Hither Huginn Thither Muninn is the title of this painting. It is an expressive representational work concerning the comings and goings of Odin’s ravens which were named Huginn and Muninn. The painting is 24″ wide x 30″ high.
Hugin and Munin fly each day over the spacious earth. I fear for Hugin, that he come not back, yet more anxious am I for Munin.
Not all who wander are lost.
Each day Odin’s ravens journey out and spy the goings-on of Midgardr. Middle Earth… the lands where men dwell… also called Manna-Heim. Each evening they return and tell Odin all they they have seen and heard.
Their names have meaning. Huginn means “thought” and Muninn means “memory.” I’ve always figured that was the reason for Odin’s greater fear of losing Munin. All we really have in the end are memories.
You can get prints of this painting of Odin’s birds HERE via Fine Art America / Pixels.
I also created a nifty digital remix of this painting. Not sure if nifty is the right word, but I wanted to say (type) it and I’m sticking to my guns no matter how oddly it fits.
You can check it out and get prints (or other “nifty” items) with the image by clicking on the picture.
As I’ve mentioned previously in other posts I personally have an affinity towards birds of the genus Corvus. Ravens and crows top my list. When it comes to Odin’s ravens it is enhanced as the lore surrounding them is really cool. I won’t go into it all here, but I will mention one thing that made me think hard about Norse Gods when young. Teutonic mythology paints him well as he is the top dude. Top, the number one guy. The boss. As the big man, you’d think perfection maybe… nope. He was the wisest of the wise, spoke in poetic verse, mighty as a warrior, on and on it goes, but… not perfect. Huginn means “thought” and Muninn means “memory. Odin sometimes forgot things, and Odin was not all-seeing or knowing.
I feel an info dump building up. I’ll restrain myself and get back to fiddling with my paintbrushes.
Go get yourself a print of Thought and Memory in raven form HERE, and if you are wondering about the weird-looking runes you can just go with those who wander are not always lost and that the center is the Vegvisir. Some call it a Norse Compass or Viking compass. It is the wayfinder. It is commonly accepted in popular culture as such, and also hotly debated amongst some as to its origins and full meaning. It is Icelandic rather than Danish, Swedish, or Norwegian. That means it isn’t officially a VIKING thing. It is thought by most to have been brought to Iceland by Vikings or created by Vikings who settled there though. Ohh… see the info dump starting again? I could go for an hour on the Vegvisir topic or many hours on Odin’s ravens.
Here is a huge mess of poetry-related stuff. If you click on them you will find the poems. Some you have seen before. The reason they are here is so that I don’t lose the images. Feel free to share them if you wish.
The title is obviously a bit of fun wordplay. Two crows being an “Attempted Murder” because three or more crows together are commonly called a murder. These crows are not necessarily crows however. The difference between a sitting or standing crow and a raven visually is the possession of a larger bill, slight sheen color differences, and a different tail shape. Beyond that, it is a size issue. Ravens are though most apt of the two types of birds to travel in pairs. Crows rarely travel in twos. I purposely made these birds appear in a position to not allow proper distinction between the crow and raven. You may view these as either ravens or crows depending on your tastes.
I feed crows and ravens daily. Usually mixed nuts, but whatever is at hand does the trick. I’ve two groups that watch for me. One is a group of young crows on the east side of my downtown that hope for donuts, but usually get nuts. The other is a small group of crows consisting of two older ones and two youthful ones. This second group is joined by two ravens usually. On rare occasions it is just the oldest raven and the youngest crow. I haven’t figured out their relationship yet. Obviously these groups of crows have changed over the years, but as some go away or disappear for whatever reasons others replace them.
This painting was partly inspired by those crows and ravens I feed and partly inspired by the Norse mythology of Huginn and Muninn. If you are not familiar with that mythology then my addition of explaining it won’t warm you to this art anyway, so I’ll refrain from a long-winded bit of babble about Odin’s ravens. Maybe I’ll give it to you on another day with another painting featuring these dark and spookily intelligent birds.
If you are digging this painting you may acquire printsHEREvia Pixels / Fine Art America.
Another from my Two Moons series of paintings. This one is called Untangling the red string of fate. The working title was Untangling the skein of fate, but I thought this version would work better for most people even though it slightly detracts from my original meaning and intentions with the piece. Whatever… haha, it works. Measurements are 18″ wide x 24″ high on stretched canvas done in acrylics.
With “Untangling the red string of fate” I am exploring the idea of how one person may be the catalyst of untangling the string of fate. The legend of the red string is very old and originates in Asia. In it’s simplest form it is thought of as an invisible red cord/string/thread usually tied around the fingers or ankles of those that are destined to meet one another in a certain situation as they are “their true loves”. The cord can be very tangled and interwoven with many other threads of fate, but it can never break or be severed. It only connects the two people if followed to it’s end.
It is a cool, but messed up concept all at the same time because the two people connected by the red cord/string/thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. So one could be a 40-year-old married woman with six kids living a decent life all chill’n and whatnot, while the other could be some 25-year-old dude in another country who speaks another language and hates the idea of kids of marriage in general. The dude could even be gay. It doesn’t even matter… they are destined. Sounds messy, but it must also be taken into consideration that true happiness doesn’t come from material possessions and long-term fulfillment can’t be fully met by achievements or social status. We each have our destinies to fulfill. If your red string is all tangled and stretched out because you’ve not joined with your other there will be something missing. You will feel it either consciously or subconsciously, but it is there. So in that way it is cool. It will bring you to your chance at fulfillment. How you deal with that chance is an entirely different matter. You may F it up.
Why Red? Well, in western culture we often associate white with purity, virtue, and honor so white would seem more symbolic of the nature here, but again, this idea originates in Asia. China, then Japan, then a few other places with the mythology and legends slightly altering as it spread. Red for those areas symbolizes happiness. It is also associated with love and marriage. This thread of fate is even referred to as the Red Thread of Marriage sometimes in China. Besides being a symbol and bringer of happiness the color red supposedly brings luck, vitality, and fertility in Chinese color symbolism. Red is also their old-school traditional wedding color.
Do you want to hear it? Can you take it? From yourself or maybe someone else… do you want to know? Will you accept it?
This painting is titled “Delivering the dinkum oil,” and it was done in a quick expressive style with acrylic paints on a stretched canvas measuring 20″ wide x 16″ high.
You can get prints of Delivering the dinkum oil HERE via Pixels / Fine Art America.
Some people are born without the natural restraints most people possess when it comes to their desires. They are hedonistic by nature, often epicurean, decadent, and selfish in their pursuits. Moderation is unnatural, and conformity is something they sneer at. Such souls often look at the average folk living in the grey zones of life as the walking dead. People alive who dare not live for fear of what people who mostly don’t even matter in the end will think of them. Those walking dead see the self-indulgence of the libertine and ofttimes feel a combination of both jealousy and contempt. How though do these unsavory, and oh so licentious souls see themselves though? They for the most part feel they are better than those living in the grey nothingness. They also know that they themselves are dissolute. Why though would one such as that wish to join the people who seem to be the walking dead? They wouldn’t, and besides… they lack control. It is their nature.
What though if something better comes along? What of love? True love conquers all it is said. True love, soul love, deep to the core love. It is an awakening. It causes a metamorphosis. The voracious sensualist becomes something new. This happens because such love brings enlightenment.
So here it is…
Bestowing metanoia to the licentious
If you dig this painting you may purchase prints via PIXELS Here.
After my last post I am supposing that some of you may wish this painting dissected and explained the way I did for A Chary Vixen, but that was pretty much a special circumstance deal. I’m back to NOT doing that. If you’d like to know about the starry night, the crystalized mandala, types of flowers, etc… get to googling or better yet you could use your imagination. Art isn’t meant to be fully explaied. Paintings, sculpture, dance, works of fictuion, music… let it move you and worry not of the artists details.
Artistic Flow is my (Aarron Laidig's) personal art blog. This is not my catalog or one of my studio pages.
If you are seeking my art catalog it is located here.
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