All works available 20″ X 30″ on Aluminum
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5 New Works
All works available 20″ X 30″ on Aluminum
art
Art IS Spiritual
One of my all-time favorite artists.
Here is a great talk by Anselm Kiefer.
Anselm Kiefer: Art is Spiritual from Louisiana Channel on Vimeo.
And if you haven’t seen the film, OVER YOUR CITIES, GRASS WILL GROW – then I strongly encourage you to do so. Find it wherever you can. It is a stunning experience and a look into the mind and process of Anselm Kiefer. Here’s the trailer:
The Art of Performance
So I have been a fan of so-called performance art for quite a long time. It is part theater, music, writing, dance and philosophy.
I first got interested in performance art when I first saw Laurie Anderson on her “Home Of The Brave” tour. My life was forever changed. So I am pleased to announce this new artist, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, who I’ve never heard of before. For fans of aforementioned Laurie Anderson, Exene Cervenka, Meredith Monk, Robert Wilson, Grace Jones, etc.
And check out her website for more great stuff. http://www.lilibethcuenca.com
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen: Performing Seven Songs from Louisiana Channel on Vimeo.
Andreas Golder
Enjoy this fascinating discussion with Russian artist Andreas Golder and a look at his work.
language is a virus
THE ENOCH CODEX
I have long been interested in language. The written and spoken word are abstractions of ideas. Spoken it is a “performance” but when “written” becomes “law”…. To get back to the original idea we must often deconstruct language. Irreverence is the highest form of art. Even language has a life cycle 🙂
Enjoy this…the music of Philip Glass from SYMPHONY NO. 5.
Track#3 – “The Creation Of Sentient Beings”
The image above is another work using my “visual glossolalia” approach to creating digital art. It is comprised of the text from seven different photos of signs etc. Added a couple of texture layers for effect.
About the Title. A codex is simply a book that was written on wood or papyrus etc – in a world before paper. Often a codex is affiliated with ancient and “dead” languages from which a code/law is documented. Who is Enoch? The first disappearing act in history?
Enoch walked with GOD; then he was no more, for God took him. ~ Genesis 5:24 (JPS)
It’s interesting that in these early accounts of lineage in the bible all other descendants of Adam are listed as having “died”. Only Enoch is listed as “was no more…for God took him.”
There are other stories of “magical” disappearances like the later story of Elijah(Eliyahu) in 2 Kings 2:11, “Eliyahu went up into heaven in a whirlwind.” and even the ascension of Jesus (Yeshua) in Mark 16:19, “So then, after he had spoken to them, the Lord Yeshua was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God.” It may be loosely related to the story in acts of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:39) where “the spirit of the lord snatched Philip away.”
All these disappearances in the Bible. But Enoch was the first. What happens when the meaning of text disappears and all that is left is the text itself? Can it still be understood? Is one meaning replaced with another? And when this happens how can we be sure of the right meaning? This is something that also happens with translation where the meaning of something is changed when the language is changed from one cultural context to another.
What do you think?
“Language is a virus from outer space.” ~ William S Burroughs
mobius faith imaging
I’d like to say that the creative muse has abandoned me. But I cannot say that in all honesty because she hasn’t left she has just been trying to help me understand my own work and take in new directions. I have no idea what the end result will be like.
I once wrote,
The photographic image is the tabula rasa up on which I ‘paint’.
And in the introduction to my first book I described my process thus,
I’ve never cared or desire to learn about my camera and it’s functions…. I am much more interested in the creative process and things that come from imagination and the human mind….I am interested in the “paints”, “brushes”, “strokes”, “Hammers and chisels” that allow me to sculpt and paint something new digitally. The images I create…in some cases…dissected,distorted and destroyed.
I’ve come to believe that the photograph in itself is not sacred, not art and just represents a fading, record of a moment, a memory, an occasion that is an illusion and pretends to be truth. Now I know a lot of people will want to argue and fight about that and that’s fine. I still take photos and am interested in abstract photography which I post on 500px.
I recently watched a film (only for the first time) and discovered that when it comes to creativity I definitely have Lettrist tendencies. That film was Lettrisme founder Isodore Isou. The film was VENOM & ETERNITY. In the film he states,
Photography is too banal… All attempts at angle shots, low key shots, double exposures… prove that one must go further…One must go beyond the image… And attack the film stock… Before anything, Photography must rot!
He then goes on to state that genuine film and photography as art must be destroyed and rebuilt outside of established conventions and expectations.
This really struck a chord with me. It’s what I’ve been doing for some time. I suppose it started in college when I was into punk and began to research surrealism, dada, situationist philosophy, etc that began to subconsciously shape my understanding of what is art and creativity.
The digital revolution has done two things. It has turned everyone with a cell phone into a photographer of the banal. If I have to look at just one more photograph of flowers, sunsets and cute children and animals I will become violently sick. But that is what has happened. The technology has turned everyone into a banal image taker. HDR photography has made it even worse because it pretends to be something it is not.
That was just the down side. BUT!!!!
There is also an up side to this digital revolution. It has given people with imagination new ways to destroy the image to manipulate it beyond recognition and create something completely new. I’ve always like Picasso’s quote (paraphrased), “The first act of creation begins with destruction”. That’s what I do. I destroy in order to create something new.
Here is an example of that work:
BUNGLE AND BOGGLE
With this clarification and understanding of my work and process I’ve started doing something different. Not content to just have prints of my digital work I have started manipulating the prints themselves. I have started creating “photo weaves” for lack of a better term. I’ve been taking the prints I have and cutting them into strips. I’ve then been weaving the different strips together to create a wholly new and different work. I did the first photo weave about 10 years ago when the photo processing lab started giving me double prints and I didn’t know what to do with the extras. I only created one at the time out of two 4″X6″ prints and then set it aside as something to remember. Now, this notion has come back to me. Here is a photo of 2 recent works that I made. They are not framed (yet) so apologies for the presentation but at least you will have some idea of the result.
PW#3 and PW#2
references:
http://500px.com/mfimaging
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6W8IDDOLzQ&list=UUw9ChGBhMXy0UTwr2wvvVWA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_Isou
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettrism
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/
http://www.saatchiart.com/mobiusfaith
http://www.blurb.com/b/5191852-visual-glossolalia-2-book-of-prophecy
Monday Art Moment
Here’s a wonderful video featuring an interview with artist, Richard Tuttle. I can relate to so many of the things he says regarding identity, experience, and the need for artists to create. I hope you enjoy.
Richard Tuttle: Artists are like clouds from Louisiana Channel on Vimeo.
Artist John Harris
A Short History of Surrealist Art
NEW BOOK – finally here.
Here is the cover of the new book. Click on the title below to be redirected for a preview on blurb.com.
Art & Purpose
Good and Evil
*** note: This post was first blogged on my other blog mobius faith imaging. Since this blog will be about my spiritual and philosophical ideas It seemed an appropriate first post.
While I am an artist there are many things that inspire me and give me energy. Music, Film, Nature and Mysticism. There are times when I am in this meditative space where time seems to slow down. A time/space when that which is normally solid and concrete becomes fluid and dynamic. A time that leaves me feeling paradoxically exhausted, rested and energized. While this doesn’t happen often – last night was one such time. The following is the fruit of that time.
Many people want to think of God as all good and that God would never do any evil. But I wonder if that’s true. There are instances in the Jewish and Christian Bibles where God says he will “work evil…” If that’s so then God is not only the God of Good but also the God of Evil. God is not Good OR Evil he is the totality of Good AND Evil. God cannot be divided. God is the ultimate non-duality. It is humanity and religion specifically that try to divide God. And see Evil as something that must be eliminated.
While evil can be defeated it can never be eliminated. So that next thing is how to defeat evil. All that is evil can only be defeated when we recognize the capacity for evil within each of us. We both hold the secrets of good and evil. After all that was the whole point of the story of the Garden of Eden. Humanity had consumed the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It has been with us from the beginning.
When we recognize the ways we can be evil and accept it – evil has no power over us. It is always there. It is always waiting for us to forget or deny its existence. It’s always waiting for us, goading us and trying to get us to fight it. Evil feeds on fear, pride and hate. And when that happens — well — Shit happens!
And it’s not about control. We cannot control evil. We can only balance it with Good. Co-existence.
The evil we see in others is the same evil that is within us.
Example : Who am I to judge a murderer? The evil in that person who murders is the same evil in me when I enjoy saying, “he had it coming to him.” Just because I chose not to murder doesn’t mean I am less evil or that evil doesn’t exist within me. It just means that I didn’t murder someone. The person who murders has the same power as me to create or defeat evil.
Recognize the evil within you
Forgive yourself and others
Be at peace
Love yourself and others
Be the balance
Be the balance
You and I were created in the image of God
We hold within us the seeds of the totality of Good and Evil.
... on being and becoming ... 