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Finding my way through this painting was a struggle. In an effort to challenge my creativity I have been starting paintings with a very minimal sketch at most. This makes painting take longer because each move is discovered along the way rather than pre-mapped. I may still add some small changes and final tweaks to Cave of Intuition, but it is very close to being finalized.

This painting started out as Seven Sisters, in reference to the Pleiades constellation and mythology. Many creation stories point to the Pleiades as the origin of humanity, or humanity’s celestial ancestors. It doesn’t take much internet research to reveal there are communities of Earthlings who have identified which Pleiadian star they most resonate with and have ancestral ties to.

Aside from our cosmic lineage, I am also taken by the thought of seven sisters helping each other through life’s ordeals. I often look for ways to depict the power of the divine feminine, and for this I wanted to depict a group of effeminate figures collectively loving each other. Some figures are lost in abstraction, while others are more apparent in this celestial cave where womenfolk would gather to heal and create magic with each other.

Sometimes people ask me what my work is about and my gut reaction is, “I have no idea!” Depending on the piece, there is more or less tension between myself the creator and the piece as the creation. Terraform Necromancy is one of those pieces that continues to resist giving up its meaning to me so easily and this creates a psychological tension that I enjoy.

What I can say about this painting is that it began with a fascinating story I read about craters that suddenly appear in the Earth but without an impact event. Earth trauma and Earth processes are underlying themes in most of my work, and while painting Terraform Necromancy I wanted to juxtapose a feeling of innocence against a crater-like landscape. How do we heal planetary trauma? My heart is unsettled by the idea of terraforming other planets when we should focus on healing our own. It seems extractive, and an extension of rape culture, to consider terraforming Mars so that we can mine Martian resources to further human insemination of space. There must be accountability for our actions, a cosmic ethics. Bringing life to Mars is much like necromancy, Mars would be undead, which leads me to the title of this painting.