I painted this piece heavily influenced by two paintings I found online and unfortunately I don't have the names of two artists to credit them for the inspiration they have provided to me. The rest of the paintings are entirely based off my imagination unless otherwise noted.
I painted this piece heavily influenced by a painting I found online and unfortunately I don't have the names of two artists to credit them for the inspiration they have provided to me. The rest of the paintings are entirely based off my imagination unless otherwise noted.
Click on the pictures above for larger view.
Dr. Albert Hoffman
Dr. John C. Lilly
Dr. Alexander Shulgin
Trinity of Transcendence
A Colorful Journey
In the words of my dear friend:
"A conglomerate of 27 paintings makes up three portraits who are the Trinity of Transcendence - Dr.Albert Hoffman, Dr. John C. Lilly, and Dr. Alexander Shulgin. Three individuals whose discoveries of various spiritual technologies have allowed an expedited path to glimpsing the universally experienced divine realm and enlightenment. These technologies have influenced countless souls on their individual journeys to oneness, and, when used in proper context, have the potential to raise the level of consciousness of humanity. Each painting tells a story relating to either the men themselves, the ideas, events, or people their technologies have influenced, and/or enlightenment."
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When my friend asked me if I could do a portrait of these three scientists I immediately thought it would be fun to make this a psychedelic piece composed of many individual paintings. I remember telling him my idea but not fully understanding how I would bring the idea to life. I spent nearly a year learning and thinking about Hoffman, Lilly, and Shulgin before I even made a sketch of what would become The Trinity of Transcendence. I was inspired by their study of different states of consciousness, and wanted to incorporate enlightenment as an underlying theme to this piece. Once I got started, it took about two months of painting before the piece was exhibited at the Art Space Gallery in Hartford in March of 2016 at a group exhibition I did with my friends from Pro+Cre8.
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I drew inspiration from from other artists that I love and admire, from my imagination, from personal experiences, and of course from the three subjects themselves. The best part of this whole process was learning about the lives of these very interesting men and collecting pieces of their stories to glue together into individual paintings. The most challenging part of the project was making each painting unique while at the same time maintaining the resemblance to their faces. Overall I am very happy with the result because it is unlike any other piece I have done before.