Just because you own an expensive vehicle doesn’t mean all the hot chicks want to play with your stick as well.

Being  a sex slave is hardly as exciting and pleasurable as it might sound. Every year thousands of woman and children are abused this way.

You are surrounded by good friends sharing beer, bread and salty Jewish jokes - whatever could happen to you?!

Guys always think about sex and want to mate any ol’ female. Yeah right, that might have been true before the invention of the video games. Since then … we can resist any pussy in face of a new high score!

If you can believe in enlightened pink elephants - you can believe in anything. Spirituality starts in your mind - if you mind can cope with incredible thoughts it can’t cope with incredible truths either.

Open your mind, expand your mind, cultivate your ability to think and imagine new possibilities … maybe then you get enlightened or trampled by an elephant on the way …

Click image for larger fairies.

A lovely scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Oberon and Titania are the King and Queen of the Fairies.

The synopsis (here on Wikipedia) is the perfect inspiration for painters and movie makers alike. It has love, tragedy, pagan nastiness, comedy and some indecent sexual undertones.

Highly recommended.

Signs will stop bad behavior and illicit actions.

Would you buy a car from this guy - of course you would if the price was right. Car Salesman just want to rip you off like everybody else - and if you could, you would also like to save as much money as you can. We are all Car Salesman.

Bouguereau painted many biblical, pagan and really trivial moments in his life. Most biblical paintings pick a well known or popular scene to play to the audience or the rich patron.

In this case Bouguereau has chosen a very unusual situation: Adam and Eve mourn the death of Abel - who was famously slain by his Brother Cain. Abel was the first human to die - and also the first one to by slain by his own kin and kind. And he is also considered the first Martyr.

What a great start for humanity after being exiled from Paradise.

Death scenes make great drama and many painters really go for christian kitsch and symbolism (especially in biblical scenes). Bouguereau keeps it very simple and very human.

The painting has also a very personal meaning: Bouguereau painted it after the death of his second son.

More? Adolphe-William Bouguereau @ ArtRenewal.org and Wikipedia

Dedicated to Lisa and lucecorner - who both asked for more paintings with music. Bitteschön!

Robots won’t violently takeover the world. We will be so fat and lazy in the future, that we’ll need them to run our affairs for us. Slavery is too tempting for humanity to ignore.

All computer security is only there to protect you from evildoers.

Click image for a larger drama.

Gustave Dore is a giant. He created amazing illustrations and paintings. Too bad that modern publishers hardly illustrate their books anymore.

This was the last big Adventure movie made with Stop-Motion puppets. If you watch it today it’s cheesy and childish compared to all these computer generated action flicks. Even a decent episode of Xena or Hercules is better.

The list of actors is rather impressive: Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress. But even their greatness can’t help the bad script and usual Hollywood distortion of an old Greek myth (a norse Kraken has nothing to do with the Greek Titans).

I am still waiting for some TV show or movie series that tries to portrait Greek mythology in a good and serious manner! There are so many great stories waiting to be retold. But movies like ‘Troy’ or the above mentioned crappy Xena and Hercules certainly DON’T do these great tales ANY justice.

More? Wikipedia entry and watch the whole movie online.

Click image for an even mightier Jupiter.

What a monumental moment - although Jupiter (the Roman version of Zeus) looks a bit like wearing a wig? I love Ingres for his dramatic and powerful style. His creations have the same quality like movies - Ben Hur and the like.

You feel like being in the presence of Jupiter - almost touching that godly aura of his. And just in case you are wondering who Thetis is … visit this Wikipedia entry.

More? Ingres on Wikipedia

Click image for a larger version.

Even Heroes need support. But not often in our lifes we receive the help of a divine intervention and extra special weapons for the task at hand.

From Wikipedia:

Perseus, or Perseos the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits helped establish the hegemony of Zeus and the Twelve Olympians in the mainland of Greece. Perseus was the hero who killed Medusa.

After some time, Polydectes fell in love with Danae and desired to remove Perseus from the island. He thereby hatched a plot to send him away in disgrace. Polydectes announced a banquet wherein each guest would be expected to bring him a horse, that he might woo Hippodamia, “tamer of horses”. The fisherman’s protegé had no horse but promised instead to bring the head of Medusa, one of the gorgons, whose very expression turns people to stone. The Medusa was horselike in archaic representations (Kerenyi 1959:48), the terrible filly of a mare—Demeter, the Mother herself— who was in her mare nature when Poseidon assumed stallion form and covered her. The issue of her foaling were the gorgon sisters. Polydectes held Perseus to his rash promise.

For such a heroic quest, a divine helper would be necessary, and for a long time Perseus wandered aimlessly, without hope of ever finding the gorgons or of being able to accomplish his mission should he do so.

According to the iconography of the vase-painters, the gods Hermes and Athena came to his rescue. They did not know the way themselves, being of a younger generation of deities, but they knew ancient ones who would know; they led him to the Graeae, sisters of the gorgons, three perpetually old women with one eye and tooth among them. Perseus snatched the eye at the moment they were blindly passing it from one to another and would not return it until they had given him directions. He also received winged sandals, a magic wallet (kibisis), the cap of Hades that made one invisible, also known as the Cap of Darkness, an adamantine sickle such as the one that reaped the genitals of Uranus, and a mirrored shield. With all this, “Like a wild boar he entered the cave” where he came upon the sleeping gorgons. By viewing Medusa’s reflection in his shield he could safely approach and cut off her head. Seeing her own reflection in the shield, the Gorgon herself was turned to stone. The other two gorgons pursued him, but in his cap of invisibility he escaped.

1. Start Audioplayer below:

2. Click image for a much lager version.

3. Sacrifice five minutes of your life to really look at this painting.

Behind every fairy tale lies often a deeper psychological and cultural message. So Rotkäppchen and her encounter with the big bad wolf has a sexual side to it as well - the furry old creature is the horny Grandfather. Understanding myths is still an important skill, since our subconscious still works with rather primitive archetypes and concepts.

I can highly recommend Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth (book, DVD, audio tapes) to anyone who wants to look deeper.

I wonder if this was considered porn during it’s days?

I am actually very surprised that I hardly posted any paintings from this great Artist. First of all his style is dark, brutal and sensual - just adore it. You’ll hardly find another painter with such simple compositions, but such honest and direct execution of his stories.

Second - he is part of the Munich Secessions - so that’s home - so expect some more Stuck in this blog.

More? Artrenewal.org and Wikipedia

Apart from the nice Lady - all our psyches need to cleaned and relaxed in a steamy bath from time to time. Your psyche - like your body - needs care and proper maintenance. And make sure not to feed your many any crap that comes around - like your stomach it won’t digest bad mental food properly.

Women are dangerous - we all know that. But Mr Rossetti’s ladies are the most beautiful of them all. Although his type seems to be redheads. Oh well, more fire for him!