The Tarot from an artist's perpective

The Vessel (2015)

Oil on canvas 48 x 72 inches by Patrick McGrath Muñiz.

Available at Evoke Contemporary

As a painter with a passion for history I always find new material and sources of inspiration to inform my art. Nearly 10 years ago I introduced Christian Iconography into my work derived from Spanish Colonial Art. At the same time I was interested in finding parallels between narratives and recurring archetypes from the past to the present. In the last 10 years I've gradually expanded the visual vocabulary adding more complexity and interpretations to the work. From the study and use of Spanish colonial narratives and the Catholic pantheon of saints to the present neo-colonial global narratives and the current capitalist pantheon of transnational corporations, I soon started noticing a hidden pattern that could be drawn further back in time.

 

 

Ashé  (2015)

Oil and gold leaf on panel 12 x 24 inches by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

Private collection

The ancient pagan gods of the Roman Empire seemed to be alive in the guise of Virgins, Saints and Angels. Now I could start drawing the line between gods, heroes, saints and corporations. After reading Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas, I realized there was indeed a good reason to suspect a connection and it led me up to the starry night and the study of archetypal astrology. The old gods became even more real when I understood the relation between certain planetary alignments and significant world events that affected the course of history.  The artist soul thrives with curiosity for many things besides his/her art and never ceases to be fascinated and inspired by unseen connections that can be detected by his/her own creative mind. This I believe is the driver of creativity.

 

 

 

Deuscubrimiento (2010)

Oil on canvas 50 x 38 inches by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

Private Collection

 

 So far my research has led me to study Astrology, Alchemy and Tarot. While they all show many variants, theories and uses depending on who you read or talk to, astrology stands firmly across the ages as the oldest of the three with consistent verifiable results. From alchemy we got chemistry, from astrology, astronomy. Tarot seems to be a totally different study. They all share some mystical core concepts but originate in different times and places and lead into different paths. If astrology was like a Solar system, alchemy would be a planet and Tarot a moon. It is much easier and accessible to study a moon but this shouldn't keep us from studying the whole Solar system and beyond.  An artist should always keep an open mind to the mystical realm and with this attitude his/her inner creative child is nurtured.

 

La Rueda Arquetipica Neo-Colonial (2011)

Oil on moving panels 36 x 36 inches by Patrick McGrath Muñiz 

Private collection

Although the date is still unclear, card games originated in China and made their way into the Islamic world during the 13th Century. Subsequently the Mamluk cards were introduced to Europe  in the 14th century and it became widely produced during the Renaissance.  The cards which had been based on Middle Eastern models were adopted by the Europeans who started creating cards that  reflected their local European cultures, carrying much of the symbolism and imagery prevalent by the time. The Tarot really began around the first half of 15th century Italy. The Visconti Tarot is an Italian deck dating around 1450 in Milan and it's the earliest most complete surviving deck that we have. The earliest Tarot decks contain characters from late mediaeval tradition such as knaves, knights, queens and kings with symbolic objects like coins, staffs, swords and cups. But what distinguishes the Tarot from any other four suit deck of playing cards is the Major Arcana which are 22. It has captivated the imagination of artists and occultists throughout the last 5 centuries. Even though today it is hard to disassociate Tarot from fortune telling, the Tarot initially did not start out as a divination device. From playing cards they were also used as mnemonic and educational tools for upper-class children (such as the Mantegna Tarocchi). It wasn't until the middle of the 18th century that we find a documented evidence for its use as a divination tool.

 

 

Study of Major Arcana or Main Archetypes of the Tarot (2012)

Drawing Journal  by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

 

My first Tarot deck was the Rider-Waite (1910), the one most people know of and use today. But at the time I was not ready to understand the importance and impact this device would have in my art. It wasn't until I acquired the Tarot of the Saints by Robert Place and read his books on Tarot several years ago that I got really interested in learning more about this mystery tradition. I soon found an interesting relation between the Tarot and all the subjects that had been of my sources of inspiration for my art. In the cards I could see the astrological signs, the ancient gods, the Christian saints and even the modern day corporations and consumer culture icons. I could see a multiplicity of forms from the highest to the lowest converge into a single encyclopedia of timeless archetypes.

 

 

Five Tarot cards (2013) Oil painting on panels by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

My appreciation for the cards and the images in them has grown since and the way I incorporate them in my art is far from the common use of fortune telling. As an artist, I see these cards is as an archetypal encyclopedia of 78 icons and symbols that can be re-interpreted in a similar way we interpret a painting at a museum. My fascination for the cards derives out of the same pleasure of knowing and not knowing at the same time what the images are about. It is the same sensation one has when confronted with a great masterpiece of art. The allure of a an enigmatic image never ceases to draw interest and attention from the viewer and that is what makes the Tarot so appealing today. It is a timeless work of art open to re-interpretation and re-creation.

 

Virgen de las Revelaciones (2013) 

Oil and metal leaf on panel 31 x 47 inches by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

Private collection

Some of my paintings include images of the cards. Some are copies from the Tarot of Marseille (The earliest deck to achieve widespread fame) but most are my own interpretations of the cards. They often appear on the edges and frames of my paintings adding an extra layer of content that modifies the context of the central composition. I am fully aware of the popular connection between Tarot and divination and that plays into the narrative as well. But my primary interest in the Tarot lies within its archetypal significance and how it may affect the interpretation of a piece. I'm also interested in how the Tarot can be relevant to our current global issues. Whether one uses it for divination, or just for the pleasure of collecting, the Tarot should be considered as a powerful creative tool for artists and writers who wish to explore and create new narratives in art and literature. The more I use the Tarot and incorporate it into my work, the more I learn from it and the combinations and possible narratives seem endless.

 

Mare Magnum (Closed triptych) (2014)

Oil and gold leaf on triptych panel 48 x 30 inches by Patrick McGrath Muñiz.

Private Collection

The Painter as alchemist: From colors to archetypes

 

The Alchemist 17th century Oil on Canvas by Mattheus van Hellemont

After pondering over the significance of what I do as a painter and the message my work carries with its narratives, it becomes interestingly notable the similarities between the alchemist and the painter. The alchemist obsessive pursuit of transforming lead into gold serves as a perfect metaphor for creative people living today in a consumerist society that have to come up with new ways of transforming all the rubbish into something beautiful and significant. In an age where we are constantly bombarded by mind numbing news and consumer culture propaganda, we are in need of artists that work as alchemists. These lotus like souls float over the muddy waters of our consumer driven society and their art blooms like a gleam of hope for a better future. The artist that becomes aware of the world around him/her can filter, distill and transform the experiences and information the keeps the masses asleep. Their art is like a golden bell that wakes up the dormant souls in this world. Art is indeed a very powerful tool. Just consider for a moment that about 10,000 years ago human civilizations on this planet developed agriculture. Long before this, about 40,000 years ago we started to paint in caves. That is how ancient and fundamentally important art is in our society.

 

Cro-Magnon artists painting Font-de-Gaume, France by Charles R. Knight

 

Imagine an art class where you would be required to paint with pure primary colors straight out of the tube without mixing. How would you create a landscape, a portrait or an abstract painting using only ultramarine blue, cadmium red or yellow? It can be done of course but once we create these primary color exercises we start to realize, how much more advantageous it is to be able to mix any of these colors and create a much more rich, and varied palette. After all, painting without the knowledge of mixing and expanding the chromatic spectrum is like learning just a few words in a new language. We expand our vocabulary and learn to pars and conjugate once we learn how colors interact and behave with each other. For a narrative painter, concepts, stories and archetypes are equally important as colors.

 

A star shapped color palette arrangement by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

 

It seems quite natural therefore to see the painter as an innate alchemist who creates work by association, destruction and construction.. This is someone who is constantly experimenting with different amalgamations of pigments and media in order to find the perfect recipe that will produce a gem, a work of art. Not only is the formal/material process important in order to achieve success, but the content (not just for a narrative painter) is just as important and becomes another layer added to the color palette. In the content palette one may find a limited number of archetypes. We may already be familiar with them but it is always good to refresh our memories be mindful of their existence. They come in many shapes and forms throughout time and different cultures. They are primary forces behind the gods, the saints, the heroes and villains we hear about in all world mythologies, religions and folklore. The different combinations of these archetypes produces a wide array of possible stories with specific ends and messages to be derived by the viewer.  

 

Study of archetypes derived from Roman Catholic Iconography by Patrick McGrath Muñiz

Going back to our art class, I have to ask myself when was the last time I learned how to compose a story with archetypes in a painting class? If mixing colors was seldom taught in both my undergrad and graduate painting curricula, I don't ever recall archetypes being mentioned as counterparts to color when it comes to conceptualization or storytelling. There can be many reasons for this huge gap in art academia but something remains crystal clear to me as a keep studying art on my own. The study of archetypes for an artist (even abstract) is as important as knowing your art history and as important as knowing how to mix the primary colors. As  alchemists, if we strive to create gold (art) out of the most basic materials, we should also be aware of how to construct our stories. No matter how abstract they may be, our creations will never escape or be independent of color, hidden archetypes and our own human history.
 

 

Studying archetypal themes in my journal.

In the following blog posts, I'll delve deeper into the understanding and exploration of these building blocks of narrative painting called archetypes. This will be part of the documentation for the development of my next project: A Tarot inspired by human history, social inequality and the environment.

Three new paintings in Antigua

 

"The Water Flask", "The Plate" and "The Exchange" (El Intercambio) are three new paintings I just sent over to La Antigua Galeria de Arte in Antigua Guatemala. For all three works I used friends that live in Guatemala as models for the characters. All three contain narratives that relate directly to the Neocolonial status of not just Guatemala and other Central American countries but of many more across the globe. The readings of Yuval Harari and Jared Diamond have been influential in my work. I find more and more clearly the historical connections and continuous line that bridges Imperialism from the ancient world to the European conquest of the Americas to the current global colonization by large transnational corporations. What drives this unity  for conquest and domination is a blind belief in the fiction of money and power. Today money seems to the universal religion that unites all in a common capitalist cause. When  animals are seen in merely  utilitarian terms, as objects and not as beings with rights, they become mass produced food and commodities. These in turn become processed objects valued in monetary terms. The same happens with many other precious natural resources from water to plants to the land. All becomes subject to the rules of the market. This belief in the supremacy of capital is ultimately contributing to the destruction of almost everything that lives on this planet, therefore leading to the suicide of our own species. These works reflect on our histories, inherited myths and current fictions.

 

 

The Plate 18" x 24" Oil on canvas by Patrick McGrath Muñiz.

Available at La Antigua Galeria de Arte.

 

A standing woman holds and shows us a plate that resembles an old Mayan plate. On a closer inspection we discover that the Mayan figures painted on the plate allude to a modern day fast food franchise.  It suggests socio-economic power hierarchies from the past to the present reflected in food production and consumption. Behind her we appreciate two painted figures from a mural. The Ancient Egyptian and Greek youths are accompanied by oxen and symbolize animal husbandry and agriculture, two important revolutions in the history of humanity that keep evolving to this day with the industrialization and mass production of GMO's across the globe. The haloed corn serpent around the woman's head, is Ouroboros, the serpent that eats its own tail, which also symbolizes the eternal cycles in nature of life and death. The imagery in the painting is meant to evoke food by utilizing symbols associated with it that at the same time control or influence the way we understand and consume them. The plate is old, the plate is broken and it is also empty, just as the whole idea behind the sanctity of food in an age of corporations.

 

 

El Intercambio  (The Exchange) 24" x 24" Oil on canvas by Patrick McGrath Muñiz.

Available at La Antigua Galeria de Arte.

 

In the painting El Intercambio (The Exchange) two men pose in front of a Central American landscape and meet at a table. The one on the left represents the indigenous cultures and their beliefs. The one to the right is inspired after Saint Isidore the laborer, who was aided by an angel who plowed the soil. This character represents the West and  holds a pomegranate seed on one hand while holding a coin on the other. The pomegranate symbolizes Pluto, the Classical god of the underworld, power and riches. An inscription on the coin reads: Monsanctus Dominus Global, in allusion  to a large transnational seed corporation's global dominion. The apparent transaction occurs between two different cultures and belief systems. One places its faith in the god of money while the other holds Mother Earth and the natural world as sacred. The inscription below reads: Fatali Pretium Fructuum (The predestined price of produce) We can see that the gold coins on the table are really chocolate candy gold coins, a commentary on the created fiction and value of money. From the military drone to the flying saucer in the sky, the scene is a reflection of past and present conquest, colonization with its shock doctrine and myths of progress and development. Who will benefit most in the end from this exchange?

 

 

The Water Flask 18" x 24" Oil on canvas by Patrick McGrath Muñiz.

Available at La Antigua Galeria de Arte.

 

A woman holds a green round flask on her hands with a yellow halo around her. The flask is inspired after a Menas flask, a particular kind of small ancient terracotta flask sold to early Coptic Christians as containers for holy water. In this case the iconography of St. Menas of Alexandria has been replaced by the Nestle Logo, one of the largest transnational food and water corporations that has been responsible for unethical exploitation, water extraction, pollution and other fraudulent activities in a number of countries from Ethiopia to Colombia. The illegal appropriation, branding and re-selling of water as a commodity is just the tip of the iceberg from  a deceitful corporation that  paints itself as a "Pure Life" nurturing Icon. In a painting as in our own lives ruled by corporations, appearances can often be deceiving.  This brings us to question: Who has the divine right to water? Who has the right to sell it and who can afford to buy it?