Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Temple >

Magickal artwork

Mordant Carnival

20:33 / 12.08.01

Since the Ebay-haunted-painting thing over in the Art section, ( http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000022 )I've been toying with the idea of magickal artwork.

Specifically, I've been thinking about creating magickal paintings to improve my home. I don't want to scare the pants off my guests (well, okay, maybe I do, but in a fun way); ideally I'd like to acheive the following:

To help visitors feel more at home and sociable when they come to my pad.

To assist my boyf in overcoming stress.

To turn my home into a sort of "healing zone", so that visitors could benefit from positive energy (whatever the hell that is.)

And (because I'm one of those mercenary, goal oriented chaotic types

) To increase my own abilities, creative, academic and magickal.

I realize that the obvious way to do this might be to use sigils, but I'm not sure they'd work for this. A sigil is a very active process, and a piece of artwork is a static kinda thing.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[ 12-08-2001: Message edited by: Mordant Carnival ]

Mordant Carnival

04:52 / 13.08.01

Oh, I getcha.

I was looking to make something a mite more specific, tho'. Still, the old magick mitt would look good on my wall, I guess.

14:55 / 13.08.01

Depends on what symbol-families float your boat. Chinese calligraphy? Runes? Tarot? Bible stories?

Mordant Carnival

15:08 / 13.08.01

All grist to my personal mill. But are the symbols themselves going to cut it? I want a sort of focus for power, rather than a symbolic pep talk.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

21:43 / 13.08.01

This possibly isn't entirely what you're looking for, but it might be relevent to mention Paul Laffoley here. He claims that one of his paintings is a living being of some kind, and another is the plan for a working time machine, another is the plan for an 'orgone motor'. Disinfo Boss, Richard Metzger is apparently a rather big fan of his work, and interviews him whenever he gets the opportunity. For more info see: http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id231/pg1/ http://www.disinfo.com/pages/multimedia/id566/pg1/ http://www.disinfo.com/pages/multimedia/id511/pg1/
its fascinting, stuff, and quite, quite, incomprehensible.
Austin Osman Spare, of course, was also rather into that kinda thing, theres lots of his art and writing here: http://www.chaosmatrix.com/lib/chaos/spare.shtml
but I'd have to re/read it all to give you more specific pointers.

If I were going to do something like this, it'd probably involve creating a servitor and 'trapping' it in a painting somehow, and embedding it's sigil in the artwork in some way... but I haven't figured out the specifics of it...

21:56 / 13.08.01

If the effect is intended to be magical messing with psychogeography, why not go further than just wall art? The entire construction of the room, décor, furniture, lighting, ornaments, music, aromas, could all be contributors. How ‘bout a magickal “Changing Rooms?”

Mordant Carnival

15:45 / 14.08.01

quote:Originally posted by expressionless:
How ‘bout a magickal “Changing Rooms?”

Nearly choked on my noodles when I read that. Pictured Larwence Llewellyn Bowen manhandling some big old chunk of Crowley's furniture into the teensy bungalow of a nice middle class family while his helpers paint the walls black and burn pentagrams into the carpet.

Good idea, tho' how much I can alter my environment is a wee bit limited at the mo coz I'm renting my flat.

Yes, Johnny Haiku Headed Racoon-Dog, those two names had swum across my mind too. Ta for the link.

Yeah, thanx for the input, all you lovely peeps- 'tis always welcome.

16:43 / 15.08.01

I know him a little and I also like Paul Lafolley as a person. he seems like one of those rare people without malice or cynicism.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

16:52 / 15.08.01

kriztalyne, mind telling us more about laffoley? (i'll start a seperate thread in art, so as not to get way off topic here

)- i've been half meaning to start a thread about him anyway.
regarding changing rooms and psychgeography- a mate of mine gave me a book on feng shui- a belief system which always struck me as a bit flaky even by my broad standards- but it seems to make sense in an (broadly) psychogeographical way, and it seems possible to cludge a bit of nlp on top of that to make something I could believe in...

22:29 / 15.08.01

Embed a sigil in a picture and hang it on the wall.

Here's one I made.

[ 16-08-2001: Message edited by: better the Fool you know ]

[ 16-08-2001: Message edited by: better the Fool you know ]

Ellis

22:34 / 15.08.01

I love that, I so love that!

22:54 / 15.08.01

or you could just put a sigil up by itself.
Here's one for creativity and inspiration.

PS. Thanks Ellis

00:46 / 16.08.01

Hey BetterT.F.Y.K., just wondering what program you used to make the first sigil?
I like it.

Mordant Carnival

03:27 / 16.08.01

B.T.F.Y.K.: Wooooooohoooooo!

Made my morning! Those're going up on my wall as soon as I sort out the colour cartridge for my printer.

As for the notion of embedding sigils into the artwork- yeah, the idea had crossed my mind but I'm looking for a slightly meatier technique here. As I mentioned before, I kind of see sigils as an active process, and a peice of artwork is static, tho' I guess a kind of continuous creation is happening here as you veiw the picture again and again, picking out different details.

Your pix are purely brilliant , BTW.

03:31 / 16.08.01

quote:Originally posted by kegboy:
Hey BetterT.F.Y.K., just wondering what program you used to make the first sigil?
I like it.

Adobe Illustrator.

03:34 / 16.08.01

quote:Originally posted by Mordant Carnival:

Those're going up on my wall as soon as I sort out the colour cartridge for my printer.

I can send you a better version of the picture for printing if you want.

16:10 / 16.08.01

BTFYK: Illustrator hmmm..that explains why its such a bitch to do something simillar in photoshop.
Do you have a website or something with more of your stuff?

09:20 / 17.08.01

I do. Press on that little house picture above one of my posts.

or

http://afrenasia.tripod.com

Mordant Carnival

20:33 / 24.11.01

Ressurecting this, coz we've gots lots of new ppl since it was started and I'm interested in getting input.

At present, I'm thinking of creating artwork by making a sigil in the normal manner, with the purpose of the eventual picture as my statement of intent, and then using it as a focus while I go off into a light trance. Then I plan to transcribe any visions I recive as paintings/drawings.