When I created Anubis a year ago it made sense to me when my dad was on hospice.
But, why I put fireworks in the background didn't make sense. I saw skeletons in the smoke. And I just did it anyway, and left the question of "Why?" hanging.
Someone asks now: Was it a premonition to what's happening around us this Fourth of July 2020? Anubis, symbol of death, with fireworks.
Some people would say yes. Some people believe the Great Devine works through artists. That artists feel and express the pulse of that part of life that is beyond human intention and consciousness. That when artists get into that "Flow Experience" that's when the Great Devine speaks through them.
My story is:
I decided to do a collage of Anubis because I saw a dog on my morning walk. I thought it was just my impulsive innocence. That dog reminded me of Anubis. That dog had pointy straight-up ears. I did not know much about Anubis except for that he was a guard dog for Egyptian tombs or something.
But why that whole image popped into my head at that moment I didn't really know.
I discovered from the internet that Anubis is the God of dead. His job is to perform the ritual weighing of the heart of the dead to determine if they get to enter the afterlife.
Well, it made sense to me then to just work with it because of my dad.
My dad died peacefully in his home, under the care of hospice, about a month after I finished the collage.
Visual images are such an impactful form of communication for me.
I used to never know why I chose one image instead of another. It has always been an impulse within me to make pictures. And once that image was outside of me I could take as much time as I wanted to look at it. And to consider it.
I love to look
and think.
I began to notice that my pictures are a snap-shot in time, using visual metaphors for what is going on around me right now. Revisiting those images tell me a whole story in a glance. They contain all the feelings, thoughts, surroundings, who was there, and all the subtle sensory available to me, during that snap-shot in time. They give me an opportunity to study life more consciously. To be more aware.
Because of that awareness; I decided working with Anubis, in the slow building process of collage, the way I do it, might help me work through preparing myself for my dads impending death. If visual images can communicate relevant consciousness to me, perhaps I can grow myself by creating this image.
It did prepare me to let go in a way.
Losing a parent that you are close to, is not easy. I discovered that Anubis represents a story about the transition from life to death. About making your life meaningful in a good way toward humanity so that your heart may be weighed and you will have eternal life. My dad's life lives eternal in my heart now that he is physically gone. My dad lives eternal in his tangible creations and engineering contributions. Thinking about Anubis' story helped me think about how my dad lives eternal in this way.
Today when I look at the collage, the subject is very personal and reminds me of the passage of a year since my dads life. The fireworks mark the time of year for me.
But now I see another meaning in it about the extensive loss off lives, because of the novel Corona Virus being in an upsurge since the Fourth of July. More death approaches. More hearts to weigh.
So the question still stands: Is this a premonition?
I'm curious what you think. Premonition? Is this even a symbol that you relate to? What do you think of this image?
Other Art news:
June, for the last 6 years, is typically a month that I create a Linocut block print to participate in the Sebastopol Center for the Arts Street Printing Festival. Well, due to the shut-down, that did not happen this year. Instead, I had great fun printing mono prints on a gelli-plate, a soft rubbery substrate, that I apply paint to and can take a print. Or two. Or three. Even reprinting over other prints. I can use other stamps and objects to press into the inked gelli plate to create textures and designs.
I have added several of these new mono prints to my website, so take a look there for more.
