I posted this teaser image for my upcoming MakersPlace drop on Twitter and the results were pretty interesting…
People recognize it from different places. Some know it from its spiritual origins in Kabbalah but it seems like even more know it from its history in anime. The first time I remember seeing it was accompanied by the opening bars of Cruel Angel’s Thesis, back when I first popped a Neon Genesis Evangelion tape into my VCR.
It’s known as the Tree of Life, or the Tree of Sephiroth (yes, that’s where the bad guy from FFVII gets his name from). Each node on this chart is represented as a sphere that holds the essence of a unique facet of the human experience. The relationship between each of the spheres is meaningful, charted by unique pathways. It’s an esoteric system, but the more you explored it, the more fascinating and elegant it becomes. The deep meanings built into the structure of the Tree of Life is what has lead to its extraordinary staying power in the world of spiritual introspection as well as a staple of the Japanese pop-culture landscape.
Classically, each of the different aspects of the chart are represented exclusively as abstract ideas. These ten Sephira, or Emanations, aren’t depicted with personalities or even any distinct symbology. It’s an interesting thing to stumble upon. It’s rare to find a thing so heavy with meaning but totally absent of personification. As a creative project, it was too appealing of an idea to pass up.
Back in 2014, when I first started taking on Angelarium as a full-time project, I endeavored to create a series of giants that represented the ten Emanations of the Tree of Life. My drop on April 5th is a complete collection of those paintings, now made even more vivid by the addition of depth and animation.
The Emanations are a foundational part of the Angelarium project, existing as the first complete collection in my online illustrated encyclopedia of Angels and the basis for the first book in the series “Angelarium: Book of Emanations”. Now that I’m minting my catalog of digital artwork in the ledger of Ethereum’s history, I felt it was appropriate to ensure that my origin story was fully accounted for.
I’m dropping all ten Emanations at once as open editions on MakersPlace on April 5th. Any collector that chooses to pick up all ten open editions will get the opportunity to claim this very fancy memorial badge. It’s not real gold, but it is heavy and very rare. I’m only making 100 available.
This is a historic moment for Angelarium and it’s going to be a heart-stopping 30 minutes for me. I hope that you’re excited too.
As always, please feel free to reach out via Twitter for any questions about my work. My DMs are always open.
https://twitter.com/bugmeyer
https://www.instagram.com/petemohrbacher/
Much love,
-Pete
