Hello! 👋 How was the moon eclipse my dear people?
Today I want to continue with the topics related to my painting Terranauta and the talks or events that were taking place this week about ASTROLOGY. They say that "Where you put your mind, you are there", well, for me it applies to putting the mind and the paint brush so that things synchronize.
But first here some pictures of the painting in process, I have the sky almost ready, at the beginning I was making several textures with small brush strokes but at the end I change it all into blends.
For those who don't know, among several of the things I do, I dedicate myself to illustrating Astral charts or also called Natal charts. Since I can remember, as a very young girl, I was always felt drawn to the planets, the zodiacs, psychology and history through this astronomical-astrological science. I loved the nights when my dad and I would lean on the car window to watch the stars while we put on face masks made of wet leaves from the lilac tree.
Last week I gave one of my astral charts to an artist with whom I have contact, I sell the charts, I do not offer them for free because I understand that the subject for many is ambiguous, unknown or simply does not interest them, or people can get confused about Astrology and Esotericism, well,...I am not a bad witch. However I dared to offer the chart as a gift because the personality of this artist is very unique and I was curious to know some of his characteristics from the astrological point of view, so it was kind of a study for me and a bonus gift for him with whom there is something that as in my town they would say: "it scares me but I like it" or "has a I don't know what, what do I don't know" sounds confusing in english, but in Spanish has all the idea. The things is, I find differences in personality, he may seem to me at first impression as a total egocentric and a brat, with airs of superiority, Mr, Perfect, Zatatustra's Superman (which by the way is what I am reading) and all those qualifiers that in turn makes an artist a genius and a figure until the grave, however we are connected by the passion to create, we respect our ideas, differences, we agree on many things and I admire his dedication to creativity, the way he defends his point of views, he works with passion and also he creates with his hands from scratch, for me that's so valuable, all this makes him magnetic in some way.
Anyway, the point is that while I was diving into the aspects between planets, houses, and zodiac signs, I realized how my work has been related in some way to space, the stars, and mysticism.
My Terranaut reminds me of the most earthly aspects, because he is not the being that left planet Earth to explore outer space, on the contrary, he is a being from another place that has come to explore the planet Earth, and not for the first time, but many times! She is familiar with it, however she feels alien and she knows it. (The Terranaut is female, it's me, but also can be you!)
I started to think about the zodiacal series of portraits I did where I read the beautiful Greek mythology about the zodiacs, that's right friends, many of the zodiac signs have roots in Greek mythology, where astronomers of that time observed the sky and created beautiful stories to explain what they saw.
Here are some examples of the legends associated with the signs of the zodiac and the portraits that I did.
Aries: The golden ram, sent by Queen Nephele to protect her children, and whose fleece was hung in a sacred grove consecrated to Mars. The symbol of Aries represents the animal's face and horns, while it's astrological colors, white and red could represent the white of wool and the red of the sacrifice.
Taurus: The Minotaur, fathered by the god Poseidon and Queen Parsiphae, who was imprisoned in a labyrinth and finally killed by the hero Theseus. In ancient Greece one myth tell us that Taurus was Zeus, who changed himself into the the white bull that leap into the sea with the Phoenician princess Europe on his back takin her to Crete. On their arrival, Zeus transformed himself back into a God and announced his love for Europe.
Jupite's exploits was commemorated on Earth by naming of a continent in her honor and placing Taurus in the sky among the stars.
Cancer: The Roman scholar Macrobius tell us that the Chaldeans created Cancer the Crab that scuttles backwards, the Sun stopped its daily March northwards along the eastern horizon at sunrise, then reversed it's direction after reaching the summer solstice. In ancient Greek, Cancer its a giant crab that Hera commanded to rise from the depths of the sea to help Hydra agains Hercules, the crab was just a distraction. For this portrait I painted the actress Angelique Boyer who now owns my illustration.
Dike, was sickened by this, assembled the humans and chastised them, turning her back on the human race, Dike spread her wings and retreated to the mountains. Humans declined into the Bronze age, beset by disaster and war. Dike could no longer bear humanity's sins, so she left Earth for the sky, finding her place next to Libra, the scales, a symbol of justice.
Libra: The scales of Themis, the Greek goddess of justice and balance. Libra is the only sign that it's represented by an inanimate objet, in some versions of Libra's creation tales were linked to Virgo, in those scales she weighed the fate of mortals.
Scorpio: The scorpion that was sent by the god Hades to punish Orion. To the Babylonias, Scorpio symbolized darkness, and it was know as "the best of death", a creature that swallowed the sun bringing darkness to the world. In Greek lore, Scorpio represents the Scorpion of very great size that Gaia (Goddess of the Earth) had sent forth to defeat Orion because he had threatened to conquer any besat the Earth produced. The result of the battle has different endings. In one version, the Scorpion stings Orion in the heel, and he succumbs to the venom. In another version, Orion defeats the Scorpion in a mighty battle, but Apollo, the God of prophecy, tricks Artemis to complete the job with a bow and a arrow.
Regardless the outcome, Zeus admired the courage of both participants and pace them in the sky as a lesson to all to not be too self-confident.
Sagittarius: The centaur Chiron, son of Saturn, who was half man and half horse. But the lore it's ambiguous. Sagittarius or Chiron, son of the Titan Cronos was one of the many centaurs in Greek mythology. Chiron however differed from all of the other centaurs for a number of reasons. One main reason was that Chiron was born half man and half horse, whereas the other centaurs were born of the sun and rain clouds. The arrow of this constellation points towards the star Antares, the "heart of the scorpion", and Sagittarius stands poised to attack should Scorpius ever attack the nearby Hercules, or to avenge Scorpius's slaying of Orion. for this portrait I painted the Model Nils Verberne.
Capricorn: The goat Amalthea, who raised and fed Zeus. In Greek mythology, Capricornus is associated with the god Pan, who was half goat and half man. The constellation is also sometimes identified with Amalthea, the goat that raised Zeus. In Greek mythology, the constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Zeus after his mother, Rhea, saved him from being devoured by his father, Cronus. Amalthea's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or "horn of plenty"
Aquarius: The god Poseidon, who was depicted as a man with a water jug. In Greek mythology, Aquarius is sometimes associated with Deucalion, the son of Prometheus who built a ship with his wife Pyrrha to survive an imminent flood. They sailed for nine days before washing ashore on Mount Parnassus. For this portrait I painted Henry Cavil as The Witcher because I was watching the series, after I finished my painting, there was a episode where he has a water jug that he was taking care...what a synco!
Pisces: The fish that saved Aphrodite from the waters of the lagoon. In Greek mythology, the constellation Pisces is associated with the goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros. The myth states that they transformed into fish to escape the monster Typhon. They jumped into the Euphrates River and tied themselves together with a cord to avoid losing each other. Another myth is that an egg fell into the Euphrates River. It was then rolled to the shore by fish. Doves sat on the egg until it hatched, out from which came Aphrodite. As a sign of gratitude towards the fish, Aphrodite put the fish into the night sky.
For me, believing or not in astrological influence and taking it as a guide to follow is not what draws my attention, what moves me is precisely how our ancestors gave meaning and form to the sublime and unattainable, how they used psychology and characteristics according to studies through observation of the cosmos and how they pigeonholed the characteristics for each sign in a way that fits and sometimes we can't explain how.
However, I believe that there is planetary energy that in some way influences us and a classic example is the Moon, probably women are more sensitive to identifying this energy.
How many women do not rely on the lunar phases to understand their body and the effect it has on fluids, tides, new cycles, births, emotional increases such as anxiety, light intensity and sleep disorders and much more! Now, imagine all that we don't know about not only the moon but everything in the vast universe?
In other news, Im so excited and grateful because I was selected for the exhibition "Into the Woods" organized by Webster Arts in their Gallery. Do you find familiar this name? Yes! this is the same of the same Gallery where I was juror las month, so this time it's my turn to put my art on their walls.
The piece that was selected was "TRANSITION" and I love this piece, I made this oil painting during 2022 Equinox and was about spring, warm weather, flowers and new beginnings, but I will talk all about this in my next post and it's available for sale on my ETSY or in Webster Arts Gallery.
Meanwhile, here some pictures where I was retouching my painting, at the end I had to paint the borders of the canvas as I didn't liked the white raw border when I framed it, then I added varnish.
I had a vintage brown frame but I have painted it antique gold to make it more luminous, the result looks juts beautiful! by the way, for the frame I have used golden painting by Folk Art by PLAID.
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