
If you gaze into the beetle long enough, you might be able to see them.
Medium: acrylic on board.
I'll be back from vacation early next week and will return to posting paintings based on the nonsense of celebrity gossip. Coming soon: Paris Hilton, Janice Dickinson and the Demented Food Chipmunk!
I love interstellar beetles. Hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation! Gotta go look "bodhi" up in the dictionary.
Posted by: Demon Kitty | March 30, 2007 at 01:14 PM
God knows I love your gossip goodies, and I'll probably get clocked upside the head by many of my fellow GOTA fans, but...
Take your time going back to Gossip World, Genius Girl. I, for one, am happy--nay, giddy as the proverbial English schoolgirl--for the extended visit to Botany Wonderland.
Posted by: Viper Tetsu | March 30, 2007 at 04:47 PM
what am i supposed to see? i see a girl in a beetle, is that it or is there something else??
great painting though
Posted by: 1..1 | March 30, 2007 at 10:00 PM
Great art! I love the ironic renderings of the celebrities and the cultural references... keep up the great work!
Posted by: Idiot Celebrities Blog | March 31, 2007 at 03:04 AM
Calling occupants of interplanetary craft - or interstellar Bodhi Beetles..
Beam me up Scotty!
I love your craft x
Posted by: the domestic minx | March 31, 2007 at 06:46 AM
beautifull!!!
Posted by: alicia | March 31, 2007 at 12:39 PM
thanks for the comments everyone. 1 .. 1, you see a girl in a beetle and I see a mystical priest with aliens in his robe. I'm slightly insane though.
xoxo
14
Posted by: 14 | April 01, 2007 at 11:12 AM
When I looked at this the first thing I thought of were the Talosians from the episode in Star Trek when Spock hijacked Christopher Pike and took him back to Talos IV after he was in an accident. Weird coincidence, or do I just watch too much Star Trek? :) I think I like this one best of all.
P.S. I still want to know why the 5 of hearts is your favorite card!!! :)
Posted by: jerkygirl | April 01, 2007 at 07:33 PM
You may get more comments on Paris' tush, but I like these better. Thanks for sharing all your work!
Posted by: SJK222 | April 02, 2007 at 09:45 AM
14, I stared at this painting for a long time and literally felt myself falling into it. Very cool.
Posted by: janet planet | April 02, 2007 at 05:26 PM
Will you be offering these as prints? They are gorgeous. I particularly like the colors in this one.
Posted by: Noelegy | April 03, 2007 at 01:56 PM
Carl Jung in his formulation of the theory of synchronicity,(the acausal linking of significant events, by means that could not be explained by normal causality), uses a Scarab beetle as an example of how seemingly unrelated events can be connected when viewed in the proper context.
These idea of synchroncity came to him throuh a single event, that shaped the whole orientation of the thesis.
He was treating a female patient who was intractable in her rational, materialistic, matter of fact picture of the world.
For her, artefacts of the unconscious with their attendant numinous implications had very little resonance or real meaning.
It was very difficult for Jung to get her to see beyond this limited proscribed worldview.
Whilst in a session with this patient she related the story of a dream she had in which she was handed a golden scarab beetle.
At that moment Jung became aware of a gentle tapping at the window,turning around he saw a scarab beetle trying to enter the room via the window.
This particular kind of Beetle is an ancient Egyption symbol of rebirth. Subsesquent sessions saw a change in the patient's outlook, allowing for a greater expression of feeling and thought, outside the narrow confines of her previous existence. This can be interpreted as the dream signalling to her, a need to look beyond her previous perspective, with the real beetle actively presaging this change.
By integrating her old and new selves she could be said to have experienced a rebirth of sorts.
Bhodi refers to the Bhudda's realisation of the true nature of reality, with the concomitant breaking free from the chains of Samsara. In mythological terms this is of course another form of rebirth.
The face in the centre seems influenced by the mask one see's in Japanese Noh theatre.
Through the use of lighting,positioning with reference to the other players and other visual artifice, a single mask can portray numerous archetypal emotions.
This either represents the many sided facets of an individual's character, or the way we take on many persona's in different social contexts, depending on the framework which one uses to interpret this symbolism.This could also be interpreted theologically as the many faces of God.
14 also refers to the being in the picture as a priest, who are of course percieved by many, as agents of spiritual transformation.
Finally the picture is called "Interstellar Bodhi Beetle". The transcendent elements of space travel hardly need underlining, especially at a time when our existence here seems so under threat. It is also no surprise that this theme would be used by an artist working on the West coast, where the Western mind has reached the limits of it's spatial expansion. This is the place where much of the pop-culture representation of Alien worlds and Sci-Fi is produced, "to infinity and beyond".
Very interesting.
Fourteen, you are an excellent antenna for your culture's geist.
A quick note to Viper Tetsu. I hope you're spreading the Fuckmuppet meme as far and wide as possible, I won't be satified until I turn on "The Wire" and hear someone using the expression. Brandon Davis using it in some vile tirade would be a dissapointment. But you can't control these things, so I would'nt hold you personally responsible.
I would shy away from terms like "giddy as the proverbial English schoolgirl" though.
I live a few blocks away from a Girls School in London. Every morning, on their way to school the air is filled with "fucking this and fucking that", and the continual use of a particular
Anglo Saxon word that is offensive to many Lesbians and Feminists of the oldschool.
Giddy they are not.
Posted by: Adam Smith | April 03, 2007 at 03:47 PM
I agree with noelegy -- will you be selling prints of this and the snapdragon one? Love them both.
Posted by: TMC | April 04, 2007 at 01:49 PM
your botanic art is wonderful! you should create a separate section for it.
Posted by: ulm | April 06, 2007 at 06:31 PM
Gorgeous!
Posted by: midevil | April 10, 2007 at 05:36 PM
I may be way off here, but to me its the baby suri escape pod timed to coincide with a massive scientological exodus--so long Tomkat!
Posted by: Olrox | April 22, 2007 at 06:57 PM