Kali Art Print by Paul B. Rucker

11"x17"

The name Kali means “Time”– this primal Goddess encompasses all acts of energy– birth, growth, death, and so on– that can occur in the span of Time. 

The more familiar “Bhairavi” (“Terrible”)  aspect of Kali the Destroyer,  Inevitable Death, with her lolling, blood-gorged tongue, her necklace of skulls and belt of severed hands, emerges from the cosmic Kali, “Digambara” (“Clad in Space”), the Goddess whose body is the endless Universe. 

She kneels on the burning pyre (all life returns to ash), yet behind her head unfolds the Lotus of perfect Beauty. On her palms are the vaginal symbols, the yoni, and between two hands is displayed her yantra–  the sacred symbol of Kali.

Paul B. Rucker has been making art from personal visions of the spirit world from a very early age, seeking in visual language to render metaphors, and ecstasies. Theatre, myth and ritual influence this search.

He paints in acrylic and other water-based media, as well as pen, pencil, and mixed media assemblages, combining various materials with hand-painted bones. Rucker also performs face and body painting on subjects photographed in selected environments; the resulting images are further elaborated with digital painting techniques. In addition, he has created theatrical backdrops, murals, collage, sign painting, mask-making in clay and paper-mache, silk painting and costuming. 

His approach foregrounds the ennobled body– usually but not always, that of the human being– as a vehicle for archetypal revelation; the body in an extended connection with sacred Nature. His worldview is that of a modern Pagan: “making art is how I think in ‘Pagan’.”

His work has been exhibited in the Twin Cities, Tuscaloosa, AL, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Chicago; and has been seen online and in print through many venues in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Europe. 

Rucker has curated and founded several Pagan-oriented arts events in the Twin Cities area, ranging from the Crossroads Festival in the 1990s to the Third Offering Gallery at the annual Paganicon convention in St. Louis Park. He is a core member of the Minneapolis Collective of Pagan Artists (MCPA), founded in 2014.