Gallery of the visionary art of Ciaran Shaman
Inspired by the natural world at night when the magic is strong, and the electro-photonic geometry of chaos and form that is made visible and tangible through the ingestion of entheogenic plants and fungi, my art seeks to overlay some of this extra-dimensional beauty onto scenes that are familiar to those who never have explored the psychedelic landscape. In doing so the hope is to inspire people who may see psychedelics as just ‘drugs’ that they are indeed much more than that.
I work with Prismacolor pencils and two ever-present cat guardians, and can often be found roaming the wilds of the North Yorkshire Moors.
See: https://www.facebook.com/psychevibrance
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'Contact'. 594mm x 420mm. Prismacolor pencil. My homage to Leonardo Da-Vinci and his mathematically beautiful Vitruvian Man, fused with the ancient astronaut theory as proposed by Harold T. Wilkins in 1954 though often credited to Erich von Däniken who made the theory popular. In the case of this drawing, the ancient astronauts - i.e. aliens, reside within psychedelic mushrooms, reflecting the inter-dimensional nature of psychedelics and the alien-contact experience as is often reported by those who take psychedelics. The mushroom UFO's are beaming down information via strands of DNA that become symbolic serpents venturing out into the world to impart knowledge with those that wish to hear.
'Curlew at sunset'. A5 minature. Prismacolor pencil. One of a small series of artworks depicting silhouetted birds set against psychedelic sunset skies. The swirls that make up the sky rotate when in altered state, creating movement, flow and form.
'Eden in the Propellers of Time'. 594mm x 420mm. Prismacolor pencil. The one that properly started my journey as an artist. This drawing was created in 1998 after having completed a few psychedelic doodles for loved ones which were well received. The thought occurred to me to perhaps try my hand at a real and structured work of art that carried with it some meaning and hopefully depth. At this time of my life I was reading a great deal about geology and the formation of the Earth's landmass and continental drift, as well as taking a lot of psychedelics. Both interests are reflected in this artwork, with the swirling geometric 'propellers' being of psychedelic closed-eye-visuals nature, and each visible Earth having the continents in different places, each moving towards Pangea as the eye goes back in time to the top of the picture.
'Entwined'. 255mm x 160mm. Prismacolor pencil. Reaching towards the prismatic planetary light, the psilocybe semilanceata mushrooms entwine in a dance of double-helical resonance. This drawing was inspired by a psychedelic experience wherein a spiritual connection was made with the planet Jupiter via a rainbow tunnel of light.
'Meetings with Ganesh in the nn-Dimethyltryptamine Dimension'. 300mm x 300mm. Prismacolor pencil. This artwork was inspired by a fantastical voyage through the DMT dimension, flying past and encountering a whole plethora of weird and wonderful creatures en-route to a stopping point where the beautiful and awe-inspiring Ganesh awaited. The meeting was deeply peaceful. A peace the which of like I've never experienced before. The Ganesh entity welcomed me with love, and spoke with colour and texture. "Draw me and draw all that you see", it gently said. It was deeply humbling to be in the presence of something so utterly beautiful.
'Leonid Panspermia'. 594mm x 420mm. Prismacolor pencil. This artwork, drawn in 2003, was inspired by the 1998 Leonid meteor shower which at times almost became a storm. I watched it with enhanced vision via psychedelics, and recalled the sheer abundance of glowing fireballs as depicted here. The sense of it literally raining tiny dust particles was overwhelming, and the thought of panspermia (the theory that life on the earth originated from microorganisms or chemical precursors via cometary impact from space) was strong and viable. A deeply memorable experience. The night scene is framed by the same view as seen during the daylight hours.
'Orion Flowers'. 594mm x 420mm. Prismacolor pencil. A recurrent visual in my art is that of the constellation Orion, the majestic hunter who watches over the winter skies in the northern hemisphere, here portrayed as vivid flowers of light that overlap and intersect in a somewhat mechanical cog-like fashion reflecting the concept of time and motion as a singular dimension - for without motion there would be no time. The Psilocybe semilanceata mushrooms holding both questions and answers to what everything may actually be all about.
'Reflecting the Vocal Chords of Gaia'. 594mm x 420mm. Prismacolor pencil. This artwork, drawn in 2001, came to me as a complete vision. A psychedelic landscape/mindscape fusion inspired by direct communication with the spirit of Nature via the ingestion of psilocybe mushrooms. Nature has an energy, a flow, and this energy contains a consciousness - a lifeforce if you will that is aware, vast, all-encompassing and all around, only we cannot see nor communicate it in our usual everyday state of mind. When psychedelics are used the hidden becomes visible, and connections can be made with individual plants, animals, atoms and molecules, including creatures and beings from other dimensions and realms. It is like talking directly with Nature via thought and light which is downloaded and reflected upon. The concept of this artwork was to show the psychedelic mushrooms as the vocal chords of Nature, a way for the Universe and our beautiful planet to talk with individual human beings.
'Shamanita Illuminatus'. 395mm x 210mm. Prismacolor Pencil. Inspired by the simple pleasure of looking up a tree trunk to the canopy of leaves above. That view then kaleidoscoped into four points which form the framework surrounding the androgynous Amanita muscaria mushroom in the center. The serpent above reflects knowledge and wisdom, and becomes the top of the Egyptian Ankh as made by the green spherical 'tree-tops'. Inside the serpent is a UFO, purely because. The deities Bast and Moloch watch over East and West respectively, Bast to welcome Ra the Sun God in the morning and Moloch to bid farewell in the evening and watch all-seeing over the night. Surrounding the central image are sperm-like Psilocybe semilanceata mushrooms eager to fertilise with the essence of life. The artwork is framed by flowering Morning Glory vines, source of the visionary tryptamine D-lysergic acid amide.
'Infinity Keys'. 420mm x 297mm. Prismacolor pencil. My 'psychedelic tea-towel' design as I fondly refer to this artwork. Inspired by an LSD trip where I saw the duality of the Universe but with that higher-state inherent feeling of oneness, visually explained in a figure of 8 pattern where everything-but-consciousness existed in the loops and only consciousness itself resided at the centre where the loops meet. It totally made sense at the time. The figure of 8 in this artwork is made up of ears of rye grass infected with the ergot fungus which is a primary source of lysergic acid. Within the loops are the sun, symbolised by the eye of Ra, and the Earth and moon with lunar cycle. Around the artwork are eight keys with molecular bits, all of entheogenic flavour. The lattice edge framework has an entwined flowering Morning Glory vine running through it, another sacred plant that contains the tryptamine Lysergic Acid Amide.
'Symbiosis'. 594mm x 420mm. Prismacolor pencil. Drawn during a period of deep immersion into tales of the Amazon river and rainforest as described by Terence McKenna in his fabulous book 'True Hallucinations'. Terence's descriptions, fused with my own research at the time into symbiotic relationships, brought forth this artwork in a single complete vision.