3 New Paintings + 8 Yoga Mats + 7 Awesome Conversations

Thank you for opening this!  Art is a way for me to organize my life to best receive my deep intelligence and guidance and then share it with the world...so this dumb little newsletter that I've been keeping since 2009 is like an altar where I place my prayers for world peace and the ongoing evolution of our loving cosmos.  As Alex Grey adapted from the Mahayana Buddhists, "May the merit generated by this act benefit all sentient beings."

You know where to find me if you'd like to pass a message through the grate.

love

Michael

PS – I'm opening for Random Rab in Austin on March 30th.  Hope you can make it!

New Paintings

(I now offer discounts or free prints, as well as extensive backstories for every new painting, to Patreon supporters.  Here's the link if you'd like to learn more.)

"Dying To Know"

collaboration with Elliot Rogers & William Allan Ross

2017 • 36"x48" • acrylic paint on gallery-wrapped canvas

original painting & fine art reproductions here

"Going Home"

2018 • 24"x36" • acrylic paint on gallery-wrapped canvas

painted live at Gem & Jam Festival 2018 (Tucson, AZ)

to the music of Earthcry (onstage), Emancipator, Big Wild, & STS9 (2x)

original painting & fine art reproductions here

"Rainbow Worm"

2017 • 20"x20" • acrylic and oil paint on canvas

original painting & fine art reproductions here

New Conversations

At last week's Body Hacking Conference, I joined somatic therapist Saj Razvi for a group discussion on MDMA-assisted and psychedelic psychotherapies, drawing on his successful clinical work with MAPS and the FDA to reschedule MDMA as a legal treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  We had an awesome chat about the protocols used in this study, the miraculous successes that they've seen with this new mode of healing, and why it is time for our society to make these medicines available to all of us.  Read more and download the audio recording here.

For fellow nerds:  I've posted THREE new conversations about Blade Runner 2049 and the future of humanity with acclaimed film scholars John David Ebert, Barry Vacker, and JF Martel.  These will eventually be made available to everyone as Future Fossils Podcast episodes, but for now you can find them all on Patreon for $5.  

We go deep on ancient myths and symbolism in the films, on whether love can make an android "real," on whether this film helps or hurts our cultural imagination of the future, and a lot more.  It has been an honor to sit down with these three thinkers and I know that any sci-fi fan will dig these...

One of my favorite comedians, Shane Mauss, explains how we went so deep with psychedelics that he had to check himself into a mental ward.  We talk about time travel, God discovering humanity,  and more.  One of the funniest and weirdest episodes of Future Fossils yet!

My old friend and badass truth warrior gonzo journalist Charles Shaw maps out the trauma engine that is modern civilization – and why it's so important that we fight for the right to heal ourselves.

This is the first of THREE HOURS of the show with Charles – if you would like to hear the rest of it before it's published, it's available to Patreon supporters at all levels here.

Easily in the top five sharpest people I have ever met, my graduate advisor and meta-disciplinary wizard Sean Esbjörn-Hargens talks about how to train multiple perspectives on the natural world as well as economics and the development of human organizations.  If that sounds dry, prepare to be surprised by one of the most psychoactive knowledge paradigms you've ever met...

New Yoga Mats & More

I finally have yoga mats for eight of my paintings (one of which is not shown here), with more to come soon!  This is now the cheapest way to get high-quality, large reproductions of my work – larger and less costly than the giclée canvas prints – good enough to hang on walls but durable enough to take whatever you can throw at them while kicking ass in yoga class.

Grab yours here.  I make a rather small percentage of each sale but I'm just glad to have my art available like this.  If you get one, please send me pictures of you rocking out with your new mat and I'll respond with something small and special for you...!

This will be the new destination for all of my digital art merchandise.  More soon, but now there are already tons of items up for my most popular designs, on items you cannot get anywhere else.

I have more than 16 hours of my music available for your enjoyment up on Spotify...and nearly five times as much music, spanning more than ten years' of recordings, up on Bandcamp.  It's all available for anything you care to spare, because my music is a gift and I would like for it to stay that way.  

(You can, of course, subscribe:  Bandcamp subscribers also get all of the audio that I release in any format you desire, including many many private press releases, and some heavy discounts on my paper prints, and public cred for being part of my small crew of badass fans.)

Select Upcoming Events

Here are some of the things I'm most excited about this spring.  For my full schedule, visit my webpage – and if you want me in your neighborhood this year, give me a shout!

“True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible… In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives.

– Wendell Berry

My Most Prolific Month to Date! New Full-Band Recordings, Solo & Collaboration Paintings, Mural, Podcast, & New Show Announcements

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!

Stream or Download the best hour of music from our first event.

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

Read about this piece / Order prints

Check availability of the original

Share from FB

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

Read about this piece / Order prints

Share from FB

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

Read about this piece / Order prints

Check availability of the original

Share from FB

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

View the whole photo album on Facebook

My largest piece as of March 2016 is this mural of the prehistoric ocean that was where this water tank now sits in Johnson City, Texas. Once upon a time – that time is 70 million years ago – there was a vast (but shallow) Intercontinental Seaway that is now the Midwest USA and Canada.

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

Read about this piece / Order prints

Check availability of original

Share from FB

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

Click here to Stream or Download this amazing conversation.

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

Preview My New Solo Album | My Biggest Painting Yet | Grateful Dead Envelope Art | Novelty Generators Podcast | New Writing For Globalish

"If I had to bet my life on what's more real, I bet on the thing that inspires me."
– Annie Lalla, MDMA therapist

The thing about a planetary culture is that as the Earth gets smaller, all the consequences of our actions happen faster. Cause-effect relationships are more immediate and tangible. The feedback loops draw tighter. We can see the patterns in how everything we do affects the whole.

Re-associate yourself and let the moral evolution happen. Power lies in understanding. No, it isn't comfortable. Yes, it's an improvement.  And now, our regularly scheduled programming...

My Final Solo Cyberguitar Album's Almost Here...

Download Three Free Tracks  & Preorder the Entire Album Here

My new album drops this Tuesday, January 27th.  If, as Hakim Bey says, "Every recording is a tombstone of a live performance,” then I believe this is the greatest tombstone I have ever made. 

Most of y'all probably don't know that I make music...or that I was pouring my soul into my music career long before I became a professional artist. But songcraft and mapping new terrain between acoustic and electronic music on guitar is my great adventure, and this album is the product of techniques refined across 100,000 miles of touring.

If you enjoy my art, or my ideas, I hope you'll take some time (with headphones, or a hula hoop) to listen to this music - and the many other albums I have on that site and offer you for free. I've channeled some amazing places into sound and let some awesome inspirations through that I can't claim, but wonder at when I go back and listen.

This is music for a journey, flow arts, making love - it's rich with atmosphere and feeling, and I'm honored that I get to share it with you.  Thanks for your support!

Cleopatra

32"x48" – oil & acrylic paint pens on masonite

Buy 11"x17" prints | Like/Comment/Share On FB

Painted (so far) at:
• 15.10.2014 & 19.01.2015 – Studio
• 25-26.10.2014 – Art Outside (WELDER, DJ Vadim, Fort Knox Five, Phutureprimitive,The Widdler, BoomBaptist, Thriftworks, Kaminanda, D.V.S*, Blue Sky Black Death, Emancipator, Papadosio)
• 12.12.2014 – $3 Shows at Swan Dive (Amy Arani, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Carry Illinois, Trouble in The Streets, Groovement, The Holy Child)

A tongue-in-cheek homage to some of my favorite artists (points if you can guess). I always thought that nudes were cheating: easy sales, and all too often they objectify the feminine. But that became my challenge: can I make a piece that's both ridiculous and reverent, that satirizes "festy art" yet still evokes the ancient-future sacred visionary landscape earnestly?

I don't know if I succeeded, but I really liked the process. Still deciding whether I will leave this how it is or finish it with (tasteful) iridescent highlights in two weeks at Gem and Jam Festival. Regardless, I'll post detail photos soon. This is my largest piece to date and has a lot of tiny touches in it...

Or, for those of you that need more color...

Like/Comment/Share On FB

Somehow doubt I'll win given the amazing competition...but regardless, this was super fun.  I rarely have a reason to exhume my Prismacolor pens and doodle major iconography like this...

My Guest Appearance on Novelty Generators Podcast

 Stream & Subscribe on Youtube

If you're short on big ideas and visionary vistas, here's something that should jumpstart your imagination: I recently enjoyed a wonderful discussion with filmmaker Niles Heckman on his Novelty Generators podcast. We talked about everything from how the human brain is co-evolving with machines, to the future role of myth, to some of my favorite graphic novels, to how a global culture challenges idea of wilderness...

More Writing for Globalish: Read. Watch. Awaken.

My main gig nowadays is as a writer for this fabulous new website, Globalish – where we explore the intersection between ageless spiritual teachings and contemporary culture.  Here are the articles I've written for them since my last newsletter posted:

Channel 1: Revolution

True Liberation vs. Miley Cyrus' "Tongue Tied": Free Speech by Imprisoned Minds

Yasiin Bey's Eric Garner/Ferguson Statement Set to Fallou Diop's Jazz

Channel 2: Travel

Mear One: Hip Hop Science Fiction Proletariat with Spray Cans

Neuroscientist Michele Ross Describes Her First Experience with DMT

South African Street Artist Faith47 Captures the Soul of City Living

On How to See with Loving Eyes: Sri Lanka Through a Smartphone

Channel 3: Art

Pixel-Extraits: Thought Becomes Environment in Computer-Dance Collaboration

Viktoria Modesta: The World's First Amputee Pop Star

Channel 4: Life

The Patterns of Gentrification: Who's Aware of the Story?

Honesty: Nothing Real Can Be Threatened, Nothing Unreal Exists

Pearl of Africa: The Debut of Uganda's First Transgender Web Series

Beautiful Chemical Reactions: Who's Aware of the Story?

Next Month: See you in Arizona!

"I followed weirdness and wrote about it. The exploration of the unusual became a way of being. Most of the interesting people I've met did the same thing."

– Erik Davis