Rock Out! New Art & Merch, Music for MDMA Therapy, and Robot Love

It's almost April!  Subscribe to me on Patreon before this Sunday and you're on the list to get my first psychedelic coloring book PDF when it comes out next week.  You'll also get 27 other patrons-only posts, early and exclusive episodes of Future Fossils Podcast, my uncut (deeply psychedelic) interview with Visionary Art Australia, and an increasing share of the time I used to spend on Facebook, shouting into an abyss.

If, like me, you're kind of underwater with your money right now – I still hope that I can welcome you into some awesome conversations that inspire and enlighten.  If you are still using Facebook, join the Future Fossils Facebook group – there are 1100 of us in there sharing links about the future, awesome art, amazing science, deep thoughts, and hilarious asides.  It's where I share most of the cool news that I find, these days...

Thank you so much for staying with me as we grow and change.  And now on to the show!

Rock Out!  (Fighting Rooster)

18"x24" – 2018 – paint pens on canvas

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A memorial from 2018 (Year of the Earth Dog in the Chinese calendar) looking back on 2017 (Year of the Fire Rooster) and last year's massive rooster painting, this piece sums up how it feels to me like creativity and raw belligerence so often go together – passion, fire, spirit, drive – to make is to destroy what was. Sometimes you just can't tell the difference between a fight and making love...

HD downloads now on Bandcamp

Also available for streaming on:

Spotify • Apple Music • Amazon • Google Play

Last month I played a benefit for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) at the home of Aubrey Marcus to help raise funds for the Phase 3 FDA-approved clinical trials for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

These new clinical protocols are the most successful PTSD intervention known to science, more than four times as effective as antidepressants, and they don't require a lifetime of medication. These are CURES, not treatments.  And in our anxious age of overstimulation and emotional bombardment, this is more necessary than it's ever been.

I'm honored to have music in the therapeutic playlists for these trials, thanks to the endorsement of my friend and MAPS clinician Saj Razvi.  I'm also working on MAPS to release these playlists to the public. But for now, here is an half-hour excerpt from the instrumental set I played last month...

Enjoy, and let me know if any of this makes it into your own therapeutic playlists!

This week’s guest is independent culture critic John David Ebert – mythologist, philosopher, art historian, and author of twenty-six books.  We talk about the rich mythological references of Blade Runner 2049 in light of the larger – and very urgent – matter of mechanizing human reproduction and the (actually rather ancient) male quest to appropriate the mysteries of the goddess…

This week we chat with the philosopher and sociologist John Danaher about the book Robot Sex: Social & Ethical Implications, a fascinating collection of academic articles on our sexbot future he just co-edited with Neil McArthur. Chances are good you’ve seen the “Don’t Date Robots!” public service announcement from the cartoon Futurama, and probably Björk’s “All Is Full of Love” music video. Maybe you’ve seen Heror Ex Machina or Spielberg’s AI. And let’s not forget the Femmebots in Austin Powers. But does any of this media, for or against, paint a realistic portrait of the impact of machines on human intimacy?

That's 50% OR MORE off any of the pieces you see here.  I'm taking an indefinite hiatus from live painting, so the picking's only getting slimmer...but I'm happy to take far less than the asking price if something speaks to you.  Check out the pieces I have left here, then just send an email with an offer, and I'll let you know within a day.

And last, here are a couple things I'm doing soon that you might like to know about:

Thanks again for reading and have a most blessed couple weeks!

“I think it is misplaced to argue for doing fundamental research just because of its technological spinoffs. Our current standard of living vitally depends on the curiosity-driven research that was done a generation or two before…the most important things that we know fifty years from now will be things we have no idea about right now.” 

– Lawrence Krauss

New Painting | New Ravenectar Tees | My Talk From Fractal Planet | Year-End Art Sale!

“The gift turns toward the empty place.”

– Lewis Hyde

"The stagnant pond breeds malaria, the flowing stream is always fresh and cool."

– Gerald Rogers

Hello, everyone!  As my search for a booking agent continues (as well as my work on not one but two books, and a studio album of my percussive guitar songs), I'm still somehow managing to crank out an entirely unwholesome amount of art, music, and writing that I hope will inspire you this holiday season.  Here it is, followed by a note about my year-end sale on original art.

Thank you for your support and have a wonderful week!

Optimus De Los Muertos

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Paint markers on stretched canvas – 20"x30" – Original painting sold.

Painted live at the following concerts:

• 2013 11 01 The Parish •Random Rab, Happy Happy James
• 2013 11 09 Fun Fun Fun Fest •Miami Improv Machine, Jenny Slate, Doug Benson, Tenacious D, Quasi, Sparks• 2013 11 10 Fun Fun Fun Fest •Sarah Silverman, Wild Child, Daniel Johnston, The Dismemberment Plan, Washed Out, MGMT

Working during comedians at an uncomfortably-small festival venue packed with sweaty hipsters was a new experience for me.  But I liked it, for the most part!  Thanks to FYounK Clothing for having me and the Third Coast Visions Collective out to paint at Fun Fun Fun Fest.  

I filmed some of each layer through my Google Glass (the painting was a perk for my crowdfunding campaign) and will post the video soon...stay tuned!

Click below for a detailed view of the process:

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New Ravenectar Tees!

Buy 'Em Here

My friends Ravenectar in Montreal, Quebec have the coolest t-shirt company in the world and I'm delighted to have two new shirts in their winter line!  And in a world full of exploited artists, I'm happy to say that they're not just putting out the best shirts I can find; they're also giving us designers a great percentage on the sales.  Go pick up "his" or "hers" editions on their website and know that you're supporting the same people who brought you this awesome social network.

Cosmic Perspectives From A Fractal Planet

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Recorded on 29 August 2013 as part of Burning Man's Fractal Planet Village Speaker Series. This hour of ecodelic philosophy explores the shifting boundaries between human and machine, past and future, self and society...one of Michael's noteworthy performances, energized by an excellent venue and audience. Appearances by Jonathan Zap and Mitch Mignano round out the discussion.

Topics include:

• The evolutionary imperative of taking a "cosmic" perspective;
• Why you don't need to fear a killer robot uprising;
• How an internet for dolphins will help with humanity's coming of age;
• The importance of absurdity and play in 21st Century society;
• And other "required" listening for post-millenial existence.

In related news, you can find links to free downloads of my entire archive of Burning Man recordings – both music and talks – right here.  The archive starts in 2009 with my first public speech at a festival, and continues through this year's inspiring music/dance collaboration with the Center Camp Aerial Fabric Showcase.  Enjoy!

Follow Me On Instagram

Because as great as these newsletters are, you and I would like to also be in constant superficial contact.  Follow me on Instagram and you'll see a bunch of cool stuff that won't make it into this newsletter, including shots of work in progress and pics from stage at festivals...also, wildlife adventure!  Yes.

Here are a few recent highlights – clickable links:

The Year-End Painting Sale Continues!

I know this is no way to talk about fine art – art that I labored over for hours and hours, carried with me across the country, shared in some of the best festival galleries in the world...but seriously, folks:

Get this art out of my apartment.  I'm happy to negotiate with you if 30% off still isn't enough.

Thank you.  That is all.  :)

Most Awesome Update Yet: MG + Google Glass | Paintings From Sonic Bloom | My Sets From Om Vibrations | The Science of Transformation | Skytree Interview

"The millenial program is to put the art pedal to the floor."
– Terence McKenna, 1994

"The Speed of Light is too damn slow."
– Dr. Steven Greer, 2013

BIG NEWS!  Google picked me to be part of their Glass Explorers program and I'll be one of the first 2000 people to own and play with their new augmented reality smartphone glasses.  This is science fiction turned reality, guys...and I promise you I'll be making the most of my new life as a cyborg, delving into new realms of creativity and communication for the benefit of all beings.

If you know any app developers, please connect us – I'm putting out a call to programmers to help me realize some of my wild ideas for what we can do with this.  In the meantime, I'm going to take advantage of the ability to stream first-person video from stage while performing, and to offer over-the-shoulder guitar lessons to people in video chat.  (Email me if you're interested.)

But as someone passionate about the ways that our ideas and experience of selfhood are changing in this accelerating age, I also see this as a chance to get involved in a revolution – a radical shift in the way we understand transparency, privacy, and the self-other boundary.

These are turbulent times, but I've been extremely inspired by arguments from people like Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) – who points out how as it becomes harder and harder to hide things from one another, we're entering a new age of authenticity, accountability, and understanding.  I highly recommend reading his article, "Crime and Privacy," for more on that.

I'll be launching a crowdfunding campaign to help me with the opportunity cost of becoming a real-life Manfred Macx.  In the meantime, I have one of the most delicious updates yet to share with you...

Thank you for your time, attention, and support.  Here are the fruits of my love's labor:

Sonic Bloom 2013 Collaboration Mural

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Acrylic & Paint Markers on Stretched Canvas – 4' x 5'

For my fifth year as the Live Art Director for Sonic Bloom, I wanted to kick things up a notch.  And what better way than a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between myself, Morgan Mandala, Jack Shure, Molly Gardner, Xavi Panneton, Andy Reed, Seth McMahon, Tourmaline Todd, Christopher Morphis, Chaeli Cardenas, Dylan Thomas Brooks, Jamie Kaminskas, ChelseaLyn Graber, & Jon Dooey...

You can find links to each of those artists and explore their individual work here.

Multitudes

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Paint Markers, Acrylic, & Mountain Stream Water on Masonite – 24" x 32"

Painted live at Sonic Bloom 2013 to the music of Sunsquabi, Love & Light, Phutureprimitive, Nunchuck, J. Wail, The Acidophiles, Ableminds, Unlimited Aspect, Janover & Resunator, Random Rab, The Grouch & Eligh, Andreilien, Opiuo, Yamn, The Werks, Bluetech, Zilla, Polish Ambassador, Vibesquad, Akara, Knowa Knowone

My Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology horoscope for the week of Sonic Bloom encouraged me to play looser and messier than I ordinarily do...so I started this painting by dunking it in the rushing creek, and painting along the drips.

It's an unusually dark and spectral piece for me – strange and haunting. I wondered why I felt compelled to paint something so reminiscent of the ancestors...and then on Sunday it all became clear.

The rubber really hit the road with this "transformational festival," and everyone there rose to the occasion with tremendous grace under pressure.  It was an honor to participate in something that tested us all so profoundly, brought us all closer together, and in so doing "polished our pearls."  Come to think of it, there is definitely a pearlescent lustre in this piece.  Huh.  The plot thickens...

If you see festival director Jamie Janover on the street, thank him for all his hard work.

My Sets From Om Vibrations Experience 2013

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So THIS is what it sounds like to play setbreaks between Random Rab, Kaminanda, & Rudra Das in a cave!  My profound gratitude to Jason, Austen, and the whole family at Re:Evolution Media for this opportunity.

That gorgeous cover art was digitally painted live, and projected on the cave ceiling, by Topher Sipes of ARTheism during my sets and theirs.

"The Science of Transformation"
Sonic Bloom Trialogue w/ Mark Heley, MG, & Jonathan Zap

Free Download at ZapOracle.com

Easily one of the best and most inspiring conversations I've ever had.  I was honored to be invited by Mark Heley, author of The Everything Guide to 2012, to sit in on his talk at Sonic Bloom along with Jonathan Zap, author of Crossing The Event Horizon: Human Metamorphosis & The Singularity Archetype.  (I recommend you find and read both of those books. After listening to this conversation, I'm sure you'll want to.)

Incidentally, we're all speaking in the awesome all-star lineup Burning Man's Fractal Planet Village this year.  Just take a gander at that schedule.  Wow!

SolPurpose Conversations, Episode 1: Evan "Skytree" Snyder

“The key to our survival and the deepest expression of our collective fear is one and the same.”

- Evan “Skytree” Snyder

We are proud to announce the first episode of a new video series, SolPurpose Conversations! Visionary electronic music producer Evan “Skytree” Snyder joins SolPurpose editor-in-chief Michael Garfield for an inspired hour-long conversation on how to live in creative celebration through our turbulent Age of Transition.

Watch It Here in HD

More Gigs This Summer

(Full concert calendar on my website.)

Ft. live art by Harrison Hilley, Chance Losher, Claire Spiderlashes, Trinh Nguyen, & Parker Bolles

Awesome first-year thing.  If all goes according to plan, my first performance with Glass.

An official Gratifly after-party!

A Unitus Festival pre-party ft. the music of The Fresh French, Kynara, & Feverkin.

This one came out of nowhere and is gearing up to be one of this summer's sleeper hits.

A tiny but juicy event in the beautiful mountains outside Boone, NC.

My fourth year out of four.  Easily one of the best festivals of the entire year.  Period.

Thank you for wading through that tome of an update!  I love you.  Onward...

NYE Live Painting | Embroidered GRC Hat #2 | Skateboard Design | Evolution & Guitar

"A deeper feeling of care begins with allowing ourselves to move into awe—with all of the different creatures, no matter which ones we’ve picked. If we would attend to them, we would see their colossal grandeur. Abraham Heschel said that awe is the first step into wisdom."
– Brian Swimme

Vote For Me in the Creation Skateboards Design Contest!

"LIKE" to vote for this deck here

Make this dream a reality by voting for my "Every Day Is A New Year" deck at the Creation Skateboards design competition!  One of the coolest skateboard companies ever – judging from the all-star roster of visionary artists who have contributed designs – they'll pick the winner on February 1st by whose skateboard graphic gets the most "likes" on Facebook.

Look, I'm getting tired of competitions too.  I'd rather put your precious energies and attention to a nobler cause.  But success is shared, and I know that it'd make a lot of people happy to skate on this bad boy.  So take a moment if you please!

(If you missed the post about this most-epic-of-my-paintings, you can read it here.)

And now on to the really juicy stuff...

Soaring (The Opposite of Trees in Cages)

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Painted Live At:

2012 12 30 Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom

(Random Rab, Tipper, Ill-Esha, Human Agency, Seied, Cualli)

2012 12 31 City Hall

(Amon Tobin, EPROM, Kastle, Future Simple Project, Seied, Digital Connection)

My last painting of 2012 (and my first painting of 2013) sets the tone for a year of dynamic and reverent animal art...

I saw 67 red-tailed hawks (63 live and four dead) on my drive out to Denver for New Year's Eve...that was a pretty big hint that I had to give this bird its due in my next painting.  The hawk is a powerful animal totem, symbolizing vision, truth, and initiative – all good things to hold in heart while setting out on the new adventures that 2013 is bringing us.

The hawk reminds us to nurture our latent power, to notice what others miss, to view our lives from a higher perspective and move forward with bright eyes and a bold heart...

"When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.”
– Albert Einstein

"I refuse to be enslaved by a single perspective."
– Timothy "Speed" Levitch

Thanks to my design shop at Arts Projekt, you can buy this painting on a number of handy items, ranging from cool to crucial.  I only make about 10% on these sales (most of it goes to the website), but it's such a fun way to offer my art to everyone:

iPhone 5 Case | iPhone 4 Case | iPod Touch Case | Laptop Case

Laptop Skin | iPad Skin | Post Card | US Postal Stamps

Click to view the painting in progress:

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My Next Embroidered Grassroots California Flatbill

PREORDER NOW for $55 (s/h included)

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I'm so honored to have another great hat by Grassroots California coming out in just a few weeks!  The first one was a huge hit and I'm still running into people wearing it everywhere I go.  With this one I wanted a subtler, classier design that would suit more people (the first one was so overtly psychedelic it took a special type to even wear it).  And GRC just got a new mold to make size 8 1/4 hats for all of us with giant heads!

Preorder through me if you'd like to support the artist – I won't profit from any sales made on the GRC website.  I'll also waterproof your hat for you at no extra cost, and I'm happy to paint it up a little too if you'd like.

To preorder, just send $55 to michaelgarfield[at]gmail[dot]com via Paypal as a personal gift, and leave your hat size and mailing address in the note box.  I'll take it from there!  And you'll get your hat in early February, just in time for spring festivals.  :)

Evolution & Guitar:

My Set from Art Outside 2012

FREE DOWNLOAD HERE

What does my training in paleontology have to do with my career as an improvisational musician?

This is my first combination talk/concert, a blend of improvised cyberacoustic guitar loopscapes and the science ideas that inspire my musical experiments.  For a half hour introduction to both my music and ideas, you can't do better than to download this free EP.

In it, I explain why we have a lot to learn about the silver lining of humankind's  current evolutionary crisis by looking back at earlier events – like how algae almost killed off all life on Earth by inventing photosynthesis.  And how, by studying how the fin became the leg, we might be inspired to find creative new uses for old, familiar tools...

Thanks to Art Outside for giving me a stage to inspire people, three years running...!

More Custom-Painted Hats

The latest couple of one-of-a-kind custom designs.  Check out my full gallery for ideas if you'd like to order one of your own...

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Top Mystical Films on Reality Sandwich

I'm a regular contributor to one of the coolest blogs I know, Reality Sandwich – an exploration of consciousness, ecology, culture, relationships, politics...  (And what isn't covered by that list?)  They just published a list of everyone's favorite mystical films, and I chose The Fountain – easily one of the most awe-inspiring films of my life so far:

Darren Aronofsky's epoch-spanning reincarnation love story is about more than the quest for eternal life or the fanatical love that justifies it. Somewhere in the interference pattern between a dizzying braid of worldspaces past, present, and future, Aronofsky shows us the transcultural yearning that defines our human condition, regardless of (or, rather, beyond) space and time.

Read the rest at Reality Sandwich...

(You can read my original 2007 review of the film here.)

And that's all she wrote, for now.  Thanks for reading, stay in touch, and live in health!

New Paintings + Light & Shadow: Unplugged Across America

"The nature of infinity is this: That everything has its own vortex, and when once a traveler through Eternity has pass'd that Vortex, he perceives it roll backward behind his path, into a globe itself unfolding like a sun..."
- William Blake

• Light & Shadow: Unplugged Across America

My six-week, thirty city tour with journalist and film-maker Charles Shaw is well underway (full program & itinerary here)...and with all the time we're spending on America's scenic highways, I've decided to take some moments out to record a series of spontaneous unplugged music videos at a few of the most beautiful places we encounter. Here's the first in an ongoing series, delivered as-live-as-possible to all of you wondrous people at home:

(Be sure to watch it in HD – lyrics, info, & embed code are all on the video page)

You'll be able to download the music for all of these videos free here:
http://michaelgarfield.bandcamp.com/album/light-shadow

Want to spend more time exploring our beautiful travails? Check out my regularly-updated tour photo gallery and enjoy how I've abused the macro mode on my new tour camera!

Our next dates are in Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Invite your friends – it's going to be a profound few evenings of conversation and live music!

• New Paintings

Chandelier

2010 09 17 & 18 Granada & Mike's Westsider

(Sub Swara, Quixotic, Sagiquintarius, Mindzeye)

24"x30" - paint markers on masonite

email me for $25 11"x17" prints or to inquire about the original

Zoom in by clicking on the image, and you'll see the myriad tiny rainbows that glisten all over this piece...a further development of my attempts to render crystalline and glassy transparent forms with the limited medium of paint markers. Plenty of glossy goodness, but I made a minor mistake in perspective (email me if you can find it and I'll give you an electronic high-five). This painting is dedicated to my dear friends Tommy and Ruth Carter, at whose going away party (commemorating their move from Kansas City to live with me in Boulder) this was completed.

Temple Burn

2010 09 24 Hodi's Half Note

(Random Rab, D.V.S*, Untied Laces)

18"x24" - paint markers on masonite

email me for $25 11"x17" prints or to inquire about the original

When I got back from Burning Man Festival this year, Boulder's typically bold mountain skyline was shrouded by smoke from a huge forest fire. The Four Mile Canyon fire destroyed over 169 homes, including the new home of my friend Josh Davis and his pregnant star goddess. This was painted at a benefit concert for victims of the fire...I asked another friend of mine what symbol most well-represented the healing potential of this disaster, and she responded, "Don't some pine cones have to burn in order to release their seeds?" Yes, they do. And just like the memorializing Temple Burn every year at Black Rock City, the Four Mile Canyon fire was a sacrament offered up to serve the vision of a new life.

Juliana's Jaguar

2010 08, 09 Rootwire Festival & Studio

16"x20" - paint markers on masonite

email me for $25 11"x17" prints

This portrait of the Water Lily Jaguar is dedicated to my underworld-journeying friend Juliana Willars for her ongoing dedication to reconnaissance on the Other Side...as always with commissioned work I'm glad to have been challenged by the unusual subject, although giving my own touch to the traditional Mayan iconography was surprisingly difficult.

(You can check out some of my other contract pieces here...)

• Press

In related news (insofar as I have made it my career to educate people about their embeddedness in a living intelligence utterly beyond the scale of human drama)...

The lecture I posted last week, "Self As City, City As Self," was transcribed by a gracious friend and is now up online for reading at Reality Sandwich, an excellent change-focused community news site.

The lecture also got a shoutout in TheCoolTV's recent article, "Could Festivals Pave The Way To A More Advanced Society?" (My answer is, of course, "Yes!") And the soundtrack was just reviewed by the Denver Westword's Cory Casciato, who seems unusually susceptible to my music's psychedelic influence...

More new music, art, and assorted multimedia inspiration soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading and have a beautiful week!

Live Paintings & Body Art From Jazzfest & Shpongle's Texas Run

"We are the inheritors of a million years of striving for the unspeakable."

- Terence McKenna

Unsurprisingly, West Coast vortices and innumerable synchronicitous diversions have kept the creative influx coming faster than my ability to report on it. That, and the problem of sending unreadably huge newsletters bursting with too much artwork to appreciate at once, is leading me to reconsider my publication schedule. As of today, I'll be doing my best to actually keep up with it all – and consequently posting shorter, more digestible, weekly updates.

So, this week chronicles a painting completed during my wonderful foray to New Orleans during Jazzfest, as well as two new pieces and a body-painting gallery from Shpongle's Texas run in early May.

Next week will bring an epic earthscape from the 41st Annual Whole Earth Festival, more body painting, and – finally – a new live album gathered from recordings of my concerts at the MAPS Conference, Sera Phi, The Whole Earth Festival, & Om Shan Tea!

If you have any questions, comments, raves, requests, or non sequiturs...you know where to send them. Thanks for your time and have a beautiful day – the kind of day that makes sense of the suffering, that brings breath into the body, that tingles your toes with the full force of raw red life, loving its way into the world through your tiny human frame.

• Imagery (check out the full gallery with price list)

Bliss's Butterflies

2010 03 26, 27 & 04 23, 24

Luna, Artmosphere, 12 Bar, Dragon's Den

(Gravity A, DS@STR, Beats Antique, Random Rab, Sidecar Tommy)

paint pens on canvas panel - 15"x30"

11"x17" prints & full-size giclee prints for sale (email to inquire)

This one came together patiently, gradually, element by element, all over the state of Louisiana. It was an interesting change of pace to just let it meander toward the sea...and toward the sea it did meander, ultimately landing in the home of a raw food chef in Santa Cruz. It was a trip to meet her in New Orleans and deliver it to her in person in California a few weeks later. Wish I had more to rave about the shows, but the first three of the four were honestly pretty much busts. The impromptu, underground-on-the-second-floor Jazzfest afterparty at the Dragon's Den, however – at which I got to open for Random Rab and Sidecar Tommy of Beats Antique (and after which, Rab told me I'd been "the perfect opening act") – was pretty great. I think the butterflies look like kites.

Dawn Over The Temples

2010 05 01

CoSM Benefit La Zona Rosa

(Shpongle, Nadis Warriors)

paint pens on cradled gesso board – 16"x20"

11"x17" prints and fullsize giclees for sale (email to inquire)

Another legendary benefit for the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, hosted by visionary artists Alex & Allyson Grey (who, this time, were whisked away by the winds before I even had a chance to say hello...Mercury was fully in retrograde at the time, no doubt about it). And my inaugural voyage to Austin, Texas, which was so long-awaited that my actually being there was surreal to everyone involved. Seventeen hours in the city, and five times that many friendships seeded. My friends and I ended up at an all-night backyard afterparty, at which I spent a few hours discussing the community implicit in this piece – the sangha, the coming together, that represents the true fruition of enlightenment. No wisdom is complete until it is expressed in the world, brought into the city, given to the market, tested against the critical insights of the people. This painting is the sequel to the Bicycle Day's "Seed of Awakening," a reminder that seeds eventually grow into plants whose roots all intertwine...that true realization is enthusiastically engaged in, with, through – and as – the world.

Unfurling

2010 05 02 Trees

(Shpongle, Nadis Warriors)

paint pens on canvas – 16"x20"

11"x17" prints and fullsize giclees for sale (email to inquire)

For my first gig in Dallas, I luckily chose a simple subject – because I spent about half the night face-deep in body painting. Thus, half of the night's work is above, in the form of a translucent frond opening up into the luminous night; and the other half is below, on my visual art page at Facebook, where you can see all of the beautiful people I was lucky enough to adorn with my penwork throughout the evening. One thing I'll say about the above image, though – and one of my favorite things about it – is that I used three different shades of black. Click on it for a better view and check out how the matte black background almost hides, but not quite, the glossy black "rain" and the bold final outline of the unfurling plant itself.

Body Art @ Shpongle Gallery (Facebook)

• Upcoming (click links to view Facebook event pages)

The Rite of Spring's 97th Birthday Party
@ The 1809, Kansas City, Missouri
Back in Kansas City from his West Coast leg of the Love Without End Tour, I'll be bringing some heart-activating acoustic guitar wizardry home to synchronize the hemispheres with a newly-alchemized depth of purpose and clarity. But the age of the lone wolf is over, and no reunion party would be complete without a full-bore, circus-level showing from the some of the heartland's shiniest human sense organs...with spoken word by Sara Glass, live painting by Mike Hooper, and many more demonstrations of local excellence.

Live Painting Residency
@ Wakarusa Festival's Interstellar Meltdown, Mulberry Mountain, Arkansas
My second year as the home-team artist for what will be the largest electronic music event ever to grace the Midwest...Interstellar Meltdown is one killer festival-within-a-festival, well worth the drive out to Arkansas' glorious woodsy expanses.

An Evening of Acoustic-Electronic Guitar w/ Animus Invidious
@ The Ancient Mariner, Manitou Springs, Colorado
My own acoustic "guitar wizardry" and the "guitar sorcery" of Animus Invidious are sharing a stage for their first, long-anticipated concert...an evening of music that weaves the new from the familiar and promises to plunge listeners into a parallel dimension of ecstatic musical mystery. Like a solar eclipse, you'll just have to be there...

Convergence: A Live Painting Exhibition
@ The Arvada Center, Arvada, Colorado
This exhibition, guest-curated by Colorado artist Keith “Scramble” Campbell, features twenty national and regional artists who paint in various music venues during live concert performances. The Arvada Center is the summer hub for these performance painters, many of whom will also appear in other Denver metro music venues.