Mycelium Music | New Live Painting | Custom Violin | Upcoming Gigs | New Merch at Zazzle

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.”

– Dan Gilbert

“Thoroughly conscious ignorance has been the prelude to every advance in science.”

– James Clerk Maxwell

The summer's abundance of travel, inspirational friendships, and powerful new chance meetings is well underway...freshly home, I'm eager to integrate all that I've learned and experienced in the last two weeks – and looking forward to some amazing gigs in the month ahead.

I can't wait to share all of that new work with you – but I'm a little behind.  So first things first!

Mycelium Music Compilation Vol. 4
A Benefit for the Amazon Mycorenewal Project

Listen/Buy at Bandcamp

I'm honored to be on this album alongside friends Supersillyus, Numatik, Cactus Bath, and Wei Chi Field, as well as a host of other talented producers.  My track, "Throwing Sparks," is something totally different for anyone familiar with my electronic guitar improvisation – a lush and glitchy arrangement supporting my first Chapman Stick recording since 2008.  Proceeds go to the Amazon Mycorenewal Project, using fungus to clean up oil pollution in Ecuador...a worthy cause!

New Live Painting:

"Manna Vesicles"

Like/Share on FB | Buy 11"x17" Prints

2014-04-18 Scoot Inn – Sheer Khan, Resonant Frequency, The Human Experience, Andreilien

04-22 Austin Community College – The Human Fractals, Bob Slaughter

05-14 Empire Control Room – JPOD, Blunt Force, Cactus Bath

05-22 The Parish – The Nadis Warriors, Random Rab

06-04 Lanai – Fractala, Ram-Z, DRRTY WULVZ, Subaqueous

06-05 Empire Control Room – Quanta, Akasha

06-07 Archaic Revival Festival – Manoj, Desert Dwellers

06-12 Elanosphere – Studio

Inspired by vintage science fiction paperback cover artwork and fantastical NASA concept paintings, "Manna Vesicles" is also my first in a series of odes to the Texas Hill Country, a sacred landscape whose rolling terrain flows with abundant sunlight and spring water, nourishing an incredible diversity of creatures and cultures.

Sometimes when I look up in the sky and see those almost-invisible floating orbs, I wonder if they aren't dust but chi, the subtle energy of the cosmos flowing through and binding the world together. Given recent discoveries about the Earth's magnetic field and its relationship to storms, human biology, and solar activity, I imagine a field of orbs like this in every open sky – fields of interpenetrating influence, transforming cosmic radiation into something life on Earth can use.

The universe is a vast, mysterious place – most of it invisible to us. Space isn't really empty – it's full. This painting's a reminder of that.

Custom Texas State Flag Violin

Like/Share on FB

My girlfriend Nicole Taylor repairs violins and guitars for a living.  Recently her boss at Westbank String Shop asked me if I'd like to paint the state flag of Texas on a client's violin...and I convinced them to let me have my way with it.  (Here's another shot of the finished job on instagram.)

New Custom Hat: Elephants & Hummingbirds

Like/Share on FB

Hummingbirds and elephants adorn this latest lid.  I love doing these – let me know if you'd like one of your own!  You can see all 154 I've done so far on my facebook page.

New Merchandise on Zazzle

Laptop Zipper Cases | Laptop Decals | Postcards | Postage Stamps

iPhone 5 | Samsung Galaxy S4 | Samsung Galaxy S5

Every once in a while I meet someone who bought one of my phone cases or laptop decals, and I'm always impressed with how well they came out.  Zazzle does a good job!  So I'm glad to announce new items featuring my painting "Inner Light" from Rootwire and Art Outside Festivals last year. And there are plenty more where those came from:

Upcoming Gigs

I'm honored to be opening for the ultra-talented Taylor McFerrin, son of Bobby McFerrin, in Austin this July.  His jazzy live electronica is taking the nation by storm and it's going to be a totally fun way to spend my only gig in Austin this summer...

And then it's off to three amazing festivals!  Gratifly is a beacon of transformational culture in the Southeast; Portal is a very promising new event in the Northwest; and Arise is widely considered the best music festival in Colorado.  I'll be speaking and painting at all three, as well as playing music with an über-talented coterie of special guest collaborators.  Who's coming with me?

Thanks for reading!  Feel free to stay in touch and have a beautiful day...more soon!

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."

– Seth Godin

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,

Michael

Time-Lapse Live Painting through Google Glass

Watch in HD on Youtube

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

View/Share on FB

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

Pay-What-You-Like

(or download it for free...just be sure to enjoy it)

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"

Buy Prints | View on FB

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.

View/Share on FB

View/Share on FB

View/Share on FB

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...

Watch Part 1 on Youtube

Watch Part 2 on Youtube

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

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

Watch & Read the Companion Chat on Google+

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

Download it Here & Support Disaster Relief in the Philippines

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

Stream & Download it Here for Free
Like/Share/Comment at Facebook

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!

Check it out on FB

Check it out on FB

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...

Great Coverage From LostInSound | New Painted Hats & Shoes | Looper's Night at Burning Man | Holiday Sale at Ravenectar

“It’s not what you fight against that matters as much as knowing what is worth fighting for. Wake up and dream.”

– Antero Alli

"If Art can't tell us about the world we live in, then I don't believe there's much point in having it."

– Robert Hughes

Wow, life!  After years of hard work the world is finally starting to show me some love for all I've done to try and inspire people.  My talks on the visionary horizons of human experience from Center Camp and Fractal Planet at Burning Man 2013 were just featured in Jack Rabbit Speaks, the official Burning Man newsletter!  I am so honored...and even more honored to receive not one, but two gushingly positive reviews of my festival performances from the excellent webzine, LostInSound.

Life has been an incredible challenge for me this year – legally, romantically, financially.  But we all have to polish that pearl somehow.  Thank you for growing with me.  I hope that this newsletter offers you something meaningful to carry into the rest of your life.  Stay in touch if you have anything to say, or to ask...I'm always available to help you find your way, or cheer you on.

Art Outside & Gratifly Reviews by LostInSound

Photo & Article by Bridget Chaney

"Arguably Garfield’s greatest success lies in how seamlessly he flows from one role to another – a friendly teacher, a minstrel, and a visionary – all while setting and maintaining a thoughtful, kind, and introspective tone through all of his work...offering us a refreshing dose of relatable academia that is too often left out of the festival environment. It is largely because of him, and others like him, that these events are evolving from 'just another party' to a social movement capable of 'transforming' our society and bringing about the evolution of new ideas."

"His intricately developed soundscapes delve into the internal harmonies of what it means to be human: the percussion our pulse and the melody the flow of our spirit, like blood vessels serpentinely traversing through the labyrinthine veins of the body. If cellular mitosis had a trippy soundtrack, it might be Michael Garfield."

Read more – including features on several fellow Third Coast Visions artists.

Photo by Yvonne Smith | Article by Matt Bovard

"Welcome to the future...Michael is a pioneer exploring the edge realms where the electric and old world meet. His improvised sets are the modern equivalent of Charlie Parker blowing out his soul into the smoky nights of the 1940’s...The soundscapes vibrate with eco-delic cowboy vibrato that takes the listener on a journey from which they cannot return the same as they left."

Read the entire LostInSound review of my history-making Google Glass cyberguitar set.

Looper's Night at Burning Man Center Camp 2013

Free Download | View on FB

One of the most magical things that ever happened to me at Burning Man: I barely made it onto stage at all, I was so sick. But I made it work, and the act after mine at Center Camp canceled, leaving me 45 minutes to do whatever I wanted...

With an audience full of amazing musicians, including Erothyme and Cualli, I had no choice but to break out a series of unprecedented and improvised live looping collaborations.  This is deep heavy chill, perfect for late-night listening.  Throat-singing, didjeridoo, and cybernetic sound mangling for journeying and dreamwork.

After jamming with the third group, all total strangers, (my favorite jam, unfortunately not recorded), everyone left the stage in different directions and I called after them to stay in touch. A guy in a couch in the front row slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW EACH OTHER??"  Not bad for being propped up by DayQuil and playa love.  ;)

New Painted Hats & Shoes

After a short hiatus, I'm back in the game!  Email me if you'd like a custom lid, or shoes, or anything that will hold a coat of paint.  (The Bassnectar flatbill you see below is my very last, though.  I would rather make you something more uniquely you.)  You can click on each picture to get a better look:

View on FB

View on FB

View on FB

View on FB

Holiday Discount on MG Ravenectar Tees!

Thanks to Montreal-based sublimation printing company Ravenectar, I now have my art on some very cool shirts.  If you want one of these – in men's OR women's sizes – you can use the coupon code "MGHOLIDAY" to take 15% off any order, including gift card purchases, until the first of next year.  And if I see you around wearing one of these, you're getting a huge hug.  Check out their store.

Thanks for reading and have a beautiful week!

Owl Painting from Rootwire/AO | Gratifly 2013 Live Set | MG on Google Glass at Burning Man

"The next time you get really angry about the evils of the system, notice how good it feels, and understand how that feeling takes power away from the better angels of your nature and turns it over to something that longs for destruction, conflict and brutality as goods unto themselves. Understand that the best practice is the cultivation of your own consciousness."

– KMO

In this issue, I'm proud to share some of my finest work to date – new art, music, and ideas! An illustration from my imaginary field guide to hyperspace creatures; my first-ever full concert recording, from Gratifly Festival; and the talk I gave at Burning Man on the social and philosophical implications of wearable computing.

While I continue my search for an appropriate booking agent and record label, I'm still doing the occasional gig and soaking up inspiration for the next round of cool offerings.  As always, your comments and suggestions are encouraged.  Enjoy, and thank you for your support!

Inner Light

View in Hi-Res / Buy 11"x17" Prints
Like, Comment, Share

20"x30" – oil & acrylic paint markers on canvas – painted live at:

• Little Tree Art Studios - 2013 08 08 (Atlanta, GA) for Kynara, Feverkin, The Fresh French

• Rootwire Music & Arts Festival 2013 08 15 - 18 for Papadosio Live PA, Evan Marc, Aligning Minds, Open Source, Hundred Waters, Dirtwire, ESKMO, The Malah, Bluetech, Welder

• Be:Tribe Gathering - 2013 09 12 (Dallas, TX) for Kaminanda, The Nadis Warriors

• Art Outside Festival 2013 10 20, 21 for Rena Jones, Bluetech, Psymbionic, Nit Grit, Happy Happy James, Brede, Somatoast, Bird of Prey, Kyle Hollingsworth Band, ISHI, The Nadis Warriors

My latest live painting is the consequence of a collision between hyperspace and the owl fetish that's haunted me since moving to Austin two years ago. Shout out to Augustin Lesage and Louis Wain, two men who went famously mad and became awesome (entirely sober) psychedelic artists.  This piece is inspired by their work,  as well as a few positively strange experiences that got me wondering about the origins of owl medicine.  Basically:  do hyperdimensional intelligences appear to us in the form of cartoon animals, as an interface that helps manage the overwhelming ineffability of higher realms?  Do our folk stories and animal archetypes point to a totally nuts "self-transforming" world beyond mundane appearances?  My vote is yes.

I had this piece scanned, so if you'd like a full-size stretched canvas giclee (practically indistinguishable from the original, and maybe even a little more durable) – email me for pricing.

Click below for a detailed look at the process:

Avalon Through Glass:

Live at Gratifly Music & Arts Festival

Download Here
Like, Comment, Share

A record of the most ambitious, visionary concert I have ever performed.  Listen to this loud on big speakers...preferably during a storm.

Improvised on guitar, voice, and effects at Gratifly Music & Arts Festival on the LostInSound.org Synergy Stage, 26 July 2013 (Carl Jung & Aldous Huxley's birthday). This chronicles, in its entirety, the first concert ever streamed through Google Glass over video chat and projected back on stage, creating an artist-audience feedback loop!

Lyrics are from poems turned into song on the spot. All instrumental sounds are from live guitar and hardware processing (no computers). The Glass was ceremonially consecrated that evening to ensure its use as an instrument of good.

Special thanks to my Indiegogo campaign supporters:
Adam Scott Miller, Alan Wood, Allan Badiner, Asa Henderson, Austin W. Lucas, Ben Gordon, Billy Mays III, Brett Bonnist, Brett Thomas, Brian Hampton, Candy Hogrefe, Carl Jacobson, Chelsea Schulz, Christopher Ergen, Cody Westerlund, Connor Wood, Dan Sockrider, David Hyde, David Swirsky, Diana Martinez, Douglas Tataryn, Eliza R. Williams, Erin O'Brien, Evan Snyder, George Crosby, Harlan Emil Gruber, Isabella Melo, Jason White, Jessica Nielson, Joey Walter, John Harrison, Jonathan Zap, Jordan Allen, Jordan Sadler, Joseph Chang, Josh Audiss, Kevin Seagraves, Kristen Wood, Kylie stein, Lawrence Wang, Lindsey Wilkinson, Marcello Herreshoff, Marya Stark, Michael William Benton, Molly Gardner, Nick Kampe, Patrick Gomez, Phil Osophical, Philip Heath, Richard Guerra, Robin Arnott, Ryan Meredith, Sandra Lam, Sebastian Siegel, Simon Haiduk, Stephen C. Drena, Steven Sampson, Sven Jorgensen, Tara Fahmie, Taylor Steelman, Thomas Stokes, Tristan Gulliford, Tyler Kimbro, Ursula Anderson, Vance Feldman
...we did it!

Dedicated to Donna Merrill.

Life In The Glass Age:

Michael Garfield at Palenque Norte 2013

Download Here

"Glass’s success isn’t predicated on how it looks. Rather, it’s all about how Glass invites us to lookand how it makes us more aware of when and where we’re looking. The ecstasy-inducing capacity of Google Glass lies in the pleasure of watching: watching others, being watched, and watching for the meaning of the technocultural moment heralded by Google’s evocative new product. Glass promises a new way to get out of our own bodies and to enter those of others. And we like it."

– John Garrison, "How Glass Magnifies Desire"

My provocative talk on Google Glass as the emblem of a new era – in which democratized surveillance and the "individual" self have become the medium of avant social art, and we have a responsibility to reprogram them for the greater good of an emerging planetary consciousness.  Recorded for the Psychedelic Salon podcast, as part of the Palenque Norte lecture series at Burning Man, 30 August 2013.

If this talk inspires you and you'd like to stay abreast of my tech news and commentary, join the conversation about art, technology, and consciousness in my new facebook group, Life in the Glass Age.

New Painting, Music, & Enamel Pins | Message To Your Future Self | Burning Man Schedule

"Any action can be practiced as an art, as a craft, or as drudgery."

– Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play (p10)

"From the evidence...it seems that feeling good is not enough. People need meaning to thrive."

– Emily Esfahani Smith

I'm leaving today for Burning Man (schedule below) and will spend the next week collecting interviews and other inspirational content to share with you all...in the meantime, my tireless sharing includes:

• My live painting from Gratifly Music & Arts Festival,

• My deepest, jazziest album of cyberacoustic guitar music to date;

• A new series of crowd-sourced inspirational videos taken through Google Glass;

...as well as some very shiny enamel pins!  I think that's already more than I should try and lay on you at once, but I've always been better at making art than hustling it.  Enjoy, and have a magnificent week!

"Message To Your Future Self" Video Series

I think it's very important to have a conversation about what role Glass (and other vastly more powerful technologies just around the bend) can play in our lives - how to wield these double-edged swords constructively, how to bring the new world into being in ways that maximize its promise and minimize its peril.   I really want us to have a thoughtful conversation about this and welcome your thoughts and feedback by email or publicly on this facebook event page.

My first idea for using Glass to empower and uplift people was to take 10-second videos of everyone who wanted to share their message with the world:

Part 1: Gratifly & Unitus Festivals

Watch in HD on Youtube

Part 2: Rootwire Festival

Watch in HD on Youtube

In the last six years I have given almost all of my work away for free to people out of faith that the most important thing is to help people find meaning and purpose in their lives, not set a price on the value of my time. So please take a moment to check out what I'm doing with Glass and make a contribution to my fundraising campaign if you can.

My New Enamel Pin Collection

Buy the whole set for $50 + s/h or individually: Triceratops | Butterfly | Dragon

Like/Comment/Share on FB

Thanks to The Headspace for their help making this happen!  A little about each design:

"As Awesome As Three Unicorns" (the dinosaur) – Painted at Sonic Bloom in 2012, this piece bridges my two lives as a scientific illustrator and live artist, and ended up in the collection of Mary Jane, the youngest live painter ever, who is also totally awesome. 

"Every Day Is A New Year" (the dragon) – Painted at Rootwire and Art Outside Festivals as well as innumerable other small shows, this piece was my anticipatory portrait of 2013, an homage to the late Terence McKenna, and led to my being selected by Google for their Glass Explorer Program.

"Takes Flight" (the butterfly) – Painted at the MAPS 2010 Psychedelic Science Conference, this piece was inspired by a vision I received in a workshop with Alex & Allyson Grey the day before the event.

A New Album of Oceanic Cyber-Guitar Grooves

Stream/Download it here

Grab "Dance on the Roof" for free on Soundcloud

Share this on FB

I'm rebranding my work as an electroacoustic improvisational instrumentalist to reflect the inherent contradictions in making electronic music on an acoustic guitar – and to tap into the potent relationship I've developed with owl medicine since moving to Austin two years ago.  Here's a little bit about this release and the work to come:

If Michael Garfield can be said to collect anything, it would be great gigs in strange venues – from The Cave Without A Name to the MAPS Psychedelic Science conference, from Black Rock Desert to all four stages in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. 

Possessed by a passion for the feeling of spaces and determined to translate "vibe" into sound, Michael's increasingly all-improvised acoustic-electronic sets wed house concert intimacy with ravetastic cyberdelia in magical performances that draw down the spirit of a place into music. 

Capturing both past and future in alchemical alloys where fingerpicking and hardware live PA join in soaring transcendental freestyles, this is music as adventurous as the stages on which it's performed. Half Zen calligrapher and half starship captain, Michael Garfield is building a cathedral of sound for our paradoxical Age of Transition. 

Album artwork by Bonnie Goodson.

New Live Painting From Gratifly Festival

Splash!

11" x 17" Prints For Sale Here

Like/Comment/Share on FB

24"x36" - paint markers on masonite

Original available - email me to inquire/offer

Painted live at Gratifly Music and Arts Festival to the music of:
Thriftworks, Gaudi, Papadosio, Kalya Scintilla, The Werks,
Eskmo, Govinda, Desert Dwellers, Akara DJ, Ployd

My Burning Man Schedule

RSVP/Share on FB

• Tuesday ("Monday Night"): Center Camp Café

12:45 - 1:30 am: Cyberacoustic Guitar Improv

• Wednesday: Center Camp Café

4:00 - 5:00 pm: "These are the Good Old Days: Reverse Nostalgia from a Citizen of the Future" (talk)

5:30 - 6:00 pm: Cyberacoustic Guitar for the Aerial Dance Showcase

• Thursday: Fractal Planet Speaker Series

2:30 - 3:45 pm: Taking A Cosmic Perspective (talk)

7:30 - 8:15 pm: Musical Break - Cyberacoustic Guitar 

• Friday: Palenque Norte Speaker Series

2:00 - 3:00 pm: "The Age of Aquarius & The End of the Cargo Cult" (talk)

• Saturday: Sacred Spaces Village

5:00 - 6:00 pm: Cyberacoustic Guitar in the Grand Hall 

Crowdfunding my Google Glass | Reflections on a Shift | New SCI Pin | New GRC Flatbill

NOTE:  If you subscribe to this blog by GMail, please note that they just changed their settings and even though you signed up for it, you are likely to miss future updates from me unless you drag this email from the "promotional" to "primary" folder in their new tab format.  (Sheesh.)

"Art is the opposite of war. Artists wage peace with their creations."

– Alex Grey

"When everyone realizes they are an artist, we will have world peace."

– Roman Villagrana

The big news continues.  Here's the best of what I've been up to for the last few weeks:

Help Support My Google Glass Video & Essay Series!

Google selected me on the basis of this tweet to be one of the first 2000 people with access to their game-changing new smart glasses, which allow me to share my work more fluidly than ever before.  Even though the opportunity is kind of overwhelming, I feel a profound responsibility to take it up so that I can continue my work to inspire and empower as many people as possible by making my life a work of art.

My plan for Glass is to share as much as I can about my own creative process and the amazing community of artists with whom I work through a video record of my transformational festival tour and an ongoing video time capsule project for people to leave messages to their future selves.  You'll be funding an ongoing series of intimate views into the work I do as an acoustic-electronic musician, live painter, public speaker, writer, and awestruck traveler – with plenty of windows into the work of other artists, inventors, and inspiring people.

I am also going to write a series of short essays on the promise and risk inherent in this new technology, and others like it.  It's a Golden Ticket to the Chocolate Factory...but most of those kids got eaten by machines.  It's a Lightsaber...but with great power comes great responsibility.  Hopefully these writings will help a generation of digital natives navigate their world with more care, discernment, wonder, and respect.

Please support this project however you can – in small ways or large – by donating to this campaign and sharing it with your friends, family, and anyone who is interested to see what Glass can do to empower someone in service to the creative commons and the evolution of our planet.

Here are pics of the brass pin and vinyl stickers I'm offering as perks:

The World's First POV Video Projection Onto Stage! (?)

Watch in HD

Huge thanks to Morphis Art for taking these four short videos of my set at Gratifly Festival, where I streamed live video from my face back onto the stage, where members of the audience could see themselves up there with me – as well as the fire dancers and live flower arrangement by the legendary Anthony Ward – and get an up-close look at what I'm doing with all of those guitar pedals.

My talk from Om Vibrations 2013: Reflections on a Shift

Free Download Here

New Live Album: This Never Happened

Stream for free on Bandcamp

For real, guys.  I don't know what you're talking about.  ;)  But Magnetic Eye Records does.  They made this album #007 in their catalog; given all the spy talk surrounding my appointment as a Glass Explorer, I'm tickled.

Official SCI Hornings Hideout Pin [Sold Out]

After years of flirting with The String Cheese Incident to make some official merchandise for them, I was approached by Sales & Shenanigans to make this pin for their Hornings Hideout shows this year.  The limited series of 220 sold out in ten minutes.  D'oh!  We should have made more.  I suspect we will be working together again soon...

The New MG x Herbivore Designs x GRC Flatbill

The SE Festival Tour Continues

Michael Goes To Burning Man, Part Five

This time as a Glass Explorer.  A big part of the work I'm hoping you'll support with my Indiegogo campaign is to get out there to record as much awesome and inspiring work as possible – both my own and other people's. My full Burning Man speaking and music schedule is here (on the left sidebar).

Speaker Series Lineup on FB

Fractal Planet is also taking a quantum leap and powering their camp with a RevAir vertical mag-lev wind turbine – clean, quiet energy that will turn the desert winds into the electrical life of celebration. Support their crowdfunding campaign and help usher in a new era for transformational festivals...

Palenque Norte Speaker Series Lineup on FB

You might already know as the "TED Talks for Psychedelics," but it's a lot more than that – over the years it has featured such luminaries as Alex & Allyson Grey, Alexander & Ann Shulgin, John Perry Barlow, Bruce Damer, and more.  They're running yet another donation-worthy campaign, which you can read about and donate to by clicking the pic above.

That's "all" for now!  Deep gratitude from me to you for your time and attention.  I'm always available to respond to your questions and feedback.  Stay in touch and have a beautiful weekend!