Last year (2016) was — numerologically (gawd…that was a tongue twister! Does that word even exist? It does now) speaking — a year of cyclical endings (2+0+1+6=9 and 9 is a number of completion). So, it was befitting that my Rocking Art Series was to finally be exhibited in all its glory!
The event took place on the 23rd December at the funky Karoo Art Hotel and we all had a blast!
Big Shoes to Fill (I almost didn’t make it to my own show…lol)!
A big THANK YOU to my gorgeous, Templeton, for agreeing to do the aftershow with me — we rocked out to a song from each artist in the exhibition (unfortunately no video footage was taken but see the photo’s at the end).
The list was a tall order to fill but we somehow made it through and played to a packed-like-sardines audience.
Ending off with a Queen Pastiche consisting of We Will Rock You, We are the Champions, Radio GaGa, The Game and (because we are musical masochists) — you guessed it — Bohemian Rhapsody (can you see why I almost bailed!?)
Here are the photo’s of the evening starting off with the exhibition:
Last week I gave a sneak peek of this painting (you can read it HERE) — I’m now going to take you through the pictorial stages that led up to the finished piece.
So, enough chit-chat — let’s dive into it! 🙂
Well, there you have it!
Afloat in a Torrent Without a Paddle
The title that came through at first was ‘primordial residue‘. However, that led me down the rabbit hole of synchronous events, prods and ticklings to another rather obscure name.
What emerged was a plethora of ancient myth; something about a serpent called Apophis and weighing your soul against a phoenix feather — intrigued? I hope so!
Next week I will break down the emotions that flooded in whilst painting this and just exactly what lead me to uncover the title of this painting, ‘Chaoskampf Demiurge’.
For now, the artwork is available as prints in a variety of different sizes and finishes below:
Chaoskampf Demiurge by Cherie Roe Dirksen 28″ x 36″ x 1.5″ Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas
Let me know what comes through for you when you look at this painting (probably best to do it before I uncover the emotions behind it next week — leave your comments in the box below).
Here are some of Templeton’s videos to whet your appetite for next weeks blog:
Whoa. This painting was a difficult one to physically manifest. Just when I thought that the Pink Floyd Rock Art painting had done my nerves in, this one came to slam dunk me in a vat of excrement!
Not only did this piece take me close onto 3 months to complete but I felt like I was resisting finishing it right up until the last moment. In hindsight, I think I know why…
First Things First
Before I get into the personal details of my past-life drama karma (yes, you read right, this painting started ripping into my own akashic records — how riveting!), I want to go through the emotions that came up for me whilst painting this and, of course, reveal the painting itself.
*Drum Roll* — here is the painting and below you’ll find the list of emotions.
Phew! Now you might start to get a clearer picture of why I struggled through this process.
Feeling the Music
Firstly, I have to say that I absolutely love and admire the sexy and sassy Skin (lead singer of Skunk Anansie) and the entire band — bloody (no pun intended) brilliant music!
I’m going to scatter a few YouTube videos in this blog. So — if you aren’t familiar with this Brit band — you can get with the programme.
Skin has an awesome voice and an enormous stage presence. I was lucky enough to see them when they were in Cape Town — well over a decade ago now.
However, this Rock Art Series is diving deeper than audio enjoyment, humming a happy tune or head-banging. This series is pushing past aesthetics and striking at the core — the emotions/energy behind the music (as interpreted by me).
Self-Love or Bust
So, the strong emotions/feelings that I was picking up on was a dangerous kind of love, or should I say, a conditional love. A love that is incomplete and destructive because it’s missing one fundamental principle — self-love and respect.
Possessive relationships are doomed. You enter into them incomplete and want the other person to fill the void inside you that can only be filled by, you guessed it, YOU.
Instead of looking within to find the answers, we look without and turn on the one we love with a deepening resentment, sorrow and a pain that can’t be quenched.
Long and short is: You can’t truly love anyone else unconditionally if you can’t totally and fully accept and love your self (self love is not to be mistaken for ego-based love or narcissism).
My Part in This Epic Blood-Stained Musical Dramatization
The anger and frustrations that came up for me were almost unbearable.
I have a current marriage made in heaven (yeah, I know — lucky me. You can read all about it HERE) but with the deep retrospection I had to undergo, I realized that I had to face a past relationship.
Such a far flung past coupling that it comes from a different lifetime altogether.
It was difficult to go through this in the ‘dark’ (i.e. not quite knowing the in’s and out’s and just going on gut instinct) but I had dreams that helped me along and let me pick through the metaphors of literally having shit dumped on my head by this phantom past partner.
In another dream I also displayed signs of stigmata and bleeding from every orifice while he looked at me and said, ‘Go clean yourself up!’. The most bizarre thing is that he was being cut and I was bleeding which I found to be quite a remarkable analogy.
Above — ‘Brazen (weep)’, Skunk Anansie
Ripley’s Believe It or Not
When I was compiling the video’s for this blog, I realized that it was the first time I had ever seen a Skunk Anansie music video. I have only seen them live and on live performance DVD’s. So, it goes without saying, that I was quite shocked to see that the above and below video were very in sync with the painting style, theme and colours. See for yourself…
Above — ‘Charlie Big Potato’, Skunk Anansie
The Phantom Menace Was Me
Who was this past-life persona?
It doesn’t really matter. The details are mere semantics, what was more important was my understanding of what was being brought up in myself. The ‘people-pleaser’/’don’t rock the boat‘/‘take it up the ass‘ person in me just had to go.
What I got from my ‘past life’ scenario was a sense of being out of control in the relationship but not being strong enough to leave.
I felt oppressed, spoken down to, controlled, literally ‘shut up’ (emotionally and verbally — which is why I think there are bolts in the painting — keeping ‘her’ in place; tape over her mouth and eyes — keeping her gagged in silent pain) and made to feel deep guilt whenever I did pluck up the courage to have my say.
Although, all she/I had to do was step into her/my power and say, ‘No more’ and walk away. She/I displayed signs of being weak (and, yes, Skunk Anansie do have a song called ‘Weak’...LISTEN/VIEW HERE) and not loving and respecting herself enough to walk away.
This all boils down to self-inflicted trauma. The inability to stand in ones power and to have enough self-love to pick up and leave a rotten situation. This is a dangerous love — fear disguised in the wrappings of ‘love’.
The Mysterious Identity of the Unknowable Known
Other things I noticed at the end of this process was that the ‘face’ had smeared lipstick, undeterminable eyes, skin colour or race — she could be anyone from anywhere. She could even be a man (well, maybe one in drag or from a pantomime?).
Another interesting fact is that I picked up the colour purple right at the end and dabbed some of it onto the eyelids, face and a few streaks at the bottom. Could this be a form of mitigation?
Purple is usually connotated with good judgment and spiritual fulfillment.
I Open at the End
Well, Skunk Ananse, thanks for opening a wound that needed to be scraped clean.
Even though I’m still in the process of releasing and realigning to this new found truth, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to actually live through one of my paintings and seek out a deeper personal truth to this collection.
Below are photographs of the painting process:
‘A Dangerous Love’ by Cherie Roe Dirksen 28″ x 22″ x 1.5″ Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas Click on the picture to take you to the print store.
I feel like so much time has lapsed since the last painting was revealed (Jeff Buckley — ‘Raw’).
The reason being is that this one has had me flying down the rabbit hole with no parachute. What a frightfully corrosive yet beautifully healing journey this one turned out to be!
“If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.” — Alice in Wonderland
I am going to divulge all the juicy details of the emotional journey in next weeks blog. What took me from going to war with my painting — violently spraying ‘bullet’ holes to making paper aeroplanes — and finally moving in to soften and balance the gaping hole of feminine and masculine energies?
You’ll have to wait and see…but for now:
Avoidance
This blog is just going to take you, from start to finish, through the pictorial process of the painting in the making.
I called this one ‘Dancing in the Void’ (or a-void-dance — cool little breakdown of that word, eh?).
And then finally, one late night (as you can see by the darker shades of the photograph)…I finished it!
Here is the final product:
‘Dancing in the Void’ (or ‘A-void-dance’) — Pink Floyd Rock Art
by Cherie Roe Dirksen
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas
30″ x 30″ x 1.5″
Please come back next week for the inspiration behind the painting involving a lot of blood, sweat and tears and why this painting was my most challenging yet in the series.
Well, this is just another teaser pictorial blog because the painting isn’t quite finished yet. However, the groundwork has been laid and we are good to go in the colorizing department. This painting is done a bit arse about face (an idiom for arranging the opposite way to the way it should be) but that is typical of someone who has their head stuck in alternate realities.
I have inked out the content and now I’m going to be adding the delectable and bright colors that are just waiting to burst forth onto the canvas. It’s going to be a bit like a coloring-in book, I guess. How exciting and unprecedented this Rock Art series is turning out to be — such toe-tingling excitement!
Painting No. 2 — Let Me Present….
I have decided it is the turn of The Beatles to rock ‘n roll their way onto my second canvas in this series. As I’m sure you’ll notice, the effect is rather different from the Radiohead painting. Well, it should be!
They’re both great bands but worlds apart. I really got a feeling of animated abstract fun and foolishness when I went into ‘Beatles’ mode. It brought back a lot of childhood memories and whimsical, magical (mystery tours?), experimental modes.
A Girl with a Plan!
This time I was savvy and started writing out all the emotions that were coming up as I was setting out the drawing (I squiggled them down on the side of the canvas — pure genius even if it does look a bit untidy).
Here are a few keywords I wrote down. Yes, some are rather strange, I admit — but this is what came up for me:
Fun
Candid
Innovative
Serious
Rigid (?)
Abstract
Exciting
Mentally Delicious
I like the last one, I think that sums up The Beatles quite well…maybe not mental, but certainly aurally delicious.
I am not revealing the picture as a whole but have cut it up into segments to add to the intrigue. Here are some sneak peeks of the painting :
You can see it in its entirety when it is finished. If you think it looks busy now, wait until the hue shows its face!
I hope to have the full color version for you within the next 2 weeks, so do tune in to the Tuesday Art/Creativity blog here by hitting that ‘follow this blog’ button in the left-hand sidebar of the homepage or at the bottom of the page (yeah, that wafty ‘follow’ button-thingy that should be following your every move).
For All You Shy Little Sausages
Oh, and one last thing…so many people write to me privately and tell me about the creative projects that they have undertaken. I love to hear about your experiments but please share them with everyone! It would be great if you could tell us what you are getting up to in the studio or what you have done in the past that’s new and innovative — don’t be shy, we’re all eager to hear about your creations. Leave a comment… 😀
I gave myself permission for complete artistic freedom, pleasing nobody but myself in the process. So, in short, I just let loose on the canvas and did what I felt compelled to do.
I am happy to show you the first painting of this 10 part series. I have called it‘Escapism’.
Available as prints — click on the picture.
Here are some close-ups and segments of the painting:
Thanks to Radiohead for the out-of-this-world inspiration!
I am going to run through my emotions and what inspired me to paint what I did in next Tuesdays blog as well as reveal what albums I was listening to.
For now, I would love to hear your feedback and comments about what you see here.
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):
David Bowie
Queen
Pink Floyd
The Beatles
Skunk Anansie
Radiohead
Rufus Wainwright
Templeton
Muse
Jeff Buckley
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 🙂
Bloody Hell!
Yes, I know I have kept you waiting for the second piece of this series but wait no longer!
Cherie Roe Dirksen 