Transmutation continued

Further developments for a visual narrative based on the journey of a dark and scribbled figure on the path to Ultimate Awareness.

5~Headed~Hybrid

Recently joined a new blog called the Hybrid Collective, a collaborative effort alongside fellow illustrationists Joel Hustak, Andrew West, Andreas Schubert and Parker Campbell. First post is up and more is soon to unfold.

Here's a taste..

There Is No Banana

Those sneaky simians are smarter than they let on...

Hey folks, this is my first Threadless t-shirt submission. It went through the 7 day voting period, but unfortunately didn't make the cut :(

Might tweak it a bit for a resubmit, but in the meantime I'm working on a few others.

Also posted some additional photos on Flickr..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44420662@N03/4649983593/in/photostream/

::LOVE::UNITY::

First prototype color copies. Compared with the black & white versions below, these have a much greater depth to them. Further still, once I incorporate 3D sculpural elements and holography. Until then, I'm left experimenting with color gradients and layering to evoke more vibrancy.

On the computer screen and especially with my larger prints I've noticed the interesting feature of faces popping up in certain regions of the vortex depending on my proximity to it.

In other words, the human mind has a great ability for spotting patterns, such that these crisscrossing shapes at various fades will often reveal recognizable facial features. Some look happy, some look sad, some look altogether alien:::

I find it fascinating to ponder that perhaps these patterns personify entities residing in a World of Words. A world that we all seem to tap into so freely and draw meaning from. A world with a foundation in Symbol and built by Prose.

This is a Land of Language that exists at the edge of print, between the spaces and lines. It's a realm riding the defining curve of conceptual understanding. It flows through the cultural matrix of sounds, recognized and accepted as speech.

At a certain distance from the image these "faces" will be perceived. Upon closer inspection, they lose their distinct forms and the eye sees only shapes. In the case of these two, the shapes are those of LOVE and UNITY.

Health ~ Wealth ~ Happiness

Composed entirely of the words: (H)ealth (W)ealth (H)appiness. Mirrored and spun, this was quite fun :) I found it a very relaxing and a constantly surprising exercise to create this mandala. One of my first attempts with transparent gradients and am very pleased with the results. I purposefully molded the letters H W H to look similar to ripples and am currently exploring with motion graphics to further this concept.

It is impossible:::

:::to stop a man or woman who will not quit.

I LOVE AND FORGIVE MYSELF

:::Sourcery:::

:::This planet is
a trampoline ~
how high
you jump
is up to you:::
downward tumble,
elastic stance,
graceful motion,
deep in trance ~
formation from
a steady breath,
a leap of faith,
the slate wiped clean ~
escape into
a long lost land,
an ocean blue,
a forest green.
Seek the seekers,
change the view,
wake the sleepers
with eyes renewed.
Stretch, expand
this static shape
take your hand
and grab a friend ~
take the other
and grab the crew ~
we’re here to heal,
to learn, to feel:::
Connect the dots
and flip the page,
shake off the spots
and jump on stage:::

:::Merketta:::

:::§øurcery-active

:::apprentice of dust

:::fractalogical perspective

:::and a total sense of trust

:::in the

CøsmøCøllective

:::and the purpose of rust

:::there's a lust for decay

:::as it paves the way

:::for multiphasmic application

:::by intermorphic vibration

:::and a quantum response

:::through the program modulation

:::of a crystalline formation

:::shifting in relation

:::to the resoNation

:::of a universal operation

:::personified presence

:::in the preparation

:::and proliferation of a

:::forward fixation

:::by uplifting concentration

:::and a humble ambition

:::toward a total condition

:::for pattern

:::recognition

:::feeling the way

:::with the pieces in play

:::molding moments

:::like clay

:::energetic abstraction

:::empty is the cup

:::containing lasting

:::compassion

Love Fractal

My attempt to create a fractal using only the word LOVE. Haven't figured out how to incorporate the Mandelbrot mathematics into the design as yet, but would like to animate it continuously zooming inwards, spirally shifting and morphing into different words and colors.

Nature takes form around the basis of fractals.  However, the smooth triangles, cones, cubes and spheres representative of Euclidean geometry, as archetypal as they are as symbols and commonly found in the world of manufacturing, they do not provide an accurate model the universe. Math for such requires a tad more 'roughness.'

Coined by Benoit Mandelbroit in 1975, the term fractal was derived from the Latin fractus meaning 'broken' or 'fractured.' The fundamental characteristic of fractals is that their structure repeats in a very self-similar fashion at any level of magnification.  This can be found in clouds, coastlines, mountain ranges and lightning bolts, as well as various vegetables and animal coloration patterns.

They are also found within our body as seen with the branching networks of our respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. From the cells and upward into a fully formed human, fractals may even extend unseen into the social framework of civilizations. They link the ancient mystical understanding "As above, so below" with many of today's mathematical and scientific models.

Further still, language itself could very well be considered a multidimensional fractal. After all, what is any alphabet (or font for that matter) but a set of self similar symbols, combined endlessly through writing or speech to evoke layer upon layer of meaning.

...

In the case of a Mandelbrot set, regardless of the extent to which one zooms in on its boundary there is always additional detail to see. During the twelve-second zoom in the animation linked here, the set becomes magnified eleven-million fold. Thus, assuming the first frame is life-size at 45 mm across, a carbon atom would comprise 36 pixels in the final frame.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Mandelbrot_color_zoom.gif

The Wikipedia page on the Mandelbrot set is densely packed with equations, but if you scroll down about halfway there's a beautiful 14 step slideshow of some high res fractal images.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
This one is the 8th in the series...Illustrated below are 10 simple fractal progressions:::

These and more found at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Fractal.html

And for some exquisitely rendered fractal designs check out the extensive galleries at...http://www.abstractdigitalartgallery.com/

Youtube has plenty of great fractal vids as well. Here's one that was made with After Effects...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34zPvmNXTYQ

Body Language

This is a project I've been been working on for the last eleven months or so. It's constantly evolving, with no end in sight. I've displayed it in various venues and have received some great feedback. Now I think it's finally ready for an online presentation.

Essentially it’s a collection of positively charged words arranged in the form of a female figure, ultimately designed to be a reflection of the Divine Feminine.

To give credit where credit is due, I’d like to note that the pose I used was greatly inspired by the Sacred Mirrors series by Alex Grey.

http://www.cosm.org/

It's important that I also delve a little bit into the background of my process to give this project some context. It began when researching the power of sigils and repeated affirmations. For those who aren’t familiar with the term sigil, it’s a ‘magical’ device which is frequently used in occult rituals, often times worn as a talisman or placed in and around an alter or shrine. In effect, it’s a symbol containing a message of one’s conscious desires and aspirations, directed at the subconscious mind.

Since the subconscious absorbs and interprets surroundings through the analysis and recognition of symbolic shapes and patterns, a sigil is meant to be put up somewhere you will see it on a regular basis like a mirror or fridge door. The purpose is that through repeated exposure to this intentionally simplified symbol one can more readily manifest their desires. However, there's a catch... for a sigil to be most effective it must be forgotten. To put it another way, first specify the desire and charge it with intent, then let it go. This can be done by designing numerous sigils, putting them away somewhere for a couple weeks (out of sight, out of mind) and then bring them back out once their individual meanings have escaped your conscious mind. Some sigil makers even destroy them in order to fully let go and allow the 'magic' to run its course. Detachment is crucial.

For a more in depth summary of sigils and sigil construction check this out...

http://home.comcast.net/~max555/book/Sigils.html

So after playing around with sigils for a little while I decided to take one word and manipulate it into a pattern. That word was PEACE. While drawing it in my sketchbook I noticed that from a certain angle the words formed what looked like eyes. In continuing with this thread the natural development was to turn it into a face and then incorporate a variety of words into a full body.

With that to springboard from I took to the task of creating a prototype with 66 words.

The most current version contains 161.

For a closer look to see the words I've used, here are some details of the head, hands, torso and legs.

I've also created a color version and have included the seven chakra system. Printed an earlier version at nearly life size (6' x 4') on a vinyl sheet and it looks absolutely stunning. I'm hoping to print it to fit the side of a building someday...

Inverted version

For easy reference, here's a list of the words I'ved used so far.

Super Sigils!

As I mentioned in the above post, this has been a constantly evolving project that began as a somewhat simple design and has grown increasingly complex. While researching Buddhist artwork and digitally mirroring and adjusting fonts I became inspired to create word mandalas at different degrees of rotation. The first one I made was LOVE. After creating dozens of these with the words used in Body Language, I spun full sentences and then sentences within words. Felt an appropriate term to describe them might be “Suggesdalas.”
Will be posting some color versions in the near future...

I’m currently printing Suggesdala posters and t-shirts and am undergoing plans to extend into a whole line of products. Also open to commissions for personalized Suggesdalas and you can have a name, affirmation, quote, poem or song customized into any language. Pricing differs based on word count and print size.

This pyramid is the companion piece to the "Body Language" prototype with the original 66 words.

Transmutation

A series I'm working on which I may develop into a narrative. Mainly just playing around with color and texture, fast and loose. It begins with a figure awakening in a strange realm of chaotic energy. He quickly becomes aware of a shadowy aura emanating from his body and it doesn't take much longer for him to realize he can control it by focusing and manipulating the white light densely coiled and spiraling within him. That's as much as I have so far, not sure what's next...

Centurypede

A sketch inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. In it the main character Billy Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time" and experiences past and future events out of sequence over the course of the novel. At one point he is kidnapped by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and exhibited in their exoplanetary zoo. The Tralfamadorians just so happen to see things in four dimensions and have already witnessed every instant of their lives. They believe in predestination and say they cannot change anything about their fates, but are able to concentrate upon any moment of their choice.

So to elucidate further, they describe a human life as seen in the fourth dimension to be like a centipede of countless arms and legs stretched out from birth to death. Every moment and movement captured as fragments densely crisscrossing and interacting with countless other centipedes. Too much to grasp in its entirety, so I simplified the concept into a collection of faces that begin at the fetus on the tail end and gradually grow older, finally culminating with a grimacing skull. The swirled ripple around the fetus and portal in the eye of the skull are a linked vortex, representing the process of reincarnation.

Dream Dragon

Started this one on the train and took me a couple days to finish it up. Like my last post, I didn't really have much of formulated image in mind ~ just kept adding to it until it covered two full pages of my sketchbook. Dragons... always a solid subject :-}

Road Sketch

Went on a road trip to Ottawa a couple weeks ago and drew this on the way back. Been drawing a lot more with colored pens lately rather than pencilling in first like I normally do. Started with a few random scribbles and slowly formed it from there. A purely additive process that I really enjoy. Did a lot of good to get this one out onto the page :}

Death & Rebirth

War & Peace

Process shots of a school project with a war and peace theme.

To look back upon human history it would appear that peace is merely the time between wars, considering that a sizable portion of recorded history is riddled with acts of savagery and slaughter. As such, the hourglass is continuously being flipped and the process repeated.

The dove slowly dissolves into the open hatch of a black tank teetering on the precipice of a cascading oil wave. Above the dove sits the Flower of Life, an ancient and universal icon of creation. Also representative of the underlying order contained within apparently chaotic conditions.

In each of the corners spin the gears of war, powered at their core by the ruthless greed of the Industrial Military Complex ~ personified by a snake coiled around a bomb. Standing as pillars on either end of the hourglass are DNA strands containing humanity's potential for creation as well as destruction.

Set behind it all sits Earth's energy source, the radiant inferno that is the Sun.

Fetal Fractal

Stippled in my sketchbook and manipulated digitally, I inverted the tones to give the appearance of stars. This piece represents an evolution of mankind from terrestrial dweller to galactic being.

Linked umbilically, fetal fractals bloom from their foreheads in accordance with the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8).  An unfolding act of co-creation echoing throughout space and time.

^v^

Goddess of the Harvest

This piece is my tribute to Demeter. In Greek mythology she was the most generous of the great Olympian goddesses. Beloved for her service to mankind, she gave the gift of the harvest as reward for cultivation of the soil. Also known as the Roman goddess Ceres, Demeter was credited with teaching humans how to grow, preserve, and prepare grain.

She was the only Greek goddess involved on a day-to-day basis in the lives of the common folk. While others occasionally "dabbled" in human affairs when it suited their personal interests, or came to the aid of "special" mortals they favored, Demeter was truly the nurturer of mankind.

Demeter was also the only Greek goddess who could truly empathize with the human experience of suffering and grief, having experienced it fully herself.

Seen here, she is dancing over a newly seeded crop, bestowing the land with fertility for a bountiful harvest.

Text lifted from www.goddessgift.com

Guardian Angel

This was one of the first pieces I drew in this style and it was during a trip with my parents to Las Vegas last September. The idea came to me after I was playing around with drawing from a single continuous line. Although this image consists of many broken lines, I was aiming for that fluidity of one line interwoven over itself to create form. Contained infinity operating on many levels...

Flight for Freedom

As the eagle swoops and soars through the sky in all its vastness, bold precision and clarity of vision guide it as it glides in total freedom.Expanded the concept further with the addition of a second eagle set against a backdrop of the binary stars of the Sirius system. Approaching an uncharted height while relinquishing past patterns of flight. Entitled "Sirius Soaring"