Angels have made up a large part of my body of work, both for clients and also for myself, for the past few years. There is always something that brings me back to exploring the flexible imagery that these figures represent, both in their described forms in the Bible and in classic literature, as well as through the lens of pop culture and media where an emphasis on the more unknowable, monstrous side of angels and demons are often explored with curiosity.
This page is separate from my other art-centric galleries and is more a gathering place to compile my personal reflections alongside my artistic representations. It is, like most things, an in-process work.
“Do Not Be Afraid”
When I was little, I remember being very afraid of UFOs, possibly due to having read a book about alien abductions in the school library. I would lie down at night and look at passing planes and helicopters out the window and be afraid that they were secretly aliens. I was “cured” of this phobia when I read another random Christian book that claimed (without any real source or anything) that UFOs were actually people seeing angels. Somehow, unsourced or not, this seemed very reasonable to me and made the prospect of accidentally seeing weird floating lights less scary.
Another memory: when I was even younger, I used to stare at the decorative floral moulding around the border of my bedroom ceiling, and see what looked like the shapes of eyes staring down at me. The eyes were actually just the shape of overlapping leaves, but my young pareidolia could’t NOT see it as squinting faces. There was a brief time when whenever I would close my eyes I would see strings of eyes floating around in my vision.
These memories are definitely very amusing to me as an adult, and it is interesting to think back on after many years of drawing depictions of angels, both for fun and profit. It is interesting to me in conversations and interactions with people, who think of such angel designs as “scary.” My attitudes towards angels and their depictions and symbolism certainly fluctuates regularly; sometimes they feel more familiar and cozy to me, as symbols of service to divinity, other times they represent a sense of curious alienation from familiar and earthly things.
Tomatobird Art 