To my muse – Loki

Muse and a manic desire to create

Since ancient times, the creator of a talented artwork was called the one who was honoured with the kiss of the muse. In the perception of the ancient Greeks, outstanding ideas did not arise due to a person’s mental process but were gifted from above by gods (or muses).
Truly creative people are unlikely to deny that a lot, if not everything, depends on inspiration. Of course, you can write that technique and skills are no less, and maybe even more important. But whether the creator would begin to study so meticulously and in details and immerse himself in the subtleties of his chosen art if not for this passion, this inspiration, this manic desire to create. I don’t think so, or at least it’s not about me.
As far as I can remember, inspiration came to me like a thunderbolt. These are bright, irrational flashes of inspiration and desire to create. Everything at this moment is beautiful, and life is filled with meaning as if it carries you… It is impossible to hold this energy – you can only create. Otherwise, this same energy, if it is not spent for its intended purpose, will dig me into a deep pit called depression, in which my whole life and I are devalued. Colors fade, everything seems silly and meaningless, and even favorite music no longer touches the heart.

The voice of the heart

Nevertheless, depression has its own charm. After expressive self-flagellation and distressing suffering, here comes silence. As if you are sinking to your own bottom, where other people’s voices and opinions cease, which, like energy leeches, suck the juice of life out of you. However, here at this dark bottom, they lose their strength and become silent. Only one voice is heard here – the voice of the heart. It speaks without saying anything. Like music without notes, just ringing and all-pervading silence. My consolation, my delight.
This bottom clearly shows what is important and what is not. Here I rest and gain strength, as well as look for inspiration – I collect it piece by piece, like a collage. The music from this film, the image from that video, and the hero from these myths… Art nourishes and saturates me, books and films heal during the depression, and the music lifts on its wings when I create… However, the most important place in my life is occupied by spiritual practices and meditation. I consider that art should be useful and inspire development. Otherwise, it is just another knickknack – a piece of craft, but not art.

The sacred process of creation

But let’s get back to the sacred process of creation. So, all these pieces of beauty that touched my heart arrange a bacchanalia in my subconscious, under the veil of consciousness. I live and do not suspect anything, my strengths return to me, my mood rises – while a magic potion is being brewed in the heart-cauldron. Then, kaboom and the curtain opens. All these forms have already had time to get enough of each other and produce beautiful offspring. Now this entire orgy rushes to my consciousness and starts to copulate and merge with it. In this condition, I create. Or rather, in this condition, I cannot but create. It wouldn’t be so bad, but from what I see I experience an aesthetic orgasm and create in complete euphoria, if not ecstasy.
However, not always this process goes through such a long and complex cycle. Sometimes, I can light up, see something and materialize. Then drop in my tracks gathering strength. Sometimes, like the flap of a butterfly’s wing on one side of the ocean, it can cause a tsunami on the opposite.

Trickster: the fundamental principle of life

But let’s talk about my muse – about Loki. About a purebred jotun who made his own way to Asgard and became Odin’s half-brother, ace and god. If we put aside the Christian demonization of everything that is unfavorable (or undesirable) for the church, and that inadequate, unsubstantiated opinion that you will find on the Internet, it will turn out that Loki is not the god of deception at all. He is the one who reveals this deception and reveals the truth. This is not always convenient and pleasant. It is much easier to blame the trickster for everything than admit your shortcomings. Look into your eyes and see the kind of truth, without which development and progress are impossible.
He is the principle that brings chaos, rearranges fresh energy and new life. Thereby preventing the existing universe from falling asleep in formaldehyde. On the other hand, expanding the boundaries of the universe, he structures chaos by introducing order in his own way. The only way he knows.

My muse is a Creative Denial

Trickster is <...> “creative denial”, which brings death into this world, but thereby reveals new possibilities <...> Objects “are” only in relation to those objects that “are not”; any structure presupposes an anti-structure and cannot exist without it. <...> The trickster, the “fool,” the denial, which offers the possibility, is directly and closely related to the center and all the ambiguity that accompanies it <…> And therefore we are not only tolerant of this “permissible measure of chaos,” this “enemy of borders,” but also recreate it again and again.

Barbara Babcock-Abrahams, “A Tolerated Margin of Mess: The Trickster and His Tales Reconsidered”. // Journal of the Folklore Institute, 11, no. 3 (1975), pp. 147—186.

Loki: the strangest kind of characters

The tricksters are the strangest kind of characters in the whole literature, both verbal and written. The trickster is definitely associated with creative power and often provides people with such basic values ​​as fire or basic food for a given culture. At the same time, he constantly allows himself the most antisocial acts. We laugh at him when he gets into trouble and plays the fool; we are confused by his sexual promiscuity; but, at the same time, his creative ingenuity never fails to amaze us and constantly reminds us that the social constraints we regularly face are not so overwhelming. When confronted with another character, he nearly always breaks some rules or boundaries; as a result, he has to flee and tramp around the world with no intent.

Shibari: I expose emotions, relax the body with ropes

As it turned out, I have a lot in common with him, since my muse Loki is a shadow god. Whose princes are bringing out our Shadow, open meta and expose fantasies. In shibari, I also expose my emotions, relax the body with ropes and then it becomes more sensitive. Here the parallel exists – the discovery of the truth about your emotions, fantasies, dreams. Taking them out of the shadow.
By the way, all the BDSM games are about the same.

Dedication

I think the message is clear, I devote my art of shibari to my red-haired muse. May this art be for the benefit of all living beings!
I painted the picture with watercolors and helium pens, in the spring of 2020. I think it’s clear who is depicted in it.