Michael Garfield's Love Without End Tour Newsletter: February 2014

18 February 2014

New Time-Lapse Live Painting Video | Preorder My New Album | Free: Live at Whip In | Remastered Painting | New Hats | Gratifly Videos

"Elites aren't defined by birth or wealth, they are people with a project, individuals who want to do work they believe in, folks seeking to make an impact. Averaging down everything we do so that it becomes cheap and ubiquitous and palatable to all is a hollow goal."

I'm just going to apologize right now for overloading you with awesome new stuff over the next couple of weeks.  This year finds me on an incredible creative roll and I feel like I'm doing my best work ever, faster than ever before.  

If you don't have time to read this whole newsletter – and I certainly understand if that's the case – then please watch this time-lapse live painting video, download this free live album, and check out this sweet painted fedora.  I'll have more videos and music and artwork I am proud to share with you next week.  Feel free to reach out to me with your own artwork, or questions, and have a beautiful day!

Oh, and also!  If you know of any festivals I should play this year, please let me know.  I still do all of my own booking, it's hard work, and I can use all of the help I can get.  I really appreciate your input.

love,

Time-Lapse Live Painting through Google Glass
Share on FB | G+

I finally made good on my promise to Google Glass to film my live painting #throughglass and share the video. Here is that time-lapse – taken while painting "Inner Light" at Rootwire Festival and the Dallas Be:Tribe Gathering in 2013 – along with a preview of my forthcoming electronic guitar album (which you can preorder here) and a bit of a manifesto-rant on the importance of taking something home with you from your festival experience...


Laser-Engraved Bamboo Pendants + CDR Physical Package

My buddy Jamie Greene at Biomorphics is helping me make these delicious laser-engraved 2" pendants for the physical release of my forthcoming album, 21st Century Romance, to be released on March 4th.  (The pics above are of the prototype...I'm open to your feedback on whether this would be better with a leather cord or pin backings so you can wear it as a hat pin.)

Live at Whip In

Heart-spearing pathos, virtuosic fingerstyle acoustic guitar, and ecstatic live electronic improvisation come together in this definitive live recording of my set at Whip In on January 9th, 2014 – the belated second anniversary of my first concert in Austin (and birthday party for me, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, and Stephen Hawking).

This album features two new live looping improvisations as well as the first public performance of the song "Signal," first-ever recordings of "Really," "Gatecrashing," and a new guitar arrangement of the fan favorite, "It Hurts So We're Not Dead." A true landmark recording in my development as a performing singer-songwriter and avant-guitarist.

Written, Performed, Recorded, & Mixed by Yours Truly – Released 7 February 2014

Remastered Painting: "Cabochons"
32" x 32" - paint marker on stretched canvas
Email me to bid on the original painting.
Painted at
2012 07 27 The Parish (The Nadis Warriors, Paul Basic, Metranohm)
2012 08 04 Frank (Sheer Khan and the Space Case, Henry and the Invisibles)
2012 08 16, 18 Rootwire Festival
(Papadosio Live PA, Futexture, Kaminanda, Mazeguider, Random Rab)
2014 01 21, 22, 31 Studio

This painting hung on my wall in its original form for over a year...and I just hated, hated looking at it.  Every piece goes through its awkward adolescence, but sometimes I think it's done when it's actually not, and then eighteen months later I get fed up, take it down, and work on it until I'm finally satisfied looking at it.  No compromise!  I'm happy with this piece, now.  

If you live in Austin you can go check it out, along with a few other pieces, in its new temporary home at Lunar Mattress on South Congress.  What?  Yes.  This furniture store is also an art gallery.  :)

New Painted Hats

Now that I am refusing Bassnectar commissions, hat work has been a little slower-going.  Sigh.  Come on, people!  I want to do something totally unique and YOU.  You'll be glad in twenty years you challenged me with something different that grew along with your musical tastes.  (No offense to Lorin, whose work I admire.  But a man can only draw so many bass drops before he goes mad.)

If you'd like a hat, drop me a line.  You're helping me pay rent, and I love to beautify your domes.




Taking A Cosmic Perspective at Gratifly 2013 Videos

If you'd prefer to listen, you can download the audio from these talks right here.  But if you want to feel like you were there, these videos capture that morning-after glow we were all feeling...




If you made it all the way through this you are a gladiator!  Thanks for your time and attention.

06 February 2014

LostInSound Compilation | Minds.com Panel Discussion | My Talk From Gratifly Festival | New Mind Folds

"When the evolutionary process shifts from biology to software technology the body becomes the old hardware environment. The human body is now a probe, a laboratory for experiments." 
Marshall McLuhan, 1970


How is 2014 treating you guys?  Me:  superconducting creativity like graphene, transparent to my own motives and desires like glass, but under a lot of pressure like diamond.  The Year of the Horse is already off to a gallop, with some amazing new gigs – including tonight's show at The Scottish Rite Theater in Austin, doing a special A/V performance with Topher Sipes after the screening of my friend Rak Razam's ayahuasca documentary.  Here are a few more to look forward to in the next month:

7 February 2014 - Austin, TX - Mindzai Printing
Third Coast Visions Art Collective Show – Live Collaborative Mural
Cyberacoustic Guitar w/ Live Visuals by Topher Sipes

8 February 2014 - Austin, TX - The Parish
Live Painting for Desert Dwellers, Futexture, Cactus Bath

15 February 2014 - Austin, TX - Cenote
Love Songs For Solo Percussive Guitar, 7 - 9 pm, Free All Ages Show

15 February 2014 - San Marcos, TX - Tantra Coffeehouse
Cyberacoustic Guitar set w/ ARTheism, Hair Farmers, Grace Park, & Violinda
(Texas Wild Rice Festival Fundraiser Show)

6 - 8 March 2014 - Kerrville, TX - Head For The Hills Festival
Cyberacoustic Guitar, Live Painting & more, Details TBA

I will of course record as much as possible to share with all of you who can't make it there in person.  And now on to all of the goodies I have for you this week!  Enjoy, and stay in touch...

"Complexity, Culture, & Consciousness"
A Minds.com Panel Discussion

One of the most awesome conversations I've ever had!  My friend Bill Ottman at Minds.com invited me to help him curate an all-star panel discussion with stem cell researcher and complexity theorist Neil Theis, information scientist and sci-fi professor Richard Doyle, religious scholar and culture critic Erik Davis, and historian and all-around badass Mitch Mignano.

Our 110-minute conversation ranged from whether the universe is alive to the implications of open-source software in government, the consciousness of subatomic particles to the the spiritual consequences of Fukushima.  If you want to blow your mind, make some time to watch this.

LostInSound Winter Compilation 2014


I was honored to participate in this amazing benefit compilation.  From my friends at LostinSound:

LostinSound.org is happy to announce our V/A Winter Compilation of 2014. This collection features an eclectic track list from 21 of today's most talented and relevant producers. Our winter edition brings something completely new and different to the table, so wash your hands, and get ready to feast on a royal banquet of unreleased material.

We’d like to thank each and everyone of these artists for their tremendous contribution towards this compilation, and their continued support of Lost in Sound as a collective. A special mention goes out to Jacob Unmess for designing the unbelievable cover art for this season’s compilation. 25 limited edition 11x17 prints are available in the "Merch" section of this page.

For the first time ever, we are encouraging but not requiring donations. 100% of these donations will be given to an incredible organization entitled “Transform Relief.” After the most severe typhoon in recorded history hit the Philippines last November, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and lack access to food or fresh water. Transform Relief is not only bringing radical aid but empowering people to grow their own food using sustainable practices, and non-GMO, fast growth seeds. We will publish a full feature tomorrow when the compilation is released.

We feel obligated to use our skills and our large networks of activated youth to help our brothers and sisters who are in great need. We’ve been given a chance as a collective to unify and aid in a way that transcends what any one individual could accomplish alone. So, if you feel moved, please donate when you download the compilation, be sure to get to know our ally's at Transform Relief.

My Talk From Gratifly Festival 2013


Excerpts from the epic three-hour-plus, still-going-from-an-all-nighter rant I gave at Gratifly Festival in Avalon, South Carolina, 27 July 2013.

This talk is a map of the problematique - the tragedy and blessing of the human condition as it specifically manifests in an age of metamorphosis. Old worlds are dying and new worlds are being born. How do we navigate the change? By taking a cosmic perspective.

I wish I had the whole three hours for you...but due to the fact that this was recorded on my pocket digital camera, I was limited by the lifespan of my lithium batteries. Consequently the audio is also substandard, but I am nonetheless happy to share it. There's something magical about what came through in that place and time – exhausted and in love...


New Mind Folds

"Author & Inventor" (as it says euphemistically on the packaging) Alex Grey invented these modified blindfolds to let people experience total darkness with their eyes open.  Perfect for simulating blindness or going on mental journeys in the daytime, Mind Folds are also a fun surface for me to practice my oil painting technique.  Email me with your budget if you'd like one!




Merchandise

I do pretty much all of my work as a gift to the commons (that's you!) and am supported by people's donations – I'm now accepting Bitcoin as well as monthly subscriptions through Paypal on my homepage – but if you want to help me stay afloat as an artist and get something cool out of the deal, here are some options for you:



Thanks for reading!  Stay in touch and have a beautiful day...