My latest painting was inspired by Nikki Sixx’s new book and album, "This Is Gonna Hurt.
Many of the symbolic references come from this, in one twisted way or another. I may have expanded on some and pulled others right out of my, er, head. Artist’s prerogative. Maybe I haven't finished it yet... sometimes ideas and concepts come in the strangest ways.
To the curious who would like it explained, here goes, top to bottom:
● The skull monument above his head is his fascination with death, as you see on the ribbons that say "Sixx" on the left and "Mort" on the right.
● The swirls to the right and left of his head are part of the same monument, when composited they formed an image of horns, loosely defined. I get a lot of great spontaneous design ideas that seem to come together like happy accidents when I'm playing in Photoshop. Even though this is a traditional painting, I do my initial compositions in Photoshop. It's like a bit of mind foreplay.
● The famous medieval astromonical clock of Prague is the main background. Interestingly enough, you can tell just about anything looking at that clock but the time. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the only one still working.
An interesting story about the clock:
80 years after the clock was installed, the legendary master Hanus rebuilt the clock and as legend has it, the Town Councillors had him blinded, so that he would not ever manage to build another instrument greater than the Orloj in Prague.
The story also says that before he died, master Hanus deliberately damaged the clock so seriously, that nobody could ever fix it again. He also cursed the instrument, so those who tried to repair it have either gone mad or died. (Factual history states the clock was repaired many times since its orginal installation, however.)
So how does this clock connect to Nikki Sixx? Besides the fact that it makes an awesome design, it represents the concept of time and is a reference I took from his book.
● The trip he took to Prague with Kat Von D. Notice how, to the left the clock hand looks like the plunger end of a syringe, and there’s a trail of blood running down the hand and dripping off onto the face of the clock.
● Just to the right of his head you can see the astrological signs represented on the clock, starting with Nikki’s sign, Sagittarius, the Wounded Healer. I could get way deeper into this, but if you want to learn more about astrology, Gahl Sasson has a really interesting website, The Cosmic Navigator, which has free audio clips on the signs. They are each in-depth, about 40 min or so.
● The scars on his cheek: obviously self-inflicted ... and a reference to his photographic work, his thoughts about our definition of what is beauty, etc. I must say I really enjoyed the book and love the album…he is a wildly creative, talented man…he has seemingly spit in the face of his demons, shown them the light of truth…but I daresay he lives with them still. That 'inner asshole' he speaks of in his book is still a part of the person he is.
● This is where the last symbol comes in: the 8 pointed chaos star under his arm. Means out of chaos, order. Duality. Light and shadow. Alignment between the earthly and the divine. Awareness makes all the difference, allows you to step away from your ego and make conscious choices.
Did I forget anything?
Tech details of the painting:
15x20 acrylic painting on illustration board, mixed media with markers, pastel pencil, string gel for the 3D blood. About 10 hours.
The photo reference came from a famous photo of him, sorry that I don’t know the photographer credit or I’d put it here. When working with a photo of someone famous I generally try to change it up a bit, add things, remove things. If all I wanted to do was reproduce a photo , that would be rather boring, don’t you think?
I highly recommend Nikki Sixx’s book, “This Is Gonna Hurt”, his album of the same name, and the Documentaries on YouTube
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