"Glass Chrysanthemum," My New (Free) Cyber-Acoustic LP...AND Three New Paintings

“It is the function of art to carry us beyond speech to experience.”

- Joseph Campbell

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

- Aldous Huxley

"If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience."

- John Cage

A few days ago, my friends and I climbed out on the roof of our place in Boulder to catch an exceedingly rare cosmic occurrence: a full moon lunar eclipse during the winter solstice. If you're like me, you're probably marveling at how all of the super-unlikely planetary ballet moves seem to be going on at once, these days – as if the stars grind along with business as usual for a few thousand years and then bust out in a flashmob musical. The more I read about this (and there are good articles here and here if you're interested), the more amazing it is.

There are already plenty of people reminding you why this time of year is important, so I'd rather celebrate this special transit, which hasn't happened in about two thousand years. Now is a perfect time to contemplate the spiraling elastic bounce between darkness and light...but perhaps, especially, the darkness within the light, suffusing us even in our sleep.

And so I'm delighted to bring you Glass Chrysanthemum, my first full-length album of cyber-acoustic adventures on the live-looped guitar – forty minutes of the deepest forays into my experimentations in improvised hybrid electronica. It's free to you to commemorate our time here together at the precipice of the Singularity, one more lovely winter before we dive off the deep end of 2011...

Download it for free now!

Glass Chrysanthemum:

Cyber-Acoustic Adventures In Hyperspace (2010)

The glass chrysanthemum is the mandala people see before leaving their bodies during a near-death experience or intense entheogenic experience – a kind of portal between the personal and transpersonal realms – the gateway to the soul. And so it's only appropriate that I dedicate this album to my dear friend Robert Roy Smith, whose recent brush with three heart attacks proved to him that life is a universal principle, that there is life even in the abyss.

Send him your prayers, people...and grab a copy of this while it's still free – I have about 1400 free downloads to offer my friends, and there are 3700 of you on this newsletter. (Wow!)

And now on to the paintings. :)

Jelly Chrysanthemum

2010 12 01, 02, 03, Freebird Live, The House, The House of Time

(Perpetual Groove, Vibesquad, KiloWatts, High Top Kicks, The Polish Ambassador, Dojo, Miles

18"x36" - paint markers on artboard - check price/availability

11"x17" prints (1/$25, 2/$40, 3/$50 incl s/h) - email me

Dedicated to Tourmaline Todd & Adam Fu Reed of Austin TX, whose intense commitment to the creative lifestyle is an inspiration to me. Also dedicated to Aaron Holstein (aka Vibesquad), for whom I've been painting seemingly since the rosy mists of the Cretaceous Period, and whose infectious good spirits make people's hearts blossom wherever he goes.

(click for a closer view)

Five, Six, Seven, Eight

2010 12 11 City Hall

(The Fantastic Hosts)

24"x30" - paint markers on masonite - check price/availability

11"x17" prints (1/$25, 2/$40, 3/$50 incl s/h) - email me

Dedicated to Gracia Wenzel, whose birthday just so happened to coincide with one of the most awesome parties I've ever attended in Denver, and who I believe to be on the same Earth-based team of reincarnated extra-terrestrials (wink). And to The Fantastic Hosts, for throwing that party.

(click for a closer view)

Crystal Eyes

2010 12 18 The Majestic Theater

(Ana Sia, DJ K@dog, Freddy Todd, Angela OohLaLa, Popsh!t)

18"x24" - paint markers on masonite - check price/availability

11"x17" prints (1/$25, 2/$40, 3/$50 incl s/h) - email me

Where can I even begin to demonstrate my appreciation for my newfound friends in Detroit? Last week I flew out there to be the featured visual artist and setbreak live looping weirdo for the latest Cirque du Womp event – a sold-out plaster-rattling blacklight freakfest at the 1,000 person Majestic Theatre in downtown Womp City. In spite of hilarious mix-ups with airline reservations, prehistoric-Volkswagon engine trouble, and the bitter cold of the Detroit "tundra," my time there couldn't have been more exciting, beautiful, and strange. Major love, and painting dedication, to Scott, Grant, and Angela...I'll be back up in Michigan soon, fingers crossed.

(In the meantime, my soundcheck from Circus 8 is available for your listening pleasure on Glass Chrysanthemum – or you can find it on my new soundcloud page, where I'll be regularly posting live clips and exclusive releases...)

(click for a closer view)

More treats for everyone next week...in the meantime, enjoy the paradoxical anxious abundance of the holidays, get some good sleep, and feel welcome to write me for any reason. Thank you so much for your precious time and attention...

Gem & Jam, Entheon Videos, and a Valentine's Day Exclusive Track

> Imagery

Crystal Eggs

2010 02 04 Plush

(Ana Sia, BLVD)

20"x30" - paint markers on masonite

- check availability -

(signed 11"x17" prints available, $20)

I can't seem to shake the bad habit of hauling ass on zero sleep from Colorado to Arizona only to leap out of the car and immediately begin painting...which is exactly how it went down at last year's Gem & Jam, and exactly how it went down this year, as well. My friend, globetrotting photographer Megan Illgner, and I made it there with literally five minutes to spare before Ana Sia went on, after burning a fierce downhill highway from Durango to Tucson in one lightning stretch. It was pretty epic to begin with, considering our two-day drive together rang in her first real foray into vagabonding (and snowy mountain driving...ask me to tell you about our near-death experience on an icy road over Durango, one of these days). And no, I'm not just trying to terrify my mother. We were perfectly safe the entire time.

This painting is inspired by the oil pattern on the lenses of a pair of sunglasses I bought that morning (they were so cool I had to buy them, but they bore an MTV logo I had to scratch off with a pair of scissors so as not to infect my vibe), and it is dedicated to Amy Otto the masseuse, who took good care of my hands that night and is a luminous woman. After such a strenuous trip down, painting this in the company of friends I rarely see was a real treat. And I think it shows.

Whomporaptors vs. The Sunrise, or Dubstep Dinos Defeat The Dawn

2010 02 05 Rialto Theatre

(Telepath, Random Rab, EOTO)

20"x30" - paint markers on masonite

- check availability -

(signed 11"x17" prints available, $20)

After my recent critical review of EOTO's ongoing dubstep obsession, I figured I'd make a point to tell keyboardist/guitarist/looper Michael Travis that whatever they played that night would not be dark enough. Because I'd be painting dinosaurs. Half kidding, but I really was in an unusually grindy mood, and after all my railing on their overwrought fixation I was smitten by irony: their set was, indeed, not dark enough for my tastes. However, Megan and I talked on the way down to Arizona about how we wanted Travis to include bongos in their dubstep, and we had a high five moment when it actually happened at the show...pioneering a new genre she and I have lovingly dubbed "bongstep."

So this painting is dedicated to Megan, and indirectly, to bongstep. Here's to having the first Google hit for something (like I did for the statement, "Imagination is our greatest natural resource"). It's a direct response to my friends who insisted on more dinosaurs, and it was a challenge to myself, since the Maniraptorans were covered in feathers and I knew it'd be a growth opportunity to attempt them. Also, it's difficult to tell from this photograph but the background of this painting has a lot of really intricate dripwork and subtle color layering going on. I had a lot of fun prepping it.

As for the dinosaurs...well, I meant for them to be Velociraptors, originally, but I hadn't looked at any in a while. So we ended up with one likely Velociraptor in the middle, there; one anonymous sickle-clawed beast above; and something that looks like a primitive Tyrannosaurid (perhaps Dilong) in the lower right. I had no choice but to invent a taxon for this bizarre menagerie...genus Whomporaptor. So much for scientific precision. :)

Serpent DNA Love Regeneration

2010 02 06 Rialto Theatre

(Pnuma Trio, Vibesquad, Boombox)

20"x30" - paint markers on masonite

- check availability -

(signed 11"x17" prints available, $20)

Another painting named courtesy of the lovely Leesah Noble. I need to draw more snakes...after all, they're one of the few subjects with which I have significant professional experience from my time at KUNHM's Department of Herpetology, and it'd be a shame to squander what little official training I have in these things. So I got all Jeremy Narby on the green-and-yellow-and-silver background and delighted in scales for a few hours.

This painting is dedicated to Taylor Lupardo, with whom I stayed (along with about a dozen other people) during Gem & Jam, and whose Facebook profile picture I took at sunset from the roof of the parking complex across the street from his place...one of the most magical moments I had out there, maybe the closest any of us got to soaking up "real" Arizona during the festival. Thanks for the crash space, man.

> Writing & Speech

At Burning Man's Entheon Village in 2009, I participated in a series of lectures and panel discussions on evolution, consciousness, 2012, and the future of our species. And they were videotaped! I am SO excited to share with you the fruits of that project:

In this first (two-part) video, I'm on a panel with authors Daniel Pinchbeck, Tony Vigorito, and Mark Heley, as well as the mysterious Mark Martinez. It was incredibly fun to share the stage and assume the guise of expertise for this conversation about the evolution of consciousness and our current global transition, and except for a few rough spots the discussion was truly inspired and inspiring. It was an honor to participate, and it's an honor now to finally get to share it with you.

http://entheonvillage.blip.tv/file/3194601/

Right after the panel, I gave what is doubtlessly the most important speech of my life so far: a half-hour presentation on the emerging science of biogeomagnetics, a discipline that studies the relationship between living creatures and the electromagnetic fiels of our planet and star. By describing how magnetic fields trigger the release of various human biochemicals, and by grounding the presentation in the understanding that mind and matter are two perspectives of the same phenomenon, I suggest that the 2012 prophesies may actually have a legitimate, modern, naturalistic explanation – and that biogeomagnetics may offer us a prescription for how to stay afloat through the tumultuous years to come.

http://entheonvillage.blip.tv/file/3183885/

Those are my good friends, visionary artist Adam Scott Miller, activist and hero Taylor Steelman, beacon of joy Tessa Ruttan, and synchromystical faerie goddess Jacqueline North listening rapt in the audience (both pics are courtesy of the magnificent Sergio Lub, founder of favors.org, who moderated many of the panels that week with wisdom and grace). These talks are dedicated to anyone who might benefit from them, but I'll give a special nod to my friends who were actually in attendance that amazing day.

> Music

For my last gig at Quixote's in Denver, my friend M Vincent Miller, virtuoso pianist, sat in on about half of my set. It was messy, unrehearsed, and utterly ridiculous...it was also a dream come true. I've wanted to gig with Vince since we met in the fall of 2007, and I am so, so glad that at least some of the recordings came out well enough to share them with you. As a blog exclusive (except, of course, for the people who were there), here is one of my more intense love ballads – a gift to you all for Valentine's Day.

This unusual recording of "Underground River" captures my first-ever duet performance with Vince, who turned this ordinarily brief-but-trancey number into a sprawling, edgy jazz-scape. Truly strange and beautiful...enjoy!

"Underground River" feat. M Vincent Miller

(2010 01 28 Quixote's True Blue)

http://michaelgarfield.bandcamp.com/track/bonus-underground-river-feat-m-vincent

New Merchandise Store & CO Paintings

First of all, I'm excited to announce that I've been inducted into the roster at ArtsProjekt.com, a super-hip and progressive online artists' collective. Which means that I have a new merchandise shop – now, you can buy my artwork in the form of postage stamps, coffee mugs, postcards, buttons, stickers, skateboards, and soon plenty of other items. I'll be adding new products with some regularity and am happy to take suggestions, so if you have any ideas for sweet art/merchandise pairings let me know! And enjoy your new options...

2009 08 14 Mishawaka Ampthitheatre (EOTO, Vibesquad, Big Gigantic)
16"x24" - paint markers on masonite

Another trip out to the beautiful Mishawaka Amphitheatre yielded this lively number...an attempt to cover "surfaces" with tetrahedral reliefs, a la the Epcot Center's Spaceship Earth and other quasi-geodesic structures. Thanks to the Mish's crazy late-summer weather, I did indeed get to paint while it was raining for a while...right next to me, fellow painter Kenzie Page was having a blast with her drippy acrylics, whereas my pens were impervious to the weather. It worked out for both of us. The show was a blast – I've made it known on every possible occasion how much I enjoy painting for all of those artists. And I got to soak up a lot of Colorado love, lots of friends I haven't seen in ages. This show made it very, very hard to stay away.

2009 08 15 Boulder Theatre (Freq Nasty, Heavyweight Dub Champion, Ana Sia, Jantsen)
20"x30" - paint markers on masonite

The next night was the homegrown SoundQuake Fest at the Boulder Theatre – a real landmark venue, and one I'd never painted in before (although once upon a time I DID get to play Chapman Stick on stage there, for the 2008 Bao Bao Festival, in a fairly ridiculous highlife band). Majestic and spacious, the Boulder Theatre was decked out with fabulous chill spaces and a stage half-filled with busted old TVs displaying static and weird visual noise. My man Ralf put the whole show together himself, a real grassroots achievement...even if the Boulder crew was strangely thin that night, probably still burnt out from Phish tour and STS9's Day Out Of Time. Eva Andreano set up along the opposite wall, painting on board and frame all at once. And I ran the whompy, aggro theme of the night, applying my unique appreciation for heaviness and paradox to the night's work. It feels good to be getting back to more focused, centralized, object-oriented compositions, after a summer of so much play with background layers and fields. This piece goes out to a special woman in my life, who wonders if our feelings for each other are more wings or anchors. Here's your answer, babe.