"Petitioning Papa Legba at the Crossroads"

"Petitioning Papa Legba at the Crossroads", 18" x 24", acrylic, 2018

About this painting: Legendary blues man Robert Johnson is said to have "made a deal with the Devil at the crossroads". Turns out, the "devil" is actually a voodoo/African spirit, Legba-- often known as "Papa Legba". Also, the crossroads is not so much a literal physical location; rather, it is the crossroads between the physical and spiritual world. This painting is inspired by this blues mythology

This scene is in the rural south of the USA. Highway 61 is known as "The Blues Highway", and the crossroads of the legend are said to be on this road, specifically at the intersection of 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Other roads also make this claim, but 61 has kind of won out. The crow holds a tarot card-- The Devil-- a nod to the "deal with the devil". The lizard probably means something too, but I just added it mainly to balance out the crow in terms of the composition of the picture.

On the left, carrying a guitar, is a blues man who wants to be "the next Robert Johnson". He is attired in festive Mardi Gras apparel. He has in his arm a pint of Bacardi rum, as a gift for Papa Legba.

The central figure of course, is Papa Legba. Legba is often seen walking with a crutch, smoking a pipe, and is frequently followed by a dog. He also often wears a straw hat, but in this case, I had something else in mind. His powers are represented by the bolts of energy shooting from his fingers.

On the right is a southern redneck/greaser dude, who is also a voodoo practitioner. Note the "mojo hand" (mojo bag) tied around his neck. The hand on the gearshift, his "vehicle", and the 8-ball tattoo are all a nod to the great Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, creator of many legendary custom cars in the 60s; also one of the originators of "weirdo art" and a forefather of what has come to be known as "lowbrow art" or "pop surrealism".

Prints of this painting are available on my website.

The Opener of the Way

New painting, just completed (8/8/08).

(click on image to enlarge)


Jacobi, The Opener of the Way, 18" x 24", acrylic, 2008

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The Opener of the Way
Psycho, Anubis

The Opener of the Way is the title of Robert Bloch’s first book, a collection of horror and fantasy stories, published by Arkham House in 1945. Bloch would be familiar to most people as the author of Psycho, from which Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name was based. Bloch was also a member of the “Lovecraft Circle”. In Bloch’s story, the opener of the way was the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis.




Robert Johnson at the crossroads, Muddy, and Jimi

The opener of the way; the gatekeeper at the crossroads. Legend has it that bluesman Robert Johnson “made a deal with the devil at the crossroads”. In the voodoo tradition of Haiti and New Orleans, the deity Legba is the gatekeeper of the gates to the spirit world, the opener of the way for the gods to possess their devotees. It is likely that the “devil” that Robert Johnson encountered was actually Legba (so the story goes). Johnson’s song Crossroads was popularized by Eric Clapton with the group Cream on their 1968 double album Wheels of Fire.



Voodoo has not been an uncommon theme in the blues. From Johnson, to Muddy Waters singing "I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too, I got a John the Conqueror root, I’m gonna mess with you..." in the song Hoochie Coochie Man, to Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, there is a powerful magic in this music.


The painting

This painting came about in a very spontaneous manner. I had nothing specific in mind when I started it, it just sort of unfolded on its own. (It started with a sketch, which can be seen on a post I made back on May 15.) As it progressed, I looked at it and thought, what is this thing? I pictured myself standing out in a field somewhere, encountering this strange entity that just materialized out of thin air. An apparition, an inter-dimensional being, or what? The legend of Robert Johnson came to mind… the crossroads… Legba, the opener of the way. Somehow, it fit. Legba is often depicted as an as an old man on a crutch or with a cane, wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat and smoking a pipe, or sprinkling water. If this is a picture of Legba, he could be “shape-shifting”, or perhaps this is just one of his many faces.

Then again, this painting could be about something altogether different…

Note: included in this painting you will find the all-seeing eye, the alchemical symbols for fire and for air, and the golden ratio a couple of times (appearing once by chance [to my surprise, when I realized it], and once by intent[inspired by my discovery]).