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LYKAIOS

LYKAIOS

Name: Lykaios, From Animalia Part of  Whimsical Kingdom Series.

Medium: Digital  | Year: 2016 | Time to completion: 45 hours 

Quote: “There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. ” ~ George Carlin 

Reflection: As humans did, wolves evolved in families, found strength in numbers. Members of any healthy family — human or wolf — assume roles that help the family thrive. Like human parents, the alpha pair makes decisions and controls the pack. Other members contribute to the pack’s survival and the care of the pups.

Wolves have full emotional lives: they play, show affection, discipline their young, and mourn their dead. Like humans, wolves have different personalities; some are leaders, some are lovers, some are loners.

Wolves communicate using scent marks, their voices, and their bodies, Their postures and facial displays express joy, dominance, submission, aggression, or fear. In humans this is called non-verbal communication.

Wolves and humans even prefer the same meats. That mutual love for the taste of sheep, cattle, deer, and elk leads to most wolf-human conflicts.

We are both territorial. Wolves howl and scent mark to claim territory. We string barbed wire and draw lines on maps. We both fight to keep or take territory. Wolves killing wolves — often in turf wars — is the most common natural cause of wolf death. In a similar way, humans kill many humans in wars.

We may be so much like wolves because they were our teachers. When out hunting, early humans surely encountered these efficient predators. Some scientists believe that humans honed their hunting skills by watching wolves. It’s possible that early humans learned ways to live in families after observing wolf packs.

Wolves and humans have so much in common that we are, in fact, competitive species. Competition drives humans to wage a one-sided war against wolves, using a deadly arsenal including biological and chemical weapons. We have the ability to exterminate all the wolves we find; we have used it — and continue to use it.

But wolves can teach us a better way. Consider how they treat their competitor, coyotes. When a wolf pack brings down an elk, each member eats its fill and then moves away to sleep off the meat drunk. As wolves doze, an opportunistic coyote may approach. Wolves may pay no mind, chase the coyote, or kill it. If they kill it, they usually don’t eat it; they’re just cutting competition. These canid competitors have coexisted like this for thousands of years, with careless coyotes losing lives but the species surviving.

We should learn to coexist better with our intelligent, resourceful, and essential competitor, the wolf.  Taken from: From Rick Lamplugh is a wolf advocate and author of the Amazon Bestseller “In the Temple of Wolves

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Animalia Series, 2016
I decided to start my series by bringing to life a kingdom that has always captivated me, the animal kingdom. “Animalia” is a deep look into the beauty and spirit of the natural world. Animals possess a natural instinct and vitality that I admire and respect. I believe that if you take a closer look at nature you will understand everything better. Ultimately, humans possess an animalistic subconsciousness that goes beneath and beyond the scope of personal consciousness, and we are completely unaware of it. If you take a look at human animalistic behavior around the world you will not be able to deny that we are part of a single family. We are all inextricably interconnected. I try to speak for them and us through this series by producing bodies of work portraying the beauty of this kingdom in hopes to enrich and generate awareness by selecting animals I am drawn for various reasons. On each of them you will see a collage of many elements and forms, regular and irregular shapes, triangles, polygons, mandalas, curves, and jewels, mystic and underlying spiritual symbolisms transformed and speaking to each other in harmony, allowing the viewer to do the completing, the reflection of self.

“Human beings are a part of the animal kingdom, not apart from it. The separation of “us” and “them” creates a false picture and is responsible for much suffering. It is part of the in-group/out-group mentality that leads to human oppression of the weak by the strong as in ethnic, religious, political, and social conflicts.”

— Marc Bekoff ~  Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Whimsical Kingdom  

Whimsical Kingdom is an evolving art series part of the process of personal introspection and space to further emphasize thoughts of reflection. I intended to create an ongoing dialog with the viewer by stimulating visual sensation and exploring the relationship between the duality of the seen and unseen realm and complexity of our beings. Nature, people, fantasy, and sexuality come alive in unique kingdoms with whimsical characters portraying how seemingly opposite forces are synergetic, interrelated, and interdependent. Colorful symmetric mosaics are mixed with jewels, shadows, elements of power, and underlying spiritual symbolisms while contrasting organic structures create the visual impact necessary to deliver a message that serves as a medium for reflection and awareness about personal and social exploration.

I don’t have a formal education in the arts; my creative work is an intuitive and self-taught process. In my life, I’ve noticed that the most important decisions I make are based on intuition and this piece of work reflects this instinct.  I use mosaics in most of my work because I feel they are a juncture for drawing, painting and sculpture. When you see the details of my work, you will see this series somehow represents a part of myself. The conceptualization of each series, selection of each character and research to create the right composition of design elements is often the hardest part of the process. Everything after that is an assembly of a digitally rendered piece of art to be printed on different media; using Adobe illustrator software, the total time for the development of each piece from start to finish can take 35 to 45 hours of work depending on the complexity of the piece.

All images are copyrighted © by Franz Israel. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.
Music by Bensound.com

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