Michael Garfield's Love Without End Tour Newsletter: Re:Evolution Media
Showing posts with label Re:Evolution Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Re:Evolution Media. Show all posts

03 October 2012

Love Scenes & Field Recordings

"The sound of love opens doors."

With last week's Harvest Moon, we're now full-speed into autumn and the wildest, most transformative summer of my life is now officially on the books.  Between festivals, house concerts, indoor raves, yoga studio gigs, and other bizarre diversions, I ended up with not only some of my finest paintings yet, but also over 24 hours of recordings from concerts I played all over the country.

The resulting collection, Love Scenes & Field Recordings, gathers my favorite performances on "cyberacoustic" solo guitar & effects into one two-hour, twenty-eight song journey through the mystical realms of music at once ancient and futuristic, familiar and totally new.  

In partnership with Re:Evolution Media & Solpurpose.com, I've been releasing one track per day since the most-awesome holiday of Michaelmas on September 29th.  You can hear everything available so far by clicking through the time portal:


I'm really proud of this album; but Love Scenes & Field Recordings is not just about the music – for this release I was lucky enough to collaborate with a dozen amazing visionary artists on a gorgeous 34-page liner booklet with art by Geoglyphiks, Rae Vena, Adam Scott Miller, Dadara, Emily Kell, Chaeli Cardenas, Gregory Pettit, Bonnie Goodson, David Titterington, Kimberly Kite, Bryce Widom, Randal Roberts, & Kathi Stutler Schmeider.

The hi-res pdf liner notes are part of each album download.  Here is just a taste (click to enlarge):


Preorder it at Bandcamp before October 27th and you'll also be on the list for some exclusive treats...in the meantime, you can stay tuned via my FB or Twitter pages to hear each new track as it's released.

New Futurology Talk Online

This is the wildest, weirdest, most free-range mashup of a talk I've ever given – pretty much every topic I've ever discussed made it in there somehow, and the result is one hell of a rant.  I offer it to you here as a gift for your enjoyment and inspiration.  Excerpts below the link:


"The Singularity really only means this horizon of incomprehensibility. It means this point beyond which we cannot imagine. And that point is constantly moving! And in fact, it's not one point; it's different for everyone, because we all exist of a different biochemical and electromagnetic constitution. None of us are exactly the same pattern, and so therefore the horizon of our sensibility varies slightly, from model to model."

"The Grey alien I find uniquely compelling, because it represents this isomorphic projection into the future of what we currently understand as the trend in [our] evolution leading up to this moment – which is that we become sexually mature adults at earlier and earlier phases of development."  

"If we are going to talk about things in terms of information, then the entity that we describe as the internet has to be regarded as a much more complex, intricate, and dynamic informational entity than any human being, or community of human beings, and is therefore in some sense transcendent to us."

Custom Painted Hats

A few of my recent projects.  I'm always accepting new commissions, so if you'd like one of your own don't hesitate to hit me up!



These four are my first productions for the increasingly-impressive collection of unique artist collection hats at The Headspace – they also have great work by my buds Omar Chow, Tourmaline Todd, Elisa Rose Mountain, and Andy Reed, among others...






Upcoming Shows

Some great gigs coming up for my friends in Colorado, Kansas, and Texas!  I'm especially excited for return gigs at Art Outside Festival and shows with the always-excellent Papadosio & Octopus Nebula in November.  The amazing Topher Sipes of ARTheism will be joining me for live digital animation for my sets in Boulder and San Marcos, and possibly a few more.

Click the schedule for more info on my homepage:


Thanks for reading and have a magical day!

04 March 2012

My New Collab With Grassroots Cali & Paintings From Houston

"Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself."

First of all, the most exciting news since...well, since the last newsletter when I announced my new place on the roster next to Alex & Allyson Grey, Nadis Warriors, Govinda, & D.V.S* at Re:Evolution Media.  But whereas that was exciting for me, this has (also) been exciting for everyone else:

GRC x MG Collaboration!

Last August I painted a custom hat for Ryan Connolly of Grassroots California, who sell limited run custom designs on fitted ball caps at pretty much every music festival I've ever attended.  He liked the piece so much he had his comrade Graham Considine vectorize the image so it could be immortalized in embroidery on a signature MG Grassroots design...and now this picture of the prototype has scored more "likes" than anything else I've ever posted.

Right-click on that picture to take a closer look:  all of that is embroidery!  Everyone involved agrees that this takes flatbills to a whole new level...and pre-orders have been FLYING.  If you want to claim one of these before they're officially out in April (and sold out before they hit the streets), I'm taking preorders right now ($50 + shipping = less than half what this would cost from a company like New Era).  

Only 420 of these will be made, but that's still 419 more than any other hat I've ever designed.  ;)

And now on to Houston, where I joined the Morphis Art Collective for some shows on their home turf a couple weeks ago...

Painting with Chris Morphis at Villains, Houston

Hooo Do You Love?
2012 02 11 Villains (various Houston DJs), 02 12 Morphis Art Studios
32" x 20" - paint markers on two 16" x 20" masonite panels
11" x 17" signed poster prints - $25 (incl. s/h) - email me to order

My first diptych, a pair of "his and hers" owls (I leave it to you to decide which is which) in classic conjoined transpersonal endless-palace-of-spirit configuration.  They look really cool set slightly apart, so the viewer's eye stitches both panels back together...the gold-red background makes these really shiny in person.  I had a hard time keeping the two panels taped together during the show...which is poetic, considering how I was set up to paint with Chris Morphis in between two rooms with two DJs playing completely different music and I was feeling insane by the end of the night, caught between competing influences.  Totally disruptive sonic environment, not recommended.

Right-click to check out the painting in various stages of its process:


The Walls Have Eyes
2012 02 14 Mango's (various Houston DJs)
2012 02 19 Austin Roadhouse (various Austin kids)
18" x 24" - paint markers on balsa panel
11" x 17" signed poster prints - $25 (incl. s/h) - email me to order

Kind of a Jeff Wood does H.R. Giger piece if I ever saw one.  I ordinarily use masonite panels because of their finely textured, high fidelity surface, but didn't expect to stay in Houston as long as I did and had to borrow a piece of this balsa laminate from the Morphis family.  Consequently it was primed by them and I got to work on a white background for the third time in nearly 250 paintings.  It led to an entirely different approach, building things up instead of pulling them out, painting over the luminosity rather than as it...

Right-click to check out the painting in various stages of its process:


Custom Hat Explosion Continues Unabated

The ongoing exploration of all possible ways for me to paint a hat proceeds apace, kindled by the attention my Grassroots California collaboration received over the past week.  In addition to my first live hat painting (the one on the bottom, tagged at one of my shows with Applied Pressure for a friendly donation), here are three of the classier lids I think I've done so far:





And, I was just featured on Leakworthy.com – they "leak" new undiscovered music and artistic talent every week, and have made a gorgeous little page presenting a full slideshow of my live paintings in addition to exemplary videos of my work.  Check out their whole site – it's full of amazing artists!

So much more already for the next one.  I'm excited to share...but for now, thanks and love!

23 February 2012

MG Joins Re:Evolution Media, A Live Art Opus, & More Awesome News!

"The artist is not a special kind of person; rather each person is a special kind of artist"
– Ananda Coomaraswamy

"It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations."
– Walter Bagehot

Looking at this bevy of announcements, it occurs to me that life is moving too fast for a biweekly newsletter, anymore.  I'd rather send you something you can actually read in one sitting, so I hope you'll stay with me as I switch to more digestible weekly updates.  But if you'd prefer, you can always follow me on twitter, or at my facebook music and art pages.  Thanks again to everyone for your support!

Michael Garfield Joins Re:Evolution Media

As part of my "Take it to the next level AGAIN!" agenda, I am now on the roster at Re:Evolution Media – the same group that books Alex & Allyson Grey, The Nadis Warriors, Desert Dwellers, Govinda, Birds of Paradise, Kaminanda, & D.V.S*!  These guys throw some of the best events I've ever seen, and after two years of collaborating with them on The Manifestation Celebration and other great shows, I'm honored and excited to join the family as a musician, live painter, and public speaker.

Stay tuned at my facebook music page for more news as things develop – these guys are blowing up all over the country and it's now considerably more likely I'll be back in your town soon to help raise some holy noise!  (It's already getting silly, if you haven't checked my concert calendar recently.)

And speaking of holy noise, here is a clip from my improvised acoustic-electronic "cyberguitar" performance at Ruta Maya in Austin last month:

"Leave Your Face At The Gate"

This is track two on Rainbows At Night, a new and ongoing archive of free live recordings to tide everyone over while I'm working on my next studio album.  I'll be posting a new track for the newsletter every couple weeks.  There are some really juicy ones coming up...enjoy!

And now, to share the most ambitious and time-intensive live painting I have ever accomplished.  Be sure to click the image to view it in full-size, with every rich detail:

Many Worlds
2011 09 01, 02 Burning Man Festival - Fractal Nation Village
(Left Coast, Heyoka, Mimosa, Dov, FreQ Nasty, Ill Gates, An-Ten-Nae)
2011 09 10 Red Rocks Amphitheatre (STS9, Savoy)
2011 10 25 Cervantes' Other Side (Bridging The Music Presents Electronic Tuesdays)
2011 11 12 Om Vibrations Experience (Nadis Warriors, Desert Dwellers, Rara Avis)
2011 12 30 The Parish (Nadis Warriors, Spoonfed Tribe, Hatch)
2012 01 07 Whomp (Polymyth & various other local DJs)
2012 01 30 Ruta Maya, Esoteric Monday Dubstep & Gypsy Bazaar
2012 01 31 Beauty Bar (Seven Circles, El Commode, Borrisokane)
2012 02 02 The Parish (An-Ten-Nae, Gladkill, Psymbionic)
2012 02 07 Club 606, Whompadelic Wednesdays (Polymyth, Soundshaman, DRRTYWULVZ)

original painting, 24"x36" – paint markers on stretched canvas – make a bid
signed and numbered full-size stretched canvas giclée fine art prints
(limited series of 100): $300 each – order
signed 11"x17" poster prints:  $20 + $5 s/h – order

I posted about this painting in its early stages last fall...now this epic beast, carried from Nevada to Colorado to Texas over the course of six months, ripples with the energy of each of those realms – and, appropriately, contains miniature paintings of over a dozen other live pieces.  This is a "God's Eye View" of the multiverse from which I draw my inspiration...inspired, in turn, by the work of all of my fantastic friends in the global visionary art community who urged me to invest more (more, more!) time into a stupefying, gallery-level piece.

Due to the terrific amount of work I put into this one, the original will be held on extended silent auction and I will make a very limited run of full-size fine art canvas prints so a top-quality version will be available to everyone at a reasonable price.  The giclée prints will be made from a scan of the image, signed and numbered, and shipped for free to anywhere in the United States.

Click this image for an up-close walk-through of how I completed this, one improvised step at a time:


...of course, while working on a huge opus monster of a painting, it's good to blow some steam on smaller, less time-intensive works:

Subduction Zone
2012 01 18 Barcelona Austin (B. Lewis & Insightful, Maintain, Applied Pressure Collective)
2012 02 09 Beauty Ballroom (Gaslamp Killer, Bird Peterson, Grommit, Applied Pressure Collective)
original painting, 18"x24" – paint markers on stretched canvas
signed 11"x17" poster prints:  $20 + $5 s/h – order

This piece is a return to the eightfold geometries that captivated me in the fall of 2009...a revisitation of some familiar patterns from a new perspective.  Local beats collective Applied Pressure made it extremely easy for me to enjoy myself while painting; I know I'll be working with them more in the future...

Click for a close-up look at how this came together:


Two New Interview Videos!

The inevitable consequence of making as much mouth noise as I do.

On proposing over Skype, the threat of solar storms to our electrical grid, and full-body thinking...a conversation about intuition in the Age of Information and the ways that technology both connects and divides us, with host Alexis Neely of The Whole Truth Show:

   
Watch on Youtube

On how to sidestep and overcome creative blocks, the inspiration behind "Many Worlds," and why "imagination is our greatest natural resource"...a conversation about seizing the dream of a fulfilling creative lifestyle, with host Jessie Elaban of Austin art and culture blog, Collective Perspectives:

Custom Hats Galore!

Three of my latest designs for happy heads – plenty of hats still for sale in my gallery of available original art, and of course you can always email me with your budget, hat size, and color and style preferences if you'd like me to make you one that's especially yours.





Parting Thoughts

From my article "Godhood Is Boring: Thoughts on Radical Life Extension" – now online at the excellent blog, Spirit Of Spider:

Science is, in the final count, not about the increase of knowledge, but the increase of ignorance – if every question answered means two more questions asked, what we don’t know is growing faster than what we do. And so a mature science, grounded in the same wonder at mystery that impelled natural inquiry in the first place, welcomes this mystery. It is not a program of rapturous domination, or prideful power en route to ultimate mastery of the matter, but the cultivation of wisdom through the exploration of nature as macrocosm and the self as microcosm, of the ego embedded in a world defined by interbeing. 
(Read the article...)