“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn;
the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.
Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”
"At that instant he saw, in one blaze of light, an image of unutterable conviction, the reason why the artist works and lives and has his being. It is to snare the spirits of mankind in nets of magic...to wreak the vision of his life, the rude and painful substance of his own experience, into the congruence of blazing and enchanted images that are themselves the core of life, the essential pattern whence all other things proceed, the kernel of eternity."
In the past few weeks I was blessed to participate in some rare and truly amazing convergences of visionary artists and great minds – Boulder shows with Martina Hoffmann and Amanda Sage; the Sonic Bloom Festival Pre-Party with Alex & Allyson Grey; and The Manifestation Celebration in Dallas (an era-defining, boundary-smashing event at the Dallas Museum of Nature & Science). Explosively creative shows lead to a profusion of intense new live paintings, body art galleries, and sketchbook pages, as you'll see below.
Somewhere in there I had the time to spark a so-new-it's-nameless live electronic trio with fellow Papadosio family friends Jeremy McDonough on keyboards and Renee Uzzardi on tablas. We captured one of our instudio performances on video...I'm on electric guitar for the first time ever (I bought it long ago from a gypsy in an ice canyon), and it's a beautiful sound.
It'll be a little while before I can release the new cyber-guitar recordings from Dallas (or my speech about the relationship between Earth's magnetic fields and human consciousness), but there's already a huge art harvest to share. You can listen to the new sound while you check it out:
"Space Migration" by McDonough, Garfield, Uzzardi
download this track free / watch on Youtube
If you happen to be in or around Ohio this weekend, come enjoy our first show at the Nelson Ledges Quarry Park's Mayflower Springdance Festival!
And now for the art:
- (Click any image to enlarge it for detail.) -
Under Another Sky
2011 04 20 The Root (Sacred Plants Visionary Art Panel) & Studio
24"x24" – opaque pens on masonite
original painting for sale – make an offer
signed poster prints for sale – 1/$20 or 2/$30 + s/h
4/20, Boulder CO – quite possibly the cannabis capital of the world. In the midst of this storm of heedless intoxication (once a campus display of civil disobedience, now an epic rager celebrating marijuana's medical legalization) we assembled a crew of respected "visionary" artists – Martina, Amanda, Krystle Smith, Mackenzie Page, Jumbie, and myself – and we had a nice long panel discussion about sacred plants and their role in the creative process. Kind of an antidote or counterbalance. Thoughtful and provocative, the discussion was well-received...and I went home loaded with the other artists' visionary mojo to finish the painting I'd started. Maybe you can see a hint of their flavor in this piece, another in a series of vegetable landscapes on other planets.
Moon Well
2011 05 06 The Kessler (Language Love, DVS*, Archnemesis)
2011 05 07 Dallas Museum (Bluetech)
2011 05 08 Ruta Maya (Polymyth, Dimitri's Ascent, Jamie Janover)
24"x24" – opaque pens on masonite
original painting for sale – make an offer
signed poster prints for sale – 1/$20 or 2/$30 + s/h
Still not getting tired of drawing golden spirals and moon portraits. What can I say? I have also been obsessed for years with creating gradients of complexity, leaving unelaborated sections, showing the weaving-into-being caught in action. Seems only appropriate for The Manifestation Celebration, which turned Dallas – if but for a moment – into one of the coolest places on the planet. Thanks to the hard work of the big-hearted people at Re:Evolution Media. Post script: I finished it up in Austin, during a few days of satiated lounging. Grounding that love, Texas...grounding that love.
Temporary flashback to April. While listening to Martina and Amanda give presentations on their artwork at Boulder's Shining Mountain Waldorf school last month, I regressed to "classroom doodling" mode and went to town on the paper plates they gave us for cheese and crackers:
The Love You Withhold Is The Pain That You Carry
I'm Too Wrapped Up In Not Being Wrapped Up
My extreme thanks to everyone who invited me to paint on them for Denver & Dallas's Alex & Allyson Grey shows. I take body painting seriously – a precious opportunity to see someone's soul and unfold it on them – and I got to work on some beautiful human beings. Here are links to body art galleries for both two-night events...as you browse, see if you can't absorb the ambience of each party:
Festival season is upon me (curious people: summer calendar on the blog), which means a lot more art and music, and less time to publish it. I already have a lot of work in store I'm honored-eager to share with you...in the meantime, take care and thanks for reading!
