[Art] Antechinus as Totem - Redo

[moonvoice]

Antechinus as a Totem represents:

Sacrificing health for children. Death. Fury. Savagery. Jealousy. Violence. Relationship troubles. Abuse and assault (M or F). Destruction and creation. Death and birth. Aggression. Suppressing health. Callousness. Placing too much importance on sex. General welfare.

Read the full totem essay here.


Antechinus as Totem
Original @ Etsy / Prints @ DeviantArt

Comments

[ariestess]

Ooooers... This one is fascinating and... And sharp, in that deadly and dangerous kind of way. Very interesting...

[moonvoice]

Thank you. I don't really think it's a 'beautiful' picture, but I do think I did justice to the feel of Antechinus. :)

[ariestess]

No, you're right. Beautiful isn't the right word for this one. It's definitely striking, tho...

[silverjackal]

That is certainly a powerful image! I don't know if it's just the nature of the pieces you're doing, or if it's a stage in your artwork, but your recent work has been very visceral. It's a good thing, but in cases like this I wouldn't be at my ease displaying it as artwork. (I really like your Goanna as well, but don't think I could comfortably hang it anywhere where there was very routine living happening, for example.)

[moonvoice]

I wouldn't have it up as a piece of artwork either; it'd be fantastic as a 'working' piece I think, spiritually. But in all honesty, Antechinus is just such an abrasive energy, it's hard to imagine this piece ever selling.

Antechinus basically have a lifecycle that goes: 'birth - sexual maturity - hours of fighting other males - hours and hours of violent bloody sex - death' or if you're female 'hours and hours of violent bloody sex - give birth - death.' For such a small creature to devote, in some cases, up to 12 hours to violent death that will, without question, always result in the death of the male (and after birth, the death of the female) is very confronting and abrasive for humans, who ideally don't want to live that way. It's a tough energy, but Antechinus was very firm about getting placed in the deck.

[white_rabbit]

Ohhh, prickly. But very powerful as well. :)

[moonvoice]

Thank you! :)

[goddess_incarnate]

Oh I love everything about this piece. :D It's hard to choose which aspect I like the most; though, the thing that immediately caught my eye were the flames!

[moonvoice]

I like the 'flames' too. The whole picture reminds me of hell. Heh.

[nadiabunny]

This gives me conflicting feelings, and I like it but I don't. I will keep this page open and read the totem entry tomorrow :)

One thing that I love with your totem drawings/artworks/pencil paintings is that it makes me look, spiritually, at a lot of different animals I probably wouldn't look at or come into spiritual contact on my own with. It's enlightening, thank you :)

[moonvoice]

I think the illustration did justice to the totem, but as I don't really like the energy of Antechinus much, I don't like the picture (if that makes sense), so I think I can relate to how you feel about it.

Antechinus is a tough one, and very confrontational for anyone who's ever been in unpleasant relationships; which is a lot of people.

[outlineofash]

Very powerful! The sense of violence comes through really clearly, to the point where I feel uncomfortable looking at it.

[moonvoice]

Awesome! Well, not the discomfort part, but... awesome that it's striking? Man, I have such a terrible grasp of the English language today.

[gone_fishing]

Wow, that gives me the willies. You definitely did justice to the violence of this little critter, though. It looks like hell, LOL.

[fayanora]

Oh, is this a case of "looks adorable, will tear off your face and eat your eyes" kind of thing? (Figuratively, if not literally.)

[moonvoice]

Oh, is this a case of "looks adorable, will tear off your face and eat your eyes" kind of thing?

Certainly with each other! I think they'd be too busy trying to tear each other apart to care much about us.

[moonvoice]

Wow, that gives me the willies. You definitely did justice to the violence of this little critter, though. It looks like hell, LOL.

Awesomeness. :D

[fayanora]

The Google Images that come up show such an adorable little critter, why does it have scary red eyes in your art? And those white marks look like bones. I look at this picture and I see a creature that wants to devour my soul.

That's not a criticism, by the way. I love creepy things.

[moonvoice]

It's an illustration for a (possible) Oracle Deck, so it's highly stylised / symbolised to not so much be realistic as represent what it does in the deck (which is listed in the keywords above the picture, though its principle identification word is 'death').

That said, they live extraordinarily violent lives. They pretty much all die after their first successful mating (except for the females, who die after giving birth), because of the extreme violent nature of their mating, and fighting for territory. It's one of the longest, and bloodiest experiences out of any marsupial species; maybe the most. And it's across the board for the Antechinus. They're cute, but the lives they actually lead are brutal.

/ramble.

[fayanora]

I just read up on them, on Wikipedia. The males mate for 12 hours, and shut off their immune system for extra stamina? And it's rare for individuals to live much past their first mating season? Wow. They've taken "eat, shit, f*ck" to a whole new level.

[moonvoice]

It's pretty intense! A few books I have also say the mating is quite violent, and males will sometimes die of their injuries before they die of starvation/immune-related diseases. The females do similarly in order to raise their young, so pretty much as soon as the young are ready to leave the nest, she dies too.

A lot of Australians haven't even heard of them (to be fair, a lot of our cute marsupials are small, nocturnal and live in the middle of nowhere), so much so that they're known by their taxonomic name (Antechinus) instead of something cuter. Heh.

They've taken "eat, shit, f*ck" to a whole new level.

They really, really have!

[fayanora]

These little guys are like Klingons when it comes to sex!

[moonvoice]

Heh, I think this wins the award for best comment!

(Also, definitely like Klingons, minus the 'romantic poetry.' *g*)