Arty Farty Friday ~ Alexa Meade ~ Illusion

For this Friday I aimed to find a painter or photographer whose work could be said to display at least one facet of what Pisces, and its planetary rulers Neptune and Jupiter are said to represent, astrologically. The subject need not necessarily have Sun in Pisces.

I found this young lady: Alexa Meade.


When a painter decides to paint, say, a portrait of a man sitting on a chair, or a bowl of apples, he/she transfers the likeness of same, as perceived, onto canvas or sketch pad. Alexa Meade, though, having made the same decision: to paint a man sitting on a chair or a bowl of apples - does just that: literally paints the man - and the chair, and the bowl and the apples ! Then she displays her work - and photographs it for posterity.

Alexa Meade's artwork is a mixture of painterly skills, clever trompe l'oeil , installation art and photography. To be as successful, as she is rapidly becoming, is no small achievement for someone not formally trained in art. Ms Meade graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor’s degree in political science. I'm tempted to say that the optical illusions in her art connect quite clearly to the optical illusions created by political conduct and practices in the USA! Perhaps her political studies lay embedded somewhere beneath this fresh perspective in art she has created!

Here the real becomes the art - and therefore the art becomes real!
In this brief video presentation Ms Meade explains:




Astrologically one would expect some predominant Pisces, or its rulers Neptune/Jupiter (illusion, photograpahy, creativity) to show up natally, as well as, perhaps, Uranus/Aquarius (inventive, avant garde, new) for what she is doing is inventing a new style of art.

Let's see:

She was born in Washington DC on 3 September 1986. Her time of birth isn't known, so Moon sign/degree and rising sign as shown will not be accurate.



Keeping it brief this time, because all I'm looking to identify is a reflection of Ms Meade's gravitation towards a blend of illusion and reality - key to her artwork.
I see it in the positions of Neptune (@ 3* Capricorn) and Saturn (@ 3* Sagittarius).
These are in semi-sextile (30 degree) aspect to one another, astrologically a mildly helpful aspect. More importantly, though Neptune, planet of illusion is in Capricorn, sign of reality/practicality, and Saturn, planet of reality/practicality is in Sagittarius, sign of exaggeration. See how that works? It's an an astrological reflection, almost exact in fact, of the artist's chosen style.