![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNBA9YHqBlR1ZXNHGij5vR67Z934SQAJml6sRpePJBQ2jpoFPpCaMHCnBQEJlataOiqDDG6X9IgNLkjTdxbKLyBtHo3wa61ipvQf8PYBzhpAZhjIfflOkPPCOLwlgZ5J0jJVjSM5n0BY/s320/LExtinctionYawns-web2.jpg)
For a while I played with compositional elements from works and themes of favoured by the Symbolists and other mopey fin-de-siecle proto-goth artists, and attempted to add a pantheon of science-based creations. Lord Extinction was one such attempt, I wanted a monstrous figure who ate species and D.N.A. and in my second post here on The Flying Trilobite, I showed his first drawing, also seen here in miniature, in Lord Extinction Yawns, (right).
I drew the Lord Extinction character again, this time aiming to mimic the popular Salome-and-head-of-John-the-Baptist theme. Here is Salome + the Head of Extinction.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcftLJ9DD35v-CztxPFaXzfcLLBofgJuZCQXTVghf9IItEOgqrdHoWBTlblw3NdrrOy9FAaMM9-O9uWopjjz051svkYkgKfgGJNDVpOplWtQLJJbqOtV-NhzFjCSlpEWKcdzIZIpLl5Y/s400/Salome-&-Extinction-web.jpg)
Okay, deep breath. I am actually showing this one online.
I look back on this piece as a major muddle. It had one of the figures of the Candle-Women that appear in my work every so often in the role of Salome. I attempted a bit of gothy clothing with the fishnets, a a strange (in my head, witchy) crescent moon sickle. There's a little trilobite helping her out for revenge, perhaps for its brethren that escaped Extinction's maw in the previous drawing. The Candle-Women originally started out as Rapa Nui (Easter Island) statues, and evolved into candle-headed enigmas.
This was in a confused stage of my life, coming out of non-organised, egotistical Pagan-ish beliefs, and re-focusing on the scientific past that had enamoured me as a child.
I'm showing this piece because for me, the confusion is all there. Extinct creatures. Original characters from my imagination. Muddled religion and paganism. An artwork style of the past that I desperately tried to inject with originality. Gothy fashion just standing there irrelevantly. Ahh, university!
For me like many people, it was a time of figuring myself out. I'd like to think that journey hasn't ended, and in another 10 years, will I look back at a simple drawing and see so many echoes of my past exposed in graphite?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8eW8VY7nadWS6B5G-k9GmB7v7kG7FRTO4WWmqtWScZYJo6SHrOE1WIXONDM9LpZMfEMM5-E94iJLOEIs2A79bXbLirXU3_xGvLWWH80e-zcA2nFhAsjy8jBARY_zilx4xPnB_bDSAeyU/s400/Salome-&-Ex---detail-web.jpg)
I thought the line work was pretty decent, though it may not survive jpeg compression. Recently I revamped the Dimetrodon-Sphinx from the corner of Lord Extinction Yawns; perhaps Lord Extinction will one day rear his magnificently ugly head as well.
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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details.