Mysterium Fidei

Mysterium Fidei

Paintings and Drawings by Daniel Martin Díaz

La Luz De Jesus and Billy Shire Fine Arts Press

"broodingly personal...with a compelling, esoteric edge.”

The Los Angeles Times

Mysterium Fidei or the Mysteries of faith is an idiosyncratic exploration of the world of religious symbolism by Daniel Martin Díaz. For Díaz Faith is without "logical explanation" and hence bubbles up from the unconscious in a variety of strange and unusual forms. It could be easily said that his work is influenced as much by esotericism, occultism, alchemy, Freud and Jung as Catholicism and his Mexican upbringing.

Examining his work it is hard to believe that his is self taught, he uses the ancient egg tempera and resin oil painting technique on distressed wood to create works which seem literally Medieval in presentation if not perhaps heretical in content. His work has been exhibited in over 50 solo and group exhibitions in 17 states of America and eight countries, including three international touring exhibitions, and has been acquired for the permanent collections of nine art museums nationwide.

His influences include Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel, and Hieronymus Bosch, Byzantine iconography, Alchemy, esotericism, occultism, Medieval anatomical and naturalist art and engravings.

He takes familiar iconography found within Catholicism and Mexican folk art and moves it into esoteric and symbolic territory. For example, in "Verberantia," the eye is first drawn to the image of Christ bleeding on the ground. This is what one may expect to see in a work on spiritual suffering. Yet as your eyes moves up, you notice a hand floating above his bloodied back with a single all-seeing Illuminati style eye painted on its palm. Aside it is a skull. The body of Christ is entangled with a serpent like creature of which a second is seen on the ground. The finale is the statement Condemnant quod non intellegunt – they condemn that which they do not understand. The image has a strongly Gnostic as well as esoteric feel with the serpent seemingly representing wisdom rather than evil. Throughout his art there is an emphasis on Latin quotes, numerology, symbolism and iconography.

Many of his images seem to combine Gnostic and esoteric themes with Mexican folk traditions to create quite a unique religious vision. In many ways they seem truly unconscious as even Díaz himself admits he simply paints what he experiences in his mind’s eye. "I do not claim to understand these questions. I just paint and let them reveal themselves to me."

Mysterium Fidei - Paintings and Drawings by Daniel Martin Díaz is a high quality Hardcover, 120 pages in length and 10″ x 10″ in size. The cover is stunning; it is made of black cloth and has a silver coloured letter-pressed decoration which surrounds a cut out Diaz image.

There is an introduction and essays by Michael M. Brescia, Ph.D., Gloria Fraser Giffords, John David Long-García, M.A., and Paula Catherine Valencia.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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