In homage to a great musician and pioneer of the truth — whose birthday it was yesterday (Happy Birthday, Matthew!) — here is a quote that I absolutely love from one of Muse’s songs:
Stay tuned — in next week’s blog I’m going to dig into their latest song, ‘Defector’, for some galvanizing issues! You’re not going to want to miss it…
Other articles you may enjoy
Can Music Jump-Start Humanity’s Awakening?
The Resurrection of Muse — Rock Art Painting no. 7 Photographs
Last week I had my grand reveal of painting no. 7 — a pictorial process that you can view here: The Resurrection of Muse — Rock Art Painting no. 7 Photographs — in this most tantalizing Rock Art Series (painting to my favourite rock musicians of all time!).
What’s This All About Again?
A quick recap about what this Rock Art Series is: I approach the canvas with no expectation of what’s about to come out. I paint subliminally to their music and experience a plethora of emotions and feelings related to the songs and possibly the quantum message behind the music/inspiration itself.
So what did I extract from the melodiously cosmic frequencies, vibrations and croonings of Muse? Before I get into that…let me whet your appetite with some of my favourite Muse songs performed live:
The Resurrection of Greatness
As I paint, certain words just pop into my head. I scribble them down on the side of the canvas. Here were the words that came up whilst painting this:
It’s quite a list! But then Muse have quite a lot of albums/songs/issues they address — so no real surprise there!
Dissecting the Painting — Piece by Piece
The top left half of the painting (as seen in the pic above) was just weird. There’s a blue insectoidal bird type-thingy (life on other planets? Panspermia perhaps?).
The background definitely felt like ‘space’ or the cosmos and I think the silver splodges of foil may have represented some kind of space-craft(s). I even marked a couple of them with the letters ‘io’ — does it mean anything? Maybe time will tell.
The green alien head was a metamorphic process. At first it was just a kind of lense flare, then I started adding a light green nebula formation and when I stepped back there was a face! It morphed out of thin air. 
The middle of the painting (as seen above) has clay figures emerging from a pool of blood and earth.
What looks like an alien egg with a green pregnant lady and another greenish lady’s profile. Oh lord!
There is also a skeleton alongside the biggest clay figure. I couldn’t help but think ‘clones’ when I was painting this. And as I said in the previous blog, I had no idea back then that Muse’s new album was titled ‘Drones’.
Could this section represent exogenesis (a beautiful 3 part symphony off ‘The Resistance’ album, meaning ‘outside origins’ or ‘origin from external causes’ — you can LISTEN TO THE SYMPHONY HERE)? Is it the missing link? Anyone who’s read Zecharia Sitchin will be smiling and nodding at this point. Hmmmm….
There is a very unusual scene happening in the bottom left-hand corner (picture on your right).
This revelation was quite something.
The fish is swimming upstream in water with what seems to be some kind of egg spawn or roe floating about.
There is a specter/ghoul/ghost/dementor type-creature emerging from the water (I can’t say I got a good feeling about this character — it seemed to be a kind of energy drainer/something to be avoided at all costs type-entity).
Then there is this beautiful woman leaning up against the buildings. She was a complete surprise.
One night, after a painting session, I took my brush (with black paint on it) and wiped it across the canvas in an attempt to clean it. When I came back to the painting the next morning, I saw her profile and arms behind her neck and just proceeding to bring the rest of her out of obscurity.
She reminds me a bit of the woman from the movie Avatar — she also looks a bit like a warrior. She is also slightly reptilian, having a fan of ‘scales’ running up her back and head — this could also be indicative of the kundalini energy.
I feel that she also represents balance — she has all the chakra points painted on the outside of her body. She gives me a feeling of temperance or self-control/self-regulation.
Then there is the mid to bottom right-hand corner (as seen in the picture to your left) where we have earth merging into metal (or perhaps the telluric/elemental realm) that drips and gives way to the material world represented by skyscrapers — our ultimate disconnection from our origins/nature/earth.
The silver paint is dripping on the face of a man (profile) who looks like he is a bit of a lost soul. Perhaps indicative of the hollow disconnection we feel in the world of steel, concrete and enslavement to the system?
In Conclusion…
This painting is like a cosmic full-circle of exo-origins mingled with earthly origins coinciding with the elements of ether, water and earth to conclude in soul versus material realm.
Shew! I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted…lol. It’s a busy work of art!
The albums I listened to whilst painting this were:
The next Rock Art painting is going to be Rufus Wainwright (read more about him here). So don’t forget to ‘follow this blog’ or subscribe (see left-hand sidebar column).
I’d love to hear from you!
Don’t forget that you can order prints, posters and paraphernalia of this painting by clicking on any of the pictures above or HERE.
There is a menu of items (if you scroll down to the bottom of the page) with cool bags, iPhone cases, cushions and lots more to sink your teeth into!
Other articles you may enjoy:
Painting Pink Floyd — Soldiering Through the Minefield of Emotion ‘Dangerous Love’ — Skunk Anansie Rock Art Painting No. 5
What on Earth is a ‘Chaoskampf Demiurge’? You Seriously Need to Know This! 
So far I’ve covered (with lashings of paint and canvas) Radiohead, The Beatles, Jeff Buckley, Pink Floyd, Skunk Anansie and Templeton.
I’ve just worked out that it has been a whole YEAR since I did painting no. 6! Where has the time gone?
Couldn’t Have Planned it Better
I’m a firm believer in things happening in their own time and for the right reasons and this painting just happens to coincide with the hype to the release of Muse’s 7th album, ‘Drones’ — due out on the 8th June, 2015.
I would like to say that this painting was finished a few weeks ago — before I knew what the album was called — and due to unforeseen circumstances (me and my hubby, Mike, having had the privilege of being in the movie, ‘Detour’ being filmed in our town and then us both getting ill on top of that!) I haven’t had the chance to reveal it yet.
Drones, Clones and Blood
What really struck me when Muse released the name of the album ‘drones‘ (and all three of the members having their eyes blacked out on one of the promotional photo’s) was that there were (in the painting) strange clay-like creatures that immediately emerged from the middle of the canvas and I jokingly said to Mike that they look like ‘clones’.
One of these clones even has wide, white, staring, blank eyes…eerie or just proof of quantum revelations? Can we really pluck things from the ether before they are physically ‘out there’ — i.e. did I tap into what was going on in the Muse studio?
I really dig how this works!
A friend of mine got a sneak peak over Skype as I was in the process of painting this and asked me what all the blood was about in the center of the painting. At the time I had no idea because, as most of you know by now, these paintings materialize themselves — I’m just acting as the conduit.
Muse just released their first song ‘Psycho’ with a video on Saturday and as it started nearing the end, the penny dropped…
There was blood all over the one characters face and the song is generally about the ‘manufacturing’ of soldiers to become mindless killing machines.
I hope I’m whetting your appetite here. Cause further down I’m going to take you on the pictorial process — the start to finish photo’s of what is called ‘Resurrection’.
The Evasive Message Behind the Art
In next weeks blog I’ll be taking you through the emotions that came up whilst painting this so we can get a better perspective of what this artwork may represent.
Personally, I’m still a bit in the dark and will have to mine the painting to extract the subliminal message by unpacking the words I jotted down on the sides of the canvas.
So, without further ado…let’s have a look at MUSE on canvas:
And now for the grand reveal…
‘Resurrection’ — Muse (Rock Art Series) Prints available – CLICK HERE
As I’ve said before, next week will be the reveal of the emotions or deeper meaning of this painting — so stay tuned! (UPDATE — You can read the next blog here: Decoding Muse (Rock Art Painting no. 7) — ‘Resurrection’)
If you want to see and listen to their latest release, see below:
Please let me know what comes up for you, when you look at this painting, in the comment box below — I’d love to hear from you!
Other articles related to this series that may interest you:
Painting Pink Floyd — Soldiering Through the Minefield of Emotion
‘Dangerous Love’ — Skunk Anansie Rock Art Painting No. 5
What on Earth is a ‘Chaoskampf Demiurge’? You Seriously Need to Know This!
The Shortlist of Muso’s to Make the Grade
I launched my new idea for an art collection last week, please read it here to recap.
The bands and musicians that I am going to explore auditorily and interpret visually on canvas are (in order of my being introduced to their music):
Ha! And there you have it…I will be embarking on the first painting of this series this week and, with a bit of cosmic luck, may have something to blog about next week.
Proceedings…
I am not going to pressure myself to paint in this order — I am basically going to work it on my mood and who I feel like listening to at that given time. Make sense? No? Well, that’s fine!
Wish me luck as I have no idea how this is going to turn out 🙂
Click here to see the next stage…
Who are your favourite musicians of all time? Come on, list at LEAST 3 bands you could never do without. Let them feel the love.
Coming Out of a Black Hole and Having Revelations
Yeah, the global energy of late has been intense. Making us all bunker down for some quiet time, and if not, forcing you to cease and desist.
Have you been lacking inspiration, creativity or get up and go? Well, I have.
These last few weeks since I returned from Egypt have been damn right frustrating. I’ve lost my pluck, mojo and anything else you want to call it.
I’ve picked up the paintbrushes and seem to be trying to repeat old patterns in creativity that just don’t work for me anymore.
“It could be realism, abstract, impressionism, crapism or bullshitism…who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see.”
But this weekend I had a revelation…
Who The Hell Am I?
Yes, that old humdinger. What can I truly offer the world that is unique and not only that, stay completely in alignment with who I am?
Not easy and a question I am not alone in having to come up with an answer to — this seems to be the common thread or million dollar question among most people this year, if not this lifetime!
I Am…
I sat down to have some quiet time to reflect and saw a storyboard of everything I have done since I left school. I know that I am intrinsically an artist, musician and a writer and I have tried to merge the 3 in this website but something still hasn’t clicked into place. In a nutshell, it went like this:
Above (Photo of our band The Bends taken in 2001)
The Younger Years — Left school and played bass in 2 rock bands. Last band (The Bends — you guessed it, we were all Radiohead fans…yeah yeah) recorded 2 albums and got some radio play. After the music scene cooled off and my weariness set in I up and left for the UK. Photo (right) — in Paris Studio recording our 2nd album.
Travel Bug — In the UK I started painting again. Got back home, 3 years later, and started painting full-time.
Above — In the UK, at the famous ‘Abbey Road’ crossing, London
Divine Revelations and Ants in my Pants — Started feeling ‘pushed’ to write my book ‘Divine You’ in 2010 and did so, focusing all my energy and attention into getting it published and promoting and blogging, etc.
Footnote — Here I am, having come full circle with all 3 of my major interests but I feel like I need to break free from the confines of every single one of them. I need to fuse them into a trinity of talents that will truly showcase the uniqueness of my being.
New Realizations:
I am a rock chick, a philosopher, a creative, a free spirit, a wanderer, a listener, an adventurer, a seeker, a trailblazer…so what am I trailblazing?
” I am more than the ceiling limit I have built over my head.”
I feel like at the moment I am trying to conform to the standards of any other self-empowerment writer (who just happens to paint and compose on the side). No, this is not working for me. I am more than the ceiling limit I have built over my head.
Major Refurbishing
I am going to be blowing through the ceiling.
My first adventure, that incorporates all 3 of my pursuits, will be to do a series of 10 paintings to my favourite bands or musicians from the dawn of my time here on Earth.
A little background: I love to turn on the stereo in the morning and blast out my favourite music much to my husbands annoyance. It just happens to usually be quite loud and obnoxious music for this time of the morning. However the upside is that this ensures that the car gets washed, or that the lawn is mown (husband seeking refuge outside of the domain).
“I want to be activated into action first thing in the morning — and this plus a cup of coffee seems to do the trick.”
There is nothing like a bit of Airbag by Radiohead to get the blood flowing after a long nights sleep or head-banging your way to the bathroom to get cleaned up to Hysteria by Muse. Who can’t be put into a good mood when you are listening to Queen’s I Want to Break Free? Or even better, David Bowie belting out ‘Drive in Saturday’?
Yes, I know, I am a bit odd. This is probably not the best morning music soiree (I am told this is strictly night-time music) but I simply can’t wait for night-time to arrive, I want to be activated into action first thing in the morning — and this plus a cup of coffee seems to do the trick.
So Where is This Heading? Get On With It, Girl!
Okay, okay…I love rock. Yes, oh yes. So I have selected 10 bands to do 10 painting to. I want to see what comes out whilst listening to their music. I hope this experiment will be a visual feast and have no preconceived ideas of how any of it will turn out. All I can guarantee is that I am going to have fun in the process and do whatever comes to me in the moment that I set aside to paint.
It could be realism, abstract, impressionism, crapism or bullshitism…who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see.
I will be blogging (obviously) about each artwork and the process (so watch out for Tuesdays art blog). And will reveal the top 10 bands/musicians that have been the greatest influence in my life in next Tuesdays blog.
So in the words of the famous Monty Python…”and now for something completely different”. Bring it on!
READ THE GRAND BAND REVEAL HERE
Note to self: Need to add new word invented in this blog to Wikipedia — ‘crapism’. Needs no definition either, self-explanatory. Bullshitism seems to be a valid word because my spell check didn’t pick it up.
Share Your Insights:
What are you struggling with?
Do you have yourself all sussed out or are you still in flux about who you really are?
Do you think it is important to align yourself with your core essence or do you think that is just a bunch of crap?
Cherie Roe Dirksen 