November-December 2023 / End of Year Review

An overview of my creative works made in the past 2 months.

COLLAGE

Portal by Joan Pope, 2023

Temple of Love by Joan Pope, 2023

Decay by Joan Pope, 2023

Lament of the Astral Cowboy by Joan Pope, 2023

Vision by Joan Pope, 2023

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VIDEO

Honored to have edited this music video for Dee Fortune & Thought Group. Check out this article about the official video premiere and info about their forthcoming album.

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ETC…

The end of the year is always a slow time for me when it comes to my creative output. Most of my energy goes to celebrating the holidays with my family and resting. The holiday season was a totally different experience for me this year now that I have a child. He is almost a year old! Its been hard working full time, adjusting to motherhood, and trying to maintain my creative work. However, now that he’s sleeping better, we have more of a routine, I foresee 2024 having a little bit of a comeback for me. It’s been good for me to step away from my art for a little while. The well of inspiration was starting to feel a bit dry, but that I’ve had so many new experiences, I’m ready to bring that into my art.

Thanks to everyone who has supported my work this year. I appriciate all the attention you’ve given to my work. Have a wonderful 2024 and stay tuned for more art.

Year in Review: 2021 (Part 1: Collage)

An overview of my creative works made in the past year.

It’s hard to believe 2021 is coming to a close. As I mentioned last week, I have a lot going on in my personal life (buying a house, packing/moving, commercial work, and of course, I will be spending time with my family for the holidays). These last couple weeks of the year are best suited for reflection rather than trying to start something new. With that said, I will break up my Year in Review reflection into ~3 parts. This is Part 1.

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COLLAGE

The following are selected collage works that I created in 2021. This selection demonstrates what I think are my strongest pieces, either, but also some of my personal favorites.

Vision and Perceptual Limits by Joan Pope, 2021

Allegory of Beauty by Joan Pope, 2021

Still Just A Rat In A Cage by Joan Pope, 2021

The Great God Pan is Dead by Joan Pope, 2021

How To Grow by Joan Pope, 2021

Story of the i by Joan Pope, 2021

All is Vanity by Joan Pope, 2021

Father Time II by Joan Pope, 2021

Bad Girl by Joan Pope, 2021

Allegory of the Cave by Joan Pope, 2021

Make Love Not War Between the Sexes by Joan Pope, 2021

Samsara by Joan Pope, 2021

Allegory of the Future by Joan Pope, 2021

The God of New Beginnings by Joan Pope, 2021

Anima and Animus by Joan Pope, 2021

Gnosis by Joan Pope, 2021

Vanitas by Joan Pope, 2021

Journey of the Soul by Joan Pope, 2021

The Interior Castle by Joan Pope, 2021

Illumination by Joan Pope, 2021

Hecate by Joan Pope, 2021

Genius by Joan Pope, 2021

Capricorn Rising, Capricorn Moon by Joan Pope, 2021

Year in Review: 2020

Reflections on the past year and thoughts on the future…

This year didn’t turn out the way I anticipated, but I continued with my work and tried to make the best of it. In this post I will highlight some of work I did this year. As social media gets more stifling, I will use this platform more to distribute my work, and in future posts I will also include some of the artwork that I find (i.e. kind of stuff I share on the sexdeathrebirth Twitter) on weekly basis.

Let’s get into 2020…

PUBLICATIONS

The Flowers of Evil

The Flowers of Evil by Joan Pope / Temple ov Saturn

Early in the year, my art book The Flowers of Evil was published by Input Error. This was a collection of collages I made the previous year that illustrated Charles Baudelaire’s infamous poetry collection Les Fleurs du Mal. An accompanying Temple ov Saturn album was also released on tape.

Burning House Press: Sex and Death in The Age of Aquarius

I was a guest editor for the March issue of Burning House Press. The theme was Sex and Death in the Age of Aquarius. I got so many great submissions, check them out here. If the submission didn’t come with art or was art itself, I created the art to accompany the piece. This is a virtual exhibit of the art I made for the issue:

Half Mystic Journal Issue VIII: Sforzando

I had the honor of illustrating the Sforzando issue of the literary magazine Half Mystic Journal. Copies are still available on their website.

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ZINES

Death is Coming

This year I re-published my poetry collection Death is Coming as a zine and included new art work. There are a few copies left on Bandcamp.

The Saturn Chronicle

The Saturn Chronicle is an art zine that is enhanced by augmented reality. At a first glance, it looks like a normal art zine, but by using an AR image scanner, each page is a trigger for more artwork, videos, music, and poetry.

Both zines were reviewed at FLUX web zine. Please check out the review!

(There is also a 360 VR video that goes along with the zine. The best way to view it is by searching for it on YouTube with your VR headset. It just doesn’t have the same effect on a desktop. Search for The Saturn Chronicle VR Meditation on YouTube, or for my channel, Temple of Saturn) (I hate YouTube, but its better for the VR stuff… I use Vimeo for all of my video work)

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MUSIC

Temple ov Saturn Releases in 2020:

The Sacred and The Profane was included on Bandcamp’s The Best Electronic Music on Bandcamp: August 2020

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ART

I created approximately 180 collages this year. These are a few of my favorites:

Killing Time by Joan Pope

Rebirth by Joan Pope

The Tower, or The Need for Roots by Joan Pope

Bound by Time by Joan Pope

Spark of Life by Joan Pope

Carrier of Life and Death by Joan Pope

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VIDEO

Some of my favorite videos that I made for my own projects:

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CLOSING THOUGHTS + LOOKING AHEAD:

This is getting really long and while I could keep adding content, I’ll wrap it up. I always have this feeling that I don’t do enough, but then I sit back and try to make these sorts of posts and I realize that the amount of work is overwhelming. I can’t even keep track of it and I created it.

That’s why I’ve been creating an Airtable to catalog ALL of my work. If you are not familiar with Airtable, its a tool to create a searchable database. I still have a long way to go before its complete, but if you have a look, you’ll get the idea. Once I’m done with all the Temple ov Saturn stuff, I will add all the SexDeathRebirth stuff, all of the recordings I ever published as Whip Angels, Temple ov Saturn, Pope Joan II, blacktantra, all my collaborations, publications, performances, commissions, photos, etc… Check it out here.

(I also want to have ALL of my work thus far printed in a catalog/reference style book merely to preserve my work in print. Then add new volumes to it each year.)

I have some cool commissions already on the table for early 2021 that I’m excited about. I went into 2020 thinking it was going to be a really big year for me, and at the start, it seemed like it would have been. The pandemic, the lockdowns, the economic turmoil put a damper on that. I think the hardest part was feeling like I spent years building up to this point in my career and then it came to a screeching halt. But hey, I’m still breathing. I have no expectations for 2021. I’m simply going to continue my work and hope for the best.

Thanks to everyone who has generously supported my work and to all of those who paid attention. There is much more to come. Be well in 2021.

This week between Christmas and New Year’s I’m taking off to relax, spend time with my family, organize, and prepare for 2021. So no creative works have been made this week. I’ll be back to work in January.

Blessings to all,

Joan