'Fear No Evil' (Painting)

'I Shall Fear No Evil' -by Stephanie Tihanyi (painting)
(all copyrights are held by the artist)





Detail 1

'I Shall Fear No Evil'
-by Stephanie Tihanyi (painting)
(all copyrights are held by the artist)

 The title of my painting is 'Fear No Evil'.   Before, I simply called it 'the beast' or 'the  star'  or something. I never really knew what it was going to be called because it was a work that came together and developed, as the painting progressed over many months of meditations. The recent atrocities wrought in this world drew back a veil on its meaning and nature of the words taken as the title, from the bible: Psalms 23, verse 4 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil'





detail2

'I Shall Fear No Evil'
-by Stephanie Tihanyi (painting)
(all copyrights are held by the artist)

detail 3

'I Shall Fear No Evil'
 -by Stephanie Tihanyi (painting)
(all copyrights are held by the artist)

The central figure of the beast, who stands proudly in the gates of purgatory. From under his flaming wings reigns a showers of blood, showing he sheds blood of mankind, where ever he goes. Behind him there is a trail of black flags of fanaticism, hate and violence. Central in the painting, in the back ground is the winged angel of death, who stand with sword planted firmly in front of him. A figure, a woman stands in the intimidating and dominating gaze of the beast but her attention is not there, its caught on a brilliant light, high above the mountains of the darkened valley. The light casts a path of rainbow hued rays. In spite of the peril of , rape, torture, slavery, death, she is safe from the forces of evil, with one hand holding white bloom, signifying purity of spirit, the star of mercy, guides the souls path during the darkest ravines on the way to higher planes




detail 4

'I Shall Fear No Evil' -
by Stephanie Tihanyi (painting)
(all copyrights are held by the artist)

Progress on the latest painting

'I Shall Fear No Evil' -by Stephanie Tihanyi (painting)
(all copyrights are held by the artist)

Still working on this one steadily, in between smaller works. Its coming along in its own way, I have no image of the intended look or content, just letting it develop on its own. Just recently begun to add an angel in the mid top section, it kinda of appeared on its own, I already know it will hang from above, holding a sword down as if marking the boundaries of heaven and hell. Still a lot more to do, but want to finish it, before I present it for viewing at a small opening evening in a local art café, in mid December. It will not be for sale there, but I would like to introduce people to the art work of visionary art.

Continuing the underpainting on the latest painting

Painting "I shall fear no evil" by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by the artist)

For me, to be an artist means being able to see beauty in this world but also being unable to be unaware of the tragedy of the world we live in. As my heart breaks and my outrage ignites over the massacre's, beheadings, slavery and genocide, while the world chooses to stand and watch turns a blind eye to the evil of a religion, I find my paintings becoming very ugly, they now have death, blood and war in them.


I have done some more under painting in the old masters Flemish tradition of egg tempera, this is over an ink and English red earth ground. I hope to have all the under painting done by tomorrow, ready for the first glaze of yellow. I have used my live model sketches for my figure and the plant is a tall frangipani-like, white flowering plant, growing in my garden, of which I am yet to identify.







Painting "I shall fear no evil" by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by the artist)

My painting: Cup of Abundance is finished

 Its my first one that is in the new technique of oil/egg tempera of the Old Masters. A technique I learnt from Prof. Philip Rubinov Jacobson at the workshop in Vienna this year. Its on canvas and the size is 24X30 inches:






Cup of Abundance -by Stephanie Tihanyi
 

This is my painting, The Cup of Abundance is finished  In the  painting, the Peacock Colored Angel hold the Holy Grail to all who can sees spiritual light, traversing from afar into the realm of the Kingdom of Nature, where the laws of life and death are set in place, Souls, like moths flock around, drawn by the light and heat, desiring to be consumed by the flame of eternal love and carried to realm of softer, higher vibrations.

After reading The Conference of the Birds or Speech of the Birds, Written in 1177, in Persian by the poet Farid ud-Din Attar, who is commonly known as Attar of Nishapur.  It is a poem about the king of the birds (souls) leading them to enlightenment. I became interested with the symbol and tradition of the Pheonix.
 In Persian its known as Simurgh (/ˌsɪˈmərɡ/; Persian: سیمرغ sɪmorγ), also spelled simorgh, simurg, simoorg or simourv, is a benevolent, mythical flying creature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as Arabic Anqā (عنقا) or Persian Homā (Persian: هما‎). The figure can be found in all periods of Greater Iranian art and literature and is also evident in the iconography of medieval Armenia .  The mythical bird is also found in the mythology of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and is called Kerkés, Semrug, Semurg, Samran, and Samruk.^[3][4] The word was also borrowed into Armenian as siramarg ‘peacock’.

New paintings, new techniques

sketch from dream
-Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by artist)

This is a some of the work I am currently doing. I have already begun to use what I have read, about the 'mische' technique of the old masters. I am very excited and looking forward to learning more about it when I go to the workshop, taught by Prof. Philip Rubinov Jacobson in Austria this year.
This painting came from a series of sketches I did that were inspired by a dream of an angel I had and wrote about earlier. The Angel is giving the spiritual water of life from the holy cup. The angel is a messenger and it carries a message across a great distance as  

detail of painting 'Cup of Abundance' by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by artist)

detail of painting 'Cup of Abundance' by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by artist)

  seen in the far off spinning galaxy in the above right-hand upper corner. There is a lot going on in this work subconsciously, that is far exceeds my conscious minds ability to explain. Its like I have to paint it first to understand it later. I glimpse pieces and bits but have not got the time to go into it right now. For me, realizing the image, is something that has to come first. The angel sits in a lush shady tropical lowland, with waterfalls behind and a landscape that sweeps upward into forests and snow-capped mountains that merge with the stars, nebulae, and constellations of a light filled heaven. Also present in the landscape is a small local hawk, the American Kestrel, known locally here in the Caribbean as 'gli-gli, a name that came from the Caribe Indians.
It means 'fearless one', a warriors symbol and a symbol of courage. In its claws it has a small iguana. This shows that all earthly life is also bound with the law of earthly death.The angel holds out the cup, full of the water of spiritual everlasting life, its beckoning light draws in moths from all corners of the darkness.

detail of painting 'Cup of Abundance'
 by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by artist)

 There's is much to add in this work yet so I will write again more in time as I go. I don't know why but I feel compelled to look into the myths Sir Gwain and the Green Knight and the Holy Grail stories to explain more. The work is still in progress and still in layers of various under painting and color-glazing and not the color of the intended final colors


Unfinished stages of my painting-
detail of painting 'Cup of Abundance' by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by artist)
 

:

Now a Member of the Society for the Art of Imagination

Since the beginning of last month (March), I was accepted into the Society for the Art of Imagination.
 The Society is one of the largest Fantastic, Visionary and Surreal artist groups in the world, with over 400 artist members in 23 countries.


Flight of the Bride-Brigid Marlin

Origin and History of The Society for Art of Imagination
In 1961 a group of artists from England, dissatisfied with the way the art world was going, began to work together, calling themselves the Inscape Group. They were Diana Hesketh (1931--), Peter Holland, .Brigid Marlin (1936--) Jack Ray and Steve Snell (1946-). They worked together to experiment with different ideas and techniques. Their progress may be summarized as follows:

Brigid Marlin

1966 One member of the Inscape group, Brigid Marlin, went to study with Ernst Fuchs in Vienna. She was able to learn the Mische Technique, which was recieved with enthusiasm by other members who began to work with, and teach the technique in England, Europe and America.

Ernst Fuchs

1968 Members of the Inscape group were invited by Ernst Fuchs to come to Wartholz Castle, to his Summer Seminar, where artists from all over the world came to exchange ideas, and work together experimenting with old and newly evolved techniques. The Summer Seminar continued for seven years under the direction of Wolfgang Manner, and brought about great art and great friendships.

1972 As artists from different countries worked to promote each other and the cause of fine art, World-wide Exchange Exhibitions were set up in different countries and the Inscape Group became known as Inscape International.



 

   Adam and Eve-Ernst Fuchs     

1973- 1992 Inscape International. went on to exhibit in Paris, Ireland, Holland, Sweden, Tokyo, the United States and Canada. Lectures and classes were given on the Mische technique in Europe, the United States and Canada,

1993 Professor Ernst Fuchs summoned some of the Inscape artists to meet at Grafenegg Castle near Vienna to discuss the way forward towards promoting the Art of Imagination. He asked each artist to work towards this end. He had by now founded The Ernst Fuchs Museum in the villa built by Otto Wagner, and was planning an International Museum for Fantastic Art at the Saxe-Coburg Palais in Vienna.

1994 Maurizio Albarelli launched a major Exhibition "Du Fantastique au Visionnaire", the largest of its kind ever to be staged, at the Zitelle Cultural Centre, Venice, which included the work of many members of Inscape International.

1996 Rosemary Bassi organized the first of several shows of Fantastic paintings and sculpture inclluding Inscape International Members at her Galerie Rolandseck near Bonn, Germany

1997 Inscape International decided to expand their Membership and work to help to promotion of Imaginative Art around the World. To facilitate this it changed its name to The Society for Art of Imagination. Ernst Fuchs agreed to be Honorary President.

1998 The Society for Art of Imagination launched a World Premiere- the very first Open Exhibition for Art of Imagination. It took place at the Mall Galleries, London. Virginia Rogers, a patron of vision, pledged to the Society $10,000.00 every year to distribute as prize money.

H R Giger

1999 The Erlangen Museum near Nurnberg, Germany, arranged a huge exhibition "Phantastik am Ende der Zeit" planned by Dr. Christine Ivanovic. The show was arranged in historical order , starting with the early woodcuts and engravings of Schongauer 1481, and Altdorfer c 1511, then on to the paintings of Bosch and Breughel, followed by Ensor and Munch, Max Ernst, Dali , and Paul Wunderlich. The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism was well represented, and the Exhibition displayed the work of many Members of The Society for Art of Imagination .The Exhibition formed part of a Symposium on Fantastic Art and attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

Martina Hoffman

1999 & 2000 The Open Exhibition for Art of Imagination at the Mall Galleries continued. This Exhibition had now become a very popular annual event, giving artists of Imagination a public forum, and a chance to win valuable prizes. Many artists have been discovered through showing there, and have been taken up by visiting art dealers. The money awards helped artists who were finding it hard to survive.

A Magazine called Inscape was launched by the Society, to appear twice annually.

Lectures and classes were set up to spread the knowledge of good techniques in painting and sculpture. 

De Es Schwerthberger

 2001 H R Giger agreed to be an Honorary Patron, and invited Vonn Stropp, 1st Prize-Winner of the Art of Imagination Exhibition 2000 , and other members of the Society to visit his home in Switzerland, and travel with him to the H R Giger Museum at Gruyeres. An Exhibition of Members' work at his Museum was discussed.

Damien Micheals

2001 Damian Michaels from Australia, a Member of the Society for Art of Imagination and Editor of the 

Michel de Saint Ouen

acclaimed magazine "Art Visionary", launched the opening of his International Collection of Fantastic and Visionary Art at the Orange Museum, Australia, which was opened by the Director of the Society or Art of Imagination. The Exhibition was recieved with great enthusiasm and praise for its excellent quality. A special workshop on the Mische Technique was also organised in Melbourne.

(excerpt from The Society for Art of Imagination) website 

Philip Rubinov Jacobson

 




In June this summer, I will be attending a month long workshop in Vienna, Austria with Prof. Philip Rubinov Jacobson 


Philip Rubinov Jacobson

to learn the secret Mische Technique of painting with layers of egg-tempera and resin/oil glazes, shown here below in the first stages by the brilliant master painter, Madeline von Foerster



Mische Techique demonstrated by Madelaine von Foerster

 

I will talk more about the Mische Technique and the up coming workshop in my next post soon. Please check out and like my Facebook page for updates on my current work Artist Tihanyi

one of my current paintings in progress - Stephanie Tihanyi

Dweller Bettween The Worlds (re-edited)



Painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyrights held by the artist)

The simple, absolute and immutable mysteries of divine Truth are hidden in the super-luminous darkness of that silence which is revealed in secret. For this darkness, though of deepest obscurity is yet radiantly clear; and, though beyond touch and sight, it more than fills our unseeing minds with splendors of transcendent beauty.”- Dyonysiusthe Areopagate

As I posted in my last post, I would write something about my current paintings. Often its not easy to put into words or conceptualize the thoughts about my spiritual interior experiences. A visual art like painting, is a more natural language for the spirit, than the intellectual mind. While it is important to explain what ones work to others, its just as important to explain and comprehend in a conscious way to the self also. By the act of trans-muting my experiences to others, I gain understanding. When one is sensing a spiritual truth or awakening in spirit as I am, it is important to transmute this knowledge down thru the lower levels to the conscious human earthly experience to be fully aware. Spiritual knowledge is a river, it must keep flowing.

Painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyrights held by the artist)

 In my current painting you can sees a woman pouring out a dark liquid from a jug. It is an image I have been attracted to because of its mysterious beauty. It is said, spiritual and mystical knowledge comes into the mind and we create images or symbols as vessels to contain them. Where this spiritual knowledge comes from is hard to say, it seems all around, all directions. I feel sometimes like I am a bowl being filled with something, a kind of information or knowledge, so fast, I barely understand. Maybe not only do we create the symbols for our truths, we become them. I am an artist, I am conduit, I am not a spiritual master or authority, only one simple soul seeking truth, I feel is my purpose to record and communicate things I can only describe as mystical truths and spiritual gifts because as it is explained in Proverbs 11:24-25  "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered".

In my painting a hidden obscured woman is pouring a dark fluid. This dark fluid spirals around her, causing all around her to be brightly illuminated, while the figure and water remain dark. Why is it dark, how can darkness illuminate?
Sometimes the image of a woman (or a man), carrying the water of life, is universally known as Aquarius, the water bearer, or the self appointed world-server. This fits well with my own path as an artist and the deepening commitment I feel to it, not just as work or a job but as a duty and a calling to a path with purpose. This symbol has had long history in human cultures, from ancient Egypt, Sumerian and the around the Mediterranean. This image is also associated with the 17th card of the Major arcana of the tarot. The Star, a symbol of hope and promise. Common sayings like, 'follow my star, wishing on a star, my lucky star' etc., pertain to this. In  ecclesiastical circles it is known as the star of the Magi. In the tarot card, some pictures show a man with a telescope, looking at the stars, and sometimes its called 'the astronomer', but usually it is a nude woman holding two vessels, from one she pours water on the ground to nourish the earth and the other jug pours water into a pool. Above her one large star and seven smaller stars shine. To me this mysterious imagery is reveling the path or space that connects the eternal waters of the subconscious universe to earthly consciousness, in order to draw its healing energies into the everyday world.   

                                         Paintings by Stephanie Tihanyi
                                           (all copyrights held by the artist)
I have tried to show in my painting, the forces that dispense the essence of, the renewing waters of life; that which gives the means of perpetually renewing its creations, after destruction. The Star is a card of faith, and of hope, both in your own power, and in powers greater than your own.

                                           Paintings by Stephanie Tihanyi
                                                         (all copyrights held by the artist)

"Alternative names of this card are “Daughter of the Firmament” and “Dweller between the Waters“. This card corresponds to the path that connects Netzach and Yesod on the Kabbalistic tree of life. We can also attribute to this card the Hebrew letter Hey  and the symbolic image assigned to Aquarius".The Path Of The Star

 In my painting the jug the woman pours out a dark fluid, a spiraling river of dark light into the waters of the firmament. Her body, the jug and water seem to be dark or hidden, but that does not mean it its absent of light, because it illuminates all that it contacts. It is what is known since ancient times as 'invisible light', the 'super-luminous' or 'quintessence'. In the physical universe 'dark light' is merely type light energy wavelength  beyond our visual range. You can detect the 'dark light' spectrum around the base flame of a candle, next to the wick, there is a dark area, then you see the visible white flame light, and then the amorphous aura around the white flame itself.

This darkness does not deny the glory that flows from it. It is nοt the absence of light: rather it is 'more than luminous'. Or again, cοincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites (which in their very unity remain opposites): the darkness is simultaneously both the brightest light, dark through excess of brightness, and the blackest obscurity because it is 'Tran luminous'.
Likewise the darkness does not deny the Word but reaches the Silence in the very heart of the Word.
 Olivier L  Clément -The Roots of Christian Mysticism;
I intend this work to have three parts, I have pretty much finished the first panel and need only to work some more on the center panel. The final panel that represents the physical universe of matter, is what I am currently working on. These are the most detailed and the longest time I have ever spent on a painting. I have really enjoyed being so immersed in one subject, though the subject seems to develop many themes as it progressed. I have starting and am working on other paintings as well, this is my longest obsession so far. I will keep updates on progress and new insights as I work.

                                 Painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyright held by the artist)

Current new painting

This is a look at my current new painting. Its a detail of the upper left corner of the middle panel. I shall be sharing my thoughts on it (dark matter, dark


'Dark Light'- by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by the artist)

energy, nature of invisible light, in the following post soon.

Life on the edge of Ego disintegration

Cosmic Strings & the Human Heart - by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by the artist)

Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,

And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:

Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide

Return and back into your Sun subside

The Conference of the Birds- Farid ud-Din Attar

My painting above is organized in what is known as a Mandala. At the time I constructed the painting I was not thinking consciously on making a mandala painting, in fact I did not research mandalas until much later when I came across some psychology texts claiming that mandalas utilized in art therapy, had been found useful in helping schizophrenic patients deal with overwhelming feelings disintegration and ego loss. The focusing on a center helped to focus and calm such patients.

I did recognize that this is exactly the same reason I had been compelled to paint this painting. One does not have to be a schizophrenic to be suffering from overwhelming feelings of "coming apart". It happens in many disorders (anxiety) , throughout the history of human kind. Though in some conditions, it can be experienced more intensely and more frequently.
For me, its one of the worst feelings imaginable, worse than the fear of death. In actual death you die and leave behind a body that once was. At least something is left behind, signifying you were actually there, existed, even though now your not.

But this is a feeling that you are disappearing, taking with it the reality that you ever existed!. The words "coming apart" are felt literally, as if it were real. Its like every thing, all of your substance, identity and being, is slowly disintegrating out of existence. All of your very atoms are separating and drifting apart leaving a faint thinning vaporous haze, like what you can imaging happening to you if you went over the event horizon into a black hole. Its that vivid.

Also note that in ego weakening, the boundaries between inner and outer worlds merge. The self associates outward reality (physical universe, atoms, space, black holes, gravity) with the inner psychological experience. Some speak of this as a sign of illness but I think it is a tool and can aid self re-structuring.

What could possibly remedy such an awful experience. There have been self therapies, from times before the 11th century Sufi mystics, to the present day through the use of the arts, meditation, poetry, ti chi, martial arts and mystic wisdom.

I believe the drive to re-organize the psyche after painful experiences is instinctual and somehow blue printed into the human mind. A self re-organizing gift. But from where?. To find that answer, that's the quest of a spiritual Way. The whole thing may also be part of a developmental process. How many times can I die?. as many times it takes to be reborn comes the answer, from somewhere inside me.

As I tried to address the distress I felt, the first thing I did was create the elements around me to contain my poor dissolving self. Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I kind of felt like a magician or shaman doing some kind of magical operation, I don't know what I felt like most the time. I didn't think, I just worked in an unconscious way, doing what felt right, without knowing why.
With the elements and their symbols in place, I worked on the Space beyond the Earth outside. About this time I had been reading about String Theory in a science magazine. Hey, I am no mathematician but I kind of gleaned some images in my head from the article, even though I could not explain it in words.
Around the Space, containing the space, is a tube or string. The picture now becomes like a cross section of a string, like a spaghetti that is seemingly infinite in depth. The skin of this string is Time, as indicated by the encircling snake or Ouroboros, with the infinity sign on its head. So now both the Time and the Space within it, are infinitely long. As one moves along the String, so one moves in Time and Space. The center is my Self, its still unknown to me. But I imagined in it, a Way, to the light source of multiple colors, a place of warmth and golden light, like the Sun. The Gate to the Sun is a flower, a Rose whose petals, (red, passion) are in the shape of a glowing Heart.

 Don't ask me if I an trying to illustrate String Theory, I know little of that, or if I am trying to do magic, again, I know little of that. All I know is making this art, helped me restore my inner compass and pull myself together. I died in my soul and came back. I will die again and again but each time I come back I find I have grown more as an individual, as a person. I added onto myself, I was not lost and if I did lose something, it was the painful shedding of something false about me that I no longer need.

The Emergence of the Inner Self Helper

The Aspects of the Self

From the Stone - Stephanie Tihanyi
(copyright held by artist)

The Spirit stepped forth from the Stone,

Emerging slowly, without sound, save for a chiming and tinkerling,

Like small glass bells or birdsong in quartz, echoing,

Small sparking notes tumbled and cascaded and pushed ahead into hard won spaces.

The queen of Sedition put Logic to flight,

in an empty lot of rubble and weeds, a derilict stone site.

Ripping aside the fabric of boundries, upon the infinite Mirror of God,

Altered forces stepped through.

Her many parts, reflections
A multiplicity of bright forms... and winged!,
Concisting of many elements,
both part and seperate.Golden skin was silver sheened,

The aspect of the face, alien yet familliar,

The crowned head sprung twelve spining galaxies,

Bright suns.




Demeter-Sketch by Stephanie Tihanyi
(copyright held by artist)

I have often wondered what this poem I wrote meant. So here I have tried to analize my own poem. I realise I am writing this is in a detached intellectual mode, but thats all I got right now as these things dont all come together when you want them.

Any infomation is better than nothing I say, who knows I may get something in the future. So here goes.

The aspect (alter, covert or hidden undeveloped part of the personality), emerged from the stone (a frozen or arrested part of the personality).

Emerging slowly, without sound (unbidden, unexpected, without any prior knowledge of, unannounced as of course a split off part of the self would do).

The Queen of Sedition (a female authority archetype that has come to overthrow and upsurp, aided by the unconcious, the false conciouseness)

The fabric of boundries. ( a break in the partitions and intra-psychic walls of dissociation). Mirror of God, (not a pathology but a natural operation).

Her many parts, reflections, a multiplicity of bright forms- and winged, Concisting of many elements, both part and seperate, (Subselves, alters, self-states)

The aspect of the face alien yet familliar, ( the yet unrecognised and co-concious parts of the self)