history

The Price of Freedom

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Eventually, we all have to decide what is worth fighting for. This started as your typical run-of-the-mill sun-kissed model posing on the beach scene, but quickly went dark, heavy, and introspective. There’s too many of the former, sorry. Now it’s uncomfortable history meets model on the beach. Maybe it’s impactful, maybe it does nothing, that’s … Read more

The Price of Freedom

by

Eventually, we all have to decide what is worth fighting for. This started as your typical run-of-the-mill sun-kissed model posing on the beach scene, but quickly went dark, heavy, and introspective. There’s too many of the former, sorry. Now it’s uncomfortable history meets model on the beach. Maybe it’s impactful, maybe it does nothing, that’s … Read more

Inquisition Adjourned

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I promise this is the last of the ‘based off stuff I’ve seen’ art – back to flowers and stuff this week in honor of spring. This was inspired by the movie “Coven of Sisters” (Netflix) wherein a band of women pull back power from a corrupt and unjust system. I won’t spoil it. This artwork is another version of that empowerment – I mean, wouldn’t it be great if someone could dig in the historical record and find a story of a clerical error (pun) allowing a woman to escape her captors and she goes off in the woods, forms a partisan brigade of other ‘witches’, and fights the Naz…. I mean the Inquisition. At a minimum that would make great fiction (idea credit please). Ambushes of caravans carrying witches to ‘trial’ or execution, a love angle, and pissed off popes – awesome 🙂 Has the Church even apologized for 40-100,000 people burned, hanged, or otherwise deprived of life and property?

Modern Magicfare

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It’s the Vietnam War, but with magic! As someone who has studied Vietnamese (Hanoi dialect), one of the cool cultural components that comes along with the language is that the Vietnamese believe in ghosts of ancestors wandering around in the jungle – and, if you extrapolate this to the rich Asian lexicon of mythology (Hint, China mythology is way cooler than European folktales, watch the fantasy movies they are making), then something like this artwork falls within the realm of possibilities.

I put this together over a longer period of time than normal as I’m slammed at my day job, but managed to finish it up late last night.

One If By Land

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This started as another #light study, because light is my favorite thing in #art – I added all the other stuff to make the composition less boring. Thematically, it’s an update of the whole #paulrevere ‘the Redcoats are coming’ schtick at the start of the #revolution and updated to reflect the #multicultural #equalityforall society we’ve become since then. At first it looks like a #woman standing by a #window but notice the weapon, the walkie-talkie and the detonator, & she becomes much more than a vapid #model starting out into space, she becomes a #hero – #new #digital #doodle masquerading as #artwork

The Martyrdom of Doña Liza

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“It was the moment that sparked a turning point in the alternate history of Mexico, when Spanish troops executed the Doña Liza for tending to wounded Aztec rebels. The public outcry eventually led to the ouster of the Spaniards from native lands and the ascension of the United States of Aztlán.” – Tales From the Multiverse

I made that up, like i did the art. I started out today wanting to do a study of the ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leo Da Vinci. It was going well as I was zoomed in getting the facial details right, but when I zoomed back out she looked like Violet after eating the blueberry pie in ‘Willy Wonka.’ I’m sure it was a mistake on my part, but if not, and the facial measurements were true, Da Vinci’s subject should be much bigger in the body.

Anyway, I reset most the settings and started to fix the mess she had become. She was not within the constraints of conventional beauty as I was attempting to fix her, but there was a moment where the unique combination of features I was shuffling around stopped me. She had the perfect look, that of a woman resigned to her fate, but her eyes were defiant, her motives pure – that’s when ‘Doña Liza’ popped in my head, and it grew into the piece that it is.

If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, it doesn’t to me either. The ‘process’ is hard to explain when it comes to life on its own, it just takes putting in the time.

Alix Takes a Lover

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This has been in the works for a week or so, since I watched the show ‘The Last Czar.’ In the show and in #history rumors were rife that the #Empress #Alexandra had taken #Rasputin as a #lover. No one really knows if they were involved or just really really good friends. Certainly, they both knew of the precariousness of their positions should an #affair be found out. Anyway, I decided to put an artistic element to the possibility, for what is more beautiful than two souls trapped within a gilded cage finding l’amour? #digitalart #digital #art #render #historylovers (get it?) #romanov #imperial #czar #tsar

The Scream 1983

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Today’s #doodle takes #edvardmunch ‘s The Scream and updates it to 1983. Why that year? It was the height of the Cold War and the closest the world came to #nuclear war with #Russia – but for the heroic actions of one man, Stanislav Petrov, who should be in everyone’s working memory. On 26 September 1983, the nuclear early-warning system of the #USSR reported the launch of multiple intercontinental #ballistic #missiles from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were felt to be false alarms by Stan Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. He risked his life by not reporting these errors to his superiors, and died in obscurity (but not forgotten). He never got a Hero of the Soviet Union medal, though he was much more than that. Okay, #history aside, the #scream always looked like some form of fiery #nightmare to me so I played with that thought. The people in the background are a take on 80’s #apocalyptic cinema, and it took some work to get the mushroom cloud to look more authentic; there’s a literal sun inside there. #art #digital #digitalartist

Attila’s End

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In the early spring of 453 AD, Attila, ruler of the #Huns was celebrating his latest marriage to the #gothic princess #Ildiko when he had a nosebleed and choked to death on his own blood. He may have had an esophageal rupture, an aneurism, or a genetic condition where a blood vessel weakens over time and eventually ruptures (I learned that from watching Dr. G: Medical Examiner – thanks!). Dr. Garavaglia often says she sees preventable deaths in the morgue due to drinking, and this death happened while drinking.. ergo… Who knows, had he survived, Europe would look a lot different today. Anywho, it was an ignoble end for a man who nearly conquered Rome, but fitting in an ironic sense for someone who thrived on bloodshed. This #artwork shows the moment #Attila’s body bids him adieu and checks out of hotel Mortal Coil. I went for a pseudo-classic #digital #painting totally inspired by drawings of the deathbed scene found while googling him for something totally unrelated. I was intrigued and wanted to put it in a more photo-realistic context. #art #digitalartist #new #history is fun!

Mother of Civilization

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Around 12,000 years ago, while the men were out hunting dwindling big game, a #woman noticed that seeds from wild gatherings dumped on a trash pile began to grow. She took these seeds, planted & tended them, and soon had enough food to more than meet the tribes needs. This pivotal moment for #mankind allowed us to settle down, grow in population, create a #society and do all the glitzier things that followed. Everything from the Roman Coliseum to the Voyager spacecraft, now in interstellar space, would not have been possible without this un-named woman, who, by chance, discovered #farming – #art #digitalart #digitalartist #new #sunset #wheat #history #civilization

Mary and the Last Sinner

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A painting of Mary with long curly hair wearing a pink dress with ruffles, and a halo above her head. She faces a large, menacing purple dragon with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth, emerging from dark, swirling shadows behind her. The scene captures the tense moment from "Mary and the Last Sinner.

I had an entire long post ready to go but thanks to an app crash, I’ll give you the highlights.

I wasn’t going to share this painting. I didn’t think it worthy, but people started to like it, so, here we are.

There’s two themes going on here. First, there’s a piece of Papayrus at Harvard (this is not the Dan Brown / Da Vinci Code angle) that has a line where Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “my Wife”. Imagine that? Going from fallen prostitute to the equal (or better than, in the words of Paul) of Jesus. The documentary I watched “The Gospel of Mary“, started the ball rolling on this idea. I was originally going to paint just her.

As an aside, and from a historical perspective since I’m not religious (there’s a long story involving an ex-wife that caused me to be like the hit R.E.M song with God), I’m fascinated by what got in the Bible, what got left out (Gnosticism, Council of Nicea, etc.), and the power-plays that took place to put down Mary (labeling her a prostitute). So painting this had a lot to do with egalité, as the French would say.

Next I came across a Mark Twain quote that made me pause:

“But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?”

I thought, “who better to bring the word of God to the first and last sinner?” So I had Mary confronting the great vvrym and closing the loop on this Christianity thing – a denouement of sorts, but without the 80’s soundtrack.

The painting had a working title of “Prom Dress Mary and the Pompadour (fixed) Dragon“. That title should explain why I wasn’t going to post it at first. Anyway, here it is.