In 2001, I took all of my current artwork and created my portfolio for the year. Sadly, this and most of the digital pieces from that portfolio were lost to the Hunger of the Zip Disks. I finally figured out that the zip disk scramble must have happened around the last quarter of 2001 or at some time in 2002 because I made this portfolio to show at Dragoncon in August of 2001.
I was very lucky recently to discover I still had a physical copy of this portfolio. I was able to scan several images from it. After scanning, I had to touch it up a bit due to dust and scratches, but the most of the image integrity is still intact. It is a bit dark, but so was the original Photoshop file. Those are my hands in the background. If I remember correctly, everything else was created in Photoshop. The Moon image/card in the center is from my business card at the time, but here it is inverted from its original values. I wanted to create an artificial space that would give a feeling of Mystery and Magick in its artificiality. I hoped to add to that by confronting the viewer with something that is at first glance seems mostly normal, but upon closer inspection is challenging to understand.
There is always such a strange relationship between my business cards and my portfolios. They trade off themes very readily and sometimes dominate each other. My two favorite portfolios so far have taken their themes from my preexisting business cards. This portfolio and my current one both followed themes that I had used on the business cards prior to making the portfolio. I don't currently have a copy of my business card from this time frame but I will find it and post. :-) My current card is here.
{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}
Done in an older contour style, here is a sketch of an embodiment of the mystery of the moon. There is an echo of ancient Egyptian style to the imagery and a faint feeling of the Goddess Isis within the image. These choices were not intentional at the time. I often drew in this style ecstatically with no planned intention when I began drawing. I would just begin drawing to see what emerged. This process is what evolved into the process I use to create the pieces within the Psyche Delectus Tenebrarum.
