The St Andrews Cross Abstracts - Mapplethorpe Meets Pollock (NEW WORK ADDED)

The St Andrews Cross is a bondage device. The purpose is to place a person on it and bind their hands and feet to the cross in a spread-eagle position.

The Idea of the St Andrews Cross Abstracts came from combining abstract body painting with a bondage environment where the tools of Dominance are used in the role of the paint brush. For example, using a flogger to spread the paint upon the body by dipping the ends of the flogger in the paint. The tools a Dom uses are varied and a lot of them are improvisations, but in the end the tools that cause pain or pleasure can also act as paint brushes. 

The goal is to use the tools in such a way as to create an ecstatic body language throughout the series. The pain and pleasure of the model is translated into that language as the body painting is created. I am using only men who consider themselves submissive and have some understanding of the sub/dom relationship. 

The cross was mounted onto a platform with a canvas backdrop behind it in order to keep the cross steady and to create an abstract backdrop that the model merges into.

Everything is controlled within the studio environment. Lighting is crucial. These sessions take place at night. Lighting allows for bright white light or ambient soft lighting from every angle. Candle light is also used. 

Even the choice of music is preplanned to create an atmosphere which the model reacts to.But this preplanning stops when the actual painting begins. The abstraction created is totally spontaneous creativity. The paint upon the body takes on its own life throughout the session which is controlled through the use of both pain and pleasure. The paint goes where it wishes based on the body language of the model. 

Other substances are used besides paint. The liberal use of mud upon the body creates an air of humiliation that again translates into the body language of the model. The use of ropes to bind parts of the body is also used. 

With all that said, here is the art from the first session. More will be added as it becomes available. 

The Immunocompromised Artist - A Creative Journey Through a Pandemic (Updated 04-07-20)

March 6, 2020

In a way this is a journal within a journal. 

I say this because the immortalartist blog is in many ways me and my way of thinking about creativity. A lot of other people have become involved since I started it 5 years ago, but at its core its me and my own creative journey. 

In recent weeks though the world has been turned upside down by a creeping virus that just might reshape the whole world. 

I don't discuss it much on this site, but I have almost no immune system. What's left of it does its best to keep me healthy. I never let it get to me. In fact I think it makes me work all the harder as an artist because I am never really sure how much time I will ever have.

So you can understand that I've been paying more than a little attention to the recent Coronavirus epidemic.

We made a few decisions over the last week. Since I know there are other artists who will be at risk from this virus, I thought it might be helpful if I posted my own journey through this as the virus takes its hold on the world.

While trying not to panic yet make certain adjustments to our life while we are still able, we've begun to implement certain precautions into our life built with one goal. Keeping me alive.

I'm no fool and I am under no illusion. I will be 55 in August. I have little to no immune system. I am diabetic and I am prone to pneumonia from even a simple cold. My chances of survival are slim if I am exposed to this. 

So let me first tell you some of the things my partner and I have implemented in the past few weeks. 

We made the decision that it might be time to take some cautious steps towards survival almost two weeks ago. We purchased the safety items that we might well need such as masks hand sanitizer and lots of Lysol. We made sure they were spaced around our home and we began teaching ourselves to use them often. 

We bought a bit of extra basic foods for the house and we arranged for our medications to be delivered to us rather than going to pick them up ourselves. We educated ourselves on what we needed to know and we informed friends and family of the decision that would quietly back out of events and places where there were a lot of people. 

We celebrated one last time by going out to the last day of Mardi Gras, which as of the time of this writing was 9 days ago. 

Since that time we've gradually pulled back from going out too often. Post office trips which were a daily occurrence were now down to every few days. Food from this point on will be gotten either late at night when the grocery stores are no full of people or better yet through a variety of delivery services. 

We are very fortunate. Within the walls of this house I have an indoor studio stalked with the various art supplies I use the most. I have an outdoor studio located in a private backyard and secluded by fences and trees. I have project spaces outdoors where I can create whatever I wish. All of this secured with a private locked gate that keeps everyone out.

In some ways this is a wish come true for an artist who wants to spend all their time creating. 

But its funny, the mind can play tricks on you. I've spent many days in the past where I did not go out at all or at the most once every few days. But the concept of not being able to go beyond the walls of my private domain is a strange feeling. 

I was seized today with a need to go beyond the walls today. Perhaps one last look around for awhile. I drove, feeling I'm safe within my vehicle and my partner went into various places where we needed things, always returning to quickly sanitize hands first. 

I felt in some ways that this was a test run. Could we limit our interactions now before there was a massive threat. I kept thinking "are we ready?". 

This doesn't feel real yet. It feels like some sort of silly game we are playing. I think about John Travolta and the Boy in the Plastic Bubble (yes a reference to an ancient crap movie from the past). 

We aren't ready as a society to shut ourselves in. Billy and I have so many more advantages than some. We drove past a homeless encampment beneath the expressway. Hundreds of tents clustered together. What happens to these people? Are they even aware of the imminent threat that may be coming their way? 

Has the city even considered them? Or will many of them die and not be discovered for days or weeks? 

We talk about Stephen King's book "The Stand" as we pass the homeless. Will they be burning bodies if this thing gets out of hand? Will there be bodies in the street? Or is this all just baseless fears.

I think about the terrible days after Hurricane Katrina when there really were bodies in the street and how much it took the city to recover after it was over. And I think about this being multiplied by a whole nation and a whole world. And I am frightened.

Emotions and Storytelling Within Art

"Home to Some"

How we deal with emotional subjects in our art says a lot about who we are. 

I am reminded of a white artist a few years back who painted an image of black 14 year old Emmett Till mutilated and lying in an open coffin. There were massive protests about that piece of art being displayed in the Whitney because it was a white artist who did the painting. 

Whether you agree or disagree with the artists choice of subjects is not what this article is about. This is about emotions. The one thing that I never saw brought up was how the art personally affected the artist. I don't mean how the artist was affected by the protests, but how they were affected by the creating the painting in the first place.

Labyrinth Project Creators Journal - Diana Whiley (New Entry 04-07-20)

Author: Diana Whiley
Adelaide, South Australia



04/07/20

In our current crisis, we are seeing a time of reflection and concentration on self, the world and our place in it. The fragility of humanity when such a thing happens. The loss and rebuilding. Creativity increased and shared. 
What we can look forward to again. 

I never know when it’s going to hit

That different side of love

The different side of you

That takes my breath 

Warms my soul

In the air on the road 

in the places I roam 

on a postcard or text or two

walking in the door

lunch at a café

working on a book 

and the character speaks your name

takes your face

becomes the empty space

I’d missed   

Surrealism Challenge - Artists in Isolation

During the worlds isolation for the pandemic, many are taking time to read, learn new skills, or strengthen existing abilities.

As a Master Surrealist who works with photos, I often challenge myself by finding a difficult image and attempting to transform it into surreal art. 

So I've decided to issue a challenge to others stuck in isolation. 

Send me any image and I will try to turn it into surreal art. Any image is acceptable whether people, places or things. All subject content is acceptable. 

Two simple rules. The image  has to be in .jpg format and it must be a photo you have taken or been taken by a family member, past or present. Old family photos are acceptable.

If I am successful you will receive back a high quality digital file containing art created from your image and the before and after images will be posted to this page.

Images can be sent via email at: gcsartno@aol.com or by sending it through both Twitter and Facebook messages. 


Challenge me! Keep my skills fine tuned! 

We'll all get through this and maybe learn a thing or two along the way.

~Grey~


PS: Several artists have asked if they could participate as challenge artists. If you would like to participate let me know and I'll send you images from my personal photos to challenge your own skills! 

CHALLENGE #1 From XXXZombieBoyXXX 

CHALLENGE #2 from Jay Woods

The Work of Photographer Matthew White

The Work of Artist Jason Lincoln Jeffers (New Work Added)

"QUAN YIN 5"

2020 Oil, acrylic on canvas [40 x 30'']

"SAGITTARIUS"

2020 Oil, acrylic on paper [30 x 44'']

"INANNA & LEO"

2020 Oil, acrylic on paper [44 x 30'']

"CUINEFORM 1"

2020 Oil, acrylic on paper [24 x 18'']

"MASKED QUEEN 27"

2020 Oil on paper [24 x 18'']

"ENOCH 4"

2020 Oil, acrylic on paper [24 x 18'']

ARTIST STATEMENT 

"Multidimensional Fine Art" is a 21st Century genre currently in its nascent stage, but on the verge of rapid global expansion. In March, 2004, I felt compelled to transition from the business world into the art world, ergo, I purchased $5000 worth of art supplies "on a whim" and decided that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was a conscious intent to create something tangible, real, and formidable that became stronger and stronger, and as the months of that year passed, it had become quite clear to me that something was trying to form. The brilliant scientist and inventor of wireless electrical current, Nicola Tesla, said that everything in the universe is divided into frequency and vibration. After painting full time since 2004, the work now seems to emanate an other-worldly energy, frequency, and vibration that somehow initiates a metamorphic effect on the viewer, resulting in an evolutionary impulse so vitally needed for the transformation and healing of humanity.  

 For the Mixed Media paintings, I prefer working with heavy impasto, applying much of the paint with the palette knife with greater frequency than the brush. I then spray mineral spirits lightly onto the surface, allowing it to thin the paint after it is applied, creating an organic, more natural style of deterioration and entropy. The end result is a relic-like, grainy, and textured archaic  appearance resembling an ancient Egyptian granite carving that's been decaying for millennia. 

 If Leonardo da Vinci were alive today, certainly he would have been fascinated by the freedom and expression of Digital Art. In the "Infused Dyes Sublimated on Aluminum" works, most are painted 100% digitally using a variety of the most cutting-edge software and hardware---including the new Apple Pencil. Some are painted partially with Mixed Media, then photographed and the remainder of it is painted digitally. The image is then printed onto a transfer paper which is applied to a flat aluminum surface through sublimation. This process embeds the dyes into the metal permanently. 

You can see more of Jason's work at: https://www.jljeffers.com/

You can contact the artist through his Twitter account at: @shamanartist

The Work of Artist David Hanson aka RAGZ (New Work Added)

"GHOST RIDER'S OTHER BIKE IS IN THE SHOP"

Gouache on 11." x 14" Bristol paper.

"CRAZY CAT LADY"

Ink wash, ink, watercolors, graphic white and a touch of acrylics on 13" x 19" watercolor paper.

4

"ROY ORBISON"

 ink,ink wash, gouache and pastels on 11 x 15 watercolor paper

"ANTS IN THE KITCHEN"

Ink on 8.5" x 11" sketchbook paper.

"BAD CHOICES"

Ink , watercolor and graphic white on 8.5" x 11" Bristol paper

The Work of Artist & Photographer XXX Zombie Boy XXX (New Work Added)

The Work of Photographer Kyle Wiles (New Work Added)

"Dreaming"

"Rainforest Sky"

"Bridge With Sky"

Pain, Struggle & Surrealism - Conceptual Art Project

Last year I did some experimental work on converting screen captures of the California wild fires to surrealist art. My goal was to show the pain of the event, while at the same time casting it into the realm of surrealism.

I watched countless live feeds of the fires, having in some cases to distance myself from what I was seeing. I was not just watching from afar. I was trying to place myself in the shoes of those watching their homes destroyed by the flames. After several dozen decent screen captures, I set to work with just a single image to experiment with the concept of pain and surrealism.

After I was through, I set the experiment aside to consider its impact as an art form and also its impact upon me the artist. Was it something worth pursuing? Was it too painful for myself? Was it too painful for those intimately involved in the events? Was I walking on ground that was too treacherous to be on?

Then I thought about Van Gogh. Settings aside his genius as a painter and his craziness as a man. He was able to capture the anguish of men and women and cast that anguish into a surreal beauty. "The Potato Eaters" done in 1885 showed peasants around a rickety table, sharing a meager meal of potatoes and tea. It is strikingly real yet surreal. He did not fear showing the pain and struggle of those around him.

Then I considered another artist. Picasso. In 1937 Picasso created one of his greatest works "Guernica". In his amazingly complex and unusual style, he portrayed the bombing of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. But he did so in the surreal style that he was so well known for. But the pain is still there. The anguish still remains.

There are many more examples of this need to cast the atrocities of man into surrealism that allows us to see the pain, while stepping back from it.

So with that thought in mind, I decided to begin a new series "Pain, Struggle & Surrealism", using the tools of today's media saturated art world to tell the tales of today's anguish.

The wild fires were experiments. They've taught me a lot. Now I watch the world. 

The Work of Artist Marko Alabaster

"Shattered Island"

I witnessed from a far the end of an era.  The closing of a place i was very fond of.  A haven.  Nothing could have prepared me for the passing.  The end?  Or was it a beginning?  Behind this mountain heralds a new dawn raising its head out of the devastation. Hope! Progression! Life!  

This piece is still available for purchase
£150

Labyrinth Project Creators Journal - Ryan Rosenberry (New Entry 13-30-20)

Artist Ryan Rosenberry
Fargo, North Dakota


03/30/20

I tainted a nothingness today. And for the first time in as far as I can remember, it was not with words but with lines and shapes and objects. I created art or, at the very least, the start of a new adventure -

I’ve been here before, at the first steps of a new passion feeling that wonderful combination of awe and frustration and fear and excitement and confusion, where I want to learn everything right now from ten thousand different sources and concepts and yet straining to understand the simplest of basics…

Overwhelmed is the best way I can describe my state of being right now. (and scared, confused ect...)  I’ve stepped into a world where, until now, I’ve only glanced into. Even now, while writing this, I am leaving so much of what I want to say on the floor because I can’t even process everything my mind is going through all at once.

In time, this will all make more sense to me. Until then, I shall take refuge in the speech words Neil Gaiman spoke during his 2012 commencement speech, when in doubt... "make good art"

The Death's Head Cards - A Conceptual Art Puzzle

Death stalks its prey. 

It watches, savoring each moment before the final kill. 

It is the hunter, ready to take the soul the moment its laid bare.

Do you see death the way I do? 

Do you see its dark stare and its laughing grimace?

Do you see the way it watches and contemplates its victims?

No, you see only life, until it has gone.

Death is a strange thing. It stalks us all. But some seem destined for a preordained departure. 

All of these images share one thing in common. Death is watching them. 

Death may brush near, or may even take another's body to use their mortal eyes. But death is there, sometimes for years, or only a moment before. 

Can you identify who death is watching? 

Some are easy to recognize. Others not so easy. Some lived long lives, some only short. Who are they? 

And even more important than who death is watching, is WHO is watching death? 

Can you solve the Deaths Head puzzle? 

Click any card to go its page! 

Go to Card #12

Go to Card #11

Go to Card #10