Category Archives: Artwork & Illustration

Artwork, illustration & design by Dramamask Evolution.

INFP Mandala

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INFP Mandala

INFP Mandala

Inspired by Jung’s personality type theory and the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator.

According to the test, will reveal an individual’s dominant psychological functions, thus determining choices, preferences, opinions and decisions the individual will make in the world according to his/her own personality attributes.

The personality attributes, according to this theory consist of eight psychological functions, which include introvert/extrovert, intuitive/sensing, feeling/thinking and perceptive/judgement, with each function ‘twins’ being opposites, or ‘two sides of the same coin’.

My own personality type, according to the criteria of this test, is INFP (Introvert/Intuitive/Feeling/Perceptive), which has been the concept of the INFP Mandala painting, but also hinting at it’s opposite ‘shadow’, ESTJ (Extrovert/Sensing/Thinking/Judgement), which would exist as an unconscious entity in my own mind, being projected onto the ‘outside’ world, onto actual ESTJ types and in reverse, the ESTJ ‘shadowside’ being projected onto myself, as an INFP, causing a conflict between the two personality types, until the ‘shadow’ sides have been recognised by both parties or sides, and recognised the opposite entities within themselves.

Each combination of type determines the character or personality of the particular individual, according to this test, which acts as a good indicator, but to measure an individual’s personality and character, cannot be measured through a simple test and to measure the human personality is obviously, by far, a lot more complex.




Gnosis

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Gnosis

Gnosis

 

Influenced by Jung’s concept of the ‘anima’, and influenced by the representation of the feminine in Hinduism and Christian Gnosticism. Known as Mohini and Sophia respectively.

In Christian Gnosticism, Sophia represents the feminine aspect of God.

Sophia and the feminine aspect featured in the Gnostic Gospels, yet were excluded from the Bible, along with other scriptures, leaving the masculine God, or Father God, without it’s female counterpart, feminine aspect and equal. The feminine aspect of God was relegated to flesh and bones with Mary being the closest aspect of the feminine to God, yet only human, hence why Christianity, along with other institutionalised religions were/are out of balance and primarily patriarchal and tyrannical in nature, causing much damage and destruction within societies through the ages, such as witch hunts, the degradation of women and much worse.

Without the feminine principal, or the degradation of the sacred feminine, societies and the individual will be out of balance, as can be seen throughout history. Fortunately, the feminine principal is striving to maintain the balance once again in modern times, although it is evident within societies, politics, the workplace, and so on, that the balance is not yet completed, but is pointing in a positive direction.

At an individual level, the feminine must be respected by the masculine and vice-versa, to maintain the balance and to respect each side of the equation. A man must be at peace and united with his own feminine nature and the woman must be at peace and united with her own masculine nature, which may have to happen despite the cultural inheritance of the individual, to be a balanced individual and reflecting outwards to the feminine and the masculine within nature. From a gender-neutral point of view, this can be represented with the yin yang symbol from Chinese philosophy, which would also be an expression from the archetype(s) of this nature or essence. In essence, the archetypes are invisible, or inconceivable to the human being, which is why they express themselves in so many forms, from culture to culture and individual to individual.

Gnosis, featured in the painting is the feminine aspect of a male at an individual level, communicating repressed features to the male ego-consciousness of the particular individual at that moment in time. Gnosis has revealed herself in mythical form in the individual’s psyche, although she may take many forms and change shape and form throughout time within the individual. She takes many forms in modern collective culture and sub-cultures, showing the state of the collective mind, culture, or sub-culture within that group. If the culture, sub-culture or group is out of balance, it will be up to the individual to correct his or her own original nature and balance. If not, and the individual’s cultural inheritance is unhealthy, the individual may be plagued with visits from hostile and tormenting entities in dreams and visions, revealing itself as an opposition to their own selves, which unfortunately can express itself in the physical world, with conflict on many levels, which is evident in the the world we live in now.




Orgasmandala

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Orgasmandala

Orgasmandala

Painted in 2003 and influenced by Eastern and Western spiritual, philosophical and psychological ideas.

The ‘mandala’ surrounds and crowns the female form of Vishnu, also known as Mohini from Hindu tradition. The mandala is also split into four, representing dominating traits in the human personality, inspired by Jungian psychology. The traits are taken from a group of eight traits, which divided into two, gives four traits with their opposite four.

The female represents the feminine part of the psyche contained within a male, which according to Jung, is the spokesperson and bridge which communicates between a male’s unconscious and conscious mind – the communicator of dreams, visions, ideas and intuitive information. Jung calls this entity the ‘anima’ which means ‘soul’ or ‘mind’. The opposite exists within the female and is called the ‘animus’ and appears in male form.

Orgasmandala represents the arrival of an idea, insight, or epiphany, when the individual finally integrates what is communicated from the unconscious mind via the anima to the conscious mind, which may arrive as a problem solved or a feeling through intuition, realised by the conscious mind. A psychic (meaning, relating to soul or mind) orgasm, which leads to a further understanding, contributing to balancing the mandala, representing the individual’s psyche as a whole – striving for a balance between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind, or dark and light parts of the soul, or mind.

The mandala emanates from the indigo orb situated at the centre of the mandala and at the centre of the anima’s forehead – representing the source of all things, or pure consciousness, where light and dark, good and evil, and all opposites do not exist. An undivided unity, not separated by a human perception of duality and fragmentation. An eye of insight, or ‘anja’, as it is known in Hinduism.




Existential Steps

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Existential Steps
Existential Steps

According to existential philosophy and many religious, and ‘spiritual teachings’, there may come a point in the individual’s life, where he or she may feel it imposed on them to question their own belief systems, which include the personal belief systems and the cultural inheritance of the individual. For the lucky few, this may be a smooth transition, but for many, may invoke a feeling of emptiness and existential anxiety.

The personal beliefs and cultural conditioning, no longer serve many individuals and to shed the skin of old belief systems and cultural or societal ‘norms’ may cause a feeling of intense unease.

With the confrontation with who you really are, which invariably comes into conflict to who you think you are, causes a conflict in the mind, of the old and the discovery of the real self, which lies hidden under the layers of conditioned thought or programs absorbed from the individual’s environment since birth.

It dawns on the individual that he or she, is alone in their own quest for meaning and truth, which maybe a task not easily taken, but once the seed of realisation has been sown, there is only one way forward, which is to embrace one’s own life and seek out their own meaning and values.

Not only will this cause an inner disturbance, the consequences will also cause an outer disturbance, with many personal relationships dissolving, but also a forming of new relationships, more in alignment with the individual.

With the individual’s relationship with their own inner world, will affect their own personal relationships on the outer level with kind and also their relationship with the world at large. What happens within, happens without, and vice-versa.

The steps in this painting represent the angst and anxiety when confronted with this realisation. Finding oneself in an abyss of nothingness, with a glimmer of light at the top of the steps, with each step needing to be tread, before walking through the door to one’s own true self and finally feeling secure with that union. A confidence with who you truly are, muting the self-sabotage of our own inner thoughts, while at the same time being unshakable in the face of the sabotage from the outside world. Nurturing compassion from the inside, reflecting to the outside. The ultimate goal.

‘Existential Steps’ – Painted around 2001/2002 by Mark Adams (Dramamask).




Mandalasm

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Mandalasm
Mandalasm

Another early painting, in around the year of 2002. I was realising at this moment in time, I wasn’t really an aspiring artist at all, but felt the urge to communicate ideas, whether that be to myself or to anybody who was interested. My endevours in painting and drawing were largely a private affair, although I wanted to develop a skill to improve a communication in form to what I wanted to express in ‘physical reality’. I was thinking that the images I wanted to reproduce from my mind’s eye, were in fact, essentially ‘mirrors’ to my own ‘self’. On the surface, this may seem quite self-indulgent, but there were deeper meanings to all of this seeming tomfoolery.

Alongside the ideas of Freud and Jung, I was reading and researching a fair amount into the realms of Shamanism. I was also dipping my toe into the realms of Hinduism and finding parallels between modern psychology, Shamanism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Western religious traditions, which also included pagan traditions.

Although, a relatively simple concept, ‘Mandalasm’ was created with the idea of a mandala, from both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The ‘abstract’ design, or symbol which separates the two faces in Mandalasm, is my own spontaneous representation of a mandala, which according to Jung, represents the ‘state’ of one’s own ‘inner’ psyche. The psyche strives for balance and the ego, which most of us can only identify with at a conscious level, is only a fraction of a part which contributes towards the psyche’s striving for balance, although the ego must recognise all parts to become balanced, which for the ego, is like searching to look at the back of one’s head without a mirror.

The two face entities in this painting represent ‘guardian angels’, who, although are two separate entities, are one entity, who are one, but separate at a frequency. The entity or entities are female and represent a nurturing and caring quality, but also possess a darker side, which includes a freedom to explore, whether to one’s peril or growth.

I personally, experienced these female entities, in my mind’s eye on several occasions in my youth while learning certain activities and they came into my mind’s eye at an intensity before making a choice for learning which would disturb my psyche and put it out of balance for a long time to come, which would force me into a position to face my fears and demons, when I may not have been ready at that stage in my life, although when is an individual ready? At this moment in time, an interest in Shamanism shed more light, on a universal dilemma. An archetype of a paradoxical nature which consisted of exploration and wonder, but also of warning and trepidation.




Shamanic Shadows

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Shamanic Shadows

‘Shamanic Shadows’ was another early painting, since making an effort to learn painting techniques and striving for a realism to convey surreal, unconscious, inner images and ideas. This painting was my second painting following Space Baby and painted around the end of December 2001.

I was already familiar with Freud’s concepts of the unconscious mind and his model of the ego, id and super-ego which I observed or extrapolated in the workings of my own mind. Of course, the human personality and mind cannot be restricted to a simple model, but I found the ego, id and super-ego a good starting point to understanding the links between tensions with almost opposing separate personalities contending for expression within us all in unique ways, differing from individual to individual, dependent on personal experience and environment.

I was heavily into Jung’s idea which extended from Freud’s ideas. I was extremely interested in Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious and the archetypes, with what Freud’s concept of ego, id, super-ego was – an expression of the archetypes emerging from the collective unconscious which may appear in different forms from the individual, all the way to the cultural level.

In Shamanic Shadows, the ego is represented by the figure emerging between the two figures either side of the ego. The figure on the left, represents the id, with it’s instinctual nature, intuitions, animal drives along with ancient knowledge and/or wisdom, collected throughout time since the dawn of evolution. The figure on the left, represents the super-ego, containing cultural, societal influences, rules of society, social norms and so on. The super-ego can be quite brutal in some, causing a conflict within an individual. The super-ego contains what is learned through one’s environment and culture. If the super-ego wields too much power, this will be at the expense of the other entities, the ego and the id, although an imbalance in any of the three entities can cause havoc in one’s psyche.

At this moment in my life, my own super-ego possessed far too much power, as represented with the colour red. I was in the process of balancing out my own inner entities and to transfer the power of the super-ego to the ego and to give my id less restriction with it’s own drives and expression, although free reign to the id can also lead to undesirable situations which I was later to find out.

The other motifs in the painting have a meaning also, or a meaning I discerned after painting this picture, with the planet Saturn representing a ‘protector’ entity and the mountains to the left representing a source of power which had an ambivalent nature – a force to be used for either creation or destruction.

The ‘ego’, of course is the human-being’s sense of who they are, or sense of self and if the id and super-ego wander around the psyche without the awareness of the ego, or unconscious of these entities, many problems with the individual can result, which can be observed with conflicts with individuals and collective societies, which we can observe with conflict in history, up until the present day.

Conflicts, whether individual or collective, have their beginnings in the psyche. Peace is also found or created in the same way.




Space Baby Buddha

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The Space Baby Buddha was one of my first paintings after deciding to make an effort to learn more about painting. I hadn’t drawn or painted very much at all since leaving school in 1989. I decided to pick up my pencils to develop my drawing ability and learn how to paint, as my experience with painting was very limited at this time in 2001 – twelve years later.

Around this time, I had been reading into topics including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jungian Psychology and material of an esoteric and occultism nature.

I experimented with Jung’s idea of active imagination and the Space Baby Buddha appeared to me, in my mind’s eye. I wanted to give the Space Baby Buddha form, so proceeded to paint him using acrylic on a piece of board.

After finishing the painting and looking at it, I noticed I had unwittingly painted an assortment of symbols which seemed to relate to a ‘mandala’ theme. I had painted night and day, or light and dark, along with ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and four elements surrounding the Space Baby. The Space Baby seemed to represent a ‘timeless’ wisdom and although appearing as a young child, the Space Baby was also an ancient entity, embodying a ‘pure’ wisdom.

At the time, I remember finding my own intuition and listening to what it would say, instead of what I had done before and to ignore intuition completely. Prior to discovering intuition was in fact a real function of our being, I denied it’s very existence and didn’t believe intuition existed in reality. In the painting, intuition is represented by the green orb within the gold cross on the Space Baby’s crown.

After reading Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, I developed a clearer understanding of the entity and other entities which had and would emerge from my unconscious mind, leading on to a further understanding of what may be hidden within in our minds.




Tattoo Design – Human, Chimp & Computer – Draft #3

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Tattoo Design – Human, Chimp & Computer – Draft #3

Sketching and drawing a tattoo design which is the third design to show the person (Daz) who wants the tattoo designed for him. The theme is take from Steve Peters’ concept of Chimp, Human and Computer, from his book, The Chimp Paradox. Other themes will be employed also, including personal motifs, personal to the person who wants the tattoo. At this stage, a tattoo sketch or drawing is produced to give some ideas.

If you enjoyed this video, please like and share. 🙂

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Website: www.dramamaskevolution.com

Music by Angel Rust.

Thank you for watching and if you have any comments, please post them below. 🙂




Tattoo Design – Human, Chimp & Computer – Draft #2

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Tattoo Design – Human, Chimp & Computer – Draft #2

Sketching and drawing a tattoo design which is the second design to show the person who wants the tattoo designed for him. The theme is take from Steve Peters’ concept of Chimp, Human and Computer, from his book, The Chimp Paradox. Other themes will be employed also, including personal motifs, personal to the person who wants the tattoo. At this stage, a tattoo sketch or drawing is produced to give some ideas.

If you enjoyed this video, please like and share. 🙂

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/dramamask2011
Website: www.dramamaskevolution.com

Thank you for watching and if you have any comments, please post them below. 🙂




Creating A Tribal Tattoo Design

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Creating A Tribal Tattoo Design

Tribal Tattoo Design – Human, Chimp & Computer. Speed Drawing.

Sketching and drawing a tattoo design which is the first design to show the person who wants the tattoo designed for him. The theme is take from Steve Peters’ concept of Chimp, Human and Computer, from his book, The Chimp Paradox. Other themes will be employed also, including personal motifs, personal to the person who wants the tattoo. At this stage, a tattoo sketch or drawing is produced to give some ideas.

If you enjoyed this video, please like and share. 🙂

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/dramamask2011
Website: www.dramamaskevolution.com

Thank you for watching and if you have any comments, please post them below. 🙂