Angel Feathers for the Wings.....

[RAMWolff44]

My goodness girlfriend, that is really nice!!

Hmmmm, naw, knowing my Mom, something THAT etherial would probably not be something that she would want. Not that I could have ever thought of anything so spectacular. Remember, that darn Capricorn energy. I don't tend to think in abstract anything!!! I wish I could, but my mind just doesn't work like that, but I sure appreciate many abstract works. Risto creates some really pretty and stunning things, I had a neighbor that did nothing but abstract paintings and I loved them all, which is when I realized that I DID like that kind of work. But for me, I can't let my hand and mind just float and create, it's planned out and executed in a serieds of steps. SIGH!!!!!!!!!!! Ah well at least I have a sick and twisted enough imagination and talent enough to bring most every thing to a canvas of some sort.....HE, He, he [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Got the smaller feather created today, redid the big one (fixed the quill part) they look great. Now for the fun part........

Thanks Maya for the compliment on the abstract 2D piece. If I ever finish this project I want to do a "other dimention" challenge. I love this character called Dr. Strange, magic character that belongs to Marvel Comics Group, he travels in many dimentions. I thought it might be a good one to create a challenge that will push us all to do something like creating a scene from what our minds and imaginations interpret (spelling blunder, sorry) as other dimentional, other worldly, kinda like a floating city with pathways leading here and there in and out of different portals and what not. Really weird stuff. Fun!!

Any way, gotta go........

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Crow Haven]

Thanks Soquili and Neil also about the cloud angel! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] It was just another of those sort of doodles that evolve on their own in unexpected ways--these are often the most fun too...like the 2D challenge!
RAMWolff, I thought it was pretty abstract, but it was fun to do nonetheless [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] . Comic books????
Dr. Strange????? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Okay...no , I won't be able to pick on you about that [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] , I've collected a few comics (friends and books) myself over the years, but don't have any really old ones (comic books that is). The artwork is what got me started--some of those story-lines [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] , but I have collected some more recent ones partly due to their unusual qualities and the artist's talent. Have you heard of Michael Linser's "Dawn"? I guess if I had to have an alter ego in the comic world it would have to be "Dawn" [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] . It would be an interesting Xara challenge to do an other-dimensional illustration! "Dawn" also travels in time and dimensions. If you like that type of stuff, you ought to get a copy of "Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension"--just out on DVD and VHS again at long last (from 1983).Planet 10 and the Lectroids, Dr. Lizardo, and "The War of the Worlds" all rolled into one), it's the kind of film you either love or hate (I happen to enjoy it! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] )...ok, so I have poor taste! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I gotta go post some 0'the green-type imagery over on the ST. Paddy's thread now. Good luck with your art projects tonight. We're all waiting to see your newest developments! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

---As The Crow Flies!---
Maya

[RAMWolff44]

I have a request, one more time with these darn feathers.

I got a shot in the arm of rememberance when I saw Maya's "Angel in the Doorway" and saw that the halo is Golden. Of course Angels vibrate a golden energy and the metal Gold is considered the highest vibrational metal in spiritual work. So why did I have a brain fart on that most important little tidbit when designing Mom's Angel?? Only the Angels know [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

So I am posting 2 smaller feathers. One is Golden type with the irradescent blue tones and the second is purple and blue irradescent. So tell me which one you think it should be. OK?? This is an important decision, crap it's late and my spelling is really bad, sorry....It will decide the halo coloring too.

Maya, No, not heard of Dawn, who publishes it?? Is it the new company Crossgen??? They have some really Kool stuff!!! Let me know and I will check it out [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Pretty strange, a 41 year old man collecting comics. But one has to escape the stress and strain of the world somehow, right??

Thanks all.

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[GroWeb]

may help in your decision, perhaps. As a student and practitioner of esoteric yoga, I have some lore and experience to share around these colours. The glorious spiritual eye, which is seen at the interior point between the eyebrows during deep meditation (which is why saints are portrayed looking upward), is how Spirit manifests as light to the spiritual seeker. The spiritual eye (kutastha chaitanya in Sanskrit) consists of a golden halo surrounding a beautiful opalescent blue orb, at the centre of which is a palpitating silver-white five-rayed star (likely this was the star the three wise men were "following" through the intuitive insight it bestows). The star symbolizes God the Father, or the unmanifested Absolute, beyond Creation. The blue field represents the Son or Christ, Spirit's omnipresent consciousness throughout Creation (symbolized also as Krishna, Buddha, etc.). The golden halo symbolizes the Holy Ghost, the Word, Aum, Amen, Amin, Hum, etc., or Divine Mother, Spirit's outward manifestation in the astral and material Creations (symbolized also as Mother Nature, the Blessed Virgin, Quan Yin, Radha, etc.).

In most existing Christian art, as far as I know, the halos of the saints are coloured golden. My best guess is that this signifies that the saints so portrayed had established conscious unity with the Holy Ghost. However, in India holy individuals such as Krishna or Rama are coloured blue because their skin is said to have radiated a blue halo, due to the fact that they were, like Jesus, incarnations of the Son (Tat in Sanskrit).

So I guess that either it doesn't matter whether you choose blue or gold, since both are extremely holy symbols, or else it depends on what you want to represent in your angels. Perhaps it would make sense, since the angels already have a lot of silvery white in their colouring (symbolizing the unmanifested Absolute), to use both blue and gold as a sort of ethereal sheen on the whiteness of your angels, thereby making them symbols of all aspects of the holy Trinity.

I can tell you that to see the spiritual eye and to work towards penetrating it (the mystical goal of esoteric yoga) is an unrivalled experience in supernal joy and wonder. The colours and shapes and visual pageantry of the astral cosmos make the best art in the world seem like a relatively dull, lifeless, ersatz copy. I am of the opinion that it is the beauty of the astral universe that we try to represent and recapture in our most colourful artwork.

In any case, you are treading a well-worn, but never overused path in your effort to represent spiritual things in visual art. These profound inner experiences provide the utmost in inspiration. Perhaps a good way to make your decision would be to meditate for a while before continuing with your artwork. It might even be a good idea to meditate at the start of every session with this particular project. (I'll stop short of suggesting that it might be a good idea to meditate every day, at least once; though I think this is good advice for everyone, religious, agnostic, or atheist).

I can hardly wait to see the outcome of your efforts on this wonderful gift for your mother.

Glen. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Old Dog]

This latest, the cloud angel. I don't know what to say. It just blows me away.

I like what you call doodles!

Jack

[Crow Haven]

Wow Glen!!! I had no idea about all that! I just painted my angel with what came to mind, and had no idea about the gold or blue, etc... colors meanings! Very interesting, I'll have to read through your post again! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I wasn't raised with any religious background at all. I set foot in a church just once with a friend and one of the members started pursuing me and was talking marriage in short order [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img] ,it scared me off pretty quick! Your suggestion about meditating on the color choice of the angel's feathers sounds quite helpful. Both golden and blue colorations are wonderful RAMWolff! Maybe the colors of the garments and background would make a difference? I seemed to have used both gold and blue a lot in mine, but wasn't sure why I chose those. It's your call [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] !!! I'm sure it'll look beautiful whatever your choice!!!

Thank you so much Jack for your kind words about the cloud angel--she was really pretty simple to do---several layers of fractal clouds and tints feathered over them in transparencies for more blue color, one single transparent feather shape done with the fractal plasma technique and in just white, overlapped and resized many times. The rest was just simple shapes with lots of feathering and transparencies. The halo added last was a simple addition from PhotoShop LE with lens flare effects. All the rest was XaraX.

RAMWolff,it has been years since I looked at any of the boxed-up comics, so I had to go dig through some to find "Dawn". My spelling was off a bit on the artist's name. It was published by the company Sirius. The artist's full name is Joseph Michael Linsner. I'm looking at issue #4 of 6, "Dawn" Subtitled, "The Gauntlet"...1996. Another with great art is "Shi", artist William Tucci, publisher was Crusade. Also '90's era. ("Dawn" isn't really for the little kids, so other folks reading, be warned)...I also got copies of the "Witchblade" series, from issue #1 on...these also have risen in value quite a bit, but I haven't been trying to keep track of that, I thought the artwork was incredible on these titles...I just can't imagine how the artists could produce so much with deadlines, etc...

Well gotta go! Carry on [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] !

---As The Crow Flies!---
Maya
P.S. Oddly enough, I just realized "Dawn" has a lot to do with angels, heaven and hell, and angels depicted also as warriors---not what you typically think of as "angelic"...but it is the other aspect of angels I guess [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] .

[This message was edited by Crow Haven on March 15, 2002 at 08:54.]

[Crow Haven]

To the "P.S." as I couldn't edit the last message further....the "Dawn" character represents the Goddess--of birth and rebirth, she journeys through heaven and hell and what lies beyond. Death tells her there is a price to pay in the discoveries. Another character in the series, Darrian, represents the spirit of man and the journey of self-discovery. Another theme seems to be about how some corrupt beliefs and use them to do evil in the name of religions...WHEW!!! It's not your typical comic book...there's a lot of thought-provoking things in these besides the art.

---As The Crow Flies---
Maya

[RAMWolff44]

Now for a really long missive on that information.....It really summed up what was going through my head about it. I used to be a very color visual person, but I am dealing with a potentially life threatening disease, it has affected my sleep and the medication affects allot of what goes on in my body. I am a VERY spiritual person, and my dis-ease has brought me allot closer to God and my higher self. I instinctively know this stuff, but with out my mind producing colors in meditation and what not, it's hard to completely visualize the way I used to. So I am very grateful to you for helping me to see, what I was sure was right. I know that the Chakra colors are:

Red/root,survival instinct,
Orange/sexuality,
Yellow/personal self worth,
Green/love and joy,
Blue/communication,
Blue,lighter/third eye and imagination, and
Violet/link to our higher self and God.

So the 6th and 7th Chakra are the ones that, I think, gives an artist the imagination and creativity to express themselves. While I am in touch with my higher self, my 3rd eye (6th Chakra) is not as opened as it once was. Admittedly I am lazy when it comes to meditation, I do different forms of it, daily when I can, to keep it exciting for me.

So my Mom's Angel, while it has been a labor of love, did not come to me in full color like many of my projects in the past have. This is the first serious undertaking, besides the restoration of the Pan and the Fairy Goblet, that I have done since being diagnosed. There was allot of depression and denial and all that. I am facing it all now and am working with a spiritual mentor named Michael (my higher self told me in a dream that a very important Michael would be entering my life), I had just begun to see Scot and told him of the dream I had had. I knew him as Scot at that moment in time, he told me his given name was Michael Scot. So from that moment on he decided it was time to use his real given name instead of Scot. I think that kinda shocked the both of us. No one, except family and close friends knew of his given name. Everyone else just assumed that Scot was it. He just had his first set of business cards printed out with Michael Scot McGuffey, and he works primarily with Archangel Michael. Interesting, eh?? Michael is a blessed name, my favorite as a matter of fact!!

Any way, babbling........I think I am going to use the Gold laced feathers. I think I will make a few more subtle changes to it first though. As for the Halo, I think I may have to re-work the idea. I have posted it. I really wanted to learn Steve's technique that he used on his Tolkein Ring piece to have the energies of the engraved writing come out and fade. That would be kool on the halo, from blue to gold.....what do ya think??

Thanks again for all the info. Hope I don't get a "too much information" rap on the knuckles, I've never been embarrassed by my condition, just concerned that I wouldn't get the chance to "get it right" and I think I have gotten that reprieve. So I carry on and on and on...........

PS: Maya, I used to read the Sirius books, I really thought they would have been more appealing in color, so I stopped buying them. I love William Tucci's work [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] You should check out Crossgen's stuff, there are some really meta type books being produced by that company, and beautiful art too!!!

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Crow Haven]

but RAMWolff, you can get your dose of "Dawn" at
www.linsner.com which has a great site and gallery. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
---As The Crow Flies---
Maya

[dafipp]

... but never the less I need to share what has come to my mind's eye as I read through all the great posts.

RAMWolff,
I see wings that have the golden feathers at the top (or leading) edge composed mostly of those fabulous little feathers you have made. I then see the longer flight feathers with the blue tones. I don't know if this is my 2 cents or a higher power's. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I suggest following Glen's advice - meditate and allow yourself to be led.

Best Regards,
Dale Fipp...

now off to see Dawn.