I had a big idea and needed a big canvas so I used a wall in my home. The concept was thought up many years ago but finally brought to life between 2023-2025. It is a tribute to Fight Club; the movie and the author of the book Chuck Palahniuk, and to whomever framed the chemical burn scene in the movie. That scene is responsible for this idea. My painting is in the style of The Creation of Man by Michelangelo. Of course I am not claiming to be as good of an artist as Michelangelo, however, I think my interpretation and contribution qualify as equally important, considering he was whispering his secrets to me the entire time that I painted this. I am currently in the process of writing a book to explain all the secrets I learned while painting this.
In order to understand what Michelangelo was saying, you need to understand his inner world. Michelangelo lived with one of the, if not the most, wealthiest and powerful families of that time, a banking family, the Medici's. Cosimo de Medici, the grandfather of the family, understood that in order to gain power, one must own and be in control of knowledge. In his palace, he had his own monk that he would send to find powerful books of antiquity. They were emerging from the dark ages, you see. Aside from the collections of Plato, one book was thought to be even more powerful, the Corpus Hermeticum. This book was said to contain Divine Knowledge, older than the bible, the direct teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. Cosimo commissioned Marcilio Ficino to quit his translations of Plato in order to translate this special book from Greek to Latin. With such powerful books now in their possession, thus began the Renaissance era.
After gaining wealth and power, the Medici's collected talented young men to exploit all while expanding their power. Michelangelo was among these artist's whose work was used as propaganda. How could a family of bankers simultaneously be the same family putting popes, priests and other clergymen into such positions of the church? Perhaps they saw an opportunity to make more money and gain more power? It is my belief that the freemasons modeled themselves after the Medici family. The year following the completion of The Creation Of Man (1513), the first Medici Pope was placed as head of the Catholic Church. His name was pope Leo X, originally Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici. Remember, this same man was the one who allowed folks to buy their way to heaven. He sold "indulgences" in exchange for the forgiveness of sins.
Michelangelo often felt conflicted in his associations with the Medici family. On one hand, he felt gratitude however, he eventually sided with their opposition the anti-Medici Republic due to the family's corruption. However, when he died, the Medici family retrieved his body so that they could remain in control of the narrative.
Prior to painting this, I had already read the Kybalion so I knew why Michelangelo painted a brain. He painted a brain because this is our direct contact with The All, or God. Because of the Kybalion, I understood the concept of mental gender and the importance of the masculine and the feminine. While painting my mural and reading about Michelangelo, I happened to have a copy of the Corpus Hermeticum and The Hermetica, lying on top of my shelf, unread. I began to read them and suddenly Michelangelo began to speak to me! Everywhere I looked, I received information from him. Its hard to understand how but I just knew he was telling me secrets. For example, check out the image below of me next to Taschen's Michelangelo book. I am posing here so that you might see the woman's face in the negative space of Michelangelo's creation of man just next to mine. Look at my eye then look to the right of it. Notice the line created in the bended leg of the "Man." This creates a woman's eye. Her face, in the negative space. Their hands make up her nose and mouth, her breath. This has never been stated elsewhere! I've looked and have not found it leading me to believe that I am the first to discover this. Michelangelo was a marble sculptor. This is often called subtractive sculpting indicating he was very conscious of negative space. Genius. This is one of the secrets he gave me. More will be given in the book I am writing.
This is very Hermetic. It is not a Catholic genesis creation of man even though it sits in the Sistine Chapel with the Vatican. It is a second birth. A rebirth. When a man realizes that he is connected with the very fabric of everything, The All. An Enlightenment.