Thomas Kuntz

"Thomas Kuntz is a contemporary artist fighting to bring ancient arcana and modern technologies together as weapons for aesthetic enlightenment. Thomas has been working constantly as a professional artist since 1986, but his private projects tend to feature the mysterious, uncanny, sometimes darkly horrific and bittersweet sad aspects of human nature. He has devoted a lifetime to acquire the skills of designer, sculptor, mechanic, automatist, animator, model maker, painter and conceptualist."



"In the new world order marketplace of branding, globalization, automation, compartmentalization and the subsequent general shrinkage and decline of craftsmanship, Thomas is in fact a dying breed. His inspirations span the centuries and are cross-pollinated in subject matter and approach. Dada-surrealism, mechanical engineering, architecture, atom-age kitsch, erotica, exotica, classical renaissance, horology, anthropology, artificial life/androids and anatomy to name just a few. It is not uncommon to see his projects packaged with a strong dose of "gallows humor" theatrics and magick."

from Thomas Kuntz

Lady, where's your dark undercoat?

New album "Victorian America" released April 27th

I need a new life...

I'm dreaming of running away to Mexico City! I want to find a local curandero (Mexican Shaman) so I can get some fresh Salvia Divinorum. Then I'd go trip out on top of Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacán, the mythical city inhabited by Gods. Salvia divinorum has a long and continuous tradition of magico-religious use by Mazatec shamans, who use it to facilitate visionary states of consciousness. Most of the plant's local common names allude to the Mazatec belief that the plant is sacred to the Virgin Mary. Teotihuacán is where Our Lady of Guadalupe (The Empress of Americas) appeared to the Saint, Juan Diego. I have a friend who has a gorgeous house that she rents out in Mexico...an artist's retreat. I'd love to have a secret sanctuary of my own someday. Run away with me?

Remedios Varo

I'm also really aroused by the idea so many Surrealists sought refuge in Mexico. Favorites such as Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo, and Leonora Carrington called Mexico their home. They and several other artists began a small transcendental surrealist movement after they fled during the Nazi occupation France (as did Salvador Dali and many other artists throughout Europe). André Breton visited Mexico in 1938. He returned to Paris convinced he had been to a land that lived and breathed Surrealism everyday.

Frida Kahlo

Once in Mexico, Surrealism quickly took root in unexpected ways. In literature, Octavio Paz, Juan José Arreola, Jorge Ibargüengoitia, the Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, who had collaborated with Dalí on the landmark Surrealist film Un chien andalou (1929) in Europe, fled the Spanish Civil War and wound up in Mexico, where he made such classics as The Exterminating Angel (1962). Surrealist poet and patron Edward James built Las Pozas, a surrealist sculpture garden in a tropical rain forest in the mountains of Mexico.

Leonora Carrington

Related links ~
Home of the Surrealist
The Return of Quetzalcoatl

St Apollonia, Pray for Me...

As a result of teeth nightmares, I've developed a bit of a fetish. Saint Apollonia ~ The Patron Saint of Dentistry, according to legend, her torture included having all of her teeth violently pulled out or shattered. For this reason, she is popularly regarded as the patroness of dentistry and those suffering from toothache or other dental problems. She is represented in art with a dental pliers in which a tooth is held. "Illustrious virgin martyr, Apollonia, Pray to the Lord for us, lest for our offenses and sins we be punished by diseases of the teeth."


Reliquary containing the tooth of Saint Apollonia, in the Cathedral of Porto, Portugal.

“Eternally omnipotent God, for whose honor blessed Apollonia, virgin and martyr, steadfastly suffered the horrible crushing-out of her teeth, grant Thou as we desire, that we may be made happy in commemoration of her, thru whose most pious intercession we were freed from toothache and all imminent evils. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Toothpaste and Mouthwash via C.O. Bigelow



Coveting this Antique French Vecabé Dental Model Jaw and Teeth

Natural Toothbrushes

Tooth loss dreams generally have negative interpretations. Dreams about teeth falling out symbolize feelings of powerlessness, fear, shame, and abandonment. The most important thing to remember about tooth loss dreams is that they are simply reflections of how they psyche feels; these dreams are not prophecies of the future. Interpreting Tooth Loss as a Dream Symbol



The Tooth Worm as Hell’s Demon”, southern France, 18th Century; This artistically designed ivory carving is contained in a molar, 10.5 cm in height, which can be separated into two halves of equal size. It opens out into two scenes depicting the infernal torments of toothache as a battle with the “tooth worm”. The legend of the “tooth worm” as the cause of toothache originated in Mesopotamia around 1800 B.C. A legend, in much the same sense as that of the Creation, concerning the origin of the tooth worm is to be found in the inscriptions on ancient tablets from 1800 B.C., and from the New Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods of 650 and 550 B.C.
Coveting Victorian Era Porcelain Toothpaste Jars

See also: Holistic Dental Network (cruelty free dentistry)

The Victorian Surrealism of Jeffrey Micheal Harp

The Hanged Man by Jeffrey Micheal Harp

"The Fool settles beneath a tree, intent on finding his spiritual self. There he stays for nine days, without eating, barely moving. People pass by him, animals, clouds, the wind, the rain, the stars, sun and moon. On the ninth day, with no conscious thought of why, he climbs a branch and dangles upside down like a child, giving up for a moment, all that he is, wants, knows or cares about. Coins fall from his pockets and as he gazes down on them - seeing them not as money but only as round bits of metal - everything suddenly changes perspective. It is as if he's hanging between the mundane world and the spiritual world, able to see both. It is a dazzling moment, dreamlike yet crystal clear. Connections he never understood before are made, mysteries are revealed. But timeless as this moment of clarity seems, he realizes that it will not last. Very soon, he must right himself, and when he does, things will be different. He will have to act on what he's learned. For now, however, he just hangs, weightless as if underwater, observing, absorbing, seeing."

Chicago People!

I'm doing Tarot Readings at The Occult Bookstore (established circa 1920) on Saturdays from 3pm-7pm. Just call to make an appointment!
1164 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60642
(773) 292-0995

"In 1920, D.G. Nelson first opened the store that still actively purveys the finest in esoteric texts and supplies. The first storefront was at 611 N. State St, and was frequented by many of the personalities of the world’s Occult History. Since first opening, The Occult Bookstore embarks upon its newest endeavour, with a new storefront at 1164 N. Milwaukee Avenue, just south of Ashland and Division in Chicago, and our soon to be launched online store, we are at your disposal to provide you with all of your magickal needs."

Nicomi Nix Turner

Nicomi Nix Turner at the Modern Eden Gallery

Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart...

Visionary poet and counter-culture activist Lenore Kandel has been described as a second generation Beat writer who developed psychedelicized aesthetics in the style of Allen Ginsburg. Lenore was immortalized by her lover Jack Kerouac's in his novel Big Sur (1962) as Romana Schwarz. She also appears in Kenneth Anger's film Invocation of my Demon Brother. She authored two books of poetry: Word Alchemy and The Love Book. The Love Book is a reproduction of a Tibetan scroll symbolizing the union of male and female principles in the Universe, and much of Kandel’s writing inside the book takes on the feeling of a chanted prayer. She herself referred to her verse as holy erotica. When Lenore was asked if was religious, she responded, "Yes, and everyone who makes love is religious." Her poem "To Fuck with Love", provoked cencorship and is one of her most dramatic statements of the link between ecstasy and enlightenment.

…the tongue between my legs spreading my thighs to screams
and I burst I burst I burst
…my god the worship that it is to fuck!

"The human body is her instrument, and the acts of sex are her solos and harmonies. Her phrasing builds in intensity, breathlessly reaching for crescendo and moving beyond it to different dimensions."

I am the god-animal, the mindless cuntdeity, the he-god animal
is over me, through me we are become one total angel
united in fire united in semen and sweat united in lovescream

sacred are our acts and our actions
sacred are our parts and our persons

The wild is not separate from the divine, and both are utterly human, she wrote:

to fuck with love
to love with all the heat and wild of fuck
…leaving me pure burned into oblivion

…SCREAMING DELIGHT over the entire universe
and beyond

…the energy
indescribable
almost unbearable

Kandel’s eroticism reaches its highest level of poetic expression in Word Alchemy. “Love-Lust Poem,” in particular, stands out as perhaps the best example I know of the marriage between eros, ecstasy and the divine. The entire poem is a celebratory song of love that is expressed ecstatically. It is a song of innocence and incandescent desire that reaches toward the divine.

I want to fuck you
I want to fuck you all the parts and places
I want you all of me

…I am not sure where I leave off, where you begin
is there a difference, here in the soft permeable membranes

…and the taste of your mouth is of me
and the taste of my mouth is of you
and moaning mouth to mouth

…I want you to explode that hot spurt of pleasure inside me
and I want to lie there with you
smelling the good smell of fuck that’s all over us
and you kiss me with that aching sweetness
and there is no end to love

Lenore Kandel herself expressed her intent in the most noble terms: "I believe when humans can be so close together to become one flesh, or spirit, they transcend the human into the divine."

I kiss your shoulder and it reeks of lust

the lust of hermaphroditic deities doing

inconceivable things to each other and

SCREAMING DELIGHT over the entire
universe and beyond

and we lie together... and

we WEEP we WEEP we WEEP

the incredible tears

that saints and holy men shed in the presence

of their own incandescent gods...

And it concludes:

we are transmuting

we are as soft and warm and trembling

as a new gold butterfly

the energy

indescribable

almost unendurable

at night sometimes I see our bodies glow.