“Know Thyself” A journey, not a destination.

The Oracle, the wise woman, the high priestess.... I forgot what I called this one. What I do know is that I have always been obsessed with the dark side of things; death, sex, the occult, all things taboo in a lot of cultures. I attribute this to my Scorpio stellium (Rising, Pluto, Mercury and Venus all in the first house of self). BUT....from this darkness, emerges wisdom and light. Not that I consider myself very wise, there are oceans of stuff I have yet to learn, but I'm a lifelong student.

There were many times in my younger life, that darkness took over my thoughts. I pushed it back, stuffed it down to the bottom, to the pits, pretending it doesn't exist until one day it all emerged like a monster that has been fed and chained, waiting for it's turn to unleash fury. It slowly killed me from the inside; my spirit, my joy, my excitement for life, but when it broke and dismantled my shell and ego, on the other side of that was a lighter, happier and wiser soul. It's still a journey for me, but embracing myself fully, even the darkness, has allowed me to channel this into creating. These ideas for my recent paintings come from so many places, but mostly from my own journey to finding home.

This painting started with a reference photograph I found on one of those figure painting reference sites, it was just a pose of a person in a dark red robe, nothing else. I've been also intrigued with Tarot cards lately so it reminded me of the high priestess card. There is a certain Scorpio/Pluto/8th house foreboding energy to it also.