Tibetan Book of the Dead

Telepathic tours of the between transmitted to loved ones..
ancient words saturate my own experience as a result..
altering perceptions and forms of engagement.
lessons flow when you become that which you seek

Off to France (Paris and Porquerolles) for a few weeks with my dear grandmothers remains
Closing her circle
Looking forward to change of scenery and studying some brothers and sisters at The Louvre

Been consuming tons of music lately, and going out night after night dancing here in NYC

For those in San Francisco in the next few week I have some work in a group show at the Rena Bransten Gallery called ON THE ROAD AGAIN: BEAT CULTURE, BUSH ERA opening October 19th, 77 Geary St., showing some sacred geometry freakouts.
For those in Los Angeles in the next few weeks I have some work in a group show at the BLK/MRKT GALLERY- 6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA in honor of Fecalface.com's anniversary. Show opens October 26th, I'll be showing some raw delicacies from early summer painted on paper I made in the Pacific ocean.

And a good friend of mine Tara Foley is having a solo show at Triple Base (the gallery I started with Clint, that now my friends Dina and Joyce run) on October 19th. 3041 24th street, SF, CA. wish I could be there for that one (shit, and I'll also be missing my friend Diego's first concert on Oct 12th with his new band Crash Diet Crew at MonkeyTown, somewhere in Bklyn)

10/11/1912 - 9/26/2006

Happy New Year!

Venus Envy

Started looking through the archives today...

Grandfather's girlfriend circa 1930


Grandfather circa 1942


Things are getting quiet here...

Transition time...

The strange thing is, I had a numerologist in Bolenas give me a reading in February, and she told me month to month what to expect, and Its been pretty spot on since...

Its a heart breaking time for me on lots of levels, but I am keeping busy with things I love...

A call to action

I stumbled upon a rally in Central Park today, where thousands had gathered to bring attention to a critical issue we face as a planet right now. Can a phone call stop a genocide? It's worth a shot. Its the least we can do. Does the public still have a voice in politics "for the people, by the people"? It's worth finding out. Some times I feel disillusioned by this countries political process. Attending rally after rally to free Tibet, and against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and seeing the issues being ignored by the media, as well as watching two elections get stolen...Doesn't leave me with a lot of faith, but I still have hope. Hope that if people continue to come together and demand justice, the will of the people will be heard (or else our democracy is truly an illusion). Hope that the United Nations can get beyond its paper pushing and actually be empowered to do something on behalf of the people on this planet who chose peace and love for themselves and their (global) neighbors. I'll be calling my congressman/woman this week. Will you too? More information can be found on this website: http://www.savedarfur.org

Openings

Last night I went to an opening at the Montclair Art Museum where there was an opening for three shows. One of the shows was a group of portraits of American artists taken by my grandfather, and organized by my mom and the museum staff (see above). [There's also a little article on him in this month's Smithsonian magazine. Go Philippe!] Its a cool little museum. They have a great collection of George Inness landscapes. So good. Gods it makes me wish I were more of an oil painter. Also lots of Native American artifacts. I can remember looking at a pair of baby moccasins there as a child and feeling like I was a Native American in a past manifestation. My grandmother, whom I am still caring for every day, is so strong despite being so close to the end. I really am humbled by the power of this body vehicle we are in and its strength. Reminded me of the beauty of our internal systems so wondrously displayed in the "Body Worlds" exhibit I saw in Chicago last year.



Seeing how I am staying in NYC for much longer than expected, I am going to begin working on a project I've always wanted to do: getting a book published of all of my grandfather's experimental, eclectic, and beautiful photos that don't really fit in so much with the straight celebrity portrait work he is most known for. I've grown up in the archives, so I've seen the buried gems, and I want to dig them out and share them with a new audience.

Today I took a break, went to central park, followed my intuition and was rewarded by finding a healing circle to be a part of. It was so healing just to find a group of people who wanted to empower each other and share some universal love and wisdom. The main message I took from the group was the power of intention of thought in regards to shaping our reality, as well as trusting our highest form of knowledge. People need help, and I hope we all can realize our strength and start by healing ourselves. Or rather, may I be a vehicle to help awaken that seed of conscious, and void with in us all where creation emerges. May each breath I take remind me of the power I have to embody and share that love, and may I be replenished and continue to share.

Sphereism manifesto (2005)

This is what I wrote a few years ago, but due to new revelations I need to update it
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SPHEREISM MANIFESTO #ONE
MAY 2005 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Sphereism is. Sphereism is the world around you. Sphereism is the world within you. Sphereism is. Sphereism is even that which is in direct opposition to Sphereism. Sphereism is how you grow and how you decompose. Sphereism is the building blocks of tangible reality and invisible energy. Your personal Sphereism is the direct results of your thoughts.

Sources:
Charles and Ray Eames “Power of 10” film
Quantum Physics
Buddhist Philosophy
Personal observation of phenomena produced patterns
“Dali Atomicus” by Philippe Halsman
Masaru Emoto’s research of prayers for water crystal production
Buckminster Fuller
The 2004 RNC protest in NYC + The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco
DNA research by Jeremy Darby
Jean Arp’s experiments with chance
Han Haacke’s “Untitled Statement” (1966)
Mola weavers of Panama
Conversations with Clint Taniguchi
Drunvalo Melchizedek’s sacred geometry research


The rectangle breast has too long nursed us away from the observable pattern posts on our paths that point us to the un-spiral within. Our cult’s fractured right angle schizo-mania splits us, boxes us, and buries us alive in coffin towers. Back to nature. Back to basics. Back to humility.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Black Holes Whole Sale. New Sphereism drawing (Sept. 2006). Title: "Hey far out kid, kiss me where the sun don't shine"

Higher powers

"I'm not part of history, I'm more of a part of mystery" -Sun Ra




Is there a god? I was given this today on the street. Surely this indicates something......

Me a Pharaoh and Would he Haulin?

Columbia County Fair, upstate NY last week


old friends


detail of reincarnation stew drawing I've been working on this week

Reflections

Got out tonite to see a dear old friend do a book reading for her new book _The Red Book_ at Barnes and Nobles. Sera Beak set me on my spiritual path way back when we used to date in undergrad, and now everyone else can benefit from her wisdom. Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=br_ss_hs/002-7772261-7808830?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=sera+beak&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

From a Bird, by Emily Dickinson

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
and ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And the hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.


**Caretaking from 7am to 6pm (ate lunch @ 5), ran out to see my friend Mike Arcega's piece at a group show that just went up at the Asia Society, got to meet Laurel Nakadate, and then came back home for caretaking. Its 12:30 and i'm gonna draw in bed for a bit and get up at 7 all over again. This is the routine. Its exhausting, but I'm gonna miss its reason when all is said and done. Liberation for all from life's ball and chain.**

Appleseed (Johnny and Shirow Masamune)

Times have never been as stressful, yet there is a refreshing feeling I have about now. I am burning old constraints and feeling the space around me. My art is the shadow of my life, and watching my self this past month begin to incorporate things I've previously hated, into things of inspiration is a joy to behold. To let go of judgment, and negativity, and friction caused by separation. To inject humor as the reflection of love into dark spaces. At the end of my life, my art will be able to be completely viewed for what it is: a progression of mental states illustrating my desire to more deeply know my own nature. So many quirky pieces, buried in bodies of change. I can see myself on paper growing and incorporating and injecting and synthesizing, and expanding, and questions, and making mistakes, and being free, and trying to be smart, and being too mental, and being too loose, and re-hashing the same idea, and working in cycles, and following my intuition, and being regimented, and being experimental, and being here, and being there, and trying to be nowhere and everywhere. I saw a bumper sticker on a gallery window recently that said "Art is doing its job when it reveals mystical truths." I'm still hung up on this Grigory Perelman who solved Poincare's conjecture. I wanna hang out with him even tho I don't speak Russian. I had a friend in town who was supposed to pose for a portrait, but there wasn't enough time, so I think I'm gonna do one of Grigory instead. When I was a kid I would send baseball cards to my favorite players trying to get their autograph, maybe I should send the portrait to Grigory? So yeah, I'm just ape about the Poincare Conjecture and how it ties in with my Sphereism manifesto. I don't think people will fully understand and be able to incorporate the significance of this view into their reality for years. The world is round, not flat. We understand that now, that we live on a sphere, but now its time to realize we are spheres too. That's what my art is about these days, no more lofty cultured symbols for the elite, I'm going for the bulls-eye, Rice Crispies and The National Enquirer are my new vessels.

upper west side around midnight

"Lets go crazy pants.."

A draw walk was taken by me late last night, finding many art materials in the NYC trash as usual, and creating and leaving art as I went. At one point I was trailing a couple, and drawing a moving street scene, walking slowly, and some guy behind me says "Lets go, crazy pants." because I guess even at 11pm people are still in a rush, and white checked pants are just too much for upper west siders. It made me laugh thou. People are in such a hurry to get into their casket....



I made my way to the Hudson river, sat and meditated for a bit, happy to be near a moving body of water, and having space to decompress from all the stress that has been my life for the past 4 weeks. I wanted to go to India to have a deeper spiritual experience, but NYC is really teaching me a lot...

On the way home I found some National Geographics from the 70s, and worked on collages till 3am. I used to love to make collages as a kid, but as an "adult" in the art world I noticed collages were becoming trendy a couple of years ago. I usually try to avoid trends, but I'm ready to shed some self created art world dogma. Ultimately it matters not who's doing what when. As long as a connection to spirit can shine through, all art actions are worthy, trend or not. I am spending the summer living in the same apartment building that was the center of the NY Dada scene (Duchamp lived here), and the collages at the MoMA exhibit planted a seed that wants to grow here. I'm doing a lot of strange art this summer. Fun work, some bad some good. I'll eventually post some when I'm ready. Just exploring shapes and colors and moods and thoughts and philosophies and questions and attempts at explanations.

I like to imagine all flys as time travel machines from the future (I'm developing a screen play based on that idea). Any time one lands on me I pretend it is someone, some fly on the wall, here to observe the moment. If I could travel back in time thru fly host technology I'd love to go to early Egypt and chill on some camel dung and take in that culture for a bit.

Sphereism

The cover of today's NY Times science section has two interesting articles that relate to the "sphereism" manifesto I wrote last year for my show @ the Adobe backroom gallery in SF. The first article speaks of a Russian mathematician who solved some 100 year old postulation that any 3-D shape, with out holes, can be reduced to a sphere. Google "Poincare conjecture". So this guy (Grigory Perelman) solves this incredibly difficult math problem (It takes three books of 1000 pages each to explain his formulation), and then disappears into the Russian forest to pick "mushrooms". I love these spirits that manifest themselves truly and help along mankinds progress through science to life's greatest awe. People are so easily unimpressed these days. There is sensual saturation for sale here in America. All needs can be addressed. Temporary pacification hunger pangs like trickster spirit alive and well, a wolf in corporate clothing. Desire Desire Desire NYC's air. Most just inhale here. We're inhaling the whole world up the American nose...imported cars, "illegal" immigrants...we're a vacuum of consumption. Even my pure art world is stained these days. BUT... Grisha can come along and solve this problem, and it really restores my faith in what I'm doing with my "what I can bring" this lifetime. There are ways to show it to different mental "types" out there. I always felt art could do that for everyone, but I get it that not all people are wired the same way, and although there is a certain audience there for a specific art form it really takes a natural disaster ("act of god") to get everyone on the same page.

Lets talk about punishment for a second.

lets talk about the attitude that is dominating politics, on all sides, these days. The chest expansions, the howling, the throwing of vines and coconuts. We are in the zoo folks. We've been thrown in the cage. Even that sweet sensitive boy in Tibet can't escape. But we all escape eventually, and some come back to do it all again, like a ride at Six Flags. You know you're gonna go thru some exhilarating times of joy and panic. Its over quick but feels like it lasted a life time.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!............................

or if you are Buddhist:

OMMANIPADMIHUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

Got some incense today, and re-arranged this former dark room I'm sleeping in last night, so not it feels more like a home than a crisis center. My grandma's stroke has been downgraded like the UK airline bomb scare. Her care levels are "Elevated", and no longer "Extreme". Like I said earlier, She is a trooper and a fighter. She's fallen through a glass roof and landed on a couch, been hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street, carried my grandfathers supplies all over the world, just to name a few. Still exhausted, and trying to have an early night tonight (finish this, cut my hair, and hope she has sweet dreams about butterflies and potato soup).

OK, [or here's one I came up with: "Boook" (ed translation: "Be Triple O .k.")]
I digress. So, Grisha, Sphereism (gotta dig up that manifesto and post it), and today's NY Times. There's also the matter of the 2 images (one of the universe being born -postulated by a computer program-, and the other of the neurons of a mouse brain) placed side by side. They look like one of those glass globes they would sell at Starmagic down on Broadway and 8th street back in the 80s. Later they could be found at malls, and most recently I spotted one at a dive bar in NJ last week while celebrating a dear friend's birthday. There's probably one in the Exploratorium in SF, or at some vintage interior novelty store. ...anyway, its an ever changing trapped lightning family swarming around the inside of a glass sphere, emanating from what looks like a burnt marshmallow on a stick. Which reminds me of the "spherism" conceptual illustration advancement I achieved in a Tibetan linguistic's octagon hut in the Jungles of Haiku, Maui last winter. It dealt with Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava. And for the record, I adhere to Buddhism as much as I do to Quantum Physics

Back to the mouse brain... same basic structure as the universe expanding...in motion...emanating from a central source

Ahhhhhhhhhh. It makes me feel at peace. The unity in diversity.... all (holefree) shapes can be reduced to spheres, and the active central spark that all these spheres need to manifest. So, I read a great book on the Kaballah a few years back called "God is a Verb" by a Rabbi Michael Cooper(berg,man?) [strange then it wasn't titled "G_D is a verb"], which was really informative. Kabbalists conceived, if I remember correctly, the universe being unified at one point, and then shattering into countless divine sparks (a human-being being a vessel for one). The respective noble path being that of bringing the free sparks together to free more sparks. So these vibrating energy sources, which are not fixed, and are relative to each other and the energy around it make up our micro and macro world, and to spin it back to the Buddha, the vibration is an illusion, so, then why am I writing this blog, and who are you reading it?

time to cut my hair.....

(I know, I know, what hair???)

Listening to: Deepstate 2/"Everybody Get Down", INXS/"calling all nations", Terranova "Bombing Bastards", Cecil Luter/"Electronic", Herbert/"Its only", Billie Holliday/"Strange Fruit", Unkle/track 11 on NeverNeverLand, Primal Scream/"higher than the sun (dub symphony in 2 parts)

Cabin Fever

Its going on 4 weeks. My tan is fading, my beard
emerging. Spidering memories bundles of information
U-ing my mind.

Thoughts today

DNA code = personal musical cellular vibration harmony = individuality with in the notes of a shared vocabulary

Smaller cycles with in larger cycles can be be taken as a sign to the larger cycle to understand it is part of another series of cycles = Spring leaves faith

Be 5 or 4 or 3 again. self liberation from cultural dogma. breathe smiles

My grandmother had a stroke over 2 weeks ago, and I've basically been working around the clock with my mom to see that she has been comfortable since, only leaving her apartment like 4 times. Its been physically draining, and emotionally empowering. I've got a good start on a beard, and bags developing under my eyes. The highs include 3 a.m. requests for "sweets" after 2 catatonic days, and watching her see her great grand daughter for the first time. I'm using the Tibetan Book of the Dead to help guide her when she chooses to enter the next between. I am also seeing the cycles of life so much more clearly now, from watching people on the street age before my eyes, to my own reflection in a mirror. Life is eternal, but this youthful body stays healthy for only so long, so I am trying to really be present with my health and follow my path as it steepens and I have the energy to continue. I am so grateful to my grandmere for this final lesson.

Bird line

I wish I had pictures of my little out door studio I've been setting up on a blanket in Central Park, but I'm trying to get ready for my India trip by being digitally disconnected, hence the lack of blog updates. Life has been exciting. From Waffles and chicken in Harlem to developing a new series of paintings based on time and eyes. Trying to spend as much time in the park as possible, and bring people by my show at The Drawing Center while it is still up for the next week. Wandering the city on hot nights and writing poetry while cabs and delivery guys on bikes zoom by... Its hot, and I pray for peace.

2 Blog or not 2 Bloggggg

Invisible universe in our eyes of cosmic waves from big bangs beard

Life is rich with images and experiences in New Jersey York this summer

Breathing out art while moving thru east coast daily soul obstacle course

Crunch

So, Ive been up in Boston curating an SF landscape show @ Samson Projects (I blogged all about it on fecalface.com), which was a lot of fun. Now I'm back in NY/NJ getting ready to pick up my buddy Clint from Tokyo for an exhibition @ The Drawing Center for our collaborative project www.instantdrawingmachine.com. The opening is June 16th, Pix to come....

Jersey Junk

Memorial day was spent sifting through old Playboys, swinger ad mags from the 70s, and Christies catalogues. We went to some remote NJ flea market, and I scored some kooky stuff I really don't need. I was originally looking for an albino snake-skin briefcase, needless to say the hunt is still on...

The final cruise

SF, I marinated in your funky stew for five years, and now I am back in the land of my youth, how I will hold you dear in my heart for years to come, always knowing I have a home and a family to return to. My last weeks where amazing, magic until the last moment. On my final day in SF, a friend called and told me how Timothy "Speed" Levitch from the documentary "The Cruise" would be giving a double decker tour of SF. How could I resist? I think he is amazing, and to go on my first tourist tour of the city on my last day there seemed like the perfect closing of my SF experience. I'll spare you all the tourist shots, but it was up lifting and wonderful to see the city one last time in a new way. Now I'm in the NJ 'burbs. Its foggy and green here. Was in NY yesterday. It was amazing. Already feels like I'm in a foreign country even though I know the city like the back of my hand...

Day Trip to India

... my friends Kyle, Anna, and I took a trip to Berkeley to meet with Anthropologist David Szanton, who happens to be an expert in Mithila painting from India. This is one of the areas I want to go study/create/colaborate during my 'Tiny Universe' trip, so it was a real treat to have a private presentation and explanation of their contemporary practices. After going thru stacks of paintings, David busted out some pics from the 1950s of the traditional wall painting roots of the style, which totally made my jaw drop. Too bad I had run out of memory on my digi camera ... so now its stored in the soft grey memory banks and the heart ...


Kyle has a great house ... totally rad paint job by his roomate Lisa ...


... Black (flower) Power kitchen ...


... my new friend Anna, caught in the dream catcher ...


... crossing the Bay Bridge ...


... David droping the knowledge ...


... A Mithila painting done by the Brahman class ...


... painting done by the scribe cast ...


... western and eastern feet ...


... painting done by the Dusat class ("untouchables," aka "the opressed," aka Ghandi: "God's children") ... the outsiders of the outsider art ... dug the dung wash and triangle milkmaid heads ...


... the Tsunami ...


... 9/11 ...


... the face of capitalism ... so epic ...


... rainbow eye in the sky while returning to S.F. ...

... we were famished after this intensive art experience, and went to Walzwerk, an awesome East German restruant on South Van Ness and 15th (check out the veggie-schnitzel) ... I've been going every wednesday for the past year + and doing art for their specials menu. This was my final wednesday, and I was happy to share the meal with good friends. Go there next week to see menu art I created inspired by the Mithila painting, and check out the school David helped set up in India:
http://www.mithilapainting.org/