HOW MY IMAGE OF MELEK TAUS CAME TO BE: The Official Story, Part One

“Melek Ta’us”

I’ve just posted a new Page in my Essays and Articles category, containing Part One of the story of my 1995 acrylic painting of Melek Ta’us, the Peacock Angel of the Yezidi and of the Feri witchcraft tradition. Scans from my postcard of this image were floating around the internet years before I got a website of my own, and it is only in the last few years that I have seen how far it has really gotten around. Out of respect for all the folk who have been touched or inspired by my image, and also so that people know more about the artist and how it came to be, I have published this information here. Part Two, still in process as of this post, will go into more detail about the ripples and influences the image has appeared to have in various quarters. Anyone with a connection to Feri, an interest in the Yezidi, and/or in Promethean/Luciferian images of the Divine, is encouraged to check it out, though I add as a proviso that as I am not a Yezidi, my concept of Him cannot be regarded as “authentically Yezidi.”

When I created my painting there was no precedent, no previously existing image of this (at one time) obscure and esoteric divinity. My story describes why I wanted to paint Him and how I arrived at what my final image became, with no official landmarks to guide me.

Please also visit my website at https://paulruckerart.com. A larger version of this image lives in my “Faeries and Angels” gallery and can be linked to directly through this gallery at https://paulruckerart.com/galleries/traditional-paintings/faeries-and-angels/melek-taus/

A New Blog to Showcase My Poetry, Articles, Essays and Other Writings

Paul B. Rucker bio pic

For many years I have travelled around the USA to present and sell my art, which is figurative and metaphysical (for convenience I call it “Visionary Art” with the proviso that that means many things to many people). For more than 20 years I have been putting it out there and have achieved a certain amount of fame in various circles, notably for my interpretation of the Blue God Melek Ta’us and interestingly, my Faerie Blue Man character which I have been enacting at the Faerieworlds festival and other locations in recent years.

It’s less well known that I write– or more accurately, have written— various kinds of pieces pertaining to my creative and life experiences.

This is the format I am currently experimenting with to showcase various writings of mine over the years– some published, and some not. (Publishing credits are listed when applicable.) Much of what will appear here is material I thought too good to be consigned to oblivion, so I bring it online to enjoy a second life and hopefully many memetic propagations.

Many know me as a visual artist– yet I am uncommonly verbal for someone who thinks in pictures. At certain intervals I have actually generated the discipline required to set my words into some kind of structure and form. 

It’s like exercising an entirely different set of muscles but the balance produces tone and a certain amount of philosophical stamina. Since the content of my images takes in much inspiration from lore and narrative and story, it seems fitting that my writings make use of telling images: I am a writerly painter and a painterly writer.

My posts to WordPress are selections from many points in my life and will include future updates and additions. All works are copyrighted in my name but can be quoted if an author credit is included. (Let me know about it if you can, it produces nice feelings!) Feel free to share your input or questions as well.

Also please visit my main website at: http://paulruckerart.com.