Monday, January 10, 2011

The Western Master



You saw the "Tibetan Master" earlier on the By-Product, so here's another idealized portrait of a Master, this time of the Western Esoteric sort, dressed in a white suit with a little ankh watch fob. He stands between the black and white pillars of the Golden Dawn temple.The name of the character is "Count Roberto deGerome Garcia, " a variation on the Grateful Dead's musical Master, Jerry Garcia.

In those days I was much taken by the concept of a Master, especially a Master Adept. What would he (a Master would always be a "he," it seems) be like? Most of the "real" people who claimed, or were thought to be occult Masters, were at best strange types and usually nutjobs who did all sorts of unpleasant things to their disciples. But what would a real Master be like? And what would the occult and spiritual practices of such a person consist of? I used to ask the question, do the Masters of an Art still practice and do maintenance exercises, or are they beyond the usual day-by-day toiling? Since I never met a real Master, I never found out. But I have an idea now, twenty-three years later; if I ever met a real Master, he would practice more than I would ever do. Dismaying thought that, and also, it's still a "he."

"The Western Master" is 9" x 12", ink and watercolor on illustration board, January 1988.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

Wow again! The face and feel is so much more relaxed and realistic than most of your other stuff. If you could capture this again, you could do the fantasy pictures of people you wanted to! I still like the other master better and want a print, but this is VERY nice!