Sunday, November 6, 2011

Edgar Allan Poe poem... Dolorosa pen & ink sketch...



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pen and ink sketch Dolorosa


A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?



Saturday, November 5, 2011

Austin Osman Spare ... Illustration...1909



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Cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum 1909


from

On the Oxford circuit, and other verses  by Mr Justice Darling 1909

 
CUJUS EST SOLUM EJUS EST USQUE 
AD COELUM 

'ELUSIVE maxim! Hardly Heaven 
they hold 
Whose lands in fee to central Hell 

descend. 
Though from the soil its lords the 
stars behold, 
With the thick air extremest titles end. 




Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Maman Brigitte ... Jessica Grote, poem & Claude Saintilius, art.



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Maman Brigitte by Claude Saintilius



~~ Our Lady of the Cemetery: Maman Brigitte ~~

The Face of Death

Ruby-red drops of blood mix with the white flour. The strong
alcohol is still burning in her throat. Passion overcomes her,a
yearning, a desperate physical hunger, spreading her legs wide
open, shivering through her body. She wants to embrace...the
Dead. 
Fixing her gaze on the purple candle, raising it high
above her head, she whispers... Maman... Ma mere... An irresistable
urge has her pouring the purple wax over her body
while calling out to HER...
You are walking down the long and sparely lit hallway.
Following a noise, a whisper, the distant echo of MY voice.
It is cold, you are alone and yet you know we are all around -
waiting for you.
Treading on the path of the unknown, you feel fear, my child,
I know.
Be brave, go ahead, follow MY call, open that door.
I am over here, standing below the willow on that old cemetery
Yes, it is music coming out of this crypt. Have a look, go inside,
you will see strange rites but also merry dancing and laughter.
Dance with the Dead, my child! Dance with my children!
Do not take yourself too serious!
I am the Mother of the Dead and we are everywhere. In fact
everyone is a walking Dead.
So why not laugh in the face of Death?

by Jessica Grote ~October 2010 excerpt from Atua



Saturday, October 29, 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011

Aztec Idol ... Vitzilipuztli ... bookplates 1700s



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A. Aveline  - 1720



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1725



Thursday, October 20, 2011

Hokeah, Jack (1902-1969) ... paintings



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Buffalo Dance 1929


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War Dancer 1929



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Greeting of Thee Moon God 1929



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Chasing  Evil Spirits 1929

more Jack Hokeah at Kiowa Indian Art  in the C Szwedzicki Collection



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Gio Colucci... book illustration... The Torture Garden..





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illustration from Octave Mirbeaus Torture Garden 1925



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from The Torture Garden, written by Octave Mirbeau in 1899



Works of Art.... Skull and Devil... Japan





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Ivory okimono of a scull (tokotsu) entwined with a serpent, Meiji period (1868 - 1912)

worn by members of the underground dokudo (later yakuza), because they believed it brought good luck to gamblers. In the Meiji period the best-known carver of this subject was Gjokuzan.



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Carved ivory netsuke signed Chiyuki 之, Japan, Meiji period, turn of the 19th century
 
This  netsuke depicts a typical stylized devil Oni
They come from the Buddhist pantheon and appear in many folk stories. In this comical stylization the umbrella is used instead of the kanabo steel club. The eyes of the devil are made of mother-of-pearl and were inserted by the technique ji ita hamekomi.



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Kyle Fite ... drawings & woodcut





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Choronzon



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Therion


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Vision of St John


more wonders at the artwork gallery here > Starfire Publishing