I thought I’d keep it seasonal this time, and have a look at Angels. One thing becomes immediately evident when browsing this keyword on DeviantArt: cheesy little children with wings are no longer “it”. Most of the angels – at least those with the highest ratings and views – are quite sinister. Or they are fractal. Or they are sexy and sometimes tormented.
Again, I have filtered out the big-boobed teenage wet dreams which seem to attach themselves to just about any subject that provides an excuse – but at least, this time there were some Beautiful Boys among the selection.
I just hope you, dear reader, are not overly religious.
Those artists who still imagine angels as spiritual creatures of light, seem to mostly have resorted to fractals: Chaos theory and mathematics replacing more traditional kinds of spirituality, perhaps.
The warlike angel who defends the realm of light against the demons of darkness with armour and sword, goes back a good long while in art history. Here is a more recent incarnation: strangely enough, somehow this angel looks a little bit like the Mouth of Sauron. Hmmm.
Slightly more on the erotic side is this male bodied tormented angel. Whereas the two examples below seem to take the concept into the realm of mechanical creatures. Angel, or Ghost in the Machine?
There is a whole subcategory of Angels of Death- ranging from Gothic fashion statement, to the entirely abstract.
At least one angel is flying into the light, angel fashion. Or is it rather that the angel darkens the sun?
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