Museum of the Moon

One day by complete chance I saw an image on Instagram from a good friend which was utterly captivating and intriguing. I recognised the setting immediately having visited a number of times previously; it was Derby Cathedral. But I couldn’t quite understand why there was a huge moon suspended from the ceiling! But one thing was not in doubt; it was glorious!!

I immediately went and researched exactly what I was looking at, which turned out to be an art installation by Luke Jerram called ‘The Museum of the Moon’. The seven metre sphere is inflated, covered with high resolution NASA images of the moon and internally lit to mimic moonlight. It certainly has a huge presence even in a space as grand as a cathedral!

The installation is designed to evoke the thoughts and feelings we get when looking up at the moon and what it means to us. The cultural and historical importance of the moon is evident across the world, through this the installation aims to connect us all and get us thinking more deeply about the moon and what it means to us.

I have never been shy about the fact I have an inexplicable adoration of the moon and love it wholly. For me it has always evoked so much mystery, beauty and is the light in the darkness. As a teenager I had a map of the dark side of the moon (no I’m not talking about anything Pink Floyd related) on my wall for years and would spend many a hour looking at it in wonder. And as a keen child astronomer I would often sit inspecting each crater in depth through my telescope, secretly hoping I’d see something move or another unexpected turn of events.

Of course I had to go and pay the moon a visit while it was so close by! And while the boards of folk flocking to take a selfie with the moon was abhorrent, the installation itself and all its glorious lighting was fantastic.

Visiting the museum of the moon got me wondering when my obsession with the moon first happened and exactly how it came about. After wracking my brains the only possible  thing which I can think of is a strange one indeed (other than my lifelong obsession with space and stargazing - I still have my sky maps and some astronomy books and we’ve lost a planet since those were published!). Even as a child I had my strange morbid nature I still possess today, and I loved Halloween. I was told at around the age of 5 or 6 that on Halloween if I watched the moon long enough I’d see a witch fly by it on her broom. I can still remember sitting watching for hours waiting to see her. And suspect during this time formed my fascination with that wonderful lunar presence.

If you get chance to visit the Museum of the Moon in a city near you its an experience you shouldn't pass up!

'The Witching Hour' series

After last year releasing my piece ‘Fly High on All Hallows Eve’ to celebrate Halloween 2018, I decided this year I wanted to go one better and do a series for Halloween 2019, all based on the theme ‘The Witching Hour’.

I set my mind racing and conjuring up different ideas of what has taken place on Halloween throughout time. Ancient rituals, animals which have become synonymous with Halloween, and medieval takes on witchcraft and it’s surrounding imagery. A large inspiration was exhibitions like Spellbound at the Ashmolean, but also my countless books, which have plenty of historical reference material to spark the senses.

There was quite a lot of complex (and to my mind well considered) thought behind each piece and it’s development. Largely one goal I wanted to achieve was to create my own Witch riding a flying goat piece, as it’s such an iconic image in the history of Witchcraft. This was one of the main aims of the series, but in the end it became so much more and took on a life of its own all reflecting what goes on under the moonlit sky.

In the end the series wound up being the 5 pieces you see here today. But that doesn’t mean to say there wasn’t  more ideas! I had thumbnail sketches around the theme of ‘the witch and her familiars’ as well as more mystical animals to unleash. But unfortunately I simply ran out of time. I knew the series had to be complete well before Halloween, especially if I was to have cards printed of the designs. So, these unfinished pieces will, for now, remain in their embryonic state. Perhaps I’ve got a head start for next Halloween!

‘The Witching Hour’ is now available as A4 prints (individually or as a set of 5) and select designs are available as postcards and greeting cards! Check them out here!: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DanseMacabreUK

Art in focus: 'The Lovers'

'The Lovers', as you might imagine represents love, relationships and union. It also represents harmony, balance and perfection. The trust, bond and dedication of the lovers incredibly strong. The card has emotional connotations as well as sexual ones, summing up 'The Lovers' in every sense of their connection and union.

Unusually, 'The Lovers' is a tarot with hugely varied depictions depending on deck, I would summise this is because love and relationships is something most people experience personally, so form their own ideals about what love means to them, and thus develop very personalised imagery.
Ancient Tarot decks would often feature a cupid and depict the act of actually falling in love as a snapshot, but more modern interpretations have largely traded this for more deeply emotional, sexual or symbolic approach.
The Rider-Waite depiction shows a nude man and a woman stood below the angel Raphael, who is blessing and protecting the couple. Raphael is the angel of air, which represents communication and its importance in a healthy relationship. The couple are in a lush landscape, suggesting fertility, the scene also has connections with the story of Adam and Eve and the fall of humanity. The card has phallic imagery such as a snake and a mountain, but is not overtly sexual in any way, though many modern artists have taken a much more carnal approach to the card today.  

My Depiction of 'The Lovers' is a somewhat different approach to most. When initially designing the card I wanted it to have intimacy, warmth and express a deep love and passion between the couple which is both emotional and physical. I decided to depict the couple under cover of night,where they are alone with their love and nothing else. The fire represents their passion for each other and their life together, but also the warmth and love in their hearts. The passion and love illuminates their existence and brightens their lives. The couple are within the fires glow, I purposefully left their actions open to interpretation by the viewer, they are either making love, or sat in embrace, either way they are sharing a tender moment which reflects their relationship and love for each other.
They embody unity, harmony and understanding.
The moon blesses their union with his presence and by bathing the couple in moonlight, but he does not look upon them. The moon closes his eyes for their love is for nobody but themselves, it is private and scared, the moon knows and respects this.
The stars form constellations which are related to love and couples, such as Andromeda, Gemini and Orion, suggesting that the universe is aligned in favour of the lovers.
Within the landscape, the mountain is a phallic symbol representing the male, and the river is a fertility symbol representing the female, the two run parallel and at the horizon become one, reaffirming the unity of the lovers.
I wanted my card in contrast with some others to express the true nature of love and lovers. To represent their dedication, connection and emotions without any grandeur or pomp, to simply show the warmth, passion and love in their hearts, and their mental and physical connection and attraction. I was aiming for a down to earth depiction that people could relate to, understand and represented genuine feelings, hopefully I managed to achieve this. 

Art in focus: 'The Moon'

In Tarot 'The Moon' has several different meanings; fear, bewilderment, intuition, dreams. The list is rather long, and most of the connotations are negative, as the Moon illuminates your path, but his light is a reflection of the sun, not his own, so is his guidance an illusion or deception? The Moon sees the shadowy corners of your mind and knows what lurks in your sub-conscious. But The Moon also represents intuition and psychic power, follow your instincts and the moon will not lead you astray.

The traditional imagery used to depict 'The Moon' is largely unchanged from Tarots birth to modern day. The moon looks down on the earth, raining life giving rays and dew down to the ground. Between two towers sit a wolf, dog and crayfish. The crayfish is emerging from a pool which symbolises the development of consciousness, the dog and wolf represent the tame and wild sides of our minds and personalities, and a path  leads out into the distance, showing the journey you must take to reach a higher consciousness.

My interpretation of the moon purposefully has a different approach to the typical depiction of the card. Imagery of the crayfish, wolf and dog are used to reflect primal elements, evolution, different sides of our personality and the ancient fear of what lurks in the darkness. But I wanted to represent my own feelings about the night far more, and draw on the idea that everybody exposes their shadow self, their true inner feelings in the dark silence of night, which is exactly what the figures are doing.
An uninhibited celebration and embracing of basic human instincts and nature. A ritualistic, frenzied, honest appreciation of the twilight hours, and the moon. They do not fear the night, they embrace it together. I also wanted to weave the myth of 'lunacy' into the design somewhere, and that is represented by the idea that an observer may think that the figures are suffering from lunacy, but from their perspective (and the moons) they are worshiping the moon, the life he brings to the earth and each other. The figures lunar ritual is taking place within standing stones, suggesting that their practices, appreciation and basic primal instincts are ancient, almost as old as the moon itself.

When designing this card, the face of my moon felt very important. I chose to make my moon masculine (where most moons are feminine) as I was forever looking for the man in the moon as a child. I wanted my moon to represent the different phases and faces of the moon, his full face with a pleasant, contented happiness, his half face with a sad, low grimace and his sickle, almost imperceptible nothing more than a glimmer of light, seen, appreciated and understood by few. All of these emotions are a part of him and make him whole. Like the feelings of many humans (myself included) his emotions are often fractured, and the happy face he shows the world may not always be how he genuinely feels. Here he is out in full, presenting himself in all his glory to his admirers. They see every emotion of his face, for he has no reason to hide it from them, they celebrate him as a whole, loving his happiness, madness and sorrow, just as they accept their own.

'The Moon' felt to be a very important card for me personally, so I gave it great consideration when producing initial sketches. I have a long held fascination and obsession with our satellite, I spent hours looking at its craters through my telescope as a child, I had posters of moon maps on my walls as a teenager,  and I still enjoy looking up at the moon and admiring the face of my old friend still looking back at me.     

Art in focus: 'The World'

In Tarot 'The World' signifies the end of life's journey. You have experienced what the world has to offer, you are wiser and more learned because of it. With the end of the great cycle of life comes fulfillment, achievement and understanding. Great satisfaction comes with following your path through life and upon completion, this eternal process begins anew.

From the earliest surviving Tarot through to popular modern day decks, such as Rider-Waite, the traditional imagery of 'The World' is largely unchanged. A dancing figure rejoices, surrounded by a wreath of thick foliage and in each corner a lion, bull, cherub and eagle reside, representing the four fixed signs of the zodiac, the four elements and the four suits of Tarot. The symbolism is complex, representing victory, achievement, infinity but also enlightenment.  

With 'The World' I took a very different approach to the imagery seen in most Tarot decks. I wanted to move away from traditional depictions and re-imagine 'The World', but maintain many of its key messages. I decided a logical option was to depict our world, earth, in its place within the universe, seen not from an insular point of view, but encompassing all.
The Earth is surrounded, almost cocooned and protected by Ouroboros - an ancient symbol, usually a snake or dragon eating its own tail. It represents the infinite and continual cycle of nature, of birth and death, of eternal renewal and the constant cycle of life. In my depiction of 'The World' the Ouroboros represents that not only the cycle of life all over the Earth, but across the universe.
I chose to include the Sun and the Moon, as the Earths celestial neighbours they are essential to our survival, providing warmth, light, fertility and tides to our planet. They are essential to our balance and place within the universe.
Surrounding the World are the constellations of the 12 signs of the zodiac. They surround the earth, signifying their relationship to the world and life, and the different qualities they bring to the world.
The infinite blackness of space is the canvas for our world, often feeling lonely and isolated, but also suggesting that in the infinite vastness of the universe, 'The World' may not be alone.

My version of  'The World' was not a difficult creation, mentally wrestled over and struggled with as art works often are. It simply leapt from my mind one day, virtually fully formed, and I had to race to scribble it down before it vanished as quickly as it had arrived. Those are often the artworks which feel most satisfying as an artist. Their creation and conception has felt like an effortless joy, so their completion often feels very rewarding and 'meant to be' in a strangely comforting sense.

Design work for 'The World' and a clearer view of the 12 zodiac constellations