FEAST YOUR EYES

The Red and Black: A Design Manifesto

Our process of creating visual art is heavily focused on subject matter that carries the ideals expressed by the aesthetical values of Red and Black.

Religious Iconography, Occult Symbolism, Original Characters, Subculture references, and classical works of art by painters such as Francisco Goya are some of the core design elements in creating the Red/Black Aesthetic.

Art should just exist. It can be a tool to communicate some deeper meaning, or perhaps tell a story. However in the present day, it feels like a majority of people are more interested in probing a biased meaning instead of seeing art as what it could be: just something that exists.

The same way mankind might just exist without meaning, the things we create might hold just as much value. We choose to believe that this doesn’t make our actions worthless or meaningless. Just because you don’t get to create a legacy or lasting impact doesn’t make your actions any less important. You are important. Everyone is important.

To create for the sake of creation, simply because you want to.

We’d argue there doesn’t need to be any higher purpose than that.

We see things around us that inspire us to create and add to the greater spectrum of creation. Whether it’s of a higher power, or the majestic collage of random happenings that create our world, either way, we exist, and creating is fun.

We want to make art that appears to bleed naturally from the things that already exist. There may be some truth to the stories and idioms passed down from generation to generation, leaving traces of some core truth about existence and the universe. The method of creation should just be to create and not worry about anything else.

Get to the bottom line as fast as possible. If you feel like something should look a certain way, or perhaps a story is missing some important element, it’s your absolute duty to go ahead and create that which you crave.

Live the life you want, and fill it with what you desire.

There are many who consider themselves enlightened individuals, happy to state that the world “isn’t always black and white. There are shades of grey in between.”

We’d argue this is the same as knowing how to count from 3 to 4. Any child of any culture could state that within the visual spectrum, there are many colors. It’s not enough to spot the shades and differences between things that exist.

Between the numbers 3 and 4 lies the abomination: “Pi.”

3.14 and onward. Try to measure a circle, and you require this monstrosity.

Like trying to count the stars in the sky on your fingers, the tool itself may be a part of the problem. When you limit your reality with your own imagination, powered by the rules that society gives you, it becomes a fool’s errand.

Some people propose to live within a simulated world, and claim to be surrounded by “NPC’s” or non player characters. The sheer audacity of this statement makes us want to vomit.

To think that your experience of your world isn’t being witnessed through the limited spectrum of a flesh suit, walking among other meat puppets running on carcinogenic foods, spouting noises composed by electrical impulses, swimming in a lake of regurgitated information.

Perhaps the number of Pi is a number that operates like an engine under the hood, the very gears and inner workings of the universe exposing themselves to those daring to seek it. Does Pi then continue to expand the more you attempt to mine every individual unit? The same way light is both a particle and a wave, some things may present themselves differently and operate according to the viewer. It may expand and evolve along with you as you grow and evolve. This world may in fact operate in a way that quantifies more as you explore. Simulation or not, it exists. You exist. We exist. Let your words, actions, and creations thrive and live happily within that space.

It’s not simply a question of perception, but rather, a conundrum of intent.

We propose that in order to learn about our world and fully experience that which it has to offer, one must dare to look inside and outside. Surely it’s possible to count the stars in the sky, but what then? What victory can truly be gained from knowing such information??

The folly is not the destination, but the purpose.

Is it power you seek? Power over others? Or perhaps it’s the simple joy of learning?

Or maybe it comes down to the innate love of the hunt itself.

We are still human after all. At least, some of us still are.

You were born, and you live, and you will die.

Why count the shades of gray, when you walk the path of the mystics before you who whisper a quest so much greater?

What is the mission? Ask not why man was placed on this planet, but instead, focus on the meal you will eat next.

Ask not why love exists, and who to love, and instead, ask for the love you desire.

Be as selfish as possible.

Is it narcissism that you fear, or the untamed force within you that craves??

We propose that the notion of Samsara can walk hand in hand with the human carnal desire, as both holiness and depravity are required to properly form the keys to your salvation.

It’s within this prison of flesh that we construct a house, where somewhere stands a ladder to climb upwards.

Humans require air, water, and shelter, yet we poison the air, we deplete the water, and horde the shelters. We are beings that spend a limited time in this world as a beast, yet hold domain over the land and each other like wannabe demigods.

The color Black demands that we eventually die, and we all know our days are limited.

And yet we like to play our games of pretend, setting up illusions and games to play within our little Houses.

For what purpose? What victory can be gained from playing such an elaborate game of pretend? We love and we hate, we cry and we laugh, and we dance for years around an idea. One big game of life.

And one day it’s over. We die. All of our choices perpetuate cycles of love and pain, swirling energies into and around the cosmos that creates the world for us and others.

It’s not enough to understand Black and White, as real as they may be.

There needs to be something to represent the primal urge within our hearts. A color to paint the experience, and communicate the feeling of knowing one is a burning fuse.

The red demands blood. The red screams for ecstasy, for joy, for longing, for purpose.

Domination, Submission, Love, and the very blood that runs through each and every one of us.

Through Red, we may find synthesis between opposites.

Through Red, the horrors of our imperfect bodies can be seen as something greater than machines.

Black, Red, and White: Three necessary colors to dance in a cycle of life and death.

Body Horror, Sexual Vice, The intake of controlled substances, they become additional colors to paint with.

It’s a question of intent. What do you want?

If you were told that nothing matters, and you could do ANYTHING you wanted, what would you actually do?

Be selfish. Be brave. Be yourself.

And don’t forget to have fun.

Build your houses. Sing your songs.

Create the reality you want, and walk wherever you please.

End of story.