Alex Grey (Artist), Gaia, and 9/11

First off, I did a search and checked through the first three pages and didn't see any topics pertaining to this so I thought I'd start one. Also, the pictures do contain a painting of a phallic object. If you are offended, you do not have to look. The point of the object is its symbolism, not the object itself.

Alex Grey is an amazing artist and painter. He has done album art for the band Tool and has painted MANY very intricate and beautiful paintings. You can see some of them here.

alexgrey.com...

Some of you may be familiar with his work, and some may not. But there is one painting in particular that I would like to bring to your attention. His painting titled "Gaia" is a picture of a giant tree, with planet Earth in the background. On the left side of the tree, you will notice animals, grass, nature, and beauty. On the right, you will notice the branches on fire, the breasts of the tree connected to power lines, and what looks like a polluted, industrial area.

Of course, there is an immense amount of detail in this painting but there are a few things in particular I'd like to pay attention to. Keep in mind that this was painted in the year 1989, 12 years before the attacks of 9/11.





Not too hard to notice, but in the background, you see the very obvious WTC buildings and two airplanes flying over. Hmm.

Next, it may be a little hard to see and it is of course, all up to how you perceive this image. What many have agreed on before is that on the base of the tree on the right side, you see three very distinct figures. One, on the far right, is a giant phallic object with devil horns and what look like insect type arms. In the middle, a man dressed in a suit with what looks like grey/white hair. On the left of that man is another man. To me, looks somewhat like a typical depiction of a terrorist with a gun in his hands.

Many have speculated that the phallic object to the right of the character in the middle (who many have speculated to look like George Bush) depicts Dick Cheney. Of course, George Bush and Dick Cheney have been part of the 9/11 controversy since it began. Them being next to a character that looks like a terrorist is quite odd, especially with the towers and planes in the background.

Here is a close up of that section of the three figures.

I understand some may think it is inappropriate but it is the symbolism of the object that interests me.





I'd assume that many have seen this before, but for those of you that have not, what do you think? Alex Grey is one of my favorite artists. His works are TRULY amazing. I will leave it up for you to discuss your opinions.
Here is a video where he describes the painting a little more.

He starts talking about it at 0:37 seconds.



Leave thoughtful comments, Thanks.

Interesting find, I had not noticed that before. I knew he was intense, but this is one i missed, thanks, now i have to go back and re-look at his pics with better light.

I love Alex's art, he injects an ethereal quality in to all his work that is amazing.
I had never heard of the 9/11 connection to Gaia before and what you say is interesting but looking a bit more I found more connections.
You may not know but the day before 9/11 there was a hurricane headed on a path straight for NYC. Look in the sky, not only will you see 2 planes but above that there is an all-seeing eye, a hurricane and a satellite. There's also the 4 smokestacks representing 4 plane crashes.
The figure next to George Bush might be a more literal interpretation (he said it himself) - Dick Cheney i.e., Darth Cheney who I believe to be a very evil man wearing horns.
You have branches of the tree on fire with people falling as in the twin towers also.

Just a few more things to add.
I believe it is possible to see the future if in the right state.
Perhaps Alex Grey was given such a vision.

Good to see the green leaves (Light) slowly spreading toward the Right,

inevitably subduing the destructive fire (Darkness), as they progress more

and more to once again gracefully and naturally cover the burnt branches

of the three of Life.

And agree with the tree figures representing: Patsy, Bush and hapless Dick!

Cheers

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Hmm I did not know that about the hurricane. That's very interesting. And yes I agree, his art is nothing short of amazing. Thanks for posting

Ups!

Should be tree of Life, and three figures, in my last post!

So sorry ....

Cheers

I don't know why, but to me this reads almost like a timeline from left to right.

Of course you have the Earth in all it's natural beauty before we began to destroy it. Then, moving further to the right you have the hand with the eye, possibly representing our enlightenment, followed by a man that I would interpret as Adam.

Next we have Buddha in the center of the tree, followed by what many feel is George Bush, then the twin towers with the two airplanes. Now the four smokestacks could represent the four plane crashes as a poster above me stated, or it could represent the further destruction of our environment and global warming.

The fact that the "timeline" ends with a nuclear reactor on the far right is what concerns me. Any help with this interpretation would be greatly appreciated.

ETA: I can't get this predictive timeline theory out of my head. To the left of the twin towers, which we obviously know is the year 2001, is the ISS, which was launched in 1998.

Further, Saturn is located just to the right of the twin towers. Cassini reached Saturn in 2005. Now, further down the timeline we have what appears to be a meteor shower. I am going to go out on a limb and assume this could indicate the increase in huge meteor sightings over the past few years.

Then, of course, we have what could be Mars, or maybe even a brown dwarf. I'm going with Mars. Could we expect a major announcement in the near future that they have undeniable proof that life did exist on Mars at some time?

I've never heard of this Alex Grey, but I'm convinced he is trying to tell us something.

Originally posted by LiveNoEvil

Leave thoughtful comments, Thanks.

The wonderful thing about abstract art is that the more abstract it becomes, the more it becomes a Rorschach test that reveals the individual viewer's own conscious and unconscious outlook on life, and the painting becomes an interactive experience. When *I* see this painting I see it as a condemnation of urbanization, with a Yin-Yang metaphor of a tree (representing the planet Earth) being shared by healthy nature, blue skies, and clean water on the one hand, and on the other hand, destructive sprawling city land scapes, nuclear reactors, and filthy skies poisoned by belching smokestacks, with images of people within the branches being consumed in the fire destroying the tree of Earth. This is almost certainly because of my own bucolic outlook- I grew up in the country and my playground was the deep woods and the forest streams, and I would rather put on a frilly dress and a pretty pink bonnet before I ever willingly live in a city.

On the other hand, when the 9/11 conspiracy people see this painting, they completely ignore every other component of the image (including the genitalia reaching out and grabbing someone from behind, which you can't NOT stare at like a traffic accident, once you notice it) and they zero in exclusively on the two buildings and the airplane, and the two generic skyscrapers in the middle of the generic cityscape of course have to become NYC and the two towers. Since this painting was done before 9/11, they'll necessarily see the painting as having some secret relevent meaning pertinent to 9/11 that the author is trying to reveal to us. I don't have to explain this is because of their own one track mind as far as 9/11 goes- if they want to see a conspiracy hidden in something, they're going to find one regardless of whether there's really one there or not.

Can you point out why anything I said was incorrect?

I love Alex Grey! I've got a copy of "Collective Vision" hanging in my bedroom. It really brings a great energy to the room.

I never knew this about Gaia, it's really an amazing and gorgeous painting and I was amazed to see the size actual of it in the video. His art is truly breathtaking and thought-provoking. Not to mention trippy! Gotta love it.

The connections to 9/11 are indeed creepy, but probably a coincidence. As others have mentioned they have a different sort of symbolism to a pre-9/11 world. The "Dick" Cheney gave me quite a laugh though.

reply to post by GoodOlDave


I agree with what you're saying. I definitely saw the yin-yang metaphor when I noticed this, but also kind of a timeline of our existence. Also, kind of a "wake up people" feel seeing as it shows the Earth, beautiful as ever, then it shows the Earth with the things we have created and it is ...disgusting. The reason I post it in the 9/11 conspiracy section is just to bring to the attention the coincidences that are seen in the painting. Of course, everyone's interpretation is different and if you're looking for something, you will focus on that more than anything. I only stated the 9/11 coincidences in this thread because that was the topic I was aiming for.

There is a LOT of beauty in this picture, as well as destruction. Overall a wonderful painting that can be looked at many different ways.

@Martianmellow, When I saw the size, I was also awestruck. That is what I love about his paintings is that most of them are huge! I feel lucky to be able to live at the same time as an artist as great as Alex Grey.

Thank you for posting this.
Star and flag!
I was just watching a documentary about him last week. Fascinating!

I found out about Alex Grey years ago when I first heard of TOOL (A.K.A. the greatest band of the last 30 years besides OPETH)

He did a lot of their cover art for their albums.

reply to post by PaxVeritas


That's how I found out about him. Tool is also my favorite band and I love their album artwork. A friend of mine has the Lateralus eye tatooed on his back! Thanks for the comments.

reply to post by LiveNoEvil


The terrorist looks a little like Saddam. So we have Saddam(?), Bush, and Dick Cheney?

reply to post by LiveNoEvil



my apologies, but while this piece is very beautiful and creative, it is not a result of a vision or prophecy, and most definitely not original in any way. search for Yggdrasil. You will find that Alex's work was in fact inspired by an ancient norse cosmological belief in an immense, sacred tree, a belief which began in the 13th century. I applaud his work, but I have no idea how or why he claims that this could be evidence of any kind of prophecy. There is another similar work, by an artist who's name I don't know, that I once looked at when I was young several times in a book by national geographic entitled "a picture atlas of our universe". That picture had a giant crow perched at the top of the tree, surrounded by similar object/people that would have been appropriate for the time frame that it was painted. If anyone knows how to find artwork of this online, please let me know.