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Description
For those interested, instead of mass dumping a big explanation for all the big and small things..letting people have the freedom to interpret my work as they wish. As ambiguous as I enjoy my work can be, everything has a purpose, meaning, source and imprints of inspiration.
Apocryphal overall, in the simplest of statements, is a surrealistic illustration of ancient Pagans being exposed to the idea and inevitable plague of Christianity for the first time, by having a sacred space desecrated in the name of religious conversion and cultural assimilation. (The word "Apocryphal" itself means (of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.) Probably now currently one of my more strongest, efforted, and representational compositions of myself, my interests, beliefs, and my alias Indigasphyxia as an artist. I have a very, very large, extensive paganistic background..including an entire childhood of being practically raised in the conifer forests of New England, to spending my entire duration at college with a traditional family and community of Lakota and Dakota Native Americans..very actively involved in traditional ceremonies, dances, and spiritual rites, to my mere personal therianthrope beliefs and overall interest in nature-based people. My personal experience and even being raised a Catholic had shed some pretty negative light on my views of it growing up, especially the more I matured and came to follow what I personally felt connected to..i.e. nature-based spiritual paths. Of course the more you dwell into those, the more you learn in history how they were "dealt with" by traveling missionaries and the overall impact of Christianity and its sects on pre-Christian, indigenous people around the world.
The first frame, with the owl is seated itself on a sacred space. Unlike Christian and other modern, powerful religions of the world, paganism (and by pagan, I will clarify, I mean to say all pre-Christian religions indigenous to peoples prior to invasion, colonization, and conversion) tend to be the only beliefs which center natural creations and phenomenons as sacred spaces and sacred places to worship, or to escape to further reconcile themselves with higher powers or to commune with said power. The owl in my experience in western Plains indigenous beliefs tends to be an omen of death, especially if its heard. (I know many pagan cultures revere owls as a very majestic symbol of wisdom, but of course beliefs and traditions vary.) The barn owl particularly tends to have a very mysterious, alien-like face, and I chose it specifically for this kind of omen. Below the owl of course are painted pictographs of various spiritual omens and symbols that would possess medicine (spiritual power). Many of which have been crossed out in black paint by the invading missionaries..with a wooden-crafted cross shoved into the middle of this sacred monument. The piece entirely captures perhaps either the return of individuals to such a meaningful sight, or perhaps the reports of the site had been desecrated..considering the plague-doctor inspired individual tends to come across as a very powerful, spiritual leader of sort.
The second frame with the growth above the raven man of course is as natural as it can get, a tree of sorts, with the surrealistic quality that it itself can see and observe the desecration. Many pagan cultures of course revere trees in countless ways..to relatives, to spiritual beings, to gods themselves. Countless legends and stories all across the world have some sort of story that deals with personifying trees, and it truly fascinates me considering they're so tall and mighty..and yet remain so quiet, so motionless. This also relates to my finding that trees have been found to communicate with one another through clicks? Fact check me, but that sounds undeniably fascinating. My intent when drawing this was supposed to be some kind of mythical growth coming from the raven man himself, but it also can easily be planted in the ground behind him. Either way it has some clutching hold to her followers..touching and reaching to all three of them in some way.
The deer-like crouching individual was probably where the drawing initially started, but figured I'd use that frame to discuss all three beings in the piece. The deerman itself of course represents the animalistic, feral nature that humans still possess, whether we accept we are animals at all or not. The alchemy, occult-related symbols of Antimony pop up all over him, which tends to be the symbol of the wolf, and the animalistic tendencies found in human nature itself. He represents all hooved, plant eating animals. With that of course where you have prey species, you have predator species..like the wolf-man. Also riddled with various paganistic symbols and omens, mainly he possesses the rune symbol for the Elk. Both individuals of a certain animal nature and representation, also representing each other...its easily symbolizes the balance in this relationship between species, and the cycle of how things are run in nature's natural course. The raven man of course, practically the center and focal point of this piece, represents the balance between those two species. The winged ones tend to be the most revered, sacred animals in most all pagan and pre-christian cultures and beliefs. The raven of course in the America's is considered a kindred relative of the wolf itself, as well as an omen for wisdom. A Chinook Native American belief, where the raven is a big, centralized symbol..he is said be both in this world, and not a part of it...one eye on the future, one eye on the past. Ravens, just as extensive as the symbolism of owls and other animals, have a very broad, wide range of beliefs and connotations surrounding it. Though simoltaneously all three rpesent everything, really...from the perpetual connection between humans and animals...from humans still revering themselves AS animals and seeing their place in such a natural circle with them as relatives or even gods, to all the pre-christian beliefs the animals themselves or those connections they spiritually and factually represent.
The rock-like sacred space the wolf is planted on was in my mind considered a second sacred space the represents the burial of a deceased individual of long ago. I suppose I have a small fascination with the thought of men and woman who lived their entire life as a paleo-human..without the concepts of assimilation and religious or racial tribulation. Simply born, raised, and died of old age in the life of such a natural, spiritual culture. The grave relates to this fact, before any endangerment or change to their culture or lives. While most would consder being ON a gravesite disrespectful, the fact the wolf is right on top of such a memorial to me represents the naturality of death itself. All living things die, and are further consumed into the earth by decomposition, or the consumption of other living things. There is nothing disrespectful in being in the same space where something has laid to rest. Having a permanent memorial erected in the name of remembrance is solely in human nature, and while we stand alone in that practice..pagans had of course erected such burial sites to never last centuries of time. Most Native American nations erected their dead on scaffolding above the ground, where the earth was allowed to take the body back to itself in anyway it wished...where some buried them into the mountains under rocks and stones, burying in the ground, or even letting them off to the oceans. The modern concept that we must be buried and remembered for all time in a specific, permanent spot is against any natural way of how it treats its deceased.
While there were a lot of factors that lead to the all of many pagan and indigenous beliefs systems, cultures, and ways of life...Christianity and its sects as a whole seem to have the biggest, most cancer-like impact on people across the globe. From Native Americans, to the Norse, to African cultures, to the mighty systems and civilizations of the Japanese and the Aztecs...this religious concept has cost the lives of countless people, animals, trees, places..and now in our modern time, its greed and view of the world being "created for our taking" has lead to our inevitable concept of global warming. I suppose the whole concept of trying to explain global warming to people like these pagans in my composition..I suppose really shows our disconnect and how far (or backward) we as people have really come from our roots in the natural world...in a sense, what the name Indigasphyxia actually means.

Description
For those interested, instead of mass dumping a big explanation for all the big and small things..letting people have the freedom to interpret my work as they wish. As ambiguous as I enjoy my work can be, everything has a purpose, meaning, source and imprints of inspiration.
Apocryphal overall, in the simplest of statements, is a surrealistic illustration of ancient Pagans being exposed to the idea and inevitable plague of Christianity for the first time, by having a sacred space desecrated in the name of religious conversion and cultural assimilation. (The word "Apocryphal" itself means (of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.) Probably now currently one of my more strongest, efforted, and representational compositions of myself, my interests, beliefs, and my alias Indigasphyxia as an artist. I have a very, very large, extensive paganistic background..including an entire childhood of being practically raised in the conifer forests of New England, to spending my entire duration at college with a traditional family and community of Lakota and Dakota Native Americans..very actively involved in traditional ceremonies, dances, and spiritual rites, to my mere personal therianthrope beliefs and overall interest in nature-based people. My personal experience and even being raised a Catholic had shed some pretty negative light on my views of it growing up, especially the more I matured and came to follow what I personally felt connected to..i.e. nature-based spiritual paths. Of course the more you dwell into those, the more you learn in history how they were "dealt with" by traveling missionaries and the overall impact of Christianity and its sects on pre-Christian, indigenous people around the world.
The first frame, with the owl is seated itself on a sacred space. Unlike Christian and other modern, powerful religions of the world, paganism (and by pagan, I will clarify, I mean to say all pre-Christian religions indigenous to peoples prior to invasion, colonization, and conversion) tend to be the only beliefs which center natural creations and phenomenons as sacred spaces and sacred places to worship, or to escape to further reconcile themselves with higher powers or to commune with said power. The owl in my experience in western Plains indigenous beliefs tends to be an omen of death, especially if its heard. (I know many pagan cultures revere owls as a very majestic symbol of wisdom, but of course beliefs and traditions vary.) The barn owl particularly tends to have a very mysterious, alien-like face, and I chose it specifically for this kind of omen. Below the owl of course are painted pictographs of various spiritual omens and symbols that would possess medicine (spiritual power). Many of which have been crossed out in black paint by the invading missionaries..with a wooden-crafted cross shoved into the middle of this sacred monument. The piece entirely captures perhaps either the return of individuals to such a meaningful sight, or perhaps the reports of the site had been desecrated..considering the plague-doctor inspired individual tends to come across as a very powerful, spiritual leader of sort.
The second frame with the growth above the raven man of course is as natural as it can get, a tree of sorts, with the surrealistic quality that it itself can see and observe the desecration. Many pagan cultures of course revere trees in countless ways..to relatives, to spiritual beings, to gods themselves. Countless legends and stories all across the world have some sort of story that deals with personifying trees, and it truly fascinates me considering they're so tall and mighty..and yet remain so quiet, so motionless. This also relates to my finding that trees have been found to communicate with one another through clicks? Fact check me, but that sounds undeniably fascinating. My intent when drawing this was supposed to be some kind of mythical growth coming from the raven man himself, but it also can easily be planted in the ground behind him. Either way it has some clutching hold to her followers..touching and reaching to all three of them in some way.
The deer-like crouching individual was probably where the drawing initially started, but figured I'd use that frame to discuss all three beings in the piece. The deerman itself of course represents the animalistic, feral nature that humans still possess, whether we accept we are animals at all or not. The alchemy, occult-related symbols of Antimony pop up all over him, which tends to be the symbol of the wolf, and the animalistic tendencies found in human nature itself. He represents all hooved, plant eating animals. With that of course where you have prey species, you have predator species..like the wolf-man. Also riddled with various paganistic symbols and omens, mainly he possesses the rune symbol for the Elk. Both individuals of a certain animal nature and representation, also representing each other...its easily symbolizes the balance in this relationship between species, and the cycle of how things are run in nature's natural course. The raven man of course, practically the center and focal point of this piece, represents the balance between those two species. The winged ones tend to be the most revered, sacred animals in most all pagan and pre-christian cultures and beliefs. The raven of course in the America's is considered a kindred relative of the wolf itself, as well as an omen for wisdom. A Chinook Native American belief, where the raven is a big, centralized symbol..he is said be both in this world, and not a part of it...one eye on the future, one eye on the past. Ravens, just as extensive as the symbolism of owls and other animals, have a very broad, wide range of beliefs and connotations surrounding it. Though simoltaneously all three rpesent everything, really...from the perpetual connection between humans and animals...from humans still revering themselves AS animals and seeing their place in such a natural circle with them as relatives or even gods, to all the pre-christian beliefs the animals themselves or those connections they spiritually and factually represent.
The rock-like sacred space the wolf is planted on was in my mind considered a second sacred space the represents the burial of a deceased individual of long ago. I suppose I have a small fascination with the thought of men and woman who lived their entire life as a paleo-human..without the concepts of assimilation and religious or racial tribulation. Simply born, raised, and died of old age in the life of such a natural, spiritual culture. The grave relates to this fact, before any endangerment or change to their culture or lives. While most would consder being ON a gravesite disrespectful, the fact the wolf is right on top of such a memorial to me represents the naturality of death itself. All living things die, and are further consumed into the earth by decomposition, or the consumption of other living things. There is nothing disrespectful in being in the same space where something has laid to rest. Having a permanent memorial erected in the name of remembrance is solely in human nature, and while we stand alone in that practice..pagans had of course erected such burial sites to never last centuries of time. Most Native American nations erected their dead on scaffolding above the ground, where the earth was allowed to take the body back to itself in anyway it wished...where some buried them into the mountains under rocks and stones, burying in the ground, or even letting them off to the oceans. The modern concept that we must be buried and remembered for all time in a specific, permanent spot is against any natural way of how it treats its deceased.
While there were a lot of factors that lead to the all of many pagan and indigenous beliefs systems, cultures, and ways of life...Christianity and its sects as a whole seem to have the biggest, most cancer-like impact on people across the globe. From Native Americans, to the Norse, to African cultures, to the mighty systems and civilizations of the Japanese and the Aztecs...this religious concept has cost the lives of countless people, animals, trees, places..and now in our modern time, its greed and view of the world being "created for our taking" has lead to our inevitable concept of global warming. I suppose the whole concept of trying to explain global warming to people like these pagans in my composition..I suppose really shows our disconnect and how far (or backward) we as people have really come from our roots in the natural world...in a sense, what the name Indigasphyxia actually means.