Background info for this piece:

This is a free-form explanation of this piece, so bear with me.

I thought it would be interesting to illustrate ritual type scenes in environments that seem only oddly familiar. If you have the opportunity to look closely at this piece you will notice that none of the "people" have any certain style of clothes or look about them. There are no designer jeans and sneakers. There is also no recognizable writing/alphabet (at least not that I know of).
However, if you look closely you see that there are certain symbols and maybe even some shapes that could be a language. Something that could be telling a story. If only we could read the language.
My thought was for this to be a piece that could be shown to anyone, anywhere in the universe, and have them understand that there may be ritualistic activity going on within the piece. Whether they understand what is going on would depend on an unlimited number of things. What culture are they from? What is really important in their culture? Do they even wear clothes? Have they seen beings like this? What do they worship? Do they worship at all? How do they feel when they look at the piece? Does it scare them? Maybe it brings them joy! All of these questions become perfectly valid because I have gone to great lengths to make this piece culturally unbiased. It does not represent any one people or tribe or religion, etc. This is where the idea came from.

Now for a quick explanation of my idea of what some of this represents....In the center we have the skull. To the best of my knowledge (which may be small, for this universe is vast and only minimally explored and experienced in our flesh bodies) we beings need a skull. It holds our brains, our "control center" if you will. It generally represents life and death.

A circle.
All we know.

So it is centered in the piece. In the corners are ritual scenes. In my mind rituals often have a fire going nearby, if not in the center. This is just in my mind, you have your ritual your own way. Within each ritual scene is a large figure in the background, an ElderGod. This being may be alien, may be a God in flesh form, may just be energy taking the shape of a recognizable shape so the other beings can relate. How do I know?
You see, this drawing was mostly stream of consciousness drawing. Only the general layout was preplanned. I knew I needed a skull in the center with symbology projecting in four directions outward. Also I knew there would be a scene in each corner. And of course my foundation of the whole "ritual" idea that I have already explained. The rest is made up as I go.

So anyway, we have ElderGods that may or may not manipulate what is going on. Are they there because they were summoned? Were they always there and maybe they demand ritual? Depending on your personal background and upbringing it could be many things. And we have our rituals. Use your own imagination. Your own interpretations. I can't explain it all. I could tell you what I think it all means from my point of view, but then when someone else asks me a year from now it would probably be different. I will have changed and may not see the same things anymore. I like creating this type of Art. Who you are brings much of the meaning of the Art to the table. This Art is part of you, and you are part of it.

Written by Christopher Gendron on July 22nd 2005 at 10:30 pm Eastern time