New Hummingbird Live Painting | William Irwin Thompson Interview | More Sublimation Tees & Tanks

“I carry a torch that is as old as the human spirit, and as I journey forth I seek a broader vision and support to help me communicate as purely and uninhibitedly as possible. This is a statement and a prayer…”
– Amanda Sage

This week I'm giving you a lot to chew on, some work that I'm especially proud of.  So I'll skip the preamble and let the content do the talking.  Enjoy!  And hopefully I'll see you at Holy Mountain in Austin opening for Taylor McFerrin this Saturday, or at Gratifly Festival, or Arise Festival...

Beija Flor

11"x17" Poster Prints | Full-Size Giclée Prints

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"Note that the flower – with its multiple and layered invocation, a figure-ground dissolution of inside/outside that works as a snare for insect attraction – the (now self-referential) book, and the jewel share a vocation: organized, and thoroughly seductive, fluctuation."

– Richard Doyle, Darwin's Pharmacy pp.64-65

16"x24" – paint pens on canvas, created live at:

2014 06 13 – 16 Firefly Gathering (Flagstaff, Arizona) during

Kokopelli, Jahmontee, Nico Luminous, Nanda, Quanta, Akasha, Digital Rust, Love & Light, Mr. Rogers, Sixis, Johnny Swoope, Pumpkin, Random Rab, Kaminanda, Whitebear, Itom Lab

2014 06 19 – 22 Sonic Bloom Festival (South Park, Colorado) during

Soulacybin, DJedi, Kyrstyn Pixton, Cualli, OTT, Tipper, Nominus, Future Simple Project, Merkaba, Amani, Treavor Moontribe, Ayla Nereo, Saqi, Wildlight, Bird of Prey, Dopapod, Birds of Paradise, Mr. Bill, Random Rab

"Beija Flor" means "flower kisser" in Portugeuse. This summer has been full of visits from hummingbird energy in various ways and it only seemed appropriate to honor these beautiful creatures with a portrait that recognizes their sublime and joyous spirit. After nearly a year at home in Texas, this is how I felt to get back out on the road and join my friends for festival season...

(What flower is he kissing?  Why, the 1000-petaled lotus connecting us to God, of course – the "glass chrysanthemum" or Sahasrara chakra that mediates our soul's descent to matter, and through which various spiritual traditions direct attention at the time of death.  What better place to plant a kiss?)

Browse Buttons, Cards, & More on Zazzle

On The Horizons of Planetary Culture: 

Cyborgs, Psychedelics, & Spiritual Evolution

Listen/Watch at Reality Sandwich

One of the of the best – and most controversial – conversations I’ve ever had is now live at Reality Sandwich: My second rap (here is the first) with poet-philosopher William Irwin Thompson, former MIT professor and founder of the legendary Lindisfarne Association, on the transformations of self and society in the collapse of civilization and the emergence of a planetary culture – cyborgs, surveillance, and psychedelics in an age of paranoid apocalypticism and inspired new visions for our species.  Get ready for a wild one, folks…comments welcome!

Full notes on the two-hour conversation – including mentions of Douglas Rushkoff, Erik Davis, Buddhist Geeks, Mindful Cyborgs, Richard Doyle, Philip K. Dick, Jan Irvin, Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan,Terence McKenna, Burning Man, Bitcoin, Google Glass, DADARA, Joan Halifax, Wendell Berry, and more – at the link above.

New Dye-Sublimation Shirts at Infinite Bit

I still have several cool shirt & dress designs for sale at Ravenectar.  Here are a few more in production with another great apparel startup, Infinite Bit.  Being able to my print art on clothes like this almost makes up for the no-hoverboard thing, in my opinion...

T-Shirts | Tees

T-Shirts | Tees

T-Shirts | Tees

Upcoming Appearances

Now Accepting Commissions!

My First Painted Skateboard, Festival Photos, and What Inspires Me

"The truth, from my perspective, is that the world, indeed, is ending – and is also being reborn.  It's been doing that all day, every day, forever.  Each time we exhale, the world ends; when we inhale, there can be, if we allow it, rebirth and spiritual renewal.  It all transpires inside of us.  In our consciousness, in our hearts.  All the time."

- Tom Robbins

So!  Craziest summer of our lives so far?  I'm only twenty-eight but this year's cross between the energies of 1929 and 1969 has me singing the changes; regardless of what futures you imagine are on their way, everyone I talk to is feeling a massive shift in our understanding of social norms, relationships, and personal beliefs at the same time that rapid technological changes are reshaping our very definition of "human."  What a perfect time to be on tour working to inspire everyone to ground themselves in loving participation through these transformations!

On that note, my intense schedule has kept me from posting all of the new art and music as quickly as I'd like, but here are my photographs from Wakarusa, Desert Rocks, and Impulse Festivals over the last few weeks.  I'll continue to add to this album as the summer continues – for now this is the best way to get behind my eyes and see festival season as I do (minus the rain- and dust-storms).  Enjoy!

View the entire album on FB

Oh, and I painted a skateboard!  Picked up a couple of blank decks in Wichita during my move to Austin last fall, and this is the first of them – dedicated to my awesome skateboarding brother John Garfield, who wows all with his legendary skillz.  Click the pictures for a closer view:

 

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Yes, it's for sale.  I'm not sure for how much but if you want it, drop me a line.  This is a concept piece, not meant for skating – but the hope is that I can show this to a skateboard company and convince them to collaborate on something.  (Know anybody who'd be into that?)

On Creativity, Evolution, & Inspiration at SXSW:

Riffing at the New Basics Poetry Series

Watch on Youtube

For anyone who wonders what inspires me – or wants to see me at my jazziest, my friends at New Basics Poetry in Austin set up this cool speaking opportunity on their bus (aka guerrilla venue) downtown during South By Southwest.  I winged this forty-five minute talk about creativity, evolution, aliens – oh yeah, and my work – with musical accompaniment by my favorite cyberguitar recordings.  It's a DIY multimedia philosophy performance, as lively and spark-throwing as I could make it.

Upcoming Gigs

I'll be playing cyberacoustic guitar improvisations (folktronic prayerformances honoring the sacredness of each here and now) as well as making live art at all of these amazing events this summer.  These are just the festivals, though – I have more dates all over the country on my full calendar, here on facebook and here on my website.  Hope to see you out there!

We Are Something The Planet Is Doing

"To increase awareness of one's scientific universe is to face unpredictable increases in one's awareness of the self."

– Gregory Bateson 

“I don’t believe in anything that doesn’t choose everybody.”

– Sara Bates

~ Watch on Vimeo ~
Music: "Eschatons" (featuring Andrew McNew) – Free Download

I believe that the definitive image of the early 21st Century will be of a sphere – of the Earth from space – of the cosmic plenitude and wholeness of a full belly and breast and basket, and a recognition of the archetypal as-above-so-below-ness that we are embedded in, that we can take a perspective on by zooming out into orbit and recognizing the common unity of all live on Earth. 

By going back four billion years and examining the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all of the major kingdoms of life, we see a foreshadowing, a precursor, of contemporary impetus to build this internet, to destroy national boundaries. The earliest life on Earth was a globe-encircling bioplasm of individual cells that were exchanging, freely, their genetic code -- their selfhood -- and there's an obvious parallel between that and the contemporary obsessive sharing of blogs and video and personal narratives.

There's something going on that we are feeding, this greater self, this inevitability, this project that is continuing to fractally diversify within the ionospheric envelope of our planet, inside of the dreaming noosphere that has been present since the beginning of life on this planet. We're not building this thing, we are participating in it, we are the idea that it is having, we are a fashionable new trend in the creative, ongoing, purposive unfolding of the Gaian mind.

Teilhard de Chardin recognized that collectivization leads to hyperpersonalization and somehow, by recognizing our embeddedness in and our precipitation through and from, as an expression of, this planetary archetype, that each of us is able to align ourselves with the higher purpose of evolution -- not as a mechanism of control, not as a way of escaping our mortality, but as a way of exemplifying and exalting this process that is living through us, that we are just a transitional stage in. And to the degree that we are able to do this -- to the degree that we are able to recognize our own egoic purpose as the fulfillment of the life on this planet -- then we can heal ourselves of the alienation of the separate self of the modern world.

There's always been this one creature. Everything we're doing is something the Earth is doing.

More in this format soon.  In other news...

News & Discussions

I love starting conversations, which turned out to be one of my favorite things about live painting – the ability to capture people, to draw them into a discourse that could change both of our lives.  

Here are a few highlights from my Facebook wall of recent news items that triggered fantastic conversations – feel free to join in!

• German Village Achieves Energy Independence – And Then Some

• U.S.-Funded Internet Liberation Project Finds Perfect Test Site:  Occupy D.C.

• Why It Is Wise To Worship A Woman

• Silence & Ecstasy in the Sensory Deprivation Tank

• To Know But Not Understand: David Weinberger on Big Data

...And then there's THIS silly thing, which I dug up from the misty recesses of 2009:

MG Applies For A Painting Reality Show

 

~ Watch & Comment on FB ~

My 28th Birthday Concert

If you can make it, awesome!  If you can't, let's talk about getting me out to your city to play this summer.  If you know of any conscious festivals that would enjoy having me around to paint, play music, and speak about the marriage of creativity, science, and spirituality...please let me know, or better, let them know.  Personal recommendations go a lot further.  Thank you!

8 January, Austin TX - Whip In

• 8 - 10pm: cyberballadry & guitar tapping BIRTHDAY CONCERT! Michael turns 28 and rocks out with special guests Kristin Astourian & Heidi Nadine

13 January, Austin TX - Ruta Maya

• 9 - 9:45pm: instrumental cyberacoustic guitar

• 10pm - 2am: live painting for El John (Thievery Corporation), Matthew Ian Blagg, Applied Pressure, & more (w/ Karina Thome, Chance Roberts, & Molly Gardner)

20 January, Austin TX - Flipnotics

• 9 - 10pm: cyberballadry & guitar tapping supporting Sam Hammerman & Shawn Madden

~ Full concert calendar at MichaelGarfield.blogspot.com ~

Where's The Art??

It's coming, I promise.  I've been working on some epic, super time-intensive live paintings, a score of new hats, and even a couple of graffiti pieces – Austin offers up a lot of places where public art contributions are actually appreciated, so I'm going to start taking advantage of that.  I'll have more to show in the next newsletter!

In the meantime, there is still plenty of original artwork to browse (and purchase, if you're interested) on my Facebook Visual Art Page.  Enjoy, and thank you from the top of my heart – where love spills over and the birds drink from its open petals.