Below are two gothic illuminated manuscripts of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Virgin Queen (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603). After 1578, poets and writers took up the theme and turned it into an iconography that exalted Elizabeth.She was portrayed as married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. In 1599, Elizabeth spoke of “all my husbands, my good people”.

In Asian traditions, illuminated manuscripts are generally more illustrative in nature, and from origins in manuscript book decoration also developed into single-sheet small paintings to be kept in albums, which are also called illuminated manuscript miniatures, as the Western equivalents in watercolor and other mediums are not. 

END NOTES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Martini

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_(illuminated_manuscript)

Romanticism influenced art, music, literature, and philosophy in the second half 18th century in Europe, as a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms and the scientific rationalization of nature. The Romantic movement stressed the emotive experience, including trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublime found in untamed nature and the picturesque.

New gothic art is a modern adaptation of the elements from the original gothic art movement, to the Romantic interpretation of gothic art and is often spirit-based, rather than conceptual-based as in most contemporary art.

These Gothic Illuminated Manuscript Paintings are 12″ x 12″ each and are on stretch canvas and mixed media with text from Goth Style Secrets.

Gothic Illuminated Manuscript I

 Gothic Illuminated Manuscript II

Lady Eureka has taken great care to use the finest gold, silver and copper pigments for the background fill, a translucent colour field of the highest grade, R & F pigment oil sticks in thin washes that allow the light to penetrate through all layers. It is varnished with damar tree resin with mica minerals. Each page is made of timeless quotes from some of the most notable sages, philosophers, artists, economists and politicians in history.

This Lady of Gothic Style researched the subject matter of the gothic illuminated manuscript, sourced suitable quotes and posted them on Twitter linked to my Facebook wall to test it’s interactivity. The “Illuminated Manuscripts” are e-text-tiles commentaries, that engages the new social media community.

Gothic Illuminated Manuscript Page 1 – E-Text-Tiles

“A wise man learns from the mistakes of others; a fool doesn’t even learn from his own.”

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

“There are some people who live in a dream world; there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”

“Simplicity, clarity, singleness are the attributes that give our lives power, vividness and joy - as they are also the marks of great art.”

“Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations.”

“Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.”

“In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.”

“Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is your own karma.”

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”

“Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.”

“If you don’t set a standard for what you’ll accept, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.”

Gothic Illuminated Manuscript Page 2 – E-Text-Tiles

“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs.”

“To give real service, you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”

“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

“Have you noticed that the level of success of a person determines the level of people they attract into their lives?”

“Never take advice from someone who doesn’t already have what you want, or is more screwed up and stressed than you are!”

“Those who understand the synergy of joint ventures seldom walk away from good relationships or allow greed and ego to steal their futures.”

“The employee mentality suggests we operate in a linear manner and attempt one joint venture at a time, risking everything at once.”

“There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. Beware of time wasters…”

“Yoga integrates body, mind and spirit, so your intentions and convictions can take a quantum leap.”

“When you are blissful in the present, always joyful, you will automatically attract all good things to yourself.”

“Our relationships influence us thru the Law of Entanglement. This can be seen in twins separated at birth who live eerily similar lives…”

“Joint ventures work because it’s the Law of Attraction of like-minded cooperative people who want win-win situations.”

“It is your expectation that your thoughts are connected - that leads to disappointment and suffering.”

“Your feelings attract the lifestyle, relationships and patterns in your life. If you change how you FEEL, you can alter your destiny.”

“Destiny is a result of action, whereas fate is inflicted upon you.”

“Knowledge is power and it can change your thinking. And thinking in a new way can change your life”

“Dream big…never give up on your dreams, no matter what others may tell you.”

“Reflecting on integrity - the consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome…”

To create the text on the Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts, Lady Eureka used acid-free gold gel pens to inscribe each and every quote. Dear Gothic Heart, I hope you enjoyed the words of wisdom in the Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts. And may there be many more to come to Lady Eureka.

The critic Martin Esslin coined Theatre of the Absurd in 1961. In the first edition of The Theatre of the Absurd, Esslin saw Albert Camus’ Existentialist philosophy as a life inherently without meaning as illustrated in his work, “The Myth of Sisyphus”. Existentialists hold that there are certain questions that everyone must deal with if they are to take human life seriously, questions such as death, the meaning of human existence and the role of God. In “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb”, there is much parody about life and salvation, life after death in the images of “Hail Mary”, “Salvation” and the “4th Dimension”.

The term, Theatre of the Absurd applies to plays, which are often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images. Characters are caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions, dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense. Plots are cyclical or absurdly expansive, within parody or dismissal of realism. An example of Theatre of the Absurd is “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Barclay Beckett, an Irish writer, dramatist and poet who was considered one of the key writers of Martin Esslin’s “Theatre of the Absurd.”

The theme of “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb” playfully references the element of waiting as in the ‘Judgment Day’. The theme of waiting borrows from Beckett’s most significant play, “Waiting for Godot”. To amuse herself, Lady Eureka creates different scenes to pass time, from posing with the “Lion-Lamb” and playing with her fan in scenes such as “Confession” and “Love Me Today”.

In the play, “Waiting for Godot”, the two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for the mysterious Godot expectantly and unsuccessfully to arrive for two days. They claim he is an acquaintance, but in fact hardly know him and admit that they would not recognize him were they to see him. To occupy themselves, they eat, sleep, converse, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate suicide — anything “to hold the terrible silence at bay”.

“Waiting for Godot” was relaunched on April 30th 2009 in London’s West End, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The landmark production stars Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as the two lead roles of Vladimir and Estragon, with much critical acclaim. McKellen and Stewart are both renowned Shakespearean actors at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the West End and on Broadway.

The final reference to the waiting theme is the image of “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb”,  called “Rapture”, the moment prior to judgment on the earth and Jesus’ Second Coming for the purpose of Ascension to the Light of the “Peaceable Kingdom”.

“Ascension” 

END NOTES:

http://www.waitingforgodottheplay.com/

http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html

http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part2.html

“Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait” is a performance art sub-titled “Theatre of the Absurd” as it ironically depicts contemporary Gothic and Gothic Lolita sub-cultures, which are outside of mainstream art. Outsider Art has emerged as a successful marketing category since the Nineties. The annual Outsider Art Fair for “self taught, visionary and outsider art” has taken place in New York since 1992; I visited the Outsider Art Fair in 2000 to see an international audience appreciating wide range of Outsider Art, from authentic folk art to emulated Naïve Art and particularly to see pieces from William Hawkins, whose paintings are now represented in the Museum of American Folk Art and the High Museum of Art.

Outsider Art was coined by Roger Cardinal, an art critic in 1972 described Jean Dubuffet’s “Art Brut” as art that rejects contemporary art values. Dubuffet championed the art of the insane and artists in the margins of society as examples of avant-garde art challenging established contemporary art practices.

The difference between Outsider Art and Folk Art is that Folk Art typically embodies traditional forms and social values of an indigenous culture, where Outsider Art has a marginal relationship to society’s mainstream. Folk artists produce art works with little or no academic artistic training, nor a desire to emulate High Art. Along with painting, sculpture, and other decorative forms, costumes are also included under Folk Art. The Gothic Lolita garments are hand sewn and worn by Lady Eureka. Members of the gothic and Elegant Gothic Lolita sub-cultures often make elaborate costumes for special events. For example, the Lolita Fashion Day on the first Saturday of June in New York City.

Folk Art is relevant to Naïve Art as both include untrained artists. However, unlike Folk artists, Naïve artists aspire to High Art status and interact with the mainstream art world. Naïve Art is characterized by a childlike simplicity and has become an acceptable art style of artists who did not receive formal education in an art school or academy, such as Henri Rousseau. ‘Pseudo naïve’ or ‘faux naïve’ art describes the work of an artist imitating Naïve Art, such as the reference of the “GothLoli child-like figure” in “Lady Eureka”, to represent Liberty and Freedom from autocratic oppression, combined with the Dark, wild lion-like and Light, domestic lamb-like natures of the “Lion-Lamb” in the “Peaceable Kingdom”.

Since the medieval period, Gothic style sought to bring the viewer into a fuller understanding of some of the more grotesque incidents of the human psyche, such as the crucifixion or the mystical aspects to the understanding of God, as represented by Christian symbolisms of “Salvation”, “Hail Mary and the “Lion-Lamb” images. Lady Eureka name references Hick’s view in the “Peaceable Kingdom” of the “Light” in all living beings and the world, speaking to that which “shines from within every one of us”. Eureka is the inner “Light” of insight gained by facing our deepest fears, which results in sudden clarity emerging from the depths of chaos and the midst of darkness.

Therefore, by integrating Outsider Art and its various sub-sets, along with the historical reference of Gothic Art, “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait” is a conscious expression that renders it to be ultimately a ‘faux naïve’ art expression and aptly sub-titled, “Theatre of the Absurd”.

END NOTES:

http://www.sanfordsmith.com/outsider.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Absurd

http://www.dubuffet.com/

http://www.artpromote.com/gothic.shtml

http://www.mediumatlarge.net/2009/05/lolita-fashion-day-june-6-at-kinokuniya.html

The look and style of ‘Lady Eureka’ images is based on the Gothic Lolita (aka GothLoli), Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) or Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA); EGL and EGA are subsets of Gothic Lolita, a youthful and feminine look. The sub-cultural styles are popular with Asian women as in past generations their clothing styles were very conservative and modest. Contemporary Asian ‘cute’ fashion may be a reaction to the seemingly overt sexuality of Western women’s clothing.

Lolita in “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait” is a High Art interpretation of girlishness where “calling a grown woman a girl can imply she’s not complete, mature, or grown-up” (Guerilla Girl, 1995). However, some feminists and Westerners might view Lolita as a fashion father/daughter fetish with reference to the infamous Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita novel (1955) and film (1962 and 1997). However, most  Gothic Lolitas and followers of the fashion do not consider this look sexual or referencing inappropriate or salacious sexual mores.

The Gothic Lolita look is also found in Anime. Anime, like manga (Japanese comics), is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world. Anime has been distributed via television, directly to video, theatrically, online or at Anime festivals where dressing up in costumes is a family-oriented activity (Anime Evolution).

The popularity of the GothLoli styles in Asia is based on an interest in the nineteenth century Victorian era. It is not equivalent to western street-style Goth, but rather it’s the aesthetic of the Victorian gothic horror novels, my area of expertise/interest/scholarly research. It is an elegant mixture of romance and innocence.

The images of “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait” include a hand-sewn lace curtain, with the lace motif repeated in her stockings. GothLoli is a kind of kinder Goth look of childhood as it emphasizes Victorian-style and Edwardian girl’s clothing imitating the look of Victorian porcelain dolls. The basic GothLoli look is usually all in black, or combines black with minimal accents of white. A petticoat or crinoline underskirt created the bell-shaped silhouette, under a basic circle skirt, as worn by Lady Eureka.

In addition, the Gothic Lolita wardrobe includes demure items such as high–collared, long–sleeved shirts and dresses. Heavy white or black stockings or knee–high socks compliment large platform shoes such as child-like shoes or boots called Mary Janes for a classic schoolgirl look (also worn by Lady Eureka). Frilly, ruffled or lace-trimmed Victorian blouses are also popular with Gothic Lolitas and designs are usually modest, sometimes with long lace-capped sleeves and high-necked Peter Pan blouses. In the “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait” images, Lady Eureka is wearing a hand-sewn peasant top. In the predominantly female Gothic Lolita sub-culture, home sewing and other DIY crafts are commonly practiced.

The final Gothic Lolita, EGL or EGA accessory of importance is a headdress, headband, or hair clips with bows, ribbons, and ruffles on them or a mini top hat. Other GothLoli accessories include capes (hand-crafted and worn by Lady Eureka) handbags, small backpacks and purses, sometimes in the shape of bats, coffins, and crucifixes. In the case of the Lady Eureka series, she is wearing rosaries with the icon of the Virgin Mary. Teddy bears, stuffed animals and lap dogs (referenced by the “Lion-Lamb”) are also common, as well as Super Dollfie or other ball-jointed dolls with matching outfits to the GothLoli wearer.

The subtext could be interpreted that by wearing girlish clothes, Asian women are telegraphing the weakness or helplessness of a child. However, in Asia, Japanese culture in particular places a higher value upon extremely youthful appearance and behaviour, and some adult women buy large amounts of consumer products, such as Hello Kitty goods, (typically marketed only to children in the West). GothLoli is a visible extension of this phenomenon of infantalizing women. “Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait” is a performance art piece that reveals the divergent inter-cultural perspectives of a contemporary Asian-Canadian women’s identity and plays with her interpretation of ‘cosplay’ sexuality in a High Art genre which references painting and novels of the nineteenth century, as well as contemporary popular fashion of Japan.

Lady Eureka and the Lion-Lamb Portrait 

END NOTES:

http://www.avantgauche.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_fashion

http://www.guerillagirls.com/

http://www.morbidoutlook.com/fashion/articles/2002_07_gothiclolita.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Beecroft

http://www.vanessabeecroft.com/

http://www.williamyang.com/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime

http://www.animeevolution.com/

Gothic Art is a medieval art movement, which emerged when Europe transitioned from the ‘Dark Ages’ to the ‘Middle Ages.’ My BA is in English Literature from the University of British Columbia, with a focus in Nineteenth Century Gothic writings. Therefore, Gothic literature has always been a major influence in my art practice.

The Gothic Age (10th century Europe) brought a full flowering of stained glass. These light-filled works of art revealed biblical stories to the common people as they were illiterate and served as an inspiration during dark times. Gothic stained glass became the sun-filled world of the Creator.

Gothic art lasted about 200 years. It is especially known for the distinctive arched design of its churches, its stained glass, and its illuminated manuscripts. One of the great artists of this period is Simone Martini, an Italian painter whose works reflected the techniques of illuminated manuscript. This is where text is supplemented by the addition of decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations, as well as decorated with gold or silver.

There was a Gothic Revival in the 18th and 19th centuries, largely rooted in nostalgia and romanticism, which in England was also known at the Romantic Period in English literature. New gothic art is rooted in the Romanticist interpretation of the Gothic Art movement of the middle ages. The use of gold and silver is one of the major hallmarks of the Illuminated Manuscripts in the original Gothic Art.

The portrayal of religious stories occupies a prime place in Gothic Art. For example, traditional Christian sculptures and paintings in cathedrals visually represent various aspects from the Old and the New Testament of the Bible, including the depiction of the Virgin Mary, the iconic Catholic representation of the Mother of God. The image of the ‘Madonna’ is placed among the clear crystal rosaries worn by “Lady Eureka” to symbolize her virtue in the midst of darkness. See gothic art image below.

To read more about my gothic art performance piece, see my artist statement.  

Present Tense

END NOTES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Samuel_Kuhn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Otranto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Romanticism

Gothic horror originated from gothic literature, a genre that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothic horror is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings as dark and terrifying, characterized by harsh laws enforced by torture, and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. In English literature, such “Anti-Catholicism” featured Roman Catholic excesses such as the Inquisition, in countries such as Italy and Spain.

The origin of gothic came out of the darkness of the Holy Roman Empire (500 to 1500 AD), which gave rise two distinct worldviews, Renascence and Gothic (1250 to 1450). The Renascence favoured the belief that nature and life could be comprehended best through the faculty of reason. The watchword of the Renascence was enlightenment. The watchword for the Gothic was, reform, a blending of old world spirituality and Roman Catholicism.

In the opening chapter of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, this gothic novel reveals terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses, gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses: “Shocked with these lamentable sounds, and dreading he knew not what, he advanced hastily, - but what a sight for a father’s eyes! - he beheld his child dashed to pieces, and almost buried under an enormous helmet, an hundred times more large than any casque ever made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers.” Walpole brings together elements of the supernatural and horrific, and models his ruined castle setting after his real-life residence, Strawberry Hill, a modern version of a medieval castle. Here is an excerpt of chapter one of The Castle of Otranto, the first gothic novel.

For more information about gothic horror by Lord Typhon, visit www.Goth-Style-Secrets.com.

ENDNOTES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_novel

Lady Eureka will bring you the “The History of Witchcraft in 7 Steps”, which I wrote two centuries ago (1867). You will learn the ancient secrets why the number 7 is a most magical number and how it applies in our modern world. These secrets have been suppressed over the centuries for the secret elite to maintain their powers since the dawn of humankind. But today, you too will start to learn about this hidden knowledge, long forbidden since the Garden of Eden…

Past Reflection

This is where I show you exactly how witchcraft, sorcery and magic find its roots and even later on through the ages leads to people being either burned, drowned, or hung. These people who were thought to be witches but were not witches, but Protestants within the Christian church. These were the same ones that were protesting the Catholic Church.

As I am trying to put this all together, I hope to bring about an understanding that Witchcraft, like any religion, has undergone its changes throughout the centuries. It is my personal feeling that the religion of Witchcraft has undergone far fewer changes than any other in history.

The secrets of witchcraft, sorcery, magic, finds its roots as far back as Mesopotamia. With their dieties for all types of disasters, such as Utug – the Dweller of the Desert waiting to take you away if you wandered to far, and Telal – the Bull Demon, Alal – the destroyer, Namtar – Pestilence, Idpa – fever, and Maskim – the snare setter; the days of superstition were well underway.

It was believed that the pharaohs and kings, all imbued some power of the gods, and even the slightest movement they made would cause an action to occur. It was believed that a picture or statue also carried the spirit of the person. This is one of the reasons that they were carried from place to place, and also explains why you see so many pictures and statues of these persons with their hands straight to their sides.

In the Bible, we find reference to ‘The Tower of Babel” or The Ziggurat in Genesis 11. ‘Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar (Babylonia) and settled there. They said to each other, ..Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar. Then they said, ..Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” It goes on to say that the tower was never finished…

In other references, we find that the “Tower” was in fact finished, and that it was a tower that represented the “stages’ between earth and heaven (not a tower stretching to the heaven in the literal sense.) From this reference, it was a tower built in 7 steps. It was a hierarchy on which heaven and hell were based upon. It was actually a miniature world representing the Mountain of Earth.

Each of the mysterious 7 steps was dedicated to a planet, with its angles symbolizing the four corners of the world. They pointed to Akkad, Saburtu, Elam, and the western lands. The 7 steps of the tower were painted in different corresponding colors, which corresponded to the planets. The ‘Great Misfortune, Saturn, was black. The second was white for the color of Jupiter. The third, brick-red for the color of Mercury, followed by blue for Venus; yellow for Mars, gray or silver for the moon. These colors boded good or evil, like their planets.

For the first time, numbers expressed the world order. A legend depicts Pythagoras traveling to Babylon where he is taught the mystery of numbers, their magical significance and power. The secrets of the 7 steps often appear in magical philosophy. The 7 steps are: stones, fire, plants, animals, man, the starry heavens, and the angels. Starting with the study of stones, the man of wisdom will attain higher and higher degrees of knowledge, until he will be able to apprehend the sublime, and the eternal. Through ascending these steps, a man would attain the knowledge of God, whose name is at the eighth degree, the threshold of God’s heavenly dwelling. In our modern times, we find the 7 steps as the 7 energy centres represented in the human body…and the eighth degree is called universal consciousness – widely described in “new age” philosophy.

The square was also a ‘mystical’ symbol in these times, and though divided into 7, was still respected. This correlated the old tradition of a fourfold world being reconciled with the 7 heavens of later times.

It is thought that here was the start to numerology, but for this to have developed to the point where they had taken into consideration the square as the fourfold world, it would have had to have developed prior to this. From Mesopotamia let’s move over to Persia…

Stay tuned for the next mystical issue of “The History of Witchcraft in 7 Steps – Part 2”, a knowledge so powerful that lead the Catholic church had suppressed it for over the centuries, beginning with the “holy war”. You will learn about the Chaldean star religion that taught that luck and disaster were not chance events, but they were controlled from heavenly bodies. You will also discover how the star Sirius would carry messages to the higher gods. And I will also share insights with you about the belief in the “holy war’!

Until your next lesson, read my latest articles in my secret archive by opting into the form at: www.Goth-Style-Secrets.com.

I love the designs by Mana of moi-même-moitié Elegant Gothic Lolita Designer. It was founded in 1999 and blends the innocence and cuteness of lolita with the darkness and mystery of gothic styles. The label’s name is a portmanteau of the French words “moi-même” (myself) and “moitié” (half), although the expression “moi-même-moitié” does not exist in French.

Everything about moi-même-moitié is exquisite, yet timeless. I have a few of my favourite moi-même-moitié Elegant Gothic Lolita here. You can read more about elegant gothic lolita as a style and performance art at gothic lolita article on www.Goth-Style-Secrets.com.