I'm really fascinated by the variety of religions that exist in the world and their associated imagery. Gods and other heavenly beings are always perfect & immaculate, depicted in their culture's ideal of beauty. Growing up in Austria within a Roman Catholic culture I'm used to the characters of the Bible but other more exotic (to me) religions have always sparked my interest. Especially Hinduism and the way they often paint their heavenly people: blue skin, heavy eye liner and oooh the jewellery! ♥

The tales in all the religious texts, be it the Bible or what I've read of other collections of writings such as the great Hindu epics or the Egyptian books of the dead, are often wonderfully surreal and bizarre, but like fairytales there's always a moral to the story. But people take them so literally, even in our times and fight wars over a footnote in their fav version of _______ (insert religious book of choice). It's like arguing whether Little Red Riding Hood's cape was bright red or maroon or maybe it was even a beanie or a headscarf, when the moral of the story really is stranger danger or something like that.

Anyway, I decided to paint a peaceful, multifaith angel-goddess hovering in the sky. It's the biggest painting I've ever painted.