Art Archives - ROXANNA BIKADOROFF

December 15, 2024December 24, 2024

‘Red White n Bluebeard’ – an Icon of Tyranny

Red White n Bluebeard (acrylic mediums and oil pastel on wood) **SOLD**

Red White n Bluebeard is a painting created during the first presidential campaign of Teflon Don of the Wild Rumpus. It is based on the folk story of Bluebeard, a cautionary tale for wives who dare to disobey their husbands, from the days when women were considered little more than property. Sadly, this is still the case in many countries, daughters are basically sold off to the highest bidder. Imagine the fear, not knowing what awaits, whether your new husband, often a complete stranger, will be kind or a demon. (It’s how new pets feel, too).

Bluebeard is a magician of sorts, he gives his new bride a set of keys, upon leaving for a voyage, telling her open any door except one. Of course curiosity gets the better of her, and she discovers hanging in the forbidden room are the bloody corpses of his 6 previous wives. And the enchanted key is now permanently bloodstained. Innocence forever lost, forbidden knowledge akin to death. Fortunately her brothers end up arriving just in the nick of time to kill Bluebeard before he can make her number 7.

Red White n Bluebeard (different light/with frame) **SOLD**

Acrylic mediums and oil pastel on wood, set in an authentic, hand cut, antique folk wooden frame all the way from 1930s Poland. SIZE: about 15 x 20 inches.

With frame, colours in natural lighting…

The painting is not a portrait of the (soon to once again be) president, but rather a personification or allegory of the rage and racism that had begun rearing it’s ugly head in the US – permissible and encouraged – during his rise to power. The figure wears a mask that has become melded with his face. He both hates and fears the screaming people caught in his red white n blue beard. Inspiration was drawn from the contorted victims in Picasso’s Guernica, to illustrate those without rights or power, caught in the hairy flames and begging for mercy.

Recently, Rumpus has made ‘jokes’ about Canada entering into an arranged marriage, shall we say, with the US, which I won’t repeat here. Many have noted his characteristic, tactical trolling, bullying, belittling. But it is also a form of hexing. Rumps is a magician skilled in word sorcery (Gemini Sun/Uranus). He well understands that all that is required is for a thorny little seed or egg to be planted in the collective mind, hypnotically repeated as a command to the subconscious, and it will grow there like a parasite until it bears ugly fruit. Rather like that frienemy who casually insinuates your spouse might be cheating. (How interesting his new health minister literally had a brain worm). This is how subliminal advertising has always worked, and he is a walking advertisement, set to (once again) head TV Nation. Don’t buy it, Canada. You know what’s behind that door.

All content except BEK cartoon is ©copyright Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reused without my permission. Please share via LINK or if using a pull quote, please credit and link. Thank you.

October 12, 2024October 12, 2024

Los Muertos Skullery

These were sketched last October, after we’d lost my Mum the previous month. I hadn’t yet begun to process the overwhelming grief and shock.
She lived and died in Mexico, and the black paper I was sketching on was from there, so maybe some of the spirit of Dia de Los Muertos came through.

The photos are of local spirits that start coming out about now. ~rb

June 6, 2024June 6, 2024

Fortune Cookie – a Trip down Memory Lane

Back in 1994, when I made decent money as an editorial illustrator and had extra for personal projects and crazy promotional material…in the days before digital files, websites and steampunk, I created this little ‘deck’ of illustrated Fortune Cookie cards. It was indeed meant to evoke Victorian Orientalism, but was also inspired by Max Ernst collages and Edward Gorey, mixed with my own, somewhat goth-infused sensibility, for which I was then recognized.

I had at my disposal only J. G. Heck’s ‘Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration’, some 1960s Letraset stock imagery, a Xerox machine, scissors and a Rotring Rapidograph. Oh yes, and a bag of fortune cookies. It was actually one of my Aries Mum’s whim suggestions pulled out of her magic hat, and I thought it sounded like a hoot.

Perhaps it was an early prototype of sorts for the Tarot deck I would begin work on 4 years later, which also uses mixed media, old art, scissors, paint instead of ink and has turned into a Magnum Opus. But the two have little else in common. (I had also completed a deck of illustrated cards (non-Tarot) in 1988, which I may get around to posting at some point).

Maybe in the future (had better see what the crystal ball says), I will do a real deck of ‘fortune telling’ cards, it seems to be a popular thing and might be fun.
One thing at a time. ~rb

All images and written content copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be re-used without my permission. Thanks for being respectful.
Feel free to share via LINK, it helps.

March 24, 2024March 24, 2024

Dreadful Harriet

Lately I’ve been digging through my old art, trying sort out what’s sellable, what’s garbage and what’s just fun to share. This is of the latter category.
A looong, long time ago, I’d endeavoured to rewrite Struwwelpeter (a childhood favourite) for a modern audience. Things to be avoided on pain of terrible consequence would include all forms of disobeying convention, such as doing drugs, self-pleasuring and feminism. Shock-headed Peter himself was a rastaman with an enormous mane of dreads.
Here’s my favourite piece, The Dreadful Passion of Harriet, based on The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches. Enjoy!
[Please click on images to enlarge and hit ‘pause’ to stop the slide show.]

(the original verse by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman)

~rb

February 27, 2024February 27, 2024

‘I Will Choose’ Empowered Eve free to use for non-profit

strong woman holding her own rib up like horns — Take your rib and …

This iconic image was created for The Progressive Magazine’s calendar in 1992 (beautifully designed each year by Patrick JB Flynn). It illustrated this quote by Marge Piercy:

I will choose what enters me, what becomes
flesh of my flesh. Without choice, no politics,
no ethics lives. I am not your cornfield,
not your uranium mine, not your calf
for fattening, not your cow for milking.
You may not use me as your factory.
Priests and legislators do not hold
shares in my womb or my mind.
This is my body. If I give it to you
I want it back. My life
is a non-negotiable demand.

Original t-shirts for The Progressive, 1990s

I’m now making this image FREE to use for non-profit, pro-choice organizations to fundraise for supporting women being denied their basic, human rights. Personal use is also fine. Adding/tweaking colour is fine.
The opening image is a high res (300 dpi) jpg. Click on it, pause the slide show, and lift the image onto your desktop.

The image may not be used freely for personal or corporate profit, advertising, or other commercial exploits.

Examples of permissible use (copyright free) :

– pro-choice t-shirts, prints, posters, stickers, etc to fundraise
– public mural
– tattoo
– small run of T-shirts/product for you and your friends
– a nice print for yourself or a gift
– signs for pro-choice rallies

Any for-profit, commercial use that does not donate the profits to such organizations will still require my permission and a negotiated contract/usage fee, as is usual for re-use of my work – i.e. if you want to use it on an album or book cover and keep the coinage, please contact me to discuss terms.

*Note that the original quote is not included, so please clear with Marge Piercy and/or her publisher for any use other than personal. (Alternatively, one could just put something simple like CHOICE or I WILL CHOOSE, or go wordless).*

February 11, 2024March 27, 2024

Happy Wood Dragon Lunar New Year!

“Do not meddle with Dragons, for you are crunchy and good.”
New Dragons are being conceived…here are some oldies, for now.

Monster with Girl who is bringing him home (ca 1968)

Gemini Dragons, poster detail, doubled (early 1990s)

Bedtime Story (The Progressive, ca late 1990s)

The Dragon (art ca 2016, poem from 1990s)

Stay tuned for more DRAGONS…!

December 17, 2023April 5, 2024

Typhonic Studies

In writing the previous post about the Tarot de Marseille Devil, I’d become interested in Typhon as a mytho-alchemical archetype. The deep-delve into research and ‘essay’ writing had also provided a needed Sherlock distraction from still-too-recent bereavement. You’d think grief might fuel some kind of creative expression for an artist, but often it is just too dense a material to work with. Sometimes all one can do is be in the blackness.

Down here, at the bottom of the bog-womb, far away from rational thought, gelatinous, amphibious beings are secretly spawning the makings of renewal. That is their sole business. At the deepest, pitch-black ocean levels, creatures deemed monstrous by ‘above’ standards float embryonically in conditions that would kill us, creating their own phosphorescence and exerting as little energy as possible. This is no longer the realm of Neptune and his entourage of Nereids, but of Typhon and his posse of Gorgons.

Having no luck with my more sophisticated art attempts, I decided to just linger here and sketch the monster. As children, isn’t that one of the first things we draw? Because these embodiments of our young emotions and fears also serve as guardians of our budding imagination and creative process. Who would dare question them on why they have 7 heads or spit poison barf? And in the psychology of myth and fairy tale, the only hero who will ultimately be able to overcome the monster is the one who created it.

As it happened, in doing these initial studies, the juices of inspiration began to flow again. Researching and writing about Typhon in relation to the TdM Devil was enlightening, I came to understand the archetype as a primal, hermaphroditic, self-reproducing creative force, as well as the alembic itself. But intellectual understanding is not enough, one has to experience the process. And the heck, drawing monsters is fun. ~rb

All content in this post, including images, is copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be re-used or re-posted without my permission.
Please share my posts via LINK ONLY, unless otherwise specified.
Thanks for being respectful of my work!

June 10, 2023July 16, 2023

ART FOR SALE – Three Original Illustrations

Am going to try and stay on top of things and post original artworks for sale, regularly. But also try and keep them current, at least topic-wise.

In lieu of latest news, here are a few of my personal favourites, which I’ve decided to part with. They deserve to be framed and seen, not just stored!
Also, the stars are saying now is a great time to invest in artworks, which never depreciate in value. Win-win for all!

My scanner needs replacing thanks to obsolescence, so the ‘actual’ art pics were taking with point n shoot, so they might look a little dark. The paper I use is is bright, warm white.

Please click on first images of each piece for details.
Use contact form for inquires. Thank you!

‘It is I Who Styles Donald Trump’, The Walrus Magazine, 2017

This piece was for a fictional work by Lynn Crosbie, which described in wondrous detail the styling of the hair ritual of you-know-who, from the point-of-view of the First Lady. Melania and her Mel-lamia assistants concocting the (ex)President.

I forget the exact topic of this piece for Rethinking Schools, but it had to do with openness about discussing gender/sexual identity in school. Uncle Sam is transformed into the Blue Angel, and at least one student gets it.

This piece was for a story about leaving an abusive marriage, if I recall. A phoenix rises from the burning bed (who remembers that Farrah Fawcett TV movie?). But the illustration can stand alone as symbolic of waking from complacency or transformation in general.

June 3, 2023June 3, 2023

Album Cover for The Clamor

Last year I was contacted by Aaron Louis, New York recording artist and head of audiovisual at the MoMA, to see if I’d be interested in illustrating the cover for his upcoming album. Aaron had first seen my work via the Flannery O’Connor book cover series, after Everything That Rises Must Converge was featured on the TV series LOST, and we’d become Facebook friends.

I’ve retired from commercial illustration, but since Aaron was a fan of Flann and has plenty of artistic ‘street cred’ himself, I had a good feeling about it and agreed to have a listen. Immediately, both the first and second songs had me bopping out of my chair. Aaron not only has an ear for all kinds of musical genres (though he says his base is punk rock) but is a talented lyric poet as well. His songs are original, tight and fresh. I was excited for him and agreed to take on this gig, an honour.

As this was my first album cover (better late than never!), I came up with about 10 initial ideas. A video of an owl flying around with a stick horse had appeared on my news feed, which I took as a sign we’d be going with the stick horse idea, but he chose a different one to take to final. It wasn’t quite right, though, and in the end, augury proved correct. This time, I preserved the initial sketch, developing it more, rather than risk loosing the spontaneity by doing the whole thing over as a final. Piama Habibullah, the designer then tweaked the colour to make it more neon, for a vintage 1970s punk/new wave look.

The Clamor LP package (photo courtesy Aaron Louis/The Clamor)

The inspiration for the piece comes from an illustrated poetic manuscript from the beginning of the 14th century, would you believe. I do a lot of image researching for my Tarot studies, and had discovered this book by Francesco da Barberino called ‘I Documenti d’Amore’ in the Vatican digital hoards.
You’ve probably heard of the ‘big three’ – Danté, Petrarch and Boccaccio – but da Barberino for some reason didn’t achieve the same level of fame. (Probably because he didn’t seek it). But his highly original ‘personifications’ certainly influenced the work of his contemporaries. Perhaps his ideas were just too wacky. This claw-footed ‘Amor’ (note the word is in ‘Clamor’) spearing and collecting trophy hearts is a bit more ‘punk rock’ than the typical cupid.

Personification of ‘Amor’, from Francesco da Barberino, early 14th c (artist unknown)

A lot of The Clamor’s songs are relationship-inspired. It’s said that all songs fall under two themes; love and war – sometimes both – and indeed, da Barberino’s ‘Amor’ almost seems to be a conglomerate. Another of my ideas was this simple image of an angel and demon as heart and spade, which ended up being used for singles and the center sticker on the LP. It has more that simple, symbolic Flannery O’Connor cover look Aaron initially liked. (The black background version more so).

The Clamor Heart and Spade logo

I also drew bunch of little, ink line pieces for the inner sleeve, to go with the printed lyrics. It’s an homage to bands/albums of our youth, such as The Ramones or The Clash – notice Piama even made the words diagonal, reminiscent of ‘London Calling’.

You can hear some of the singles on The Clamor band’s official website, find out where to stream, plus buy the album and some cool, RB tees!

January 18, 2023April 5, 2024

Immortal Hand with Eye

Once upon a time, now long forgotten,
that first human pondered their hand.
How is it that I can imagine something,
and my hand knows how to make it?
How is it there are this many fingers?
What can it mean?
Hands must be magical.
Talk to the Hand.

beaded icon tapestry with hamsa hand and two lamias — Talk to the Hamsa ©Roxanna Bikadoroff

“Put your hand in mine, we will travel to another time…”
~Lucious Jackson, Gypsy

Khamsa necklace of silver, horn, coral, late 20th c, Morocco

The Hamsa/Khamsa or hand of Fatima, like the Nazar (‘evil eye’) is a common and ancient protective amulet throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Who was Fatima? She seems to have many incarnations…in Islam, she’s the daughter of the prophet Muhammad, five years old when her father began receiving revelations. In Catholicism she’s a Marian apparition, reported in Portugal by three shepherd children. In legend, she is sometimes a great warrior princess, other times, as in ‘Fatima the Spinner and the Tent‘, an artisan who’s accumulated crafting skills and ingenuity save her from one calamitous situation after another. This Sufi retelling of Greek folklore describes Fatima in her role as creatrix and teacher, of which the female hand symbol is perhaps most indicative. Lucky? Yes, because I learned how to make things and can show you how.

Nossa Senhora de Fatima ©Roxanna Bikadoroff

“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.” ~ Louis Nizer

Thus we have the combined energies of crafty magician, Hermes-Mercury and beauty-loving Aphrodite-Venus, whose sacred number is five (symbol is the pentagram) and who is married to Vulcan, the craftsman who forges exquisite, metal creations. We conjure ideas with our imagination, but we manifest them with our hands, though perhaps less and less, these days, which is why, apparently we are getting dumber! Talk to the Hamsa!

Votive ‘Hand of Sabazios’ with Mercurial, alchemical attributes

Clay rose Hamsa (with eye milagro) ©Roxanna Bikadoroff

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain. ~ Carl Jung