Paul B. Rucker
For me, making art is how I "think in Pagan." I have been making art from personal encounters with the spirit world from a very early age, and have attained a BA in Humanities, with a special emphasis in Art and Spirituality, from the New College of California. The intersection of myth, theatre, ritual and the ennobled body compels me; I seek a visual language to render metaphors, and ecstasies.
Some of my work is outrightly iconic; other work is intended to convey an impression or atmosphere of a heightened or magical reality. My thematic approach is always grounded in the figure-- usually but not always, that of the human being.
I paint in acrylic and other water-based media and in oils. I draw in pen, pencil, and mixed media. Other experiences involve creating theatrical backdrops, murals, collage, sign painting, mask-making in clay and paper-mache, silk painting and costuming.
My most recent explorations are with mixed-media assemblages, which combine various materials with painted bones. I also perform face and body painting on subjects photographed by myself; the resulting images are further elaborated with digital painting techniques.
My work has been exhibited in the Twin Cities, Tuscaloosa, AL, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Chicago; and has been seen online, in print, and in other venues in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
 The Invitation2007/2015 Digital Mixed Media Dimensions: variable A male faerie, a Green Lover... a hallucination, a seduction, a private dream. |  The River of Blood2014 Mixed Media 72"  x 42"  x 30" "Painting the Bones I: The River of Blood" In oral tradition and folklore, the "River of Blood" denotes ancestry, especially that of animal life. The idea is something like the Greek zoë and signifies bloodlines, ancestry, "life force" and more modern ideas such as genomes and genetic blueprints. Red blood-- which is made in the marrow of the bones-- is a gift of life from all our ancestors, and each of us carries that river forward in our bodies. |
|---|---|
 The Fire Key2013/2015 Digital Mixed Media Dimensions: variable "The Fire Key" depicts a man stained blue (with woad? with shadow?) who is holding both a torch and a metallic wand that resembles some kind of mysterious key. He is a walker between shadows and edges at the borders of man's world, on a walkabout for purposes of his own, possibly to reclaim and re-enlarge the boundaries of Faery. |  AlegrÃa Amorosa2000/2012 Acrylic on canvas 12" x 9" Originally painted when I lived in New Orleans, for a Dia de los Muertos themed art show, this has always been one of my favorite attempts in this vein. The joyful couple emerging as if from the head of Zeus from the grandly grinning decorated skull, were originally the central portion of a much larger painting. Years later I cut out the best part and digitally created a simpler border around it. |
 Witchfire2014 Bone, acrylic paint, metal, acrylic resin 24" x 21" x 11" Witchfire is a sculptural interpretation of the Old Craft symbol of the flame above the (antlered) skull. The flame or light symbolizes illumination, gnosis, inner wisdom, self-awareness, cognition, inspiration, the indwelling presence of the divine or the sacred. To me, this symbol depicts Spirit or Consciousness crowning the (human) animal. |  Gnosis2005/2010 Digital Mixed Media Dimensions: variable In transitioning from film to digital photography, I explored the possibilities of "found art" through multiple exposures on film of natural environments, textures, textiles, etc, combined with a model which I later took into various graphics programs. In this image, the balance of dark and light with the sidelong glance somehow evoked the idea of "gnosis"-- "knowing". |
 Herbal Dreaming2012 Pen and ink on paper 12" x 9" Drawing was my first art. For me, drawing is the most effect form of meditation, and my drawings always seem to involve the human figure in connection with elements of nature and/or the underlying energy of life itself, in various combinations. |  Divine Twins2008 Acrylic on canvas 20" x 16" The Divine Twins of the Feri Tradition embody every possible duality and yet together form a unity: the coming-together of seeming oppositions into wholeness. The Bird Twin, "the Great Above", conjoins with the Snake Twin, "the Great Below", embracing in a sea of stars that evokes their Mother and Lover, the Star Goddess. As two candle wicks join to make a single flame, so appears the single aureole above their heads. |