Michael Garfield's Love Without End Tour Newsletter: First Live Painting of 2012, New Apparel, Waxing Philosophical

"New maps for new realities! Reality is a verb!"
– Richard Doyle

2012 is off like a rocket! I hope it's treating you all as well as it's been treating me...

Here is the second video in a series of "performance philosophy" rants I've made to marry my ongoing studies in evolutionary biology and ecology with my passion for understanding the great transformation we're going through together...

We Are Growing A Remix Economy

Watch/Share in HD on Youtube

You can watch the first video, "We Are Something The Planet Is Doing," at two of my favorite blogs: LostInSound.org and SpiritOfSpider.com. Both of them are highly browse-worthy...

In related news (evolution, art, and economy), I just wrote this article for Reality Sandwich on my friend Dadara's awesome "Art As Money" project, The Exchanghibition Bank, and their new 2012 banknote. From the article:

I met Dadara in person at Burning Man this year, where Exchanghibition Bank set up on the dusty expanse offering people their suspiciously money-esque art notes in exchange for signing a "Karma Laundering" statement that claims you will never again compromise artistic freedom for money. It's an idea whose time has come – a time when drastic government cutbacks on the arts are exceeded by scarcely-imaginable subsidies afforded the failing banks (largely because art itself has become a commodity, with worth measured in auction price). If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! What is money, exactly, if not an agreement – the ritual magical performance of a consensual values-reality? (read more)

Clear on Direction

2012 01 12 The Parish (Heyoka, Sugarpill, Starlynx)

2012 01 13 Ruta Maya (Voice Mau, El John, Matthew Ian Blagg,
DJ Hobo D, Boombaptist, King Art, OT23, Ruler Why)
24"x30" – paint markers on masonite
11"x17" signed poster prints: $25 (incl. s/h) – email me to order
Original painting – check availability and asking price on FB

My first live painting of 2012, courtesy of two fine evenings produced by my friends at Art Seen Alliance and Collective Perspectives. True to the intensity of this year (so far, and I imagine it's only ramping up), I wanted to paint something that captured in one image my microbiological leanings, the vacuoles and cilia of some pond water protist; an explosive collision like Zeus' thunderbolt; and the jeweled geometries of of the divine mind of time. This is, in the words of my badass painter friend Chaeli Cardenas, "some intense masculine energy." Yes! Directedness. Focus. Follow through. All good things for a year when everyone seems to be talking about manifestation. I had to laugh at myself halfway through the show when someone pointed out to me it was pointing straight at my book of prints!

You can click on the pictures above and below to get a super-close look at the detail and its various stages of completion:

"Imagination Is Our Greatest Natural Resource"

Ladies' Tees!

Courtesy of my merchandise shop at ArtsProjekt, new print-on-demand tees for the ladies, to join the existing men's tees and a horde of other options. These are only available through their website – I'm making a small commission on sales, but most of that price goes to the company for their printing services. If you make shirts and think we can offer people a better deal, let me know!

Some Of My Best Hats Yet

The scientific illustrator in me still loves doing commissioned work where I get to relish in the challenge of tackling new and specific subjects, like this Cessna hat and the Rasta Lion below that...although I still love making chrysanthemum mandalas, obviously: