Angel's Abode

Transforming the world from within

by Pollywog Gardenvale

Angel Enoch paints with a passion that finds its expression in ethereal themes of color and light. This is what first strikes you after walking through the doors of Angel’s Abode, her gallery in Park. The paintings on display are digital photographs of her actual work, and each one tells a story.

As a little girl, Angel used to watch from her bedroom window as her father painted rooftops. But he wasn’t a house painter—or a roofer, for that matter. He was an artist, and his impressionistic paintings transformed their working-class Kentucky neighborhood into Paris.

During the war, Angel’s father once chewed up a matchstick and used it to paint a portrait of a friend. He started teaching his daughter to paint when she was only four years old. She describes his influence on both her work and outlook on life, saying, “he was a very spiritual person and he taught me that it is all about light.”

Angel, however, was known more for her pranks than for her art, and it wasn’t until her teenage years that she began to take her painting seriously.

The walls of Angle’s Abode are filled with landscapes, seascapes, still life and portraits, but her favorite theme is the nude. Angel prefers to paint from live models whenever possible, but sometimes all she has to work with is a photograph.

Her paintings are primarily oil on stretched canvas, but some are acrylic and mixed medium. Angel uses her fingers, sponges, magic markers—whatever works to achieve the effect.

Angel mixes color the old fashioned way, using basic red, yellow, and blue, with an occasional (but not too often) sienna thrown into the mix. The result is color that is strikingly clean and brilliant.

When asked if she has a favorite color, Angel replies, “All colors are beautiful to me. Second Life is very creative. I feel the vibe here and get very excited. There is so much to discover. I feel freer in some way and am seeing my colors become brighter—almost psychedelic.”

Angel likes to paint in layers of transparent color, especially for skin tones, and uses lots of linseed oil. This technique allows you to look into a painting, rather than merely look at its surface. The light travels through each layer of paint and bounces off the canvas into your brain.

Her painting, “Lucid Dream” was painted with very thin, watercolor-like layers and was inspired by a dream.

“Our dreams are real because they come from our deepest selves. I was always dreaming of tidal waves, and I finally thought that the next time, I will let it take me. And when it did, it felt like love.

“It played with me, gently at first and then hit me full force. There’s no way to describe it. It was like liquid, warm love. So now I’m no longer afraid. I fly above the wave and feel so free!

“They say the ocean is unity and love—a oneness with all. This is the goal of all religions.” When Angel sets up her table easel and gets cozy in an armchair, she can sometimes paint for twelve hours at a stretch. She admits, “I am an obsessive person when I feel creative—it’s like making love.”

Many of angels paintings are studies of a common theme. She is currently working on a series of 78 tarot cards, the first of which is the Green Tara, the queen of discs. “The Tarot is an expression of what I learned from studying magick, which I did for twelve years—qaballa. It is an intensive study.

“They tell a story of the Tree of Life, based on kabbalistic ideas. Most people see them as fortune cards, but they are a repository of knowledge.”

Angel Enoch is a Buddhist and in her other life, works as a nurse in a convalescent home. “There are many Buddhist groups with people from all over the world in Second Life. There is a beautiful place called Bohdi, and island that is being built now for the charity, Free Tibet.

Angel has found that her experiences in Second Life have taken on a spiritual significance to her.

“You know that it isn’t physically real, yet what happens here has meaning. What we create is a reflection of our inner selves.

“Society tells us who we are... we are old, we are sickly, etc. In here, we can be who we really are. Hopefully, we will learn that our real lives can be recreated too.

“It doesn’t matter about the setting, you are culture and you transform the world from within.”

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