"The Spice Melange”

400 x 400mm Print : perfected & updated 2023 version.
on Ilford Galerie Textured Cotton Rag 310gsm.

Edition of 33.

“The spice extends life,
The spice expands consciousness,
The spice is vital to space travel.” - Dune

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“ I've been continuing on my studies with Islamic Tile Design, Tryptamines and the intersection of the two. It’s quite funny where inspiration comes from.

I was listening to the 1965 Science Fiction series “Dune” by Frank Herbert as an Audiobook. Which is clearly about a “fictional” psychoactive compound, “The Spice”. Having spent the week researching Dimethyltryptamine, I feel they share a fitting resemblance. Also turns out it is really quite easy to extract, for it grows in so many plants, grasses, trees & even is endogenous within our own bodies. This realm is flooded with it. A topic worth exploring indeed.

So I have been designing this mandala called "The Spice Melange" while listening to the audio book of Dune and also the Album “Technological Determinism” by Hypnagog. Also In concert with taking notes from the excellent book “Sacred Codes” by Laurence Caruana (which I highly recommend for visionary artists) to find harmony within the works. Harmony is something I find the Islamic tile artisans do masterfully.

Something I’ve been enjoying doing from the start of this art journey is bridging world traditions. Similar to Frank Herbert’s Dune, which incorporates Islamic and Arabic themes, within a futuristic interplanetary narrative. Here within my drawing, that theme continues and I feel I’m getting closer to an art form which I have only glimpsed within, and I hope to get closer and closer to documenting this emanation as the journey unfolds.

inshallah.” - background notes date 2021:
more infomation can be found here : https://www.hazelmandala.com/work#/thespicemelange/

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Note: This Print Edition of 33 is MADE TO ORDER. Please allow 1 week of production time before i will send this out to you. You will receive 1 x Print of “The Spice Melange” Signed and Numbered personally by myself. Thank you for supporting my work.