Ego Deaths: Visionary Art, Psychedelics, and Realms Beyond Perception
Visionary Artists use ancient medicines to invoke ego death. They garner messages from a state of complete oneness and totality, channeling these visions back into the physical world. Through examining groundbreaking studies on neurophysiology under the use of psychedelics, this essay looks at works from Jake Kobrin and Jack Lightfoot to understand the effects ego dissipation can have on the creation of visionary artwork. The purpose of this paper is to provide an academic precedent that connects visionary art, neuroscience, and the concept of ego deaths. Scientific research and ancient medicines can be used in tandem to describe visual phenomenon and their hallucinogenic qualities.
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Depictions of Sex Work in the Northern Renaissance and Their Cultural Impact
“Sex work. Prostitution. Whoring. Hoereriji. Promiscuity. Adultery. Courtesans. Whatever you call the use of a woman’s body, their agency, and profit from it, governments have maintained opinions about it since the beginning of civilization. These often-changing viewpoints were reflected in the artwork produced in their days. Prostitution, often, considered the oldest profession and the brothel the oldest institution, government, art, religion, literature, culture, and gossip have had their way with the perception of brothels and their workers. By examining the history, cultural beliefs, and the pieces of Jan Sanders van Hemessen’s Tavern or Brothel Scene (1545-1550) and Dirck van Baburen’s The Prodigal Son (1623), the cultural and societal implications of 16th and 17th century sex work and its ripples on the current use of prostitution in Holland can be examined.”
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Visionary Art and Its Mirror: The Transformational Festival
“‘Once artists successfully realize their vision, the next level of difficulty comes when they attempt to share their works. Artists have no chance of entering culture unless conditions are favorable,’ Alex Grey wrote in his book The Mission in Art. Transformational festivals are producing immersive environments that create this “favorable” environment for visionary artists to share their works. Transformational festival communities construct temporary utopian villages that promote their vision of personal and communal growth centered around music, art, and spirituality. By examining the definition and characteristics of transformational music festivals and visionary artwork, and opinions from attendees and participants of Envision Music Festival, it becomes clear that the festival environment becomes a mirror of the visionary artwork that is created within them.”
History of the Military Tattoo in World War II and Its Cultural Impact
“ During World War II, many young men were being shipped off overseas to enter a war. Whether they would be fortunate enough to return home was uncertain, as were many other things in their shifting lives. The shred of certainty that these soldiers could rely on was their sheer nationalism, the brotherhood of their platoon, and displays of support for the democracy that they were a part of. Tattoos allowed these military members to mark their skin indefinitely for things in which they felt certain: loves at home or their allegiance to country or branch. These works of art allowed veterans to mark the things that they were looking forward to returning to, as well as mark the masculinity and brotherhood that they were experiencing during deployment. The emergence of new technologies and societal perspectives bred interest in this new form of body modification that was not common in America before the conflict. During the war, it is estimated that 90% of sailors were tattooed. With the widespread use of this art form, many conclusions about the changing society, the move towards individualism, and the craving for national pride can be inferred. By examining the history of tattooing up to until the 1940s and commonly tattooed symbols, the results of the emergence of this form of body modification during World War II can be discovered.”
Depictions of Sex Work in the Northern Renaissance and Their Cultural Impact
“Sex work. Prostitution. Whoring. Hoereriji. Promiscuity. Adultery. Courtesans. Whatever you call the use of a woman’s body, their agency, and profit from it, governments have maintained opinions about it since the beginning of civilization. These often-changing viewpoints were reflected in the artwork produced in their days. Prostitution, often, considered the oldest profession and the brothel the oldest institution, government, art, religion, literature, culture, and gossip have had their way with the perception of brothels and their workers. By examining the history, cultural beliefs, and the pieces of Jan Sanders van Hemessen’s Tavern or Brothel Scene (1545-1550) and Dirck van Baburen’s The Prodigal Son (1623), the cultural and societal implications of 16th and 17th century sex work and its ripples on the current use of prostitution in Holland can be examined.
Classification Warfare: The Outsider, The Folklorist, and The Self-Taught
“Creating boundaries for art allows the market to thrive within a capitalistic society. Without creating subgroups of these traditionally lesser sought categories of art, they begin to dissipate into the market as a whole. Classification boxes artists into unwanted categories while also creating markets for their work simultaneously. In terms of Outsider and Untrained art, the label itself values the purity and subversion of tradition. In contrast, Folk Art values following the cannons within communities’ traditional sensibilities, while prizing their ability to avoid the prescriptions institutions and “high-academic” art place on them. In some cases, this yearning to push against the institution bleeds into the marketplace, encouraging some artists to mark their work at a very low cost in order to control its value.”
Scarification, Femininity, and the Decline of the Mark of Civilizations
“Scarification, inscription or cicatrization can be viewed as being about “lived lives, not idealized ones.” It was the practice of making cuts, burns or incisions into the skin and then irritating the skin in hopes to create permanent marks of patterns. Starting in Africa, this tradition was started because the higher the melanin content of the skin, the better the scarring or formation of keloid scars, and the less visible an ink tattoo would have been. This ritual form of body modification was integral to many cultures in Africa, speaking to their beliefs, values, and world view, often being called ‘the mark of civilizations.’ While femininity is important in societies everywhere, these African cicatrization rituals and initiations had a paramount role in describing social status and femininity, linking these decorative skin marks to show signs of fertility, marital status, societal ranking, and the ethnic identity of being a woman. To understand shifting beliefs about scarification in modern times, one must look at the post-colonial history of these procedures, their meanings, and contrasts among cultures, as well as contemporary examples of tribal markings, and what these discoveries say about femininity and ethnic identity.”
Mary Cassatt and 19th Century Mother
“The late 19th century was a time of radical shift for women and what was expected of them. It signaled an important time for women’s suffrage, bringing women from the shadows of private life and into the working world. Mary Cassatt’s depictions of motherhood and the modern woman visualizes this change, as well as helps us gain insight into the pressures that women would have felt during this time. Although childless herself, Cassatt focuses her creative energy on the depictions of something timeless and universal, the bond between mother and child; she illustrates that feminism isn’t against child bearing, but rather tangential to it. By examining the context of the time, Cassatt’s biography and her works, we can begin to paint a picture of the loaded meanings they had in their day and why they remain relevant.”
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, and Early-Renaissance Europe
““..So violent and motley was life, that it bore the mixed smell of blood and of roses. The men of that time always oscillate between the fear of hell and the most naive joy, between cruelty and tenderness, between harsh asceticism and insane attachment to the delights of this world, between hatred and goodness, always running to extremes,” says Jan Huizinga, a Dutch historian in The Waning of the Middle Ages. Hieronymus Bosch was an artist that lived in the Netherlands in the late 15th and early 16th century, a time of oddity between the middle ages and the birth of the renaissance. His painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights, is an encompassing triptych that explores the fears, beliefs, and social situation in Europe during the 1500’s. To fully understand this painting, it is critical to study the crises that were present during its creation. By exploring the visual elements of this work of art, a brilliant insight into Dutch culture, its fears, and the failures of mankind can be discovered.”
ClairVoyage on Olga Klimova
“I met Olga Klimova In Colorado at a Sonic Bloom, a music and arts festival, in June of 2015, after speaking with her about her artwork and the yearning to portray visions and dreams, I was persuaded to attend the Kansas City Art Institute and begin painting. Our conversation revolved around the methods in which she used to see and depict her visions, as well as her experimentation of paint and materiality. We spoke of her practice and how it evolved from a more precise style to embracing the materiality of paint and going with the ‘flow’ of creation……..”