Son of the morning
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning” - Isaiah 14:12
This one is a pretty simple piece, however, the challenge involved in a simple piece is linked to the level of restraint that I need to have to say as much as I can with as little as I can, like a haiku. these kind of works with lots of empty space and very little elements are something that I enjoy doing a lot, even though these don’t necessarily do great with the algorithms, but in the context of my sketchbook I feel like these provide a little bit of a cadence to the noisier and denser pages.
“The Archangel Michael defeating Satan” - Guido Reni
The idea for this piece came to me a year ago, in the winter of 2024 I was invited to form part of a group of artists to participate with some images for a book about artist sketchbooks by Victionary, they also sent a form in which they asked us to answer a series of questions with our own letter, one of the questions was to draw the first thing that came to mind with the word “doodle”. I am not a great doodler but for some reason I thought about doing a version of that painting from Guido Reni where Archangel Michael defeats Lucifer before being casted out of heaven (there are actually a good amount of artworks covering that theme) and the way I thought about it was using a bee and a fly as a metaphor for it.
Initial sketch for “Son of the Morning”
The way I thought about it was how bees are perceived as this beautiful and righteous insect that we love and protect, and flies on the other hand are ugly, undesirable pests that usually spawn when something is very wrong. Bees produce food in the form of honey, flies transmit disease; bees are bright and colorful, flies are dark; bees are thought as crucial for an ecosystem to thrive, flies are a bad omen.
For this particular entry in my sketchbook I decided I wanted to capture a version of that idea, as I searched for stock images of dead flies, I landed on this reference image of a fly that felt like it was falling down and I immediately understood that this was the image I wanted, I carefully drew it in my sketchbook in a way that hopefully would feel soft and solemn, I wanted to give a little dignity for a bug that very few people like, present it like a tragic anti-hero after its defeat, falling helpless, I wanted the image to feel lonely and tragic. After much thought I decided against including the bee in this version, I felt that the image was complete this way and barely needed anything else, I wanted something that wouldn’t spell out all the event, but just present the aftermath, I then thought instead to add the coffee ring as a metaphor for the Sun, disappearing in the distance as our tragic hero falls to its demise.
So the end result ended resembling a lot more “The spiritual descent of Lucifer into Satan” an illustration from Gustav Dore for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, an aftermath, I achieved the level of restraint that I needed and felt that it was enough and I had nothing else to add to the image that would enhance it aesthetically or conceptually.
Gustav Dore “The descent of Lucifer into Satan” from “Paradise Lost”
I have generally been very attracted to the theme of anti heroes and tragedy, I have used flies as a metaphor before in this very sketchbook, in “Icaro” (Icarus) a dead fly and a very faint coffee ring are the elements I use to describe Icarus’ fall from the sky after losing his wings for flying too close to the sun, in another quite recent piece “Aguilas no cazan moscas” (Eagles don’t hunt flies) I try to illustrate a very colloquial phrase in Spanish that speaks about the ridiculousness of a very large and strong being, picking on someone smaller who would not present a challenge, another dead fly features antagonizing a screaming bald eagle.
I have always identified with the underdog, in various moments of my life I’ve felt undesired or unappealing, unworthy and small. I feel with age I have found ways to mend my relationship with myself, my body, who I am, it is still a work in progress and there are still days where things in my head feel dark and dene, but I also think making these metaphorical images soothe that little corner of my heart where that young and angry kid is still lamenting being himself. I feel very lucky to be able to transform that feeling into something quiet and controlled that I can let go.
The title for this piece came up immediately after I finished, when the initial scream of Max Romeo’s reggae song “Chase the Devil” immediately reverberated in my head “Lucifer, son of the morning, I’m gonna chase you out of Earth!” A year ago during a very frantic moment of the year I became pretty obsessed with this song, and I’m happy to pay it an homage in this drawing as well.
“I’m gonna put on an ironed shirt and chase Satan out of Earth / I’m gonna put on an ironed shirt, and chase the devil off the Earth / I’m gonna send him to outer space to find another race”
