Gotta Love Loteria Horizons

"The Flowerpot" Loteria Card

 The Flowerpot

At first it might look like the focus of this card is on the explosive growth which is rising in a column from this flowerpot.  However the research that I've done for this card makes it clear that the flowerpot is the subject being highlighted.  On one hand the flowerpot is the enclave where the vines are given a place to thrive.  How this relates to a personal reading when this card appears in fortune telling is dependant on how it appears with the surrounding cards.

This isn't unusual.  Most loteria fortune telling readings involve drawing three cards and having them read as a story from the fortune teller.  One card does have meaning for the subject, but it is the combination of the three cards together which provide the context of the images and produce the most detailed insight.

The vines don't show any leaves or flowers sprouting from them, but it is my understanding that this is just because of the way the image was imagined by the monks who designed the deck.  I don't believe they had a particular plant in mind, but just wanted to show the results of a nurturing environment.

"The Rose" Loteria Card

"The Rose"

It is surprising to look at the stack of canvas pieces that I assembled for this project and realize that there are only five more left before the deck is complete and I can move on to publishing.  Wow!  There were some cards which had me stymied for weeks, but others which almost lept from the brush to the canvas.

QR Code Coasters

Ceramic Tiles which become a QR Code when pieced together?  You bet!  This was the first project that I completed at the Burning House Art Studio, and I think it went very well!

I am very happy with how this project came out.  There are two types of glaze on these tiles.  A gloss black and a crackle gloss cote for white.  Because I haven't done anything with clay for years, I really wasn't sure how the white would look when it came out of the kiln.  I didn't think it needed to be 'white white' to be read by a QR scanner, but figured it had to be bright enough to contrast with the black squares.  It couldn't have come out better.  The tiles are scannable and usable as coasters.  Nice!

Scorpion and the Frog

"The Scorpion" Loteria Card

"The Scorpion"
The scorpion on this card is taken from the lesson of the scorpion and the frog crossing the river together.  Although in that fable the focus tends to be on the scorpion, both characters are involved and deserve scrutiny.  There is much to be gained by examining both types of identities and determining where the fault for the catastrophe lies, if anywhere or on anyone.

Farewell to Shannon

Goodbye Shannon!  We'll miss you!

This is a painting that I created for Fr. Shannon when I heard that she will be leaving the area to lead a church in El Paso.  I am really going to miss her and I know that the church she is going to will be clicking their heels when the realize what an amazing spiritual leader they've got.

This shows what me and my babe would look like as Eldrich Horrors.  Look!  We're even wearing our choir robes!

Paint Corona, Drink Corona

"The Crown" Loteria Card

"The Crown"
I think that I'll go back to the books and find the quote about a crown from "The King in Yellow".  The story itself is fantastic and worth re-reading multiple times.  In that story there is a special crown which is described in some detail, and when I look at this painting I can't help but think of the parallels between the two.

Can't See the Forest for the Loteria

"The Pine" Loteria Card

"The Pine"
I have a hit and miss relationship with pine trees.  That may sound like an odd thing to say, but it's true.  Trees are great, everyone will attest to that.  They help the planet, provide air for us to breathe and in general are selfless givers of life.  But think about the location for a moment.  Pine trees are deceptive.  They are the liars of the forest.  From a distance they look green and lush, like the ground in teeming with life.  But all the pine forests that I've hiked through, and suddenly there have been many, are in the desert.  They are hot and not refreshing to walk through.  The ground is hard, the air hot and dusty and there is scant food or game to be found.  Forests in Washington are full of berries, birds and critters.  In pine forests you're lucky if you see a squirrel and even then it's a rangy one which has seen better days.
They do smell nice.  Count one for pine trees.
But if given the choice, I'd go for other kinds of forests.  As a side note I had a professor who did his thesis paper on squirrels and pine trees.  The hypothesis he had was that squirrels were able to tell sick trees from healthy ones.  After watching squirrels and pine trees for months, it turned out that squirrels are pretty dumb little guys.  They like sick trees as well as healthy ones.  I suppose to be generous you could say that squirrels abound with love unconditionally.  But still, to a squirrel, a tree is a tree.

The Cactus Eclipse

"The Cactus" Loteria Card

"The Cactus"

  This painting was created for the "Baraja del Papa", or The Pope's Deck" of loteria cards.

  Loteria is a game popular in the SouthWest and Mexico.  It consists of a deck of 54 cards emblazoned with images both mundane and fanstastic.

  This deck is based on the original deck comissioned by Fr's Ludigo and Anthony and blessed by Pope Pius VI in 1785 for use in the New World.  Of the decks created for use by the missionaries for divination, only four complete decks are known to have survived.

  The images I am painting are based on journal notations made by the Fathers as they were commissioning the creation of the "Baraja del Papa".  The entire series of cards is scheduled to be finished in September with a print run starting immediately on completion.  This page will be updated with information on how you can order your deck of cards once they become available.

Cave Paintings and Loteria

"The Deer" Loteria Card

"The Deer"
The deer for this image is most likely taken from reports of cave paintings which would have been available to the two monks as well as Pope Pius IV himself.  This would have been at odds with most orthodoxy at the time.  It isn't clear whether the monks or the Pope were aware of the age of the paintings, but it would have been likely they were aware of speculation that they predated biblical history.  In either event, the images for fertility and sexuality would have been popular in other areas of rural spiritual beliefs.  This card would have found no home in Western practices, but would point to the potent New World forces which missionaries were encountering abroad.

The Sun Never Sets on the Loteria Empire

"The Sun" Loteria Card

"The Sun"
This loteria card shows an arctic sun shining on an ice cliff.  Encased in the walls of the ice a shadowy figure can be seen.  The colors of the sky indicate that while the sun is shining, it is bitterly cold and the figure is in no danger of being freed from the icy prison.
One of the things I noticed while studying icebergs for this image was how stark the shadows were.  Inky shadows cling to every rock and crevasse giving even the most mundane vista an otherworldly view.

For Whom the Bell Tolls Loteria

"The Bell" Loteria Card

"The Bell"
This painting really pushed the boundaries of what I can do with acrylics.  I'm sure there are plenty of painters out there who can make the colors whirl and dance to their brushes like a conductor before a colorful symphony orchestra.  But that's a bit beyond my abilities for now.
The description of this card made it clear that a bronze bell (with verdigris) is shown before rolling storm clouds which are pierced by shafts of sunlight.  Not an easy feat to be sure.  Storm clouds are pretty straight forward to make and actually are one of my favorite things to paint.  But these needed to be almost purple in color.  The shafts of sunlight needed to glow before a dark background which needed some preparation before I was able to come up with an effect which I'm satisified with.
But all in all, the devil was needed to be painted to look like the 'red pajama wearing" imp from countless Sunday school lectures.  It works... but if I were going to come up with my own design (and not a design based on Franciscan monks of a few hundred years ago), I'd concentrate more on bandy muscled demons.

Hop, Skip and Jump to Loteria

"The Frog" Loteria Card

"The Frog"

When I was looking through the original descriptions of the "La Rana" cards based on the transcripts from the two monks I've been studying, a passage caught my eye.  The monks made it clear that the frog is swimming in water.  They added as a way of clarification that the frog is not actually submerged in water, but is instead skimming along the surface at a leisurely pace.  This description gives me much to go on when putting the layout of the card into place.  "Along the surface" tells me right away that highlights and reflected colors are going to be figuring into the work in a great amount before I'm done.

But in this case, the paint was working against me.  When acrylics are properly applied in semi-transparent layers, they give the light a scattering effect which makes figures more lifelike and details the appearance of glowing.  Water should be a natural for this effect.  But the canvas that I was working with was much rougher than most and had more "tooth" than I expected.  Long story short, there is about 100 layers of paint on this painting.  But that is some water that you can dive right into!