Dreams

Our brains are capable of so much more than we can possibly be concious of, and it's all happening behind the scenes. In fact I do believe our minds are completely infinite. Evidence of this, and I mean just the tip of the iceberg, can be experianced in dreams. Just last night I was watching music videos produced in my mind, going to music I havnt even heard in years, and then even going to epic music my mind created. The viewing perspective is what gets me all excited, thinking of the fact that I was simultaneously the viewer/beholder of something I was creating, and without even realizing myself to be the creator at the time. Then in the next scene last night, I was painting quite extraordinarily, and enough to strongly influence some of my current and next works. It was great!!!!! I have really been on a heavy dream kick lately. (I have also been painting for hours everyday!) I love it! Time just doesn't exsist anymore when you're in there...what fun it truly is.

Yeah! Good morning

http://youtu.be/42KNbYMGxFw

Feelingpsyched!

The Visionary, Mystery and Social Media Thrown Into The Melting Pot

You've got tremendous ideas. You may even posses the nature of fantasy or dreams, but you have forward thinking ideas — ideas that change the way the world works. Even so, living as a visionary has the potential to be a mentally exhausting life experience. Being able to look ahead, while balanceing the mind and keeping the pace is the truest lesson in my experience. You can gather information, you can get an intuitive grasp on the pace of action, you may even possess the ability to read people to a fairly accurate degree, and from all of this you can tend to delineate a course of events. You have a strong grasp on your potential, and more than you can express to yourself or others in a humanely form. Any process will take time and this is when things can get frustrating. You must master patience, (become at ease with the present-- certainly a challenge for me sometimes) see the bigger picture, and respect the great mystery. You may be able to foresee volumes, but the path ahead will always remain mysterious and this is the most inspiring part. You may also be able to foresee a lot about a human being, but the lesson comes,once again, in respecting the mystery and realizing the vastness of experience inherent in us all. 

Little can be gathered about a human from a single casual conversation, and even more so, little can be gathered from the unintimate public realms of social media. Who wants to post their deepest darkest secrets and life experiences to a public forum? We all understand this and until we can discover something better, we're doing the best we can with what we've got. I'm grateful for the ability to connect here with artists all around the world. The social media bubble seems to have just exploded this past year and it offers us a lot. Let's continue to support and encourage each other in this community we have built here in 2014. Each of us is an important piece of something much greater. Thank you all for being you. Let all of us foward thinkers take a moment to find comfort and bask in the glory of knowing that the change we want to see in the world, the rennassainse, the revolution-- is NOW! Now is the destination, as the journey is the objective.

Great Art

A great painting I find to be very much like a great song; both sounds and images pulled fom the infinite. Beauty can be found in the relationships and harmonies between notes the way a dynamic painting flows smoothly from form to form. Great content, whether musical or visual, does well to also hilight it's counterparts: the empty spaces between notes or figures that you can recognize to be a portrayal of the infinite. A great artist can lead you through this infinite portal and through a range of new and perhaps unconcievable emotion. My favorite artists are those who can shake you around, and really make you think a bit before sending you off on your way again. 

Love Yourself

You treat yourself the same way you're going to be treated. It may sound kind of trite but it's true and I think this statement even precedes the "golden rule": "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Fill your own cup and it's only natural that it will spill over to others.

I almost didn't add this but I think I have to just to balance the equation. Loving yourself is not to be confused with narcissism which I consider to be the opposite. Narcissists look at the world in terms of "I never have enough" and so they don't actually give themselves love. The narcissist focuses on a lack around them and is self-concerned.

My first stay in AZ this year

A night in the desert

The terrain lays vast and speechless

Only after the sun has danced through the motions

Of it's rich descent through the western sky

And the moon dreams down upon me with favor

Familiar smells, sensations, take a whirl at

Dragging me into a past

Or egging me on towards a future

Yet I awake to the present moment

Where pain and beauty find their meeting place

Aware and ever present in each other's company

For a moment I find still peace

And the saguaro, strong and wise

Doesn't need eyes to see this

Chuang Tzu

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly...
Suddenly I awoke...
Now, I do not know whether I was then
a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly
dreaming that I am a man.

Chuang Tzu (c.360 BC - c. 275 BC)

A fellow artist recently shared this and I found it beautiful & on point

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know 
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

(Oriah Mountain Dreamer)

Your freedom...especially of thought and feeling

I cannot encourage enough the importance of not allowing others to dictate to yourself how to think, or how to feel. And just as severe- don't handicap yourself by attempting to curb, hide or restrict the thoughts and feelings that flow and occur naturally. Most notably, many try to hide their pain, but pain is something you carry because you feel your deepest strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. At the root of it all, I feel many are afraid of themselves, and of their own reality; their thoughts and their feelings most of all. Many talk about how great love is, but in all honesty love can be painful and some feelings are disturbing.  We all experience pain and it's a feeling that wakes us up. Your feelings are a part of you and your personal reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re trading in your reality for a show. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on an act. There can't be any form of positive large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. Allow yourself to experience your deepest fear, and it will dissolve until you break free.

Jimi Hendrix - Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)

Vexed?

On and on the river flows,

Through gentle rise and fall,

Through aggressive tides,

To accept or contest the currents?

Masterful woe, 

Or domineering preferment.

The Power of YOU!

Time to put these thoughts into words...
I think NOW is the time to realize fully and utilize our INFINITE potential as living beings of this universe. This is both in a personal sense for myself or anyone else, and a collective sense as human beings in general. (As well as any other species in the cosmos that may need some kind of reaffirmation because who knows, they could have self doubts too. lol.)

I find that we often hand our power over to, firstly, our past actions and trains of thought, our insecurities, our feelings of insignificance as compared to others, and secondly, even to any and all possible "more intelligent life" out there, instead of fully realizing the miraculously advanced and intelligent life that we are. For happiness sake, and for the sake of positive progression, it is time to stop the self- force fed delusion or bad habits of self-degradation or "spell" if you will, and free ourselves completely from mental slavery.

Time to realize the immaculate perfection that we are. Because we are IT! All there is. Now is it! Anyone and everyone and everything is it! And it is all YOU! Evolution is internal through the ever present now moment, and so Now is the time! Allow yourself to break free ;)

Melodia

Some of my favorite quotes

Some more serious, and some much more sarcastic, but they all tickle my fancy... please enjoy.



What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.
Tony Robbins

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.
Bob Marley

You're only as pretty as you feel.
Jefferson Airplaine

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. 
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


“It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.” 
 John Steinbeck

"There's a theory which states that if ever, for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened." 
Douglas Adams

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.” 
Elbert Hubbard

Our greatest glory lies not in never falling,
but rising every time we fall.
Confucius

To be nobody but yourself in a world doing its best to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human can ever fight and never stop fighting. 
e. e. Cummings

Without deviation progress is not possible.
Frank Zappa

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”
Hunter S. Thompson

“If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little” 
George Carlin

Poetry

Some scribbles as taken from my journals from the last few years. 


I'm still Un-learning
Slowly but surely
Do you still seek the unattainable?
In that gap
Is our creation
Our existence
Our purpose
Yet we were born
Not to know
The mystery is Who we are



 Not yet the expression it approaches.
Attempting to examine the line.




Until the pain feels beautiful
Do we miserably lie bricks
Tread or sink through your sands
Cannonball or bellyflop to your waters


The eyes never lie
Seize their vision
As pupils grow wide
Desire and Truth
Windows to our dreams & souls



Who Made Who





Arise now to your land.
Remember your nothings.
Keep them in hand.

The Cyclical Nature of Global Artistic Expression

The Cyclical Nature of Global Artistic Expression

There are so many visual art forms presented throughout the world that an art historian or researcher can face a very difficult time trying to view art influences on a grand collective scale. Each individual draws from their own source of inspiration and imagination, however I find that it’s clear and provable that influences in today’s art world can narrow down to just a few major dominating social interests or trends. To make my point, I am going to focus on two: war and ancient culture.  Once attention is drawn to these social trends creating a driving force behind artwork inspiration, a pattern easily presents itself, asserting the cyclical nature of artistic decline and inclination mirroring, for example, the cycles of war and economic growth/decline. Our personal place in this cycle also asserts itself, once observed, creating opportunity for epic, unique growth.

It is my belief that anything that reaches out and touches the entire world has entered the realm of what I like to consider the “collective consciousness.”  Social trends are certainly a product of this collective consciousness. It is a culmination of everything that is trendy, famous and part of the entire general public’s eye. This collective consciousness is also the vital glue that holds our societies together and keeps us from the woes of destructive chaos.  The reality of life is chaos.  However, we as human beings have mastered our intelligence to the point that we can organize and compartmentalize this chaos and form structure and order from it. We can structure this chaos however we choose. For example, the language we speak and the letters I’m writing are only chaotic sounds and symbols. It’s because we've agreed on their meanings that we have formed language, one of the largest contributors to the “collective consciousness” I am describing. This collective consciousness also is home to our taste for things like music and fashion as a whole. We influence each other more than we may realize. Think about the hippy movements in the 60s or the punk era in the 80s just to name a few more recent examples. Generations of humans flock together, knowingly or not, and form ideals together. This article will focus on the collective ideals in, specifically, the art world. What is the driving force behind our artistic expression?--Not individually, but as a whole.

War, although violent and destructive, is one of the major phenomenon that is able to permeate through the bubble of our separate realities, and attract massive amounts of global attention. Anything catching attention on such a massive scale will receive global concern, and ultimately cause some form of inspiration, whether it be consciously or subconsciously. Everyone reacts to emotional stimulus in a different way, so a negative situation can bring about endless forms of expression. Inspiration is inspiration. With seven billion people on Earth, one spark causes infinite amounts of interpretation, while the source of interest remains the same.

During wartime you will certainly see protest art. This can be in the form of a “counteractive” approach where instead of artists depicting their pain and hurt reflecting the losses of war, they instead opt to create peaceful art symbolic of a culture and world they would prefer.  This is not a bad idea. Surrounding yourself with the peace and bliss you would like to see manifest in the world is a way to achieving that dream. The use of symbols, such as the peace sign, the dove and psychedelic flowers are all great examples of the universal language created through these positive movements. It all goes back to the point about a collective conscious being the driving force behind our expression, as the peace signs and flowers are all just “chaotic,” random symbols used to stand for something else. It is us that has attached and assigned meaning to them. Our symbols and our artworks can become a universal language, advocating peace on Earth. There are countless examples of these peaceful art movements happening during war throughout Earth’s history. Some more modern examples such as the Vietnam war, WWII, and even the War on Terror are heavily documented. The music and art community exploded in the hippy era protesting war and violence, advocating peace and love. The war on terror has also influenced much similar protest art. Many works portray peaceful alliances between the west and middle-east.

On the other hand, wartime also brings with it art depicting scenes of violence and blue emotions. This can be another form of protest art, or simply raw expression of pain and struggle. Some would argue that only creating “Peace & Love” art during hard times shields people from the truth and is analogous to ignorance or even submissiveness to the opposing side through inaction. I can see that point and it is hard to say which method is more effective in distinguishing war efforts; remaining positive or giving into dark emotion. I think the combination is important. It takes immeasurable strength to remain positive in a time of despair; however it takes remarkable courage to express one’s loss and weakness.  All of these art forms can be healing on infinite levels.  During war time sometimes art is needed to manifest strength, and sometimes it is needed to release despair.

Almost every organization whether it is a country, an army, a society or a dictatorship also utilizes art’s power with flags and symbols to carry their energy and their intention. Think of the Swastika, Country and State flags, or even religious symbols.  All are great examples of art’s potential power and use. 

Before the swastika was adopted by the Nazis to represent fascism and white supremacy, it was used by countless ancient cultures including China and India, as well as countries all through Europe.  Its use has been documented as far back as to the Indus River Valley Civilization 3000 years before Christ. The swastika is a Chinese character translating to “infinity.” Hinduism and Buddhism make use of the symbol to this day. To them the swastika literally means “to be good” or “to be with the higher self.” This really proves the power of the collective consciousness. It is remarkable a symbol alone can carry so much power and be so widely recognized and used.

       Many dictators and other officials have manipulated art and artists during their sieges of power throughout history, whether it be to intentionally fuel efforts to their advantage or simply through their unbiased overall destruction. The destruction yields long lasting implications, changing art’s future with a butterfly effect.  Plenty of talented artists who would have made a name for themselves and influenced the world were stopped dead in their tracks for their opposing cultural or religious beliefs. I’m not sure if these officials actually understood the significance of their manipulation. A prime example of this is the destructive tendencies of the Nazi party toward insubordinate artists. The Preussische Akademie der Kunste, responding to Nazi directives expelled his "degenerate" members from his 1937 exhibition.War’s destruction over the years has also caused an uncountable number of invaluable art pieces to be forever lost from their residences, museums and public structures etc. This obviously rewinds the art progress clock. The losses are simply devastating. Nothing can bring the art back.

Another big player in art's major influences to date is Ancient art, particularly that of the ancient Egyptian and Mayan cultures. They have really sparked a massive interest in artists for thousands of years. The works of these societies have really stuck, transcending any and all language barrier limitations. I believe that these people really sparked an incredibly heightened sense of creativity and dedication that the world had never seen before, and frankly hasn’t seen sense.  Monuments such as the great sphinx, the temple of giza and the mayan ruins are such elaborate, mind blowing works of creation, that it makes one question where that first spark of intelligence and diligence came from. Regardless of its source, the world has been reaping the benefits of such inspiration ever since. These monuments, as well as all other ancient works are so bewilderingly elaborate that they became a beacon shining out to all artists, transcending time itself, and transcending distance. Who on Earth hasn’t heard of the great pyramids?

More recent advances in technology, such as radiocarbon dating, have provided a major boost in keeping ancient arts popular and relevant to present day.  Word of a new discovery is breaking news all over the globe.  Modern machinery has made it easier than ever before to discover, excavate and move ancient artifacts. Modern technology has made it simpler than ever for humans to reach out and communicate news. 

On the other side of the coin, the more we discover about ancient art, the more illuminated we are to our lack of knowledge in the past. As we overcome these obstacles and solve mysteries we are taking leaps and bounds forward, but at the same time we take a step back. This paradigm has been described by many, not as a crisis, but as a “loss of innocence”. As we make further advancements we retreat from a mentality of “look how much we know” to “look how little we know.” It is a sort of humbling smack in the face if that makes sense. As we view the larger picture, we basically shrink in comparison. The more we know, the less we know. This certainly asserts again my argument of cyclicality. 

Many professional fine artists go so far as to describe themselves as assisting with the evolution of our planet. I believe this is true. The way I see it, we are all artists and our art is the evolution of the planet. I take even speech and clothing into account when considering forms of artistic expression. The way a person speaks is their expression and the way a person walks is their expression. Even these simple habits live in the collective. For example, you don’t really hear people saying, “Can you dig it?” all the time like many did in the sixties and seventies.  People say “sick” and “word” and use “like” in their speech much more than in previous years. Only one hundred years ago in this country the slang we use today was nonexistent. Speech has changed entirely and slowly but surely every day. Art in all its forms truly keeps us in the moment and keeps us on track. Our expression is a vital changeling, living and evolving along with each of us. Art of any kind is simply the outward expression of everything inside of us, and how else could we come close to even hinting at communicating the nature of our souls? Our personal taste in music and all forms of audio and visual art evolves and changes with our lives on a personal level as much as on the larger global scale. Each of our contributions builds onto the collective consciousness.

The world we live in revolves in a cyclical nature. Obviously the physical world itself is shaped in a sphere and rotates in a never ending circle, but I am more interested in addressing the more abstract tendencies of the world. It is my belief that all aspects of life revolve in this same fashion and energy if you simply take the time to dissect all the pieces of your reference point. For the purpose of this hypothetical, the reference point is art. From a far glance, art itself is irrelevant to forming these conclusions, however if you look deeply enough you form the same cyclic patterns that exist in nature.  Art as a movement has always excelled and then done a complete U-turn over and over. The modern day art movement is certainly booming on a global scale with its exceeding amounts of spiritual and “new age” inspiration, however this is certainly far from the furthest we have ever treaded. We are still scratching our heads at the marvel of ancient ruins. Our technology today is literally incapable of reproducing the Giza pyramid. However we are far from the dumps. We have modern and complex mediums available to us with a lifetime of inspiration to feed from and bounce off each other.  I can see that we are headed in a bright direction at the present moment. I believe the pattern will continue. We can merely observe our participation in the cycle.