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The Necronomicon Series – Dark Fantastic and Visionary Art

April 2, 2013 By Jay Gidwitz Leave a Comment

Water VIII

The Darkness Inside I

Water VII

The Darkness Inside III

Abstracted Church I

Abstracted Church II

Untitled Abstracted Church III

Orb

Water I

Water II

Water III

Water IV

In these images I am playing with my take on a theme of H. P. Lovecraft’s mythos:

We live in a vast, alien, & unforgiving universe entirely indifferent to human life.

To understand how small our planet is; how little the universe cares about our morals, ideals, and aspirations would drive us insane.

Fortunately, our minds are too small to comprehend these truths; sparing most of us from madness and despair.

These images are an attempt at giving the viewer a glimpse of the unseeable. Cheers!

These images are for the NecronomiCon Providence Convention. The NecronomiCon is the upcoming H. P. Lovecraft Convention at Providence’s Biltmore and surrounding venues.

Groupthink Art Exhibition

March 2, 2013 By Jay Gidwitz Leave a Comment

Art Exhibition “Groupthink” reviewed on theartblog.org. The show was curated by (my sister) painter Lauren Gidwitz.

Some people treat correspondences in the works of alumni from a particular art school like the signs of an emerging art movement. In Groupthink, curator (and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) alumna) Lauren Gidwitz takes the opposite stance. The organizing idea behind the show is how these artists, trained in close proximity to one another at PAFA, may have influenced or been influenced by one other. Emerging strands in the show include a trend towards taxonomy and miniaturization of compositions in a way that suggests artists who stand in a peculiar relation to the classical traditions they may or may not have been taught at their beloved but somewhat old-fashioned art school. The show was held at the Pierre S. du Pont Arts Center Gallery of Tower Hill Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, which as of last year, has begun a tradition of annually hosting a PAFA alumni and student show.

Yoni Hamburger, Windows of the Soul 2, C-print, 55 x 44 in.

http://www.theartblog.org/2013/03/groupthink-an-artists-cluster-expanding-outwards-in-wilmington/

Completion – The Four of Wands

January 29, 2013 By Jay Gidwitz

This Tarot Card was created in collaboration with Occultist Anthony Teth.

Enter Anthony:

Referred to as “Completion” by Aleister Crowley, the Four of Wands represents the benevolent influences of Venus and Jupiter upon the Third Decan of Aries. In layman’s terms, it represents warmth, stability, and energetic serenity. Sometimes viewed as the “ideal home” in other decks, it can denote a “place” (physical or mental) of personal power, untainted by doubt or regret, charged with vibrant energy.

According to Biddy Tarot, the Four of Wands keywords include:

Upright: Celebration, harmony, marriage, home, community

Reversed: Breakdown in communication, transition

To get updates when we finish more cards, and when the deck goes on sale, you can subscribe to get updates.

The Fool – The Dream Logic Tarot Deck

January 28, 2013 By Jay Gidwitz

The Fool - Card 0 of the Major Arcana — The Fool – Card 0 of the Major Arcana

The Fool is card 0 of the major arcana or trump cards. The Fool represents infinite possibility with only a hint of the limitations implied by incarnation.

According to my collaborator Anthony Teth:

The Tarot draws heavily from Platonic concepts. In this light, the Fool represents pure potentiality — the first emanation from the source of divine union, known as Kether to the Qabalists. The Fool is thus androgynous, curious, and whimsical, enamored with each new experience. It is the card of the inner child or perpetual youth. Its element is Air, highlighting its inherent intellectual nature not yet “tainted” by experience, dogma, or pedagogy.

I’m developing The Dream Logic Tarot in collaboration with occultist Anthony Teth.

Click Here to see other cards in the series!

Other major versions of the Fool Tarot card include the Rider-Waite deck and the Thoth Deck, pictured below.

The Fool Rider Waite Deck

The Fool Thoth Deck

Ruin – The Ten of Swords

January 27, 2013 By Jay Gidwitz

Anthony Teth and I are creating The Dream Logic Tarot. This image is one of the cards.

The Ten of Swords according to Anthony:

The gruesome imagery found in the Ten of Swords denotes its inherently negative characteristics. It represents the “perfect storm” of unhappy occurrences coupled with an inability to properly react to the inertia of the universe. Plans fall through, ideas are ridiculed, and projects disintegrate before one’s eyes. To struggle further is to strangle oneself. An entirely new approach is necessary to achieve success in a specific endeavor.

Via Wikipedia:

In its upright or positive light, the ten of swords represents absolute destruction, being pinned down by a multitude of things or situations. The person lying on the ground, defeated and bleeding, may also represent a feeling of hopelessness and being trapped by emotions or mental anguish, since swords represent strife and the mind.

Accoding to Biddy Tarot, the Ten of Swords Tarot Card Meanings include:

Upright: Back-stabbed, defeat, crisis, betrayal, endings, loss

Reversed: Recovery, regeneration, fear of ruin, inevitable end

Thoth Deck – 10 of Swords

10 of Swords – Rider Waite Deck

The Ten of Swords

We are creating a deck of tarot cards with photography and digital art, using much of the original symbolism (without the Christian and binary good/evil slant) and with contemporary ideas. Some of the concepts we’ve worked with and been inspired by so far include chaos theory and fractals, ideas from Nicholas Taleb’s series of books, cybernetics, and evolutionary psychology.