Hello from Santa Fe, New Mexico! I'm here at Synergia Ranch this week to join in an historic moment with some of the psychedelic revolution's luminaries – folks like Ralph Metzner, Rick Doblin, Dennis McKenna, Allan Badiner, Gay Dillingham, and more (this place is such a trove of first-wave genius, I am soaking up as much as possible).
More on that soon. But in the meantime, can I suggest you keep this open in a separate tab and graze on it occasionally? I promise never to finish this many projects in one month ever again.
Love you for even reading this.
May all this crazy season's life and movement be a great adventure for us all.
And now...
A NEW COMMUNITY PROJECT!
Enjoy these tunes! They are the kind that happen when a big band magically emerges from the intersection of a motley crew of hand-selected instrumental talent and jams together in conjunction with a dozen painters – this is raw, immediate, spontaneous, lush, textured, driving, spacious, beautiful material, and I'm honored that I got to be a part of it.
Paint Jam ATX is a new monthly in Austin I just started to address this culture's need for places where live music and live art can get together and inspire each other. Bring your own art supplies and soak in all the creativity. It's our little prayer to the continued thriving of this city's Red River and the cultural district on its banks, now threatened by a meteoric rise in rent that could destroy the vibe that makes this place so great.
This is the kind of party Austin needs, perhaps the kind of party all of these United States could use, real medicine for those of us who need more substance and participation in our revelry.
I hope that you can join us for the next one! RSVP for our May 1st event here.
FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE:
Paint Jam #1 Collaboration
w/ Omar Chow & Tourmaline Todd
oil, acrylic, and aerosol paints
on 40"x30" stretched canvas
The residue in pigment of our first Paint Jam ATX event. I am on a new collaboration bender – there is no better way to manifest real magic and accelerate the learning of all those involved.
Binary System
oil & acrylic paint pens
on 48"x24" stretched canvas
SOLD
Another window into what I think the future of humanity might be – a world in which the made and born, machine and biological, the other and the self, are all so intimately intertwined that all these basic categories lose their meaning.
Painted live at Gem and Jam Festival and The Music Run, as well as during plenty of intense late nights at home and in my friends' apartments. May I recommend you click to view this piece as large as possible? There is so much detail and delicacy here, such intricate biomechanics...
Particle Accelerator
oil, acrylic, and aerosol paints
on 48"x24" stretched canvas
Another piece that is so damn detailed you won't appreciate the time I put into it if you don't zoom in a little...once I made the leap to disciplined and regular studio work, I've noticed major changes in my sense of daily rhythm and experience of being something called an "artist."
This piece – reminiscent of and dedicated to the submicroscopic realm and those cathedrals of modern science that explore it – was a commissioned album cover for Mystical Sun's new LP of live in-studio analog modular synthesis – a deeply psychedelic ambient endeavor that I resonate with as a fellow wizard working in the great Electrical Imaginary.
(On that note, if anyone you know would like to buy a VIP pass to this year's incredible Moogfest, I'm speaking on technoshamanism and leading a workshop on live looping...and I'm glad to part with either of the two I have for less than their face value.)
Cretaceous Texas
This region was the source of life for much of the ancient world, and the hardest hit when something (comet, asteroid, or meteor) collided with the Yucatan Peninsula to end the Mesozoic Era, punctuating the 5th Mass Extinction. But for much longer than we can imagine, this was paradise: a warm and shallow sea, inhabited by giant marine lizards like Mosasaurus and flying reptiles like Pteranodon, as well as giant sea turtles like Archelon and many species of now-extinct shelled Ammonites.
I'm always eager to portray the natural world as I imagine it must be to those whose brains do not use language – the vivid and immediate intensity of raw sensation, not papered over with our words. The Texas of the Late Cretaceous, violent though it must have been, was truly beautiful. I love to think about it as I walk this land today.
Sea Horse Lovers
collaboration with Chaeli Cardenas
oil and acrylic paints and Copic pen
on 10"x8" stretched canvas
Oh, and since I picked up this delicious 12-string guitar in Arizona after Gem and Jam, I had another case to paint. Above are the results of me + one paint marker + an evening in the golden light...
Email me if you would like for me to ornament your [anything] with art.
No project is too big or small!
AND NOW TO BLOW YOUR MIND
As the host of Third Eye Drops put it on his page:
Welcome back friends and thank you for once again plugging your consciousness into our nest for catma-filled novelty nuggets!
Erik Davis is an author, scholar and lecturer. His tremendous book, Techgnosis Myth Magic and Mysticism In the Age of Information draws novel, fascinating correlations between technology and mysticism.
Michael Garfield is an all-around silver tongue-tipped spear of information. He also writes for websites like Big Think, creates art and music and is just generally bordering on star child territory.
This conversation is all about evading the awe-sucking tentacles of society’s deeply-entrenched dogma dealers. It’s not easy, but to do it, we need to expand, reconsider and diversify the types of knowledge we’re willing to explore. We’ve got to be active wonder-seekers. We have establish our subjective inner-worlds as frontiers worth exploring, developing and celebrating.
We’ve also got to be careful not to take our catma (I’m in love with this word) quest too far, for if we do, we’re sure to end up deep in the realm of woo, a place where few are taken seriously.
SOME UPCOMING SHOWS
These are just some of the amazing things I get to do this year, while I'm not grinding at the noble goal of making a living selling paintings, starting conversations, and playing and teaching music (I give lessons now, online and in person, if you're interested).
You can find my full calendar here. If you don't see your town, please let me know you'd like to have me pay a visit! Maybe we can figure something out. :)
Lo, soul, seest thou not God's purpose from the first?
The earth to be spann'd, connected by network,
The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage,
The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together.
A worship new I sing,
You captains, voyagers, explorers, yours,
You engineers, you architects, machinists, yours,
You, not for trade or transportation only,
But in God's name, and for thy sake O soul.
- Walt Whitman, Passage To India
