, I let it burst out of my hands into the canvas… Of course it is better to have an idea of what would you like to paint. To have a sketch is advisable…
The Priestess of Isis
I am not going to get into a great detail on how to make a piece of magical art. Not now. Instead I am going to spread it out in a few blogs, and if you are interested in how to create your personal,magical, talismanic work of art – subscribe and check in regularly! There are many exciting ways to do it and the results can be life-changing!
Naturally, I am going to share the magical art I am working on. Actually right now I am working on this huge piece, 150x100cm, oil on canvas with gold and silver leaf. It depicts the Goddess, it is kind of a mixture of maybe two or more goddesses – Isis and Maria, and also Sophia of the Gnostics. It conveys somewhat the idea behind the tarot trump “The World”.
Please also have a look at my earlier pieces in line with the subject of Isis, the patroness of art and magic. “Isis, the Mighty Mother”. That piece was actually exhibited in Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien The Art Academy of Vienna, Austria ( I live in Austria). It was a part of a common project and the subject was the resurrection of the works of art that disappeared during the WWII… and only the short descriptions remained. However we were open to interpret them however we wanted. The piece I was to resurrect was by Domenico Puligo, a Renaissance Italian painter of Florentine school. The subject itself was “Madonna with child” and what I came up was something like this piece, which I later called “Isis,the Mighty Mother“. It is made with a Venusian palette of old rose and turquoise blue and the crown of the Goddess is sprinkled with Swarovski crystals. I also used a lot of golden leaf (Sun) and silver leaf too, for the Moon and the decoration of her mermaid tail.
This other piece was made this summer, it is called “The Priestess of Isis”. Have you noticed I am an Isis fan? 😉 there should be a fan club. I shall start one! This painting is dedicated to the brave, enchanting, illusive, magical, beautiful, fascinating women who kept the flame of Isis cult burning from the time of Ancient Egypt to the modern day: the Priestesses of Isis. With the reign of Christianity, Isis worship went underground; the cult has become occult; once venerated priestesses have become mere witches in the public eye and ignorant burned them at stake. However they survived and they live on, reincarnating from one life to another, to keep the Isis flame burning on this plane for the benefit of humanity. I made this painting as a tribute to these women who are not celebrated enough, mentioned enough and through the retrospective of our historians, they hardly existed at all… the knowledge of them is so scarce.
Here I also used the combination of rose/turquoise oil paint on canvas, as well as I used golden leaf which I tend to use a lot. The Priestess, clutching the Ankh to her chest, stands in the middle of a giant lotus, which emerges from the torrid waters around. She seems to be so vulnerable, and fragile, however she is protected by the giant lotus petals closing around her (Isis will always take care of her own) and also she holds the key of power – the Ankh. The lotus flower is also very fiery looking, it was meant to allude to the stake that the priestesses, accused of witchcraft, were burned at. So though it seems that she is burned at stake and should be suffering, in reality she has all the knowledge, protection and power over the elements, symbolized by the Ankh she is holding. Despite multiple offers, “The Priestess of Isis” is not for sale at least for a while, until I express my passion for Isis in some new found way. However you can view almost all my magical art and easily make a purchase at www.karismartic.com
Thank you for reading! Subscribe to read further on how to make your own magical art.
Karisma
KarisMa, Goddess Artist 