Since My Diagnosis And Impending Passing, I've Been Churning Out Paintings...

Jatta Eye the Elder, Narrator of Veil of the Gods.

Huge inspiration.

The Hunted Hunter

Inspiration.

Still watching this youtube channel about what I can only describe as "Dark Classical art" and this one absolutely floored me because I was unaware of it and I want to share it because it changes my perspective on this artist completely.

You might be aware of Louis Wain. If not by name then by his art. He's the artist behind that series of cat drawings that slowly became more and more abstract and bizarre.

This series of paintings of cats are often labelled as a visual representation of Wain's deteriorating mental illness and schizophrenia. Even more so often labelled as "a tragic display of a painter's failing battle with schizophrenia."

The paintings look like this and were painted around the very early 1900s.

Ok got all that?

So here's the thing.

Although Wain did suffer from a mental illness that was strong enough for him to be institutionalized, his mental illness was never diagnosed with clear certainty. Although "Schizophrenia" is so heavily applied to him based purely on how his series of paintings LOOK, despite actual specialists widely disputing this. On top of this, although he did paint the kaleidoscope cat portraits during this time, it was not the only things he painted, and he was quite capable of painting "normal" pictures of cats.

The Kaleidoscope Cat portraits are more images of him experimenting with colour and shapes, something the Smithsonian themselves state on their website.

Wain had actually made his entire living painting whimsical images of cats, often for product adverts, before he was incarcerated and was actually a very beloved artist at the time. When his friends learned of his incarceration, they started a collection of donation money to help transfer Wain to the Bethlam Royal Hospital instead, one of the best mental health facilities of the time. Even the Prime Minster of the time donated, and they raised a large amount of money across England to help him.

4 years later, Wain drew this as his final image which he released publicly

I knew all about "the Schizophrenic cat Guy" but he had always been presented to me as some tragic case of an artist going mad and his skills and work unraveling as he went insane.

Which is why I wanted to share this information which was new to me. And because I think it's important.

Inspiration.

Tsuchiya Koitsu (Japanese, 1870 - 1949)

"Manazuru Harbor at Night", 1936.

An artist who inspires me greatly.

By Japanese artist Hasui Kawase, early 20th century

The Magician- the Mahjee in the world of Veil of the Gods- sometimes needs to look inward to create the most potent spells. I'm commencing a short but much needed break from computer screens and social media as of today. But I'll be back.

My lastest piece listed as an NFT on Foundation

https://foundation.app/@Ziggetai/~/128586

Exhausted from another fourteen-hour shift, Yonani Khan sat back in her favourite armchair with a sigh. She only meant to rest her eyes for a moment, but she slipped into a deep, coma-like sleep straight away.

Yona rarely recalled her dreams. She joked, that there wasn’t anything worth remembering about them. This one, however, was different. She was walking along an inexplicably familiar hallway lit by piercing cyan. As much as it felt like home, she had no memory of the place and that startled her a little.

A large glass bubble enclosed her head and the air pumping into it was sweet. The scented freshness reminded her of the pristine mountain ranges that stand at the edge of the known world. Yona frowned.

How could that be? She’d never actually been anywhere near the southern continent. She’d never been out of the city. Her head was buzzing with questions. A little stab of anxiety fluttered her heartbeat. Somehow, she suppressed her confusion and determined to walk on without distraction. An instinct told her, that she could not afford to be late.

That first sleep-vision was the most straightforward one. After that her dreams got really, really interesting.