Downloading Netjer

My most involved painting to date is called "Downloading Netjer", and explores a theme I enjoy of the "technology of Netjer". What happens when we view Kemeticism in modern terms and in particular with our modern notions of technology?

Nine Netjeru are downloaded into various parts of the body of the subject, but not his physical body: the download occurs into the khaibit, the "shadow" body.

Owing to a way I have perceived my khaibit through meditation, the image depicts a gas mask to denote breathing / existing in another realm. The ankle and wrist cuffs compliment the mask with a bondage theme, said theme being more literal (as in tied to the material realm) but also something else owing to the attire (or lack of).The hexagonals form an inter-dimensional mesh that serve as both gateway and net from that realm to ours.

I particularly enjoyed painting the Netjeru for this piece. It was the first time I have depicted Amon Ra in ram headed form, and the first time I have painted Nekhbet, Djehuty and Sokar. All of these had special moments in realization. The other Netjeru represented - Set, Sekhmet, Khepera, Heru and Maat have had Their portraits painted previously.

The piece is acrylic on canvas and is 30" x 40". 

Palette Exhibition Winding Up

The Exquisite Palette exhibition is closing soon.

They have featured my palette here.

The exhibition is truly worth checking out, and finishes soon. It was a fun thing to be part of.

Links to other pages featuring the other palettes in the show can be found on the menu side bar if you clicked the above link.

Artwork website is up!

I have finally created and published a simple website for my artwork.

You can view it here.

It is by no means the final version of what I want it to be, but the opportunity arose to get something up right away so I have taken it.

I am happy that I have an avenue to assemble all of my work in the one place.

Hope you like it!

Ayahuasca and The War On Consciousness

I listen to many podcasts and radio shows as I spend long hours painting. 

It is a great way of finding out what is happening in the world of metaphysics, science, and other areas that I am interested in. I rarely pay attention to or read the news, so this is a great way to keep abreast of things in one sense.

The talk that Graham Hancock did recently for a TedX series has powerfully moved me today. 

This is not the first time I have heard him discuss ayahuasca (I am very interested to try this plant), but the context of the discussion where he points to an awakening into a new consciousness – and the realisation of the madness we are currently hurtling through – really hit home. (I am not even going to comment on the fact that this talk was banned - it is a topic for a very different post).

I had some paintings out of storage, and seeing them in their remarkable beauty and acknowledging that they are not yet being shared made me wonder: am I keeping my own light under a bushel and not contributing to the solutions our world needs? What am I doing? I certainly am not contributing in the spectacular way that he is.

Listen to the video if you don't have time to sit down and watch it – it’s worth it.

"Winged Set" and "Metamorphosis": these and my other paintings are not yet hanging in a gallery or somewhere for people to look at

The Exquisite Palette

One of the three paintings that I have been working on post Winged Set is complete. It's for a competition by a cool local art supply dealer, St. Lukes.

The concept is that artists embrace one of the most recognizable symbols of our craft - the palette - and our actual submissions are created on a palette supplied by the shop for entry into the competition.

Kemetic Palette by Setken

The piece features for the first time my Kemetic name as I render it in hieroglyphs  This is my signature as an artist. The word above the cartouche can be interpreted with my name to read "Setken appears". Fitting as this piece is my introduction into the art world of Melbourne.

The palette features a red background where Heru and Set bless my name, and Udjat and Nekhbet look on. The Winged Disk is a favourite Kemetic symbol that I have used many times in my life. The eyes in the middle are a fun way of addressing the palette finger hole.

I have named the work "Kemetic Palette", which reflects a current work, "The artist as beloved of Heru and Set". The palette has inspired another piece that I am still sketching with a working title of "Sexuality".

It was challenging painting on wood (I am used to canvas), and I am glad that I took time to render the surface properly  Painting in miniature is something I have not done before, so I am pleased with the result as a first attempt.

The Exquisite Palette opening night is next Wednesday night April 10th for any of my Melbourne readers.

The Egyptian Room in the Museum Of South Australia

In January of this year I spent some time inside the Museum of South Australia, especially to revisit their Egyptian Room.

As the whole trip had a theme of revisiting my genesis, I reflected upon the only real life objects from Kemet that were available to me for most of my life growing up in Adelaide. 

Much of the room remains unchanged from how I recall it growing up, with the notable exception that the obelisk at the front of the museum has disappeared. (I sent the museum a tweet about this but got no reply). 

The old building that is the museum is delightfully antique in feel and they have managed to retain this with the modernization of it in recent times.

The Egyptian Room is a little "light on" in comparison with other museums (I have visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Cairo Museum so these are heavyweight comparisons!) but there is a charm to it that invites exploration.

There are many casts, painted statues (that give the impression of what the originals from whence they were cast might have looked like) as well as mummies, coffins, ushabtis and amulets. The walls are decorated with images recalling tomb paintings - some well rendered other parts not.

I am grateful that facilities are open to us like this that we can visit whenever we want, and for no charge. The room always had and still has a faint heka about it, probably coming from the artifacts that are genuine that I mentioned mentioned above and that are pictured below.

Painted statue of Apet

Framed plaques like this - as well as good old fashioned type writer  notes - are abound in this room

Painted statue series of Auset, Hethert and Ausar

This plaque of Queen Cleopatra is massive and  is displayed over the stairwell on the way up into the room

A coffin and mummy

Mummy base featuring the Apis bull

The painted walls - was there a male vulture headed deity?

Great use of the inbuilt architecture of the room with these wall paintings

Something that the Museum of SA has in common with the Cairo Museum: both display a cast copy of the Rosetta Stone

Ushabtis

Click on the picture to see the larger version; some of these are quite interesting

Painted statue of 25th Dynasty Queen Amenirdis

Reflections on the Pagan Blog Project 2012 and How I Made it Through

A month after concluding the Pagan Blog Project 2012 I reflect on the journey.

Why I did it and the outcome

It takes a lot to coordinate and stage an undertaking like this and I am grateful that the owner / creator of the project did!

Participating in the project made me write frequently. It has brought me some of my most popular posts, and has given my blog a bit of padding. The challenge has been in realizing that padding would be a part of the process as trying to meet the requirement of two letters of the alphabet every month was damn hard (which is why the project started with a few hundred and finished with 30 or so – even the creator of the project herself quit before the end!) 

Hopefully, the weeks where I was struggling (major padding) were balanced with the ones where Djehuty really was cracking through (the good posts).

I had joined the project in hoping I would broaden my understanding of Paganism in general, meet new people, and find new readers for my blog. This occurred to a degree, but not as much as I expected.

Just as a sense of community with the project began to evolve through the Facebook page (which I did not join until quite late in the year - I didn't know about it), it was announced that it would be dismantled as the new year approached and a new round of PBP would begin. I lost access to some excellent posts and interactions there, and I think it was even taken down before we got the last “Z” up. 

The visits to my blog certainly were boosted through interacting on the Facebook page, although generally I would have to say that not a lot of interest was coming from other bloggers / participants.

How I made it through

I did not have a set roster of what I was going to write. I knew “I” would be a two parter on Immortality. I knew “D” would be Duat and “Z” Zep Tepi. 

So I opted for letting things evolve. I found posts “emerging” that could fit with the letter due, and where I was at spiritually or emotionally and even physically at the time. At times, I felt a sense of magick was engendering this process. 

Here are some examples.

A Plinth – I had returned from vacation with a large pedastal box my dad made for me, and was finishing it as my second “A” was due

Dua Netjer – I had some rather intense initiation experiences in 2012, and at an ALL LOVE workshop earlier in the year some major shifts occurred; note – check out the lovely spam I got for a few posts around this time from some IT company in India in the comments

Frequency – I was listening to some great cd sets from Kevin Trudeau amongst other things I mused about

Gratitude - a practice I had begun that was really helping with my sense of Maat

Happiness

Heaven on a Saturday Afternoon - my love of painting has truly possessed me by now

My gods your gods whose gods – discussion of an issue that was and is topical on many of the forums right now

Mesopotamia – coincided with a brilliant exhibition at the Melbourne Museum

Presents – gifts I got for Xmas which I finally collected and brought home in September

Real – coinciding with a brilliant post from Whitley Strieber

Spiritual but not religious – inspired by posts I had read on the Patheos site

Vows,  Lies . . . – another “ this is where I am right now” post; I think this is the first time I let my readers know that I used to be a stripper ;-) YAAAAAAY

Words -  I had just received the hieroglyphic transliterations to be used in my “Anger” painting 

Yesterday, today . .  – another forum topical issue post

Zeal – this post came as a direct result of someone else's post in the PBP (thank the gods, as 2 Z’s was always going to be hard!)

The Pagan Blog Project continues in 2013!

I have many artistic projects that I want to achieve this year so going another round of PBP is just not viable or desirable. But it was fun for last year.

Good luck and fortune to all those participating in the PBP2013!