Thursday, May 26, 2016

New Tanit Art


So this is Tanit (or Tanith), the Carthaginian Great Goddess, known to the Romans as Dea Caelistis, 'the Heavenly Goddess'. She's not actually the May Goddess of the Month art (that's Hekate of the Crossroads, which I'm still working on), but a Goddess I've been wanting to paint for a while now. Her pose is taken from Her symbol, a triangle with a circle on top and a cross bar, probably a stylized and very abstracted figure of a woman, and Her dress is after Iberian Phoenician (yes, the Phoenicians got over to Spain!) Goddess figurines which probably represent Her. Pomegranates, doves, and palm trees are sacred to Her.

I posted about this piece step by step, from concept to finish, over at my Patreon, which, yes, I'm going to continue to plug, ha. Seriously, though, as I've said below, the whole Patreon thing has been really helpful, not just as far as encouragement and inspiration go, but because I've been writing there about my process on pieces as I make them, so it's helped also focus and clarify what I'm doing with a piece and how I'm doing it. I don't generally write about what I'm doing, but it's proving to be quite helpful.

Anyway I rather like this Tanit, all in Her Tyrian purple, with the Tunisian desert behind Her; I realized only after I'd settled on the pattern that the clamshell-thingies meant to represent sand dunes or desert hills look like gravestones, which is entirely appropriate given the controversy over whether Tanit accepted child sacrifices. I'm inclined to think that's mostly propaganda from Carthage's enemies; at any rate, I don't think it very likely that the separate child graveyards are entirely (or even mostly) composed of children sacrificed to Her, when infant and child mortality was so high some two thousand years ago.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Bit of News

Well, I finally succumbed and signed up for Facebook (I had happily held out for years, which is not surprising given my extreme introvert ways). Come 'friend' me!

In other news, the Patreon experiment continues apace. I am surprised, actually, how helpful and encouraging it's been; it's got me making a good deal of new art on a regular basis. Some of that is an obvious consequence of asking for suggestions for monthly Goddess art as the reward for one tier. But I'm finding that in between that monthly commitment I want—and need—to make more art, because the pump has been primed. I am very grateful, not just for the monetary support, but for the artistic support that is keeping me inspired.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Artemis Brauronia


New art of Artemis Brauronia, or Artemis as She was worshipped at Brauron in Greece. Done as the requested Goddess for the month of April over on my Patreon.

The worship of Artemis Brauronia centered on Artemis as protectress of the young and newborn. Her festival was held in the spring, and little girls in saffron-colored robes danced to Her, imitating bears. Those little girls were called arktoi, meaning 'bears'. I have shown Her here as one of Her own arktoi in a saffron robe, holding a brown bear cub. Behind Her are willow branches and an old craggy laurel tree, sprouting again with the new spring.

I tried drawing Her first with long hair whipped by the wind, but She just wouldn't have it. She just wanted short hair. I don't know if it's the shaggy bear thing, maybe. She has primroses in Her hair as they are woodland flowers that bloom early in spring.

I've put Her up as a print over on deviantArt.