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CapitalSeed — All Dead
Published: 2006-10-25 20:07:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 5221; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 9
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"Jesus is dead. Moses is dead. Mohammed is dead. Buddha, deceased. Every one of these know-it-alls has turned to dust. That should be enough commentary on whether they were the final word on anything."-Jim Goad
"Yes I know my enemies; they're the teachers who taught me to fight me: Compromise, Conformity, Assimilation, Submission, Ignorance, Hypocrisy, Brutality, The Elite; all which are American dreams.... "
-RAGE.
Religious Institutions strengthen and justify my enemies.
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This piece was inspired by many things: among them the above quote by Jim Goad, and two pics on DA in particular:
www.deviantart.com/deviation/3… and www.deviantart.com/deviation/3… by ~SamusFairchild and ~SeeTrou respectively.
God does not care which religion is best. God does not care what religion people practice.
- Mellen-Thomas Benedict
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I'm not satisfied with the title, are you? and if not, what would you choose for one?
This piece took about four drawings (plus the text which I didn’t draw) to complete- I cleaned up a lil bit of line wrk but not much about three hours in PS to put it all together.
The names on the graves read (left to right):
*Seth Hubbard, rest in peace man- fo real… Seth dropped a shot-put on my toe when we were in like 3rd grade or something- my toe is still a bit messed up..... anyways this kid was always smiling and goofing around- just great to be around really- clearly and dearly missed by many.
*Jeremy Brislen. My best friend from preschool, he died 17 years ago, at the age of six, from brain cancer. I was five and it didn't really hit as hard as it should have... I was still invincible. Still miss you man.
*Bear, Andrew Ryan. Why do the coolest people die so young? He was the life of the party- another friend from southern VT, RIP. Please: Don't drink and drive folks.
*Alexander Berezin. Russian Jesus. Life will never be the same. Too bad we never got the chance to fix things in Russia man, I really believed we were going to- maybe in the next lifetime huh? Read journal entry for more…
Fred Rogers, ie "Mr. Rogers"-1928-2003 CE. Perhaps the nicest neighbor you could have; the profit of many latch-key kids…
Plato- 427- 347 BCE. Strongly Contended that oral communication is superior to written word; especially concerning the accuracy of the oral word over the written word. For these reasons he claimed, in his Seventh Epistle, that nothing of importance should be written down but transmitted orally. Wonder what he would say about the Koran?
Buddha… This one I was most hesitant to put in… not sure if they really belong. Buddha isn’t a person that died so much, but merely anyone who has become fully awakened or enlightened. This entails fully overcoming greed, hate, suffering, etc… Nirvana here I come…
Tom Cruise- has he died yet? High priest (right?) of Scientology… I guess this piece predicts the future too; lets hope he doesn’t find a way to become immortal through Scientology, or this whole piece is crap. lol
Lao-Tsi (Tse) This is actually an epitaph, not a real man. If you don't already know, you prolly never will. Follow the way.
Zoroaster- Roughly 1200 BC, making him a candidate as the founder of the earliest religion based on revealed scripture, (some place him anywhere between the 18th and the 6th centuries BC though). Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster. One school of thought within Zoroastrianism perceives the battle between Good and Evil as an ethical dualism, set only within the human consciousness.
Mokichi Okada- 1882-1955 CE. The Church of World Messianity is a Japanese New Religion founded in 1926, its key concept is Johrei; a method of channeling divine light into the body of a patient. The religion currently claims over 800,000 followers.
Steve Erwin- 1962 –2006 CE. Passionate conservationist who believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than just preaching to people about a vague dogma. He was deeply concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. Watching any video of him, one can clearly see his love of life.
Moses- date ??? (anyone know dates of his lifespan?) Anyways, excuse my French; but fuck this guy. Moses' legacy is based on his success in expounding the doctrine of monotheism, which was not widely accepted at the time, codifying it in Jewish religion with the 1st Commandment and punishing polytheists. Who the hell is he to say so? He was human!!! Which means he was NOT, repeat: NOT omniscient. The lesson is: Don’t claim things as truth when you have no proof.
Wizard of Oz- Had a brief life span of about 2 hours or so. Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Jesus – well he’s been sighted in clouds and pancakes sometime after his crucifixion, yet were not sure if this is his resurrection or not- so I won’t put any dates dwn. Needless to say- he died for our Sins; man, what an asshole his dad was… how bout making us Sin-proof in the first pace: so your son doesn’t have to die for us? Talk about doing things the hard way….
L. Ron Hubbard- 1911-1986 CE. Founder of scientology. Philosopher and fiction writer- I wonder if he had to much time on his hands?
David Blaine- isn't he immortal? Anyways he’s here because of a south park episode- if you don't watch the show, Its a pity and you might as well just ignore this joke....
Charles Taze Russell- 1852–1916 CE. This man is responsable for every time you had to answer the door expecting a friend, only to be suprised with religious confrontation; talk about a drag. Jehovah's Witnesses trace their origin to the religious movement, which Russell led, known as the Bible Students. Their preaching, evangelism, and publishing activities are extensive, with congregations in most parts of the world. I fancy, that if hell exist, there is a special place there for these door to door monkeys.
Muhammad 570-632 CE The last in a long line of prophets of Allah. Muhammad often retreated to a cave on a mountain outside Mecca, called Hira, for contemplation. In the year 610, when Muhammad was about forty, he reported being visited in the cave by the Archangel Gabriel who commanded him to recite verses sent by God. Hate to break it to you Muslim world- but this is called “sense deprivation”… read up- anyone can see things if they try hard enough.
Kung Fu-tzu 551-479 BCE, or Meng Tzu 390-305 BCE (could read either as Confucius or Mencius because all you can see is the "zu" which they share for a name ending) Mencius, or Meng Tzu was a contemporary of the prior. Kung Fu-tzu was a prominent Chinese philosopher who emphasized personal and governmental morality. Credited for writing the Five Classics, although this may not be true…
Marshall “Herff”Applewhite- 1931-1997 CE. Founded Heaven's Gate, which came to a violent end; coinciding with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp. Applewhite convinced 39 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet.
Bonnie Nettles- ???-1985 CE. *see marshall, (profit of heavens gate); I had to include a female somewhere… it seems not as many women go crazy; so it was harder to find a female profit, but I did it.
Gandhi- 1869-1948 CE. Was the major political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of mass, non-violent, civil disobedience. People in America would be wise to study his philosophy; we can change the world as individuals, it may not be easy- but nothing of any intrinsic worth is ever easy.
Zeno- 333-262 BCE. Founder of Stoicism, which teaches self-control, fortitude and detachment from distracting emotions. Virtue, reason, and natural law are divine commands. By mastering passions and emotions, stoics believe it is possible to overcome the discord of the outside world and find peace within oneself. Stoicism holds that passion distorts truth, and that the pursuit of truth is virtuous… they may have been onto something here…
Dr. Adam Weishaupt- 1748-1839 CE. Formed a secret society known as the Order of the Illuminati within the existing Masonic lodges of Germany. Since Masonry is itself a secret society, the Illuminati was a secret society within a secret society. In 1785 the Illuminati were suppressed by the Bavarian government for allegedly plotting to overthrow all the kings in Europe as well as the Pope. Whether or not they were snuffed out is another question, I would guess not; these types of institutions are particularly stubborn.
Elvis- 1935-1977 CE (dates in question he might still be alive, abducted by aliens, or he might rise from the dead ala a Jesus-esque resurrection) "Pop Stars are the devotional fetish items of modern worship in ways identical to which saints were venerated in the Middle Ages. Dead pop stars all the more so.... Like Jesus, Elvis has been kept alive by a memory, and a largely embellished one at that." but "The idea of Elvis has saved lives, probably at least as many lives as snake handling has killed. That fact alone qualifies Elvis-worship as a religion." - Jim Goad, The Redneck Manifesto
John Knox- 1505-1572 CE. Presbyterianism is a form of Protestant Christianity, which traces its institutional roots back to the Scottish Reformation, led by John Knox.
Nicholas Heilig- if I ever make enough money, I think I might like to start a cult...... and then apply for a tax-exempt organization status.
Dates in BCE refer to before common era- When used as a replacement for BC/AD notation, the Common Era is abbreviated as CE and its years are numerically equivalent to AD years. Similarly, the time before the Common Era is written as BCE and is equivalent to BC. The change is made only to be political correct, so as not to offend anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus existing in the first place...
*these people may not have been “prophets”… I include them just as a personal memorial. (and you can’t make out their names anyway- so it doesn’t ruin the idea of the piece) There characters were something to be admired; something which cannot necessarily be said for all the rest of the people listed here…
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Comments: 64
So let me get this right(at least as far as the original picture and text go):these people are dead so their wisdom has no meaning because of it....or because others may have perverted their wisdom..Is that your story?
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I am not sure what point you are trying to make here.
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The graves represent dead profits, the giant mechanical arm = the great reach of institutional religion ready to pick up another member (out of the group of free thinkers), as if they were play things, liked a stuffed animal you try to win from a coin machine if you put in enough money.
The dude standing off to the far right bears a Rage Against the Machine quote. He is aware of the game and will not be swayed.
I think those were mostly my thoughts back when I created this piece, but I'm not sure I was trying to make a direct point about any one thing in particular so much as to just get people thinking about those types of topics.
Hope that helped a bit?
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I like it quite a bit. It wasn't something I instantly dug, but it's been growing on me as I read the comment box where you explained the gravestones, and I look back up at the piece. I found your commentary on the people very interesting; some stuff is not how I look at things, other things are, and all of it was very interesting to read and muse over.
Art-wise, love the b&w, the detail, and the people at the bottom in particular. Clever the way you wrote 'free thought', as it blends in and isn't completely visible at first. Nice work!
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This is amazing. Powerful. Contriversial. Beautiful. I love it...
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Of course, you're very welcome!
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This piece is powerful in making its point. Enough so that it cracked my objectivity for a moment. However, I have promised myself to comment on the artwork, not the content of pieces like this one. So I'll keep it simple.
The clean lines of this piece are very good at capturing the essence of what you're trying to get accross. The grasping arm over the basic representations of people workd really well, and the style used in the headstones works quite well.
The long shadows cast by the headstones works as a strong image, and the excerpt from the Torah (or what is it?) in the background works to highlight the tone.
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Wow, very cool. i really enjoyed reading the description on the picture which doesn't happen too often.
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free thought, its an interesting piece and i like how the religious hand can just grab people up at will like a toy vending machine.
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just wow, there's a lot that this portrays and much of it I agree with. You've done extremely well I believe.
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thank u thank, for the faves as well- rock on
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Wow... amazing artwork with a great concept behind it.... Very original... I love your inking, it really looks great and clean 
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thanks so much
if you like this ink work on this one you should peep the others- I have much more detailed work- this is more like a politcal cartoon, strait and to the point...
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very cool , sry i didnt read ur description =s i dont have much time. it really made my think great job!
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np, its mostly just descrip of people who are on the graves and what they did, etc
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I get the feeling that religion likes to target the great and the regular people.The only thing keeping everyone going is the fact that they believe they have 'free thought'.
I like the way the claw represents religion and its saying ''Who's next?''
Another good compositional choice was to place the living below the dead,as if to say the dead are better off.
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well I like that it's basically black and white. the composition is decent. and the idea behind it is alright. I think the graves and peoples would look better if they were more 3D-like, or at least had some detail to them for instance you could add some of the nifty shadding you added to the claw to the peoples and the graves, or maybe make the greaves sort of muliti dimentional, it looks like you didin't put much time into it. also it takes awhile to process the floating island of graves as what it is I guess, whatever it is. but it takes awhile and the shadows on the graves are a bit much, it seems they'd be less balck than they are. but you bascially only have black and white here and nothing inbetween. also this is a non-digital, traditional collage? it looks digital, but I guess you chould have done it by hand. the Koran (it's the Koran right?) in the backround is more grey or yellowish brown, it feels like it should be balck and white as well, or you should incorporate shades of grey into the forground images.
as for the concept, it's a good idea. but the idea that religion preys upon the stupid and weak, is kinda false, people will give their free will to any institution, they don't need religion to be mindless, more people worship business and politics more than they worship any religion in partiular, lot's of people are Republican before their Christian. and I must point out that "profits" are moneys you make beyond your investments and costs ect. in a business where as "prophets" are people who claim to be prophetic or to recive prophoshy from some sort of religious figure beyond tangabilty. not that I spell anything correctly at all anyway. (kinda dyslexic). also it's confusing to me the words on the bottom on the peoples shirts it is supposed to read "free thought" or "thought free" if you put free under thought it would clearly read "thought free" but if you moved thought over a person or two and put free up with it, it would clearly read "free thought"
aside from all of that I think it's a good concept and that your eye for line and composition are dead on. the title is alright I guess. I guess "sing me to sleep" would be a better title if you wanted a suggestion. I think it would be greatly apporved if you made it clearer what you are opposing (the abuse of faith hope and charity, by any institution, I think) and included say Adam Smith, or John Kennedy in with the dead, or other pop/political/business martyrs.
it's cool thought. I like it for the most part.
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well, you talk specifically of America though, or Americanized... and basically selling out to money is another form of religion (the new age religion of a dogmatic beleif in uncontrolled capitalism) see in the past even more so religion/politics weren't so seperate.. its only recently we've tried seperation of church and state (even though its not even true yet, "in God we trust" on all our minted coins doesn't sound very seperated to me)
it is a digital collage... i just wanted to be in this category to diversify who might see this... I did try to add a little of the yellowish color (on elvis' grave- since he's the redneck profit i thought it appropriate that his grave is dirtied, also the yellow bleeds into the "I know my enemies" character- but I guess not really enough to notice.
Points noted about the graves and people- I tried to keep it simple on purpose (but maybe some more three dimensional graves could be cool, I might have to try that when I have some more time) as for the shadows I wanted them to be exaggerated (almost looks like a keyboard of somesort from thumb) I like making things seem a bit odd and surreal rather then what other people would do- just trying to be unique I guess
thank you very much for the thoughtful comments! very much appreciated, not enough people take the time to explain what they get from a piece, what works for them and what doesn't, etc.
about the last tid bit I have been thinking about a way to visual better convey what I'm against (corruption, the instituition, taking advantage of something which is supposed to be positive (spirituality), and the belief that we can somehow obtain knowledge of God(s) ) but I'm still sturggling with ideas... my next one coming up is going to be a samurai with a swasticka on his chest... might be a bit more appropriate- well see, been busy as of late so i haven't had a chance to refine my thoughts
thanks again
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the worship of business isn't particually American. and it's as old as the worship of any power. in a sense a God-King, is the same as a God-CEO, or God-Brand, like Coke (the only word that unites the entire world. it's a thing where Republican is more holy than Christian, you can feel it when you go into a bank. it's a temple, where money lives. everyone is quite, and peaceful. if they aren't it speaks volumes of social decay. I think it's a univeral thing. a universal worship of power and gain. the ecstacy of gold if you will. all those old saying apply well. power corrupts, and the want of money is the root for all evil.
I get what your saying thought. and I agree with it, I don't think your tring to be anti-anything, but rather get a particualr point across. I'm not sure the best way of doing it, but I think alot of your stuff would come across to a religious person as simply anti-religion, not particually thoughtfull, admitly becuase of tention and the whole american "I don't want to hear thoughts that arn't mine" ideology. but I'm sure you could get the idea across that there is something inheriently currupt about giving in to a particular ideal.
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no sorry you misunderstood what i was saying: the worship of unregulated Capitalism is American and American spread... not business itself, your right about that. And yea these pics are meant to be more provacative then informative of my view I guess... something I'll have to think about for new pieces
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I think your pretty close to getting it across perfectly, after seeing more of your gallery
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getting there I guess- thanks for your thoughts though, always good to make sure one's piece is saying what they want it to say (if its not an open work that is)
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i have to say that this is the first time i've ever paid attention to something like this. and yes, i did read through your entire description. (yes, that was also the first time that i read a description that takes up most of the webpage.) this is obviously more conceptual than technical, and it's definitly something that's under-appreciated on DA. i only know a handful of artists around me who put more time thinking about the art than actually drawing/painting it. i love all the thoughts and details you've put into this piece. people say that a picture is worth a thousand words. well, i think you've exceeded your thousand-word limit.
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It´s said that religions are like branches in a river, if you hold to them, you miss the rest of the river..
Who knows ?
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that could be an interesting line to play with visually, thanks for the insight man
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This is very suggestive and strong when it comes to spreading a message!
Super Mega huge description
But the idea and concept are great!
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this is a very, very interesting work with a excessive description
I like the way the pic gets you thinking a bit! Great work!
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yea I agree- the description is super excessive lol
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Nice concept, and brilliantly executed. I just have one question: Elvis was a religious figure?
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o yes! wait till I post the other names.... well maybe i should work on finishing that now... anyway Elvis is very much a redneck religious figure- people idolize him, people follow him, and he saved peoples lives... a regular old saint- for more on how Elvis became a profit read "The Redneck Manifesto" by Jim Goad
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Pretty good. I like the imagery of the gravestones and the robot arm picking the next target.
I would point out thast dying was part of the point with some of these people...
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Awesome concept. You did a good job balancinig the composition as well.
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Wow... this is a really interesting and inspiring idea. I love the use of line and the fact that you have got a great constrast between what appears to be the fore and what is behind it - even though the work is two-dimensional. I think that the whole work is beautiful - even with the more chilling message behind it!
Hv a wonderful day!
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