The Art of Dying

Alex Grey, American psychedelic and spiritual artist, is one of my favorite visual artists since I discovered him when I was a teenager. Amongst his hundreds, if not thousands, of works of art I have chosen to discuss his painting Dying. This painting was created with oil paint on canvas, spans forty-four inches by sixty inches, and was completed in 1998.
First, I will describe the basic big picture of the painting, and then I will further describe the symbolism and colors at depth. To start off, the background features nothing but eyes. Although anatomically correct, the eyes are not necessarily left and/or right eyes, but center eyes. These eyes are all identical and make up this spiraling upwards geometric pattern in which I cannot name properly, if there is even a correct term. This spiral pattern is quite similar to that of torus tube when featured with the seed of life, but with an empty white center. The white center is that of shining light with thin lines or rays of light that stretch out to the edges of the painting. The eyed background contrasts from dark to light as it gets closer to the white center. Next, is the foreground, which consists of a figure of a man lying on a bed with arms across his chest, with one hand on top of the other. He is oriented as if you are standing at the foot of the bed looking straight at him. The white center is featured towards the top of the painting, while the man and bed are at the bottom. Only the man’s chest on up is visible along with the head of the bed on which he lies. The bed and pillow are a transparent white; therefore you can see the spiraling eyes in the background. Not to mention that the space that the eyes make up is somewhat three dimensional, therefore seemingly enclosing and surrounding the man. The man’s eyes are closed and mouth open with a floating shapeless object resting above the center of the man’s forehead and is drifting towards the white center. Last but not least, the man is clothesless and is transparent in the sense that you can see through his skin and see his anatomy, including his organs, skeleton, and cardiovascular system.
Overall, the man’s position and orientation resembles death, as the painting’s title states. The white light at the center is featured in multiple pieces of Grey’s work, usually representing God or the Eye of God. The shapeless object above the man’s head reaching for the white light resembles the soul leaving the body. This “soul” is also somewhat transparent, consisting of swirls of the whole color spectrum in a pastel, light-colored manner. The eyes, as I mentioned them to be center eyes, are third eyes, often represented as some sort of spiritual or advanced awareness. These eyes have blue irises, the same color as Grey’s own eyes, and more often than not is usually the color of the eyes in many of his paintings. The eyes are all surrounded by skin in a light purple to pink color. Everything about the man is anatomically correct, but colored brightly to distinguish anatomical parts and also giving off a rather psychedelic appearance. However, although some bright colors are still used, this piece is far darker in comparison to his other works; this is deemed appropriate given the theme of death.
Simply put, I admire everything about this piece as I do Alex Grey. I will first note that although I do not have any spiritual/religious affiliation, I respect Grey’s fascination and incorporation of such themes. I find religious and sacred symbolism quite interesting and captivating because I am aware of how powerful these images are to those with religious affiliations. I specifically enjoy that Grey does not pick one God above any others. In a good number of his other works most major religions are depicted in some harmonious way. In other words, he does not pick one religion over the other, but merely combines them all without one overpowering the other. I particularly appreciate Grey’s non-ethnocentric representations.
The next feature that I enjoy of this piece, along with other works of Grey’s, is the psychedelic nature. I, personally, have never taken nor have the desire to take drugs or psychedelics, but I find myself very fascinated by different art forms that are created by people who do or have taken psychedelics. I consider myself a very empathetic and at the same time a very imaginative person, therefore I find myself not necessarily needing to directly experience things for myself but through others. With that in mind, I experience the altered mind-state of the artist without having to take the drugs myself. In addition to psychedelic art, I especially enjoy the use of colors whether it is in art or anything else for that matter. I am not afraid of bright loud colors in my own style of clothing, expression, as well as my own art. Due to my captivation with colors, psychedelic art tends to be one of my favorites because of the extensive use of colors.
The geometric patterns and spirals are also pleasing to my eyes as well as my mind. I admire such artists as M. C. Escher who is intelligent and uses mathematical designs in his art. It makes the art so much more complex and simply becomes more than art to me. I enjoy the incorporation of “perfection” or harmony that math gives to art. At the heart of it all, this would imply that I enjoy crisp, perfect, accurate shapes, structures and sorts. I admire the “perfection” because I understand how much effort the artist had put into a particular piece, as an artist I can empathize with that. In turn, I discover that I don’t particularly enjoy chaos in art. I take pleasure in order, even if it is overwhelming, so long as it is harmonious I do enjoy it. In high school, I completed an art project that required me to use the style of an artist of choice. I chose Alex Grey and used this same eye spiral pattern. After attempting to do so, I had so much more respect for him, for I could not find a way to replicate this pattern, and had to resort to using a projector to trace it. To sum up, I understand the difficulty of creating art, especially when using complex patterns that I tend to admire those kinds of work more than I do others.
Another feature I have a remarkable enjoyment for is the amount of detail. This also ties into my admiration for complex patterns, for I do understand the tedious and time consuming process of exacting details in painting. This is even more awe striking in very large pieces. I love how Grey tends to hide images and objects within his paintings; he creates the kind of art that leaves you finding something new every time you view it. I would have to say I have high regards for art such as this because I do not personally always have the patience to create something in such a “perfect” fashion, or the patience to discover if I even have the skill to do so.
I have a significant passion for human anatomy, especially that of great detail and accuracy. Ever since grade school I have been fascinated with science, particularly human biology. However, while in high school I was enrolled in advanced human anatomy classes around the same time that I discovered Alex Grey. He then became my artistic idol, who has, in fact, also prepared and handled cadavers at Harvard University. Consequently, with anatomical and scientific background, his illustrations are astounding and only further enhanced my fondness for anatomy and anatomical art. Currently, I study anthropology and wish to advance in biological anthropology, dealing specifically with human osteology. Clearly, that passion still lives and also dictates what art that I am attracted to. I do currently, and still plan, to have my scientific studies aid my own artistic skills and style. Why this fascination with the body? I feel that the body, in general, is fascinating just because it exists. Often I find myself boggled and appreciative of the simple idea that I can manipulate objects with my hands, that I can move my arms whenever I choose, that I can replicate an action with my body that I have seen firsthand, and so on. Obviously, I do not like to take the body for granted and will take any chance to learn more about its beauties and functions whenever I can. Along with that, I find the body visually pleasing because of how intricate, complex, delicate, and unique it is. The body alone is a work of art, in my opinion, one of which we constantly change, enhance, manipulate, and build upon.
A specific anatomical part that I surrender most of my fascination to would be that of eyes. As I have already mentioned, Grey tends to use eyes in his works quite frequently and thus being another major attribute of my devotion to him. I can’t exactly trace the origins or original reasoning to my obsession with eyes, but I know it stems as far back to when I was a very young child. My current reasoning is due to the fact that I am hard of hearing and I rely on my eyes more than the average person might to get along in the world. I take the ability to see very seriously and with great appreciation. Unquestionably, I find visual pleasures to be of the most gratifying; making the eyes, the physical tool that permits sight, to be the representation of the significance of sight. Not only do I enjoy works of art that involve eyes, but I continuously create them as well. Thus, I portray how vital they are to me on a personal level. I particularly enjoy the “third eye” symbolism that Grey often creates. My having to use my eyes more and in a different nature, to make up for my lack of hearing, gives me this awareness that I do not quite share with other people. To sum up, being hard of hearing, thus “more seeing”, has given me a different outlook on just about everything.
Finally, the theme of death is the last feature that is certainly worth mentioning on my interests in Dying. Inevitably with my interests in all the aspects and fields described above: religion, spirituality, science, anthropology, and human anatomy, I am completely enthralled by death. Not just death itself intrigues me, but how people view and deal with it, from cultural to individualistic views. If I must also elaborate the fact that biological anthropology deals closely with bones of humans in the sense of their growth, formation, function, but also what they can tell us about death. Obviously, I chose to involve myself in the subject of such an American taboo and it is so much more enchanting to learn and see people’s own representations and ideas on death amongst other things. Here, Grey presents death as a peaceful act and one in which a person has a soul that joins with God. Whether I agree with this notion or not is beside the point, however, I am merely marveling over his personal ideals of death. As a taboo, that fact alone attracts me because the general concept of what makes something a taboo is fascinating as well as it requires courage to discuss, represent, or engage in taboos. In other words, I admire Grey’s ability to freely represent what he feels, thinks, and believes despite any discord that it may cause.
In conclusion, I have a handful of deep personal experiences and ideas that are the cause for my connection with the art of Alex Grey, those of which definitely make my aesthetic standards and pleasures different from those of another individual. Analyzing Grey and his creation, Dying, has led me to really dig to the heart of my preferences when it comes to art and I am grateful to do so. As the man himself once said, “I acknowledge the privilege of being alive in a human body at this moment, endowed with senses, memories, emotions, thoughts, and the space of mind in its wisdom aspect.”

That there is my paper! 6 pages long of awesomeness that really goes to the depth of my aesthetic preferences. Woo!