http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:aragon64&section=today deviantART RSS for by:aragon64 en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:24:00 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/27617208/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/27617208/ Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:17:21 PST [link].
It's damn good book and if you're into Hades and Persephone and Greek mythology this book is for YOU! There is also a Vampire in it - the villain of the piece.
[link]

I've posted some incredibly inexpensive small and I mean small sunset sketches and studies for sale on Etsy.com:
[link]

The most expensive pieces are ONLY 24.95.

They would make nice little accent pieces, small bits of art for small spaces, and very nice little presents. AND THE PRICES ARE REALLY, REALLY REASONABLE.

And NEW - a calendar for 2010 featuring recent artworks at Lulu.com:
[link]

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/26223863/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/26223863/ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:48:08 PDT
It is about the painful relationship between Hades and Persephone and the fateful consequences that arise when a malignant entity named Upir Likhyi(literally 'foul vampire'escapes from the Underworld.

UPDATE: AVAILABLE NOW: THE 'EARLY BIRD' EDITIONS IN SOFT BACK, HARD COVER AND ELECTRONIC FORMAT OF THE HUNTER OF THE DEAD ... And The Kiss of Persephone. It is a mature re-visitation of myth about Hades and Persephone and includes such figures as Anubis and Osiris and Hel, among many others.
[link]
[link]

It will have global distribution by October and then become available anywhere, including amazon.com.

I hadn't intended to use previous artwork for it but the work I made just plain sucked too much.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/25595070/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/25595070/ Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:22:57 PDT sychedelic' manner. I'm bored with my work. It probably has something to do with the fact I am simultaneously finishing up a rough draft for another novel, which I hope to have published via Lulu in September. I don't have the concentration I need for painting and the work suffers for it. I am restless, but that's not a bad thing.
July: Just posted an Artemis painting and have four small skyscapes to do, then I'm going to start experimenting in color with some of my favorite figures just to see how psychedelic I can make them and just for the challenge of it. In the meantime, I'm close to finishing the roughdraft of THE HUNTER OF THE DEAD - about Hades and Persephone.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/24739424/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/24739424/ Mon, 25 May 2009 10:24:11 PDT If you have any questions about distribution, contact Jon at editor@pentaclemagazine.org.


[link]

I received my contributor's copy of Pentacle magazine today. It looks good.

And here is another interesting little development: Lulubooks has been making hardcover editions of some of my works - that I published only on their site - available on Amazon.com. A sign of faith perhaps? I sure hope so. I have no big corporate publicity machine behind me - just whatever tools I can afford on Lulu.com - and I can't afford much - and old-fashioned word of mouth.

IT WILL HAVE BEEN 10 YEARS AS OF THIS SPRING/SUMMER SINCE I TOOK UP PAINTING MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS, as a change of pace from landscapes. 10 YEARS OF LEARNING MY CRAFT.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/21306693/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/21306693/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:57:44 PST
I've posted three of my original artworks on Etsy.com: The Abduction of Persephone, Hades and Persephone in the Underworld, and Eve - Tree of Life. And at incredibly reasonable prices too for original oil paintings. Check out Etsy if you're crafty.
[link]

PS. I've added a recent and very small landscape sketch to my Etsy.com inventory, very reasonably priced for original art - taking into account labor and materials.

I've also made a large calendar available via Lulu.com. Check it out. [link]

PS. (Christmas Day) I just checked my account at Lulu.com and surprise of surprises: someone bought electronic copies of my 2 part amazonian epic: Flanion - The Fateful Day and Flanion- The Inevitable. Wow! I SURE HOPE THEY LIKE IT!!!!!

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/21203262/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/21203262/ Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:34:53 PDT I love what can be found on Deviantart.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/20718642/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/20718642/ Sun, 28 Sep 2008 07:41:33 PDT I Exalt, or try to. I neither wallow nor do I revel in the darkness. I will peer into the heart of darkness, explore its nature, indict, convict, and be cautionary, but I avoid embracing it and do not spread its poisonous influence via eroticism or any other ism.
(One eye-opening book I read that caused me to rethink what I was doing as a writer and artist was Idols of Perversity - read it.) The world has enough negativity as it is. Self-inflicted/defeating misogyny is a virus. It expresses itself quite often in the masochistic adulation of villainous figures of fiction. There is something of the unrequited that also figures in such fantasies - in writing and art. It is discomforting to encounter.
Just because something you see gives you pause that does not mean that you are some reactionary puritan. In my case, it means that what I have survived in this existence and what I have observed going on around me from when I was quite young has tempered my spiritual and creative philosophy. I am just lucky to be here and alive and functioning. I am surrounded by darkness and crave only to rejoice in and exalt the 'light'.
I mean no harm to anyone. But I do worry whenever I feel that someone may be treading too close to something negative. I guess that makes me something of a mother hen.
So remember...Exalt.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/20405074/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/20405074/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:02:33 PDT I'm very restless. There have been deaths in the extended family and I'm feeling confined by my circumstances - again.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/20187226/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/20187226/ Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:44:18 PDT
]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/19173750/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/19173750/ Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:16:00 PDT I don't want to write anymore. I am deeply exhausted after so many years. I have a couple more stories that I had written, but whether anything will be done or will come of them I cannot say. I have a few characters wandering around in my head, but they have no narratives, so they'll just have to keep wandering. I just don't want to write anymore.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18969360/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18969360/ Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:41:52 PDT Well, I've finally finished with the fantasy cycle that features Amazons among the characters. I began working on them when I was seventeen and have as of YESTERDAY I finished them and published them on Lulu.com (Gathlon, Caermon, and Marlorat - sequels to my 2 part epic Flanion).
I AM DONE WITH THEM. AFTER ALL THIS TIME, FINISHED AND THEY'RE OUT OF MY HEAD.
I have one last novel to finish that I feel compelled to publish and hopefully by this time next week, it'll be done too. Nuneau was the novel I started tinkering with when I was 12 and soon it'll be DONE!
WAH-HOO AND HALLELUYAH!
No more novels in my head, after all these years, I'm done.
The cover art for those books isn't what I had intended due to their space limitations and my inability to resize my jpgs (missing a program it seems in this computer.).


[link]

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18802314/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18802314/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:51:11 PDT I'm working on a painting similar to other recent ones of deities in bucolic settings: Venus marching across a field with her three Graces. I started on it yesterday. Hopefully, it will turn out well and I will post it here in two weeks' time.
Back to work.
PS. Looking back at the paintings I've done since the end of March, I think I can actually see that I did manage to absorb a great deal during my art study excursion to Rome (this past March). My memory is full of wonders. da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Caravaggio....

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18696048/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18696048/ Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:30:35 PDT Still cleaning out my attic of literary projects that have been crowding my mind since I was 24.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18670735/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18670735/ Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:49:34 PDT You'd think that I would be accustomed to failure by now. I've failed pretty much all of my life. I have failed as an adult and failed to become an adult. I have failed as an artist and author over and over again, but I keep my sleeves rolled up because, frankly, if I don't get these 'things' out of my head, I'll go loopy. Although I know no one will read my fantasy novels when they're all published, I have to finish them and GET THEM OUT OF MY HEAD FOR GOOD AND ALL. I know that no one cares. I'm kind of used to it deep down, but I have a tendency to harbor hopes that maybe, just maybe something will turn out all right. I shouldn't be surprised when things don't work out, but that's immaturity for you.
Well, at least I still have shelter and food, and my Mother and my dogs for company. And I don't think the people I work with consider me too insufferable, so I guess it's all still bearable. I dread ending up like Melville - working some stifling job while dust gathers on my creative mind, not just going through life as a failure, but also with the full feeling that one has failed. In the end the work is what it has always been for me - a means of coping and transcending my confined existence. It is its own raison d'etre. That'll have to do. So, if you'll all bear with me, I've got all sorts of stuff to clear out of my 'attic' onto lulu.com before the end of July.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18329184/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/18329184/ Wed, 14 May 2008 23:03:26 PDT I decided to create my first calendar for 2009 featuring some of my recent and also older favorite artworks. follow the link below.
I've also created other products here and on Zazzle, so feel free to browse.

[link]

I have created a separate calendar on Lulu.com, which is a little more expensive than the Zazzle. It has some of the same images as the Zazzle, but includes some of the Arthurian images.

[link]

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17978476/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17978476/ Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:40:19 PDT Yay.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17961863/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17961863/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:31:34 PDT In the meantime, I'm inputting the revisions to my amazonian epic Flanion's first sequel: Gathlon, which I hope to have published within the next two weeks. I've already started revising the novel that follows that one: Caermon, which hopefully will be published by June.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17262541/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17262541/ Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:07:04 PDT
]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17094074/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/17094074/ Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:31:08 PST I hope to finally finish my Apollo/Dionysos canvas tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be able to post images of it until things dry out in the back yard and the weather mellows out.
I'm a little frustrated that I didn't get more work done on that canvas this week, but the imperative was getting THE JINNIYAH's new edition finished this week.
I'll be starting another similar canvas to the one I'm working on now, but I doubt it'll be finished until April - I'm going to Rome-Florence-London during the last two weeks of March to saturate my head with art. I hate flying, but I am excited about going. I've saved up for two years for this trip.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/16423850/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/16423850/ Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:29:26 PST By the way, my new obsession, Dionysus is about halfway done. Cross your fingers that I can post him here by Monday or Tuesday at the latest next week.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/15916248/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/15916248/ Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:18:33 PST I had hoped to finish the second, matching Eros canvas this week, but that probably won't be until next week. Once again, like this whole year, there have been disruptions galore.
I have laid down the grounding colors on the next large Phoebus Apollo canvas and am about to do the underdrawing for the first large Dionysius/Dionysus canvas that will be the same size as both large Apollos.
I am nearly done revising the second half of my amazonian epic Flanion for publication at Lulu.com. I might even have it done by the end of this month if I can keep it in gear. It hurts my eyes to sit too long at this screen though, so I'm dreading the ordeal, which is probably why I've been holding back and wound up two months behind schedule. I have to get my act in gear though, because I have three sequels to revise and publish next year AFTER I publish a revised edition of THE JINNIYAH (the first edition is still available via amazon.com, but contract runs out this year and as it reverts to my control in 08, I'm going to polish it up anew and put it back out there.).
I have so much work to do. Including trying to draw attention to my comedy DEUS EX MACHINA: A DIVINE COMEDY. Another book has come out from Marie Phillips this past year called Gods Behaving Badly, which has some similarities to my book (which was published by me via Lulu.com in 06). I ordered a copy via [link] and read it to make sure that it wasn't too much like my book, as my manuscript was probably over there simultaneous with hers trying to find an agent and a publisher. Fortunately, except for the fact that her novel is about Greek Gods in modern day England and a mortal couple is involved and is supposed to be a comedy, our novels have nothing else in common. In my book, Ares, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Medusa actually show up in an Essex neighborhood outside of London to HELP a young man get the life he deserves: back with his former sweetheart, who has returned in hopes of linking back up with him, and rid of his annoying brothers, one of whom is responsible for their breakup/separation, and his selfish ogre of a mother. They have one weekend to accomplish this without throttling each other in the process over old grievances. I did a lot of research on these gods/goddesses and how they have been interpreted and how they have even evolved, before I wrote my novel. I'm not sure that Phillips did such good research, or if she did, she ignored what didn't suit her narrative purposes, doing some of these figures a grave literary injustice as a result. For instance, I think she got Apollo all wrong. He would not have been the egotist she has him out to be: the phrase 'KNOW THYSELF' was prominently inscribed on his temples and he was associated with physicians and philosophers, so he wouldn't have been a lousy would be tele-psychic, but would have run some kind of ashram in Yorkshire, and he certainly would not have been shagging Aphrodite: he never showed any interest in her and if anything where she was concerned, seemed to be a bit of goody-two shoes: he was the one who told Hephaestus that she was sleeping with Ares. I found her book to be a slog to read and I had to force myself to finish it, because it was a cynical, crass piece of work and I didn't like anyone in it. I couldn't root for anyone at all, which bothered me. (And yes, I passed on the book to two co-workers just to see what their reaction would be: one couldn't get into it at all and the other one, who is also a writer, found it just as much of a slog, so I ain't the only one.) Also, it's supposed to funny, but it wasn't - not when I compared it to Jasper Fforde or to the wonderful novel GOOD OMENS, which I read immediately after Phillips' book. And... dare I say it? I do dare! My book is FUNNIER! After the divine figures themselves, I took as my creative inspiration and muses even the Marx Brothers and their great collaborator George S. Kaufman.
Anyway, rant over, back to being a good little worker bee.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/14707333/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/14707333/ Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:29:25 PDT Those Olympians have been busy, working those literary muses over time. I think I shall have to read it to see how someone else handles those unruly individuals, but I guess what depresses me a little is that as late as last summer I was trying to get publishers, especially ones in the UK - because my novel was set briefly in the British Museum and mostly in Essex - to consider my comedy for publication and was turned down everywhere. Like so many authors, I have no connections with anyone in the industry, but Miss Phillips used to work for the BBC so...well, you see my dilemna. Because I got fed up with dealing with the industry mindset, I decided to take my fate into my own hands via Lulu.com and do for myself what no one else would: typical really, SHOUTING YES TO A WORLD THAT KEEPS TELLING ME NO!
(the above was copied from my post on myspace)

In the meantime, I am nearly done with my latest Eros painting. Tomorrow I hope to do some final work on the woods behind him and on the figures in the background. If I'm really industrious, I'll even do some work on Psyche. I've also been doing more preliminary sketches for a Persephone and Hades (in the Underworld) and a diptych of St. George, his horse, the Dragon, and the Maiden one usually sees in St. George paintings.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/14000927/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/14000927/ Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:01:01 PDT They gave my name as Lisa Aragon, but my website is correct.
I'm thrilled to have something published like this!

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/13699648/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/13699648/ Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:14:33 PDT Eros and Psyche are coming along nicely, so far.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/13418035/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/13418035/ Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:20:54 PDT
]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/13344453/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/13344453/ Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:17:27 PDT In my usual way, I've crossed old Greek mythology with a figure and symbols from a culture even further west of Greece. I have given Artemis her traditional companions, but in North American variations: the Spirit Bear, the Elk, and a wolf-malamute, based on my late dog Maggie. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'm a perfectionist, so I'm going to let go of it now and let it stand as you see now.
I hope someone likes it.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12660659/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12660659/ Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:49:07 PDT I am going to miss her so much.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12580827/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12580827/ Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:17:00 PDT I am five chapters away from finished the revision process on the first part of a two part Amazonian epic - Flanion, which I hope to publish within the next two weeks. I hope to have it all wrapped up by a week from today, cover art and all.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12391507/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12391507/ Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:33:49 PDT I posted a recent pic of her. Behind her stands our other shepherd mix Bart, who's three years older.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12014875/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/12014875/ Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:34:53 PST I used to do nothing but landscapes and I kind of wish I could get back to that on a more regular basis, but I'm bored to tears with Maryland countryside. I miss the western terrain, which is so much more interesting and it is also so much easier to find uninterrupted vistas that work so well on canvas: think of Bierstadt, Church, Thomas Moran, etc., and you'll see what I mean. I kind of wish I could take a trip out west just to hunt for things to paint. Here, it is all rolling hills and hard to find places where there aren't Wal-Marts and developers spoiling the forests and meadows. I miss the West.

]]> *aragon64 http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/11873285/ http://aragon64.deviantart.com/journal/11873285/ Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:53:20 PST I'm a little tired, but it's a good kind of tired. I've been pushing myself for nearly eight months working on my fourteen Arthurian canvases and after just a little more tone adjustments on a couple of paintings I will be done. I hope to start varnishing the bulk of the paintings I finished in 2006 this week and then I will feel that they are FINISHED.
I've started preliminary work for a landscape painting for a wedding present, which I hope to being painting this week. Then I have three other canvases on the 'decided' drawing board to do, which should occupy the next three months at the most, although it may end up being more like two months to actually paint them. After that, I have no major ideas clambering around in the back of my head impatient for me to paint them out on a canvas, so who knows what may emerge out of sheer restlessness.
And in the meantime, I have an amazonian epic to edit and publish by June on Lulu.com, so I remain busy.

]]> *aragon64