BRAVE NEW WORLDPRIVATE LIVES OF PUBLIC STATUESICARUS Icarus flies too close to the sun, and the wax that holds his wings together melts from the heat. Symbolic of over-reach, hubris.MIRAGE BODHISATTVA: going/returning. After achieving satori, Bodhisattvas vow to return to help all sentient beings achieve enlightenment.AEGEAN SUMMER A book cover for an imaginary gay romance novel.ROMANCE BY SOCIAL MEDIA Too late to swipe right or left…SAILING INTO THE SUNSET (my high-school art painting) MEDIA REFLECTIONS How media reflects male standards and ideals.EROTIC #2TRIPPIN’ …on “non-prescriptive” medication.ENCOUNTER A shaman’s first encounter with his spirit animal.JUMPER Deciding whether to take the plunge. Some jumps never end.SEA OF MEMORY AND FORGETTING Crossing the River Styx, souls of the dead see the ghosts of their past lives.CIRCLING CROWS (homage to Andrew Wyeth)MEDUSA, or The Moral Panic in the Church.PIETACATCHING A TROPHY BOYFRIENDSTALKINGSNOW ANGEL JESUSZOO STORIES A satire about self-involved people. In the isolation inside our heads we become neurotic, or start losing it completely. (‘right click’ the image for a bigger size!)METAMORPHOSIS While day-to-day life is a blur, each stage in life is a distinct and separate from the one “hatched” it: childhood, student, bachelorhood, married life, work, retirement, old age.CLOUD SHIRTMORNING COMMUTEEntrance to the Underworld Referencing Dante’s “Inferno”, the entrance to a person’s underworld is through one’s own psyche.FORCE OF NATURE: tornado.AWAKENING Breaking out of isolation into the light of awareness.END OF DAYS When the last of our psychological masks drop- either in enlightenment or death, our spirit transforms and continues its journey.NRA: GOD OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTIONWashington Crossing the Delaware (Emanuel Lutze, 1851)REPUBLICANS CROSSING THE DELAWARE This also references Aesop’s fable The Emperor’s New Clothes. The tea cup holds right wing Tea Party members: Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz. The boat is made of money that keeps the party afloat, the life preservers ban minorities from using them. NRA spokesman Wayne La Pierre’s (bent over with gun+skull belt) money fuels the party. The hyena is a Republican tradition: Richard Nixon’s VP, Spiro Agnew was portrayed as one. It’s necklace are donors who gave $50+ million each. The dwarf, George Bush (with baby soother penis) holds down his brother, Jeb Bush, who’s campaign sank without a trace. The soldiers on the ice represent the hundred of thousands civilian and military dead left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vultures are attracted by Dick Cheney and the Republicans’ pathological love of killing and carnage to prove their manhood and right to lead the country. Paul Ryan’s stigmata symbolize his job controlling the various factions.Hope and Despair. The sea reflects their inner turmoil.HOW THE WEST WAS WON The Wild West has been commercialized, but the myth lives on.Zeus and Ganymede in art. Ganymede was a shepherd on Mt Ida near Troy. Overcome by the youth’s beauty, Zeus transformed himself into an eagle and abducted Ganymede to Mt Olympus, where he became the god’s official ‘cup bearer’. “The myth was a model for the Greek custom of paidersatia, the socially acceptable erotic relationship between a man and an adolescent male.” (Wikipedia)ZEUS AND GANYMEDE The eagle is identified with the sun, a symbol of Eternity outside the field of time because of its unchanging nature. Here the eagle conveys a person’s spirit into Eternity.St Sebastian in Renaissance art. He was the most painted male figure after Jesus. A Roman soldier, he was martyred for not renouncing his faith. Interestingly, he didn’t die of his wounds, but was nursed back to health.ST SEBASTIAN WITH PUTTI Art and society from the Middle Ages to the present fixated on the female nude; how women’s bodies are offered up for male pleasure and possession. St Sebastian was a chance to explore male sensuality, but the soldiers clearly show society’s hostility to its expression.Resurrection: Renaissance artistsTHE RESURRECTION: On The Third Day. RIVER OF OUR LIVES The hero starts his journey by entering the River of Life. Our ancestors and all who have been before us- though we don’t see them, we live in the society they created, and their spirits are embedded in the world river in which we live.DREAMING Brahman dreams the universe and all gods. He’s dreaming the Tree of Life on which we hang, separate, yet joined together. We are dreaming our life.COMMITMENT ISSUES: it’s not you, it’s them! Just because we’re immature and self-involved, doesn’t mean it’s out fault relationships don’t work out. Why are they all leaving? What’s wrong with them????Birth of Venus, Botticelli, 1484-6Birth of Venus’ Twin Brother Obviously, Venus had a twin brother. Obviously he was born in California. Obviously the paparazzi were there! Too bad they’re so obsessed with the perfect image, they don’t notice the wave that’s about to drench them.SURFACING As one floats on the surface of life, everything seems fine. In the depths can lurk unacknowledged dangers/issues that can cause havoc. In Hinduism/Buddhism, the lotus symbolizes spiritual purity- rising from the mud and blossoming in the sun.Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch, 1510GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS The modern garden is decadently hedonistic; offering infinite pleasures to titillate the senses. Here food size is symbolic of its importance.THE SINGLES BAR A woman has to go through a lot of guys to find one worth being with.THE CHALLENGE Fate (shadowy figure upper left) pulls the hero to his next life challenge. Success (upper right) transcends the world, and Failure (upside down figure) falls into the abyss. The two profile faces (lower left) are our subconscious mind alert for the world acting on us. The birds are our spirit helpers scouting the way ahead of us.ASPECTS OF FATE
MAN AS MYTH
ASCENDING The birds symbolize how fast life whirls around us. In the calm center, as we grow spiritually, we start to dissolve into the air above us.PULLING THE WEIGHT OF TRADITIONINTO THE WILDTHE UNEXPECTED ADVENTURE While trying to avoid superficial things (getting a suntan), we can become blind to where Fate is steering us, somewhere we may not want to go. (The stone face is the entrance to Goa Gajah meditation caves in Bali, Indonesia, built in the 9th century.)PRESENT/FUTURE. The old men are looking at their future looming before them.THE KISS The left figure references Michelangelo’s sculpture: The Dying Slave.
