On Art as Shamanism

Why the costumes? Why the Shamanic imagery?

Lair of the Serpent Queen

It is symbolism. In the western world, the predominant "magick" is "science". We focus on the physical world and believe that reality is the lowest common denominator of what we, as a cultural group, can measure, perceive, and explain. What we can all agree on, the things we all observe as repeatable patterns from day to day, compose our accepted version of "objective reality", which we perceive as concrete, factual, and immutable.

Reality is not immutable. There is NOTHING immutable about it. Truth is paradox. Change is the only constant. Change will occur, its constant flow is the only certainty.

Shamans are those who possess the ability to see beyond the limitations of "objective" - that is to say, culturally accepted - reality.

The artist possesses a mode of shamanism, whether he/she realizes it or not. The created image is but a snapshot of something beyond our normal experience. Staring at a piece of art, the viewer creates it in his/her mind as a reality, attempting to experience it as something real. Most often, we attempt to apply the rules and regulations of our culturally accepted (western/scientific) reality upon this experience. Where is the tentacle headed woman standing? How can she function and exist in a capacity we can identify with and understand... The answer is, SHE CANNOT. The being in the image does not, CAN NOT function in the context of the reality we understand and thus, the mind is tormented by her presence. We cannot make sense of her, as much as we try. This is the lesson we must learn. Life is not to be "understood", "made sense of" or "classified". It is to be experienced. You are one eye amongst a million eyes, all experiencing something whole, and yet separate. A broken mirror. AUM.

-CHUK

In The Lair of the Serpent Queen

Many thanks to Neon Armour and New Evolutionary Movement for putting on the spectacular "Celebration in the Lair of the Serpent Queen". Alot of amazing art, costumes, fire dancing, the haunting music of Paul Mercer, a martial arts performance by co-host Danny Samanjaya and a host of excellent DJing and live music.

I represented in my Shamanic Garb. I met a good few more interesting local artists and had a great time. Thanks to all those who came out and all those who purchased art.

From Lair of the Serpent Queen

-CHUK

Dubstruction 2

Metal meets Zombies meets Ladies Bloodwrestling.

I will be the Zombifier at this event! ...We'll see how fast I can create the dead. I've got a fridge full of synthetic zombie skin ready to roll.

You can see some of my previous Zombie handiwork here:

The Art of Zombification

Featured Piece - Surramphia

Check it out on Etsy -

From Surramphia

Over the long course of our evolution from inanimate materials, to the beings we now inhabit, we have had many forms. For millions of years we have been slowly changing and shifting as the processes of evolution have bent and shaped life on Earth. Our direct lineage has been made of countless organisms of ever different shapes and forms. As much as your father or grandfather or some ancient homo erectus is your ancestor, so too have been many other beings who also struggled to reproduce and survive, mutating and changing - ultimately, becoming us. Thoughts of this millenia long metamorphosis brought me to this anthropomorphized amphibious creature, feeding off of a red tide in some ancient sea; the Lamp of Osiris guiding it on its brief journey of survival.

This piece was originally a fast acrylic painting I did as practice for a local, live painting event - Friday Night Art Fight.

From Surramphia

I painted the original (seen here) in about two hours, and I was so enthralled with the result and the concept that I worked it up digitally into a larger, more refined piece. I currently have two of the stretched canvas in stock, and a handful of framed and unframed prints.

-CHUK

Blood of my Blood

My Danzig homage piece is finally complete.

From I Am Demon

I was unsure what kind of framing/mounting to use, and I finally settled on using bolts to suspend it above another piece of wood. A plastic frame would just not have been metal enough.

I'm normally very strict about my subject matter and try to avoid popular-culture or theme driven pieces; however, I'm quite thrilled about this one for the time being... I'm almost hoping I can't sell it and I'll get to keep it.

-CHUK

I AM DEMON

I've been working on a Danzig homage piece; In terrestrial materials no less. Not quite done but coming along...



"Every world
And every limb
Torn asunder base
Everything I need is me
Everything I am
Am I beast or
Am I human
Am I just like you
Power seething
Really reeling
Reaching out for you

Am I demon
Need to know"

-Glenn

CHUKART Etsy Store

While I do not create cuddly handmade crocheted penises, or create monstrous masks from the skin of chickens, I do need Etsy's services as a method for selling my work via the web.

Thus, the CHUKART Etsy Store.



I found it somewhat strange attempting to describe the contents of my paintings in plain english. There has not arisen the need to do that until creating the copy for the items in the store, and I found it to be an amusing process.

Feel free to buy something for your grandma.  You know she's into psychedelic death-heads from other dimensions.

Personal Athropology

I found some 4 year old sketches I had boxed up in a recent office move.  In the early days of our company we had extremely long, exhaustive meetings where we were required to sit immobile and listen to project plans for hours at a time.  Due to the fact that my brain deals poorly with idling at a red light, I produced alot of sketches to keep me from falling asleep from boredom.

These particular pieces do a good job of capturing my philosophy of existence, which to a large degree consists of the perception of a seemingly never-ending flow of organisms all unified in being and yet blindly destroying and feeding on one another over and over...  Basically evolution meets the 3 marks of existence.

This constant nagging sensation of impermanence gives me the shudders and makes the experience of watching humanity flowing through a Wal-Mart nauseating as I often fear I have experienced (or will experience) the existence of every obese mouth-breather I walk past.  In truth I find it ever more horrifying.

-CHUK

Artlantis - 2011

Had a great time showing at Artlantis over the weekend.

Even though it was HOT.  Not like terrestrial Earth hot, we're talking molten surface of God's eye hot.

If you're not familiar, Artlantis is an Atlanta annual outdoor art and music festival run by the good people of Beep Beep Gallery.  It is host to a lot of very interesting artists who tend to work outside of the normal, boring, and culturally mundane styles and subject matter that one normally encounters at a local gallery or outdoor festival.  I particularly enjoyed the work of some of my more extreme Artlantis neighbors: Kenn Twofour, Nathan Phaneuf, Jenny Birdsong, and Stephanie Anderson.

Artlantis - 2011

I was very pleased to move 3 large pieces and a ton of prints over the course of the show.  Its interesting watching peoples' reactions to the pieces, which range from fascination to a kind of upper-middle-class cultural fear (which I also enjoy).

One woman told me, "Your art is so... DARK.  Are you angry?  Are you sad?".

Well, like all humans, I am often have emotions such as anger or sadness... I just paint them and reflect on them rather than compartmentalizing them into a box and burying them deep in my mind where I can pretend they don't exist.  To each his own.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to check out the booth and to those of you who expressed interest, talked about art, or bought a piece.  I appreciate your interest and patronage.

Also thanks to my wife Leah for her marketing suggestions and for sticking it out in the blazing infernal sun with me. ;)

-CHUK