Pinkie's Avatar: The "Angelic Pork Chop" Thread
 

This was off-topic, so I started a new thread here. Play ball!

I take no credit. It's all about Mark Ryden.

Sorry, ART. I thought about that after I'd already posted it. Please move it to the appropriate forum. :)

Some of the other cuts look like pork too. Especially the hams and the squarish ones that appear to be bacon.

But there's a cow at the bottom of the "Angelic Carnis" painting. I don't know. I love his work though. :D

http://images.quizilla.com/E/eepopor...enmeatboy1.jpg

http://zoorender.com/zoomotion/drawings/G03/mark2.jpg

I think you're right SM. :D

That last one reminds me of a surreal tarot deck Fergus Hall painted. It was in the movie Live and Let Die, I think. I have an original printing of it.

Ryden seems to be drawing an analogy between butchery and the crucifixion of Christ, which itself draws upon more primitive symbols of animal sacrifice. Perhaps he is trying to illustrate that continuum of practices of ritual sacrifice in these works.

I definitely think so. He quotes the book of Mark, in one of his books on receiving the blood of Christ, and goes on to talk about blood :

"Blood is very powerful. While meat is the substance that keeps our living souls in this physical reality, blood keeps our meat alive. Blood is liquid life. When blood escapes our bodies we are alarmed to the very core of our brains. It is life leaking out of us. It is frightening and makes red a profoundly intense color. " – Mark Ryden

Is that an example of Surrealism?

Yes!

http://www.grandcentralartcenter.com...sts/Ryden.html

Probably not a particularly apt one. I seem to recall that strict surrealism as a school usually attempted to render improbable or outlandish scenes in a photorealistic manner. I think it's close enough for us non-purists though.

"Ryden has trumped the initial surrealist strategies by consciously choosing subject matter for his paintings that are loaded with cultural connotation. He relies on the irrational to help him achieve intuitive leaps in his combining of subject matter: with dazzling results. The sheer amount of layered information in each painting also contributes substantially to the impact of his work. But the crowning factor with Ryden is that he is an artist in touch with his time. The overall look and feel of his paintings and the stuff he finds interesting strikes a resounding cord with contemporary everyman." -- Essay by Mike McGee

A few years ago, I remarked to an atheist friend of mine that I was struck by the primitive magical symbolism in a hymn we used to sing in the Baptist church when I was a kid:

There is power! Power! Wonder-working power in the blood of the lamb....

This fellow prided himself on being a skeptic (he has published an article in The Skeptical Inquirer) and a debunker of myths, and he readily saw the remnants of a primitive belief structure in the modern (late 19th to early 20th century) lyrics.

There is power in the blood of the lamb...

Whatever he was striving for, I like the end results.
Thanks for introducing him to me, guys. :)

It has...a dark feeling to me.

I think of American McGee's Alice when I look at those paintings.

Yes, in the corporeal sense that it conveys fuel and oxygen to the cells. The religious energy in that particular hymn, however, is embodied in its use as a magical incantation. The loud, forceful singing of it lifts the spirits of the worshippers.

I'm not talking about magic, or religious "energy" and I'm not just talking about the lifting of spirits. I mean literally, there is power in the blood of the lamb.

It's the perfect metaphor in explaining the teaching, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

It is simply the truth.

Interesting. I don't follow your line of reasoning though. Please explain how you arrived at that conclusion.

In my actions, if I choose to be like the lamb, I am meek. My blood is meek. In choosing the road less traveled and backing down, I am blessed in my hunger and thirst for righteousness. Therefore, I am empowered with grace.

Okay, gotcha. In other words, the self-sacrifice of humbling oneself gives one power. "He who exalts himself shall be debased, but he who humbles himself shall be chief among my favorites." That sort of thing.

Coincidentally (or perhaps "synchronistically"), Jung has explained the symbol of Christ on the cross as representing the sacrifice of Ego on the altar of the Self, so your statement makes sense in that light as well.

This thread gives me a headache.

Exactly!

I'm going to buy that book soon. I've already been investigating.

Hmmm, now I'm not sure if ART should go ahead and move this over to philosophy next! ;)

Beauty is pain, King. It's all that blood rushing to your head! ;)

You are very welcome. ;)

Here are some related symbols you may find interesting. The first one is from the aforementioned Fergus Hall deck, which I'm posting because it's somewhat reminiscent of Ryden's style.

http://binaryprophets.clarkworx.com/...ergus_hall.jpg

This is the one I want you to look at. It's from Scapini's deck patterned after an old 14th century Itallian deck. This image contains a lot of additional symbols that amplify the central image of the hanged man. For instance, the coins falling from the pockets denote renunciation of materialism.

http://binaryprophets.clarkworx.com/...87_scapini.jpg

The lower right corner of the above card is shown here. It shows a slaughtered lamb and the alchemical symbol of the pelican tearing its own breast to feed its young.

http://binaryprophets.clarkworx.com/...ni_closeup.jpg

We narrowly escaped getting shipped off to Tilted Nonsense. Fortunately, ART gave us a few minutes to make something worthwhile of this thread. :lol:

*Wipes sweat from brow* Phew! Just barely. ;)

Those tarot cards are pretty. I used to have the deck designed by Alester Crowley. It was an evil deck that loved reporting bad news! I don't play with that stuff anymore, but used to!

You know, I find that one perversely beautiful. It reminds me of Jane's Addiction's song "Of Course":

Of course this land is dangerous,
All of the animals are capably murderous...

One must eat the other
Who runs free before him,
Put him right into his mouth
While fantasizing
The beauty of his movements,
A sensation not unlike
Slapping yourself in the face....

Is that another Ryden painting?

Yeah, that's his. I love Jane's Addiction too. That was the painting that reminded me most of myself, and this one:

Link to his site

(It won't let me post the whole painting from his site)

The Web designer had cut it up and placed the pieces in a table to make a click map. I guess using the MAP tag was just too easy for him. :rolleyes:

Bwahahaaaaa!!! A Hitler Youth in deco pink! :lol:

This guy is a genius. Is he still alive?

Very much so. He's my favorite artist. :D

Thanks. That one is great...

I think that one is gonna be my next avatar. That's just too damned funny! http://bluehole.clarkworx.com/chrome...s/rotflmao.gif

His use of bizarre symbolic animal figures reminds me of Hieronymous Bosch in a way too.

http://digitalconsciousness.com/renowned/11.1.jpg

Wow those are really strange and hypnotic at the same time.

Anyone else get the feeling they walked into a different world in this thread? :p

You knew you should've taken that left turn at Albequerque, huh? :p

No one was supposed to know I missed it! Darn....