Diyos Makina (God Machine) Part 8 Horseman Famine

When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature
saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on
it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice
in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for
a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not
damage the oil and the wine.”

Revelation 6:5-6

I came across the Four Horsemen first when I was a kid on the 90's X-men Animated series, either that or from the Bible. It's quite blurry which came first but from that day forward the threat of the four beasts at the end of the world stuck with me more than that time my two fingers literary got stuck together with Mighty Bond (and I probably was at the same age when that happened).

 
The horror, the sounds that I imagined and the images that came to my mind when the idea that there was going to be an "Armageddon" really stuck in my mind. Heck I didn't even know that there was going to be an "end of the world" at that point when I was still a kid, let alone there were these four horsemen who'll bring about the doom of men. I kept thinking about how frightening it was, more than any horror movie that I've watched as a kid. And boy oh boy did I see a lot of them when I was a child because my dad owned a video rental shop and my dad used to let us watch the super scary stuff like IT and Child's Play even though it wasn't meant to be seen at our age. And I being the youngest did it give me nightmares. I often close my eyes when the monster or ghost would appear while watching these horror films with my dad and my sisters. And to add insult to injury they often made fun of me scaring me during the movie and well off after it was over.

This is how it looks like when I turn those nightmares into Art.

But yeah that all came to a fast halt when I got wind of the Four Horsemen. I never really imagined that there was going to be an end of the world in the first place so this was one of those mind blowing moments I had when I was a kid. But Alas, my fear of them became fascination. As I kept thinking more and more about the Four Horsemen I wondered what they'd look like and how bad ass they might be riding their horses. And when the end of the world came I always thought, "Shit if this is the end of the world at least I'd see something awesome like the Four Horsemen before I bite the dust so it'll probably be all worth it!" And seeing the Four Horsemen at the X-men Animated series fueled my excitement further. "I knew they looked bad ass!" I'd often think

 

ART IN TIME LAPSE

I haven't forgotten them as I grew older and at times that the Four Horsemen were mentioned in school by our religion teacher, I would perk up and get even more excited. I don't even know if they're talking about the Bible version or the X-men version! Obviously the Bible version but actually all I kept thinking was, "Yeah! End of the world stuff! Finally some shit's going to happen! Enough of this being good all the time obeying God!" That thought always kept me awake surely surviving our same old religion class lectures.


Now as an adult I still think about the Four Horsemen, heck I'm so happy that the new X-men movie had them but saddened they lack the horses. But it was an okay movie if I say so myself. Though, what might have Marvel done if they had the rights? Anyway let's not go that far off of that topic. It'll take a separate blog entry to discuss all of that. Having the Four Horsemen in mind since a child has really been a fascination of mine, I have depicted them on artworks before. I've painted a lot of horses because my family has a thing for horse racing so growing up I've became fond of horses. And yeah I too have included the Four Horsemen on my recent work in comics. If you've read Clowder #5 you can see my own version of the Four Horsemen! And yes they're as awesome as they are fearsome! I have to credit the Bible and X-men of course but I did them in such a way I always imagined them how they would be like.

Death Comes to Clowder #5 as one of the Four Horsemen!

I'm glad I can portray creatures and beasts like this from fiction and the Bible as freely as I can with my own interpretation. I still like talking about the FHM and if you watch Ancient Aliens well, we could be talking all day! Realistically though, we might never know from reading the book of Revelation if the Four Horsemen will truly come at the end of the world, or that Jesus and Satan will have their final battle after that, or that Jesus will rule a thousand years after he beats Satan. No one can truly say what tomorrow brings. Maybe not yet, all we can do now is to speculate, to do the best we can to be good and to be good to others and imagine that if death and the Four Horsemen come, it shall be a good and awesome death worthy of the life we lived! And we should live our lives right now as how we really want it so that when death or judgement day comes, we have no regrets. Personally, I think death is beautiful. :)

-Marius Black
6/10/2016

Diyos Makina (God Machine) is a mixed media on paper artwork, size 24 x 36". I made it back in 2014 and was exhibited at the show Chaos in Progress along with other Filipino artists at Cevio Art Haus.

This is part 8 of how I made the artwork.
For the Complete Diyos Makina (God Machine) Playlist you can go to this link:
DIYOS MAKINA (GOD MACHINE) PLAYLIST