Dissecting Diyos Makina (God Machine)

Diyos Makina
(God Machine)
mixed media on paper
24 x 36"
Marius Black
2014

In this article I wish to tackle the themes as well as the art styles I used in making  this artwork, accompanied by video documentation making its segments in an attempt to dissect the true meaning of Diyos Makina.

Diyos Makina (God Machine)
is a translation / play on words on the term
Deus Ex Machina. 

Filipino - English

Diyos = God 

Makina = Machine

Deus Ex Machina 
meaning "god from the machine" (Latin)
is an unexpected power or event saving a
seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a
contrived plot device in a play or novel.

I created Diyos Makina for a group art exhibit entitled Chaos in Progress at Cevio Art Haus back in May 16 - 31, 2014. This specific artwork is a culmination of all the art styles I've used and created ever since I started painting. From surrealism to masochism, from book vandalism to Elepanta, Jigsaw art and Glitch art. I've devised many art styles and movements in my art making in exploration and experimentation of how best to translate my message and emotion.

When I first got invited to join the exhibit Chaos in Progress, I was at the time going back to my pen and ink roots, ever since I started college I was engrossed on mainly painting mediums such as watercolor and oil paints and had almost left my ink and pen skills to the point of forgetting I had them. As a kid I drew my own comic books called Marbles, they are marble like characters who can roll around if they wished to. I Didn't know how to draw human figures well so I made Marbles instead.

I made this when I was in 5th grade :)

There I used pen and ink on oslo paper and colored them in with markers, and yes they were very colorful. I was mainly inspired with western comics such as Spider-man and the X-men and wanted the same feel of its vibrant colors in my comics .

When I got to high school I mainly focused on pen and ink because I was so fascinated with manga and anime. By this time I started to draw human figures but I didn't have the "color pen"  for the color flesh then so I didn't bother coloring them in. I knew that the black and white approach would do just fine since mangas are basically black and white. I was aware there were such things as Copic Markers that had the flesh tone I needed for skin color I was now making but as a high school student, those expensive things weren't in my budget. So I mainly stayed with black and white and shades of gray.

SATANHIGH #3 http://satanhigh.blogspot.com/

And then I got to college and I was back in color! Studying Fine Arts Painting really unleashed my coloring side once again. We were taught painting with oil paint and acrylic, watercolors and color pencils, etc. I truly loved every moment of it and after graduating I kept on painting in oil paint for I fell in love with how you can paint almost anything, realistically or otherwise. You can even paint surreal images which are mostly dreamlike images that are depicted realistically. I found myself painting my dreams as well as nightmares. I painted surreal images of skinned people in constant pain and made it my style for a while naming it Masochism. When I got fascinated by Elephants, I painted them with ease with women's bodies and called them Elepanta. When I got frustrated that I lacked oil paints I made another style by drawing over the art books that I had, turning book pages into canvas and calling them book vandalisms. 

Vincent

11 x 17"

color pencils on paper

Marius Black 2003

Blue Leaves

4 x 9"

watercolor on wood

Marius Black 2003

At every time I had painted something 

or had the will to create I wanted to outdo myself again and again, experimenting on canvas or whatever medium I had calling them art experiments and basically just yanking out of my mind whatever artwork  or image I thought of. I was basically an art addict, I don't know if the people who know me knew this already, but in my head, I am really addicted to art. The images I think about are meshed and mashed with all the styles and themes I like, colors and music blended together.

As I was invited to the exhibit Chaos in Progress, I wanted to do a summary of all my styles boiled into one. Not only so that I may see almost all the art styles and themes I've done so far but I also got curious of what my actual thoughts combined together would look like. So I gathered favorite my artworks and images and produced Diyos Makina. And with the limited time we we're given I knew I won't be able to finish it if I made it in oil on canvas, so the alternative thing I thought was doing it on paper. I've been meaning to go back to paper for quite some time now after falling in love with oils as I've said earlier. I've had a lot of techniques and styles I now wish to try as I go back using paper and paper based mediums and this was the perfect opportunity to conjure them and that I did! I basically redrew and repainted a few of my old and recent artworks to incorporate them in Diyos Makina.

So here's a dissection of Diyos Makina, of its art and themes:

Diyos Makina is composed of Three rows:

THE JOURNEY OF MAN
(the right row)

  

REICH

Theme: Pain, paranoia and insanity

Medium: pen and ink and some acrylics

Style: Masochism

Reich
12" x 9.5"
Ink / Book Vandalism
Marius Black
2013

As an ode to my masochism style, I made Reich as a reflection of everything that encompassed self flagellation and the masochism concept. Masochism is the condition in which sexual or other gratification depends on one's suffering physical pain or humiliation. It is coined by Leopold Von Sacher Masoch the writer who discovered the condition.

 

Distance

18 x 24"

oil on black canvas

2005

My masochism art pieces don't shy away very much from the theme for it is how I see the world sometimes. People who are working hard at a job that they don't like, making ends meet basically embracing the pain just to get by. I also see it when I depict artworks of Christ on the cross, showing him in skinless form having to in some way have gone through a hell of pain but endured it because of love. I'm not saying that Jesus' sacrifice was sexually gratifying, nor masochistic, no of course not. It's just the pain I'm taking from the masochism part, having to allow pain in some form of love, enduring it even confronting it to show love, that is my message. 

Hindi Na Namin Alam Ang Gagawin
(We Know Not What To Do)
12 x 18"
watercolor
Marius Black
2004

Hindi Kami Nagising
(Sleeping while Praying)
12 x 18"
watercolor
Marius Black
2004

I've done portraits of myself as well in masochism form, because I too have loved in pain, I had been a masochist at least one point in my life where I embraced the pain, trying to numb myself from an abusive relationship. It did not end well, but I'm just happy it did end. And so I base my masochism artworks off of that, having to depict the people I see and the things I feel into skinless figures all trying to endure pain.

  

  

BUTTERFLY RIB CAGE

Theme: Freedom from pain, turning shit into sugar

Medium: pen and ink

Style: Masochism and Book Vandalism

As I stated earlier, Book Vandalism is a style I made where I basically draw over images on books, vandalising over them or "adding art" to them and creating something new. I'm not a fan of Hitler, I do not agree with destroying books, I've painted Hitler at least once and the artwork I titled above was loosely based off of the third Reich, but even so I don't want to destroy books. With that said, you may ask, "So why do you draw on books? Isn't that destroying them?" I think not, for one thing, I only use the pages that I draw or paint on and still keep the entire book intact. Second, I'm adding something into it, I'm not destroying or burning, I'm creating. There are other books like the one I'm drawing on, it's of course mass produced. I'd rather do this than paint on the original Michelangelo artwork on the Sistine chapel, now that's vandalism!

Conundrum
7" x 9"
Ink / Book Vandalism
Marius Black
2013

The theme of this piece did came from a page from a Michelangelo artwork, I wanted to draw from what he's done and try to "finish" it. After all they were sketches, so I wanted to continue what he started and see what comes out of it and 'lo and behold, it became something else. I believe that no artwork can be done twice, like finger prints or snowflakes, no two are alike. I believe that no matter how much we copy an artwork, reproduction or fan art, that we cannot duplicate anything ever again. Even if it's by the same artist. This means that we basically pour our soul into the artworks we make and each of them has its own unique soul of its own, just like we are, we're all the same soul that came from the same source and now we're branching out to new different souls as we reproduce. And that's how I see art, as forms of ourselves, as a part of us, indeed the fruits of our labour.

Bilinear / Bloom
7" x 9"
Ink / Book Vandalism
Marius Black
2013

I also turned shit into sugar in discovering Book Vandalism, I was working then as a marketing assistant and curator at a 24 hour diner which had a gallery and restaurant back in 2009. At first I really liked my job there because I could drink beer and hangout with my friends a lot, I was also managing a small gallery at the place, but I soon got burnt out. I was juggling the marketing and promotion and monthly art exhibits for the diner along with murals and teaching art classes there and my salary stayed the same and was so low that I wasn't even able to buy new art materials of my own to paint on a canvas. My boss said that my salary would go up after six months but it never came. I worked there for almost two years and never produced a masterpiece. 

Although I did invent Book Vandalism out of it so I take it as an even trade. I came up with it because I was so depressed one night at my graveyard shift, I wasn't able to paint because of my schedule and like I said, I really didn't have any more canvases therefore I couldn't paint and express myself when I was home, so one night I just drew in my book that I had there for teaching art classes and I was able to create my first Book Vandal! It was so freeing, I felt a thorn was taken out of my side when I was able to create art once again. I was basically drained working there, when I got home even if I wanted to paint I really couldn't. And so making book vandalisms really made me hang in there for a while, and eventually I quit my work there. And this piece really embodies my experience there.

THE PRESERVER

Theme: Enlightenment

Medium:  color markers, pen and ink

Style: Book Vandalism

When I first made The Preserver I was still experimenting on furthering my book vandalism skills. And so I made a trinity of holy figures I found on the art books I have, The Buddha, Bodhisattva and Vishnu.  And Vishnu was really my favourite one, not only because I watched Hikari Sentai Maskman when I was a kid (the image with the lightning and robot half is based off of that TV series) but because when I researched Vishnu, I was really awed by who he was.

Vishnu

Vishnu - the all-pervading essence of all beings, the master of—and beyond—the past, present and future, the creator and destroyer of all existences, one who supports, preserves, sustains and governs the universe and originates and develops all elements within.

The Preserver
9.5 x 11"
Book Vandalism
Marius Black
2013

I just couldn't believe that there existed such a being, let alone I stumble upon it and liked the image even before knowing who he was. You can say I was being called, because I could relate to Vishnu, having to be an artist we are creators and destroyers of existences in terms of paintings and writing stories. We create and mix elements to be able to make something new, and we are also preservers. I remember having to be invited in as a thesis jury when I finished this artwork and I praised and critiqued the students works and I also scolded the students who I saw that their artwork was half-assed. I really never lash out or get angry most of the time, maybe it was the second cup of coffee that day, but I too had been in their position before. And like them I can tell if one did his best making an artwork or did his best NOT making the artwork. And so as an artist myself, I did not want give the message that those half-assed artworks are fine, art is subjective I know, but in a thesis defense your art is the subject. And unless the thesis of your work is; making-a-bad-and-half-baked-artwork then I'm going to have to rain hell down on you. 

There was also another student who wasn't able to finish his thesis, compared to the first guy, this kid at least finished two out of three artworks and looking at the two of his artworks, it shows promise. He is indeed a good painter and his artwork passes my standards quite well. Although I did not give him a perfect grade. I knew that if I had done that, I would have just made him complacent in the long run, having to give him a perfect score even when he shows promise does not make the promise real. He did however finish the artworks after the thesis jury, but it was still too late of the deadline when we were judging it and so the grade we gave was final. I wanted him to learn a lesson that day, maybe it was a bit harsh but he'll thank me in the future. The lesson is; to finish your work. If you really can't complete it a hundred percent, at least finish it to a point that it's presentable enough to be seen or shown or to a point were people wouldn't be able to notice or tell. Sure there are artworks in history that are unfinished and still made an awesome dent through history, but most of the artworks that did are finished and most of those artists that weren't able to finish their work I can say wanted to finish their artworks. I wanted the students to learn that, that no matter what, you have to submit something done or something that's at least past 90%. Because after college, if I did give him a high grade on an unfinished artwork. It would just mess him up. 

I actually went through the same thing, I was expecting just an 80% passing grade on my thesis, but I got 100% instead. I expected only 80% because to me, my final artwork wasn't that polished. It was finished yes, but I know I could've done much much better that's why I didn't expected that my jury would give me that high a grade.  I was happy that I did get 100% but every artwork I made since then has never surpassed the thesis that I made, well only for a while at least (thank God!) I was lucky to have broken out of that trance that I was this slick dick that got a 100% grade who can do nothing wrong. My point is, it fucked me up getting that grade somehow, I only made less and less effort in creating my succeeding artworks after that. I felt that I had arrive, and that was my biggest mistake. And so I didn't want that to happen to the kid I was judging the work of, I gave him my honest opinion of my score on his work, and I hope he does not fall to the same trap I did. That is why as artists, even with our own flaws and mistakes, we are preservers of truth as well.

SLAY

Theme: Slaying demons, defeating procrastination

Medium:  color markers, pen and ink

Style: Book Vandalism

Slay
12" x 9.5"
Ink / Book Vandalism
Marius Black
2013

Yeah it got me too, procrastination, that bitch. She always gets me, even up to now. And I hate it, I hate not being able to finish an artwork  and not accomplishing a painting or comics of mine. And so I delve deep into it of what makes someone stop or not start working. I was lucky to have stumbled upon Stephen Pressfield's The War of Art, a book of wining creative battles of not being able to finish your artworks (MORE ON THIS LATER) 

Looking back at this now, it still gives me the chills of how one can tackle this
and not have an accident of some sort destroying some part of the piece.

I made this piece SLAY, to slay the demons within me that tends to block my motivation, the lazy serpent headed lady beast who stops me from working and just whispers to waste my time on useless junk on the internet. I find myself frightened of making mistakes while making artworks with intricate details. I was afraid of artworks on paper for you can only seldom erase there until the paper makes a hole. On canvas, I also had incidents where I wasn't able to get the face right and so I get frustrated and give up mid-way. I was aiming for perfection, I was preserving things that should not be preserved. I thought I should be taking more risks. So one day I was staring at this artwork of mine that had been sitting there for a while, and it wasn't moving because I was too afraid to touch it and in making a mistake, it was already good in the stage it was in but it wasn't finished, and I was fixated on just screwing it up. 

I thought decorating my wall with the hot girls of FHM Philippines would grant endless inspiration, somehow I got more distracted... Plus I was always tired ;)

But I thought the hell with it! if I'm going to finish this piece I should not be focused too much on perfection. Perfection freezes me up, turns me into stone like medusa, therefore I must slay it and be done with it. It's do or die, and I will die trying. And I never do die, not that I'm immortal or anything, I am mortal, but I since I'm going to die one day anyway I thought, I might as well risk it here and now, have the scratches and scars to show for it but I was going to move and create instead of this catatonic state. I don't want to get paralyzed by perfection, I was going to have to slay my demons to make something art. I read from somewhere that, "We will never attain perfection, but we must always strive for it." And strive I shall do, make mistakes I shall, but I shall be free to create.

Slay your demons, behead your Medusa.

Placing Slay on top of the Masochisms artworks in the Journey of Man row shows how I've transitioned from basing my artworks out of pain as I experienced them then as I painted them and gradually healing myself, turning it to different forms and finally Slay having blue muscles symbolizes cooling off or having to have healed and now ready to fight another day after slaying one's demons.

THE CREATIVE JOURNEY
(The Left Row)

THE GOLDEN ELEPHANT

Theme: Tediousness, Perseverance

Medium:  color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art

The Golden Elephant was based of Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. I used my Jigsaw Art approach and produced a golden elephant. Jigsaw Art is the style I use to create from one thing (a picture or a painting) to something else entirely. Adding or repositioning parts and elements of an artwork to produce a new form of artwork. In this case, the portrait of Adele, I saw a trunk of an elephant along with its big ears in Klimt's painting. Therefore I created it and made it The Golden Elephant.

Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

I tackle tediousness here as well for I was able to put in a lot of effort in making the original one and doing it over again incorporating it into Diyos Makina. I persevered and sweated a lot in making the first one and doing it again was somewhat easier because I had done it once, and doing the first one readied me of how much effort it takes to create the second one.

Okay these are print reproductions, I only had to draw and color the Golden Elephant once.
But I did redraw and paint it again in depicting it here in Diyos Makina.

You know how it is when you're going to a place for the first time, it feels like forever because you haven' t been there yet. Like you haven't estimated the travelling distance from your place to your new destination. And when you arrive it feels faster going home because you can already estimate the travel distance once you've been there. "It takes about an hour to get to my college from home" something like that. And you can also apply it in art and almost everything, once you've done something, you're able to estimate how much time and effort it will take. And it feels a lot easier the second time you do something because you get good at it the more you do it. It's called mastery and the more you do something the better you do it. So if you want to improve  on something do it over and over again. write, edit, sing, it's a no fail way to level-up!

SPACE SEARCH 

Theme: Belonging, Territory

Medium:  watercolour, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Book Vandalism

I made this artwork Space Search after a breakup with my ex who I lived with for a while. We were having trouble with not being with each other because I had to always comeback here in Manila to find work and do research for my artworks, while she stayed in Baguio at a place we were renting because she needed to finish her college schooling there. Eventually we broke up, and this piece reflects that subject, of finding your own space, spacing out and just looking for a place where you belong.

Space Search
12 x 21"
Book Vandalism
Marius Black
2013

Did you know that elephants remember the place where they were born? Even more weirder is that, when they feel that they're going to die they go back to the very same spot they were born! Weird right? Well I might not be an elephant, and I don't feel like I'm dying, but I can relate to that. That there's no place like home.

I love how that elephant turned out!

DELOREAN TIME MACHINE / ELECTRICPANTA

Theme: Experimentation / Progress

Medium:  color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art and Elepanta

Creating the Elepanta style and theme back then really made me comfortable in painting human figures. I seldom get the likeness of painting women's faces on my oil paintings as well as didn't have the models or copyrighted references of the women I wanted to paint. Hence replacing them over with elephant heads just made it easier for me to express myself.

Elefan Time Machine Baby
color pens & ink on paper
7 x 10.5"
Marius Black
2013

In time I was able to find out the elephant heads with human figures referred to the Hindu god Ganesha, I really didn't know it at the time I was painting Elepantas, although I had seen Ganesh depictions before. What's fascinating is that he actually embodies creativity and art, what are the odds? He also removes the obstacles on one's path as well as puts them there so that we could learn a thing or two or strive much harder. That has been my art journey although out, having no canvas and time, BAM! I create Book Vandalism. Having trouble painting women's faces and copyright hurdles, BAM! Elepanta! 

Ganesha, remover of obstacles.

It just goes to show that even though there are obstacles in our path we can always find the way through, every problem has a solution. As Ryan Holiday puts it, the obstacle is the way. And in some level, Ganesha has been helping all this time, calling out to me to create more art even in hard times. I also discovered that there is a female form of Ganesha, her name is; Vinayaki. Vinayaki represents the divine in female rather than the more dominant aspect in the male form. In occult sciences the female form was seen as the source of all generative powers: while the spark of life came from the male body.

Forget Me Not

oil on canvas

4 x 7 ft

Marius Black
2012

 

I felt that I was  called by them in some way to produce the artworks I made on my Elepanta series. I have done quite a few, and will continue to do so in the future.

Find inspiration anywhere, from your favorite movies, animals even from an electric fan!

On my piece the Electricpanta, I took a photo of my friend's electric fan and placed it behind my Elepanta's figure and at the same time the DeLorean time machine is travelling in between her as she sits patiently atop a church guarding it. In expressing this piece it, to me it says that anything is possible.

That with enough imagination you can make anything possible; time machines or painting invisible gods sitting on churches.

Electricity is not seen most of the time, although its effects could be felt every day, back then there was no light, no power, just fire. Now we have electric light at our finger tips. Our progress excites our imagination, our imagination defines our progress.

GLITCH ELEPANTA

Theme: Disorder and Deconstruction

Medium:  color markers, pen and ink

Style: Glitch Art / Elepanta

The Glitch Elepanta is one of my newer art styles, it refers to deconstruction of an image to form a new image or view of the subject. Not necessarily announcing or producing destruction, but deconstructing something so see its insides or seeing a new side of it to give us new perspectives.

It's the cracks on a perfectly pristine egg that symbolize life, it is seeing perfection in imperfections. It tells us something that we as individuals; also appreciate the complicated and intricate even as something discombobulated and shifted all around.

We can still salvage fragments of a shattered file from a abruptly yanked out USB while a photo is being transferred. Maybe not the whole perfect file but there's some information saved to it, most may not be useful but some can be. It pokes our imagination to see some things differently. Beauty can come from form, it may also rear its head in something that is formless.

JAPANELEPANTA

Theme: Discipline

Medium:  watercolour, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art

After I made the Golden Elephant, I was able to further make art experiments on my elephant themed pieces because one of my aunts was going to have her wedding and she wanted me to make gifts for her sponsors with an elephant theme. So I made her a series of elepants that combined flowers and Japanese artworks from the floating world. 

An example of a Japanese artwork from the floating world.

The ukiyo-e genre of art flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and printings' of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term ukiyo-e  translates as "pictures of the floating world". -Wikipedia

Jupiter

10.5 x 15"

color markers and watercolors on paper

Marius Black 2014

My aunt said to make elephant based artworks because like me she had a fascination for elephants and said they bring good fortune. She said I could do anything I wanted with them and I was thrilled to do so, and so I was able to make these elephants with my love of Japan and their woodblock prints. And I was able to discover (from jigsawing their artworks on to mine) that they have complete disciple in making these pieces. After all they were woodblock prints, they were all handmade and colored one by one.

Atlas

10.5 x 15"

color markers and watercolors on paper

Marius Black
2014

I love the Japanese culture and I know they have a fondness for discipline in their culture, something us Filipinos should learn from. I love anime and manga and almost anything Japanese, and so it's no surprise that I love their art too! And so I incorporated my love of that into these pieces and the first one I did was this one called Atlas. I have made  a few more of these and will eventually upload them to this site soon, so watch out for that!

The Japanelepanta turned out really well, I love how the Hokusai waves look like they're moving.

Placing the Japanelepanta on top of the Creative Journey or the left row is a message of the path I've taken from simply being able to draw my first Jigsaw elephants and Elepanta figures and from there branching out to the now Japanelepanta. It just goes to show how much one can grow from experimenting one style to the next.

THE MACHINATION OF GOD
(the middle row)

STOYA, The SNOW and the ELEPHANTS

Theme:  Beauty, Lust and Sacrifice

Medium:  watercolor, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art, Surrealism, Elepanta

The snow is coming off from the Ukiyo-e jigsaw art from the bottom, in a annexing bridge which supports the crossing passersby. Stoya (a porn star) represents lust when two people see each other for the first time, a desire to ravish the stranger basing "love" only by being attracted by each others  physical appearance. The hugging elephants or Elepantas in the middle, are a symbol of unity, real love, of obstacle and sacrifice and surviving it together even if they are surrounded by lust. We see ultimate love is not only physical attraction or crossing of paths with a stranger but actually love where you endure and embrace and accept your partner no matter what. No matter how harsh the snow, no matter how cold you both are naked outside for everyone to see, you stay together to warm each other. This love is pure.

Crossing the bridge, passing strangers, in between lust and melting the snow.

Going beyond this, on top of the Elepantas on the bridge, there is Romeo and Juliet, another "love" story, one that tells love sometimes becomes the couple's demise. Behind them is the prince kissing Snow White with their story that life after death comes a happy ending, maybe true in a Disney fairy tale lore but is it real love?

Fairy tales have happy endings, but what of real life?

The FOUR HORSEMEN of the APOCALYPSE

Theme:  War, Famine, Conquest and Death

Medium:  watercolor, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art, Surrealism, Ukiyo-e and Glitch art

 

I've been fascinated by the four horsemen ever since I was a kid, I was afraid of monsters and ghosts and demons before from watching scary movies growing up, but once I got wind of The Four Horsemen at that young age, I thought all those scary things are nothing compared to the apocalypse.

After that I got more interested in them rather than being scared (not to mention it was in Revelation, a real prophecy!) It was also at the animated X-men series, so that really did it for me. As well as, my family having to love horses and so did I. And so it was a match made in heaven when I depicted the Four Horsemen. I've been painting horses before and imagining when I could depict the horsemen, lucky I was able to paint enough horse artworks that I just picked the four of my favorites to include them in Diyos Makina.

War

I depicted War as a machine gun wielding horseman complete with armor and chainsaw.

 

Conquest

 Conquest as an armored horse with an invisible horseman, wreaking havoc coming off of war.

Famine

 Famine was a samurai warrior, able to spread his sickness and diseases with the shot of his arrows.

Death

And I depicted Death, the pale horse, glitching through as he
flies formless into the sky with its horseman merged within the horse.

The Four Horsemen coming out of lust and fairy tale endings.

I depict The Horsemen as the opposite of love, the four things that can come out of not loving. If we don't love ourselves and each other, soon enough, we will meet The Four Horsemen. And they do exist, they lie in waiting like bells to be rung when we have done the evil deeds to set them free. So we must try our best to make our love pure, not out of lust. Not for money or for a green card or for security, not for physical appearance alone or being lonely. We must love because we need it not only to live, but we need love to make it worth the while being alive.

THE VIRGIN

Theme:  The Virgin Mary, The Annunciation, The Immaculate Conception

Medium:  watercolor, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art, Surrealism

The Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary is a profound story. How can a virgin give birth? Through a miracle of God of course. The angel Gabriel announces to her that she will conceive the baby Jesus, the Son of God making her the vessel of God. In my depiction of this, I made a woman in blue dress symbolizing her faith and white skin for purity. Then a naked woman in the garden and on top of her belly is a unicorn which symbolizes Jesus Christ. If you look closely, the unicorn's horn is pointing at Mary's womb on the artwork just above it, a symbol of the immaculate conception.

The monoceros also known as unicorn, a symbol of Jesus Christ.
I's horn is pointing at Mary's womb on the artwork just above it, a symbol of the immaculate conception.

The BOOK from the SKY

Theme:  Chance, The Nativity

Medium:  watercolor, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art

One day I was walking at our street and being me I always look where I'm walking, and so as I was walking I noticed this book on the ground. Someone must've dropped it, but it was somewhat destroyed a bit so someone must've thrown it away. It was yellowing and the cover isn't attached to it anymore, but I still picked it up and when I open to see what kind of book it was, it was a book about the bible! It was The King Bible Encyclopaedia of Story and Pictures, Art Treasure Edition. And indeed it was a treasure!

Wonderful art for a book found in the street.

It had wonderful photos of artworks so I decided to put one into Diyos Makina and chose it to be the Nativity, when Jesus was born. The art is just really so beautiful to me, it also reminds us of how humbly Jesus Christ came to this earth, not in a luxurious palace or castle, but on a manger along with animals with a down to earth mother and father. It does humble you down when you think about it, and so I incorporated it into this piece to remind us to be humble, to be thankful of what we have, to pick up things up on the street that seem like trash but might be treasures, treasures found by chance, mundane things on the street pavement may be a gift given to you by God.

The Nativity, the birth of Christ in a manger.

HOLY MARY

Theme:  Mother Mary and Jesus Christ

Medium:  watercolor, color markers, pen and ink

Style: Jigsaw Art, Surrealism

The artwork I took this from is from a calendar we have here in the Philippines, it's humbly made by Pinoys who make artworks by any means necessary selling them in affordable prices. When you watch the video you can see a few glimpses of it. After starting from the bottom of the middle row, the tops shows Mary holding Jesus and Jesus looking at some angles. I really love this artwork that's why I incorporated it here as well and also because this image reminds me that there are angels guiding us and it's up to us if we listen to them or not.

 

It also shows the love of a mother to a son which reminds me of how my mother loves me. She's the one who always supports me in my art endeavors without a fail, she gives me strength when I get bullied by people when I was a kid, she gives me advice when I need guidance, she takes care of me when I am sick and she loves me no matter how much wayward I may have been. And she corrects me when I am doing wrong. Truly, love can save us all, we only need to know how to love and learn to receive love as well to make it work. We can only do that by accepting one another and trying our best not to be assholes to each other. 

CHAOS IN PROGRESS
THE EXHIBIT

At the top of Mary there are inked drawing of what seems to be as buildings and people on a street. It's taken from a video art stunt that my friends and I made awhile back entitled The Walking Last Suffer (Ang Paglalakbay ng Huling Pagdurusa) and if you look closely, you can notice that it's somewhat unfinished right?

That's because it's not yet done. 

YES, this artwork was exhibited at a show

 and was not yet fully complete!
(but who hasn't? I kid, I kid...)

It's not finished 100% but only 95% done. I don't mean to be a hypocrite because I was going on about submitting unfinished artworks earlier, but I also said that nothing is perfect. We all wish we can have more time, that we estimate how long we'll be making something perfectly and then it takes twice as long as we envisioned it. We really can't pinpoint the future, usually it takes double the time we first estimated doing something for the first time.

We really can't attain perfection,
we can only strive for it.

Even if you know you aren't finished, when it's game time, it's game time. 

Finish or not finish pass your paper, otherwise you'll fail altogether.

I think I needed at least a day or two more to finally finish Diyos Makina, but since the exhibit day was just two days away and our submission day has finally come, I had to submit Diyos Makina even though it was only 95% done. I also had to have it framed, meaning it will be sealed shut, so even though it wasn't really finished I had to make the call to decide that it was indeed finished and dubbed it done.

It is actually passable as being done, compared to the college student's thesis I was talking about earlier, I estimate his was only 75% done, and Diyos Makina was 95% done so there's a big difference. There was also another artwork I am suppose to make which is the same size with lesser details but I had to start (and finish) it right after I made Diyos Makina which was only less than 3 hours.

Mother Superior
24 x 36"
mixed media on paper
Marius Black
2014

And at this time, my group mates where calling non-stop asking me where me and my artwork was because they have already begun to ingress their artworks. And for those of you who don't know it's not advisable to curate a show when there are missing pieces of artworks to be submitted. I know it's unprofessional of me not submitting on time but I didn't estimate such an intricate artwork would take up more time than I anticipated. And art really takes time, you can't really rush it.

I was late and I still haven't even framed my artwork yet, and so after finishing Mother Superior (Diyos Makina's twin) and Diyos Makina (95% done) I rushed to the scanning shop, had it scanned and then rushed into the framing shop (which was almost closing when I got there) I still had to wait for at least two or more hours, then jumped in a cab, catching some sleep in traffic and then arriving to the gallery (almost everyone gave me the stink eye) and submitted my artwork.

It was my fault for underestimating the time I'll be able to finish such a tedious and intricate artwork. I can't really blame my co-exhibitors for giving me the stink eye when I arrived late because they had no idea that I made an intricate piece of art. They probably thought I was slacking off and just being a dick by submitting my pieces late. Me on the other hand, I just wished I had more time making my works, because I made Diyos Makina in less than 15 days. When I arrived at the gallery we mounted the artworks and made a few arrangements here and there and we all went home. Mission accomplished!

Finally, I can sleep soundly tonight.

Then on the morning of the show, I got a call from my group mates, saying that my artwork fell from the wall and it shattered the frame and glass! To no surprise it was Diyos Makina! As I got the message I was asking myself, "Is this real? Is this really happening?" Turns out rushing a frame job isn't a good thing, with the weight of the frame and the glass, the hurried assemblage of the hook on the frame snapped out of place, thus falling on the gallery floor shattering the frame and glass. I thought to myself, well if the artwork isn't damaged it should be just fine to still exhibit the artwork for the show. I knew that the artwork was still good on its own even without the frame. And that's what happened. The curator still used the broken frame and glass, he used the shattered glass and frame as an effect for the entire piece. 

Never rush a frame job!

They made it look like it was done on purpose and it actually enhanced the artwork!
After all, the title of our show was Chaos in Progress.

These sort of things happen to me quite a lot, I'm lucky like that :)

I love how the colors just pop out like that!

Looking at the artwork on the night of the show, it hit me that the hook snapping out of place was an act of God! The frame and glass breaking was actual divine intervention! It was God's way of telling me, "This artwork is not done yet, FINISH IT!" So He smashed the frame, letting me show it at the exhibit still, but reminded me that it still wasn't done, that I still need to finish it to a 100%!

I think my work really nailed the Chaos in Progress theme.

I still haven't  fixed the artwork yet up to now. I have tried, but when I did, the things I was meant to "fix" turned out getting worse! HAHA!  It seems that some parts of the paper can't absorb the type of inks and paint anymore (because it was "full") to get the effect I wanted. So I had to come up with another way to retouch some of the parts I want to finish and repaint. That's why right now, I'm practicing a new medium and a new style or two so I can go back in finishing this artwork.Maybe making it far better than what it is now!

Wish me luck and let's all hope for the best!

I'll be updating this blog entry when
I finally finish DIYOS MAKINA 0.2!

In everything that has happened in making this artwork,
I felt that I was being guided while I was making it.
That when I make mistakes, He intervenes and shows me the way.

Diyos Makina indeed, has be some sort of a deus ex machina! :D

Marius Black
Manila
September 1, 2016

Diyos Makina
mixed media on paper
24 x 36"
Marius Black
2014

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