2024 Year of Tāne Hierophant Dragon
by Stirling Art
Dedicated to all 2024 Transformational Tāne in the year of the dragon.
Especially the music makers!
This unusual painting is called the Hierophant Dragon.
Here's a Spotify track list or YouTube Playlist that goes with the painting.
My brief was to create a painting for special Tāne.
No preconceptions. This is what flowed through and appeared on the canvas. I'm guessing this is called intuitive art.
Even though I’m only posting about it now – it was completed in early February, which is within a whisper of the Chinese year of the wood dragon.
The first background layer was a red orange marbled effect with glints of gold. Beautiful messy process with wide brushes and overlapping strokes. Fun too. Sanded that right back to a smooth surface, so there was enough bite in the matt finish to hand draw / paint an approx. wallpaper pattern I remember from the late 1970’s. Then another couple of coats. And lots of colouring in. Yay.
The wallpaper pattern I drew originally looked kind of 1970’s damask, I loved the style of the 70’s! Even the wallpaper patterns were liberated in a mushroom shroud of lovely LSD-like contagion.
Sanded and recoated many times.
I got excited when the sphere / mirror ball / orbiting / wobbly planet appeared in the middle and brought all the patterns & layers together. I’m like cool, what’s this? The sphere seems to happily discombobulate on its 4 axis / axes.
Then in 2024 a huge dragon appeared. I’m like WTF I don’t even like dragons. I mean I don’t personally have anything against them - am just nonplussed. As an artist you don’t fight these things, right? Roll with it, see where the journey takes you. Sometimes its somewhere nice, other times weeks spent fretting; I wish I hadn’t done that.
The orb oscillates depending on which angle you look at it from - almost like a crystal ball but disco. It’s beautiful. Representative of a world that loves you and takes care of you, a world even lovelier when you take care of it and love it back.
Admittedly I spent a lot of time painting the Hierophant Dragon. Lots of totally unnecessary, but beautiful detail. Minutiae detail. But that’s what we do when we project our love on to something, aye? Our all.
The Hierophant dragon stands alone and represents strong grounded energy & moral compass, esoteric spirituality, accelerated healing, the ability to hear and transmit inner truth, time to assess, vibe check - while exploring new things with a calm level head and clear conscience.
The patterns stop and start in odd places. But depending on the time of the day and the fall of the light, the lines join up and make sense, moving forward and backward. Some people see it. Others don’t. Almost but not quite - Salvador Dali–esque. Or my own Kiwi Celtic tribal style, hugely influenced by Māori and Pacifica. I love it, am thankful for this craft only Aotearoa could have given me.
This painting flowed every time I went out dancing to techno or progressive house, which feels like putting down my good vibrations on Papatūānuku. So even though this artwork has a potentially scary dragon, it projects a totally upbeat and uplifting energy.
In many cultures the dragon represents change, endings and new beginnings, while ushering in significant collective shifts and opportunities for growth.
This dragon represents 3 things: the year of confrontation, protection and transformation. In my mind the dragon is saying, make the changes dude. There’s no rule that says you have to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago. You got this. I got your back. With that, we no longer fear the dragon, we love him.
Another piece of massive symbolism in this work is the 'Tihei mauri ora' triskelion plume of smoke coming out of the dragon’s nostril. Kinda contemporary Celtic tribal - paganism / spirituality.
AI gives a better written description of a Triskelion than I can;
The triskelion is a Celtic symbol that consists of three interlinked spirals. It's one of the oldest Celtic symbols and is associated with strength, progress, and overcoming adversity.
The triskelion represents;
- The triple manifestation of energy
- The three circles of existence: the world of the absolute, the spiritual world of the afterlife, and the human world
- The three worlds: the celestial, physical, and spiritual
- The cycles of life
- The Triple Goddess: the maiden, mother, and wise woman
History
The earliest triskelions date back to the Neolithic era
If the painting looks off in the photos, it’s because all the perspective is deliberately out and alters depending on what angle you look at it from, and what ‘state’ you are in when looking at it. I like messing with perspective in my artwork. Akin to walking in another’s shoes.
This piece has many layers which the human eye can see into. Inside the wee patterns, there are cities, ships, and things hidden.
It’s difficult to photograph this painting as it’s so deeply layered, the camera doesn’t pick up the layers and patterns beneath.
4.5 years of hard work. Gave this mahi my absolute all.
Special Tāne deserve our very best. This painting is a huge accomplishment for me. But when something is done with love – you can do anything.
Fuel up your mind and fire up your heart.
And finally, a beautiful poet; Caitlin o Ryan “at what point”
76.5x76.5cm on 3.5cm Deep Box Canvas. The edges of each artwork are painted black.
