Alt-J

Once again, the year has ended and a new one begins.  Exciting things are brewing, life has a funny way of tossing you upside-down just to show you it's also right-side up.  Breath in, Breath out.  Dear 2014, lets kick some ass.



Discovered these guys the other day, once again another obsession.  Chanting rythmic harmonies oscillating in frequencies that rearrange the structure of your being.  I think I like it.

Blowing Up in Slow Motion

I've already said what I have to say.



This is what it looks like when someone is "Blowing Up."

Reac-table

I only just discovered this.  Really?

Best of 2013

It surley is...

Berlin

Gaiser- A Berlin Resident

"The place is so cool that it’s disconnecting itself from the reality of what’s normal."

Anytime someone has asked me why I like Berlin I go speechless.  I think this is why.

A thought that came up recently; the difference between those who must talk about how great they are, and those who just are.  Some feel they have nothing to prove.  Just like people all the biggest cities love to brag, except Berlin.

Being in the same resonance of the city at the time, I made no effort to share my experience there.  But now I've been dreaming of going back, and today I came across that perfect sentence of why I love the place. So whether it's for my own ego or the hopes that maybe this will come in handy to some lonely traveler who has lost their way, here are some mementos of what I remember.

This city sets a high standard in art, music, and lifestyle.  It is largely an international city, and everyone is from everywhere.  Its as if every black sheep decided they needed somewhere to be themselves, and the casualness of its brilliance is spine-tingling.  To remember that Germany was the start of the Romanticist movement, it all begins to make sense.  This is the land of hedonistic indulgence, in the most mellow way imaginable. Because even behind the craziness, there is still an ethical and moral code that people act and treat each other with dignity.  It's the land of purpose, and you better know what yours is.

Physics claims that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  This is just as valid for the human condition.  Think, the fall of the Berlin wall marked a very prominent check point.  Before then there was serious repression and torment to those who didn't behave in a certain order- or even for those who hadn't come from a certain bloodline.  Now there has been a sling-shot effect that has catapulted the cities demeanor to be one of the most radicley exuberant cities I've ever come across.  Yes the people may act a bit ridged and can not fathom bending the rules, but when they let loose no competitor even comes close.  And personally it seems to me that's all anyone wanted to do.

In the states the idea is "go hard," because you have three hours to party.  In Berlin there is no need, because the parties go for 30+ hours.  Most Berliners don't even bother showing up until well after 4 in the morning.  And that's fine, becasue each DJ plays 5-10 hours. No one is rushed, over anxious, pushy, or rude.  Like I said, they are so extraordinarily casual I could not emphasize this enough.  They just do exactly what they want to do without any concern of ever "missing it."  It's refreshing seeing a place where no one is trying to out-better anyone else.

Store owners have a ping pong table set up outdoors to play while business is slow.  You can be eating outside and the people next to you strike up a conversation just because they noticed something funny.  The parks are decorated as if  they were an old fashioned garden party out of Alice and Wonderland, with giant benches you must climb into and a disco-balled bus used for seating.  Cameras are not allowed in clubs, so people can act or do what they like without fear of someone posting images online. Thinking of an analogy, it's as if the lost-boys of Neverland accidentally grew up and all decided to build Berlin. 

While living in the city my bestfriend said the most proufound thing.  That here, music emanates off the buildings.  It's true.

I decided I want to share some images of the city.  None are my own, because while I was traveling I was robbed in my own hotel.  Having lost my computer and camera I can not share with everybody what I really saw, but by sharing a collection of images that I believe portray the integrity of this historical city I will hopefully translate that warm fuzzy feeling I get when I think about going back.

This was where my friend and I first got off the train having just come from the golden streets of Paris!  Didn't really know what to think, by that night I had already fallen in love having realized we had come exactly where we had wanted to.

Leave the comfort of the streets and you'll find yourself wandering through abandoned building that have been converted into one giant outdoor art installation.

This city is for where younger siblings go to be themselves.



Thanks Tech Beats for the opening quote.  You really sparked back up that forgotten feeling.

Chet Faker

I still cannot express how much better it is to hear music live, especially on a quarter million dollar sound system.

I was blown away by this guys performance.  If you ever get a chance....

Art is a Vague Word

I love these shows, one day I'll be able to see them again.  Thanks again Vasho!

And a little something from the headliner.

Oh Artists....

Draft of Hyperbolic Space

Not a high resolution photo of not a complete painting.

The original title for this piece was "Does Not Exist," Which I think is still a very suiting title.  I just found out I first started this canvas in September 2011, you can see my first image in this link.

1)  Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:

"A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".

By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, GEB expounds concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.

This idea is represented throughout the work.  Fugue is a perpetual loop, a melodic harmony that can layer itself one over the other.  The image itself is full of mathematics and symmetry, where certain ratios and shapes are in perfect alignment with every other element in the work. 

2) Polyhydra or The Platonic Solids:  

Through history, polyhedra have been closely associated with the world of art. The peak of this relationship was certainly in the Renaissance. For some Renaissance artists, polyhedra simply provided challenging models to demonstrate their mastery of perspective.  For others, polyhedra were symbolic of deep religious or philosophical truths.  For example, Plato's association in the Timaeus between the Platonic solids and the elements of fire, earth, air, and water (and the universe) was of great import in the Renaissance.  This was tied to the mastery of geometry necessary for perspective, and suggested a mathematical foundation for rationalizing artistry and understanding sight, just as renaissance science explored mathematical and visual foundations for understanding the physical world, astronomy, and anatomy.  For other artists, polyhedra simply provide inspiration and a storehouse of forms with various symmetries from which to draw on.  This is especially so in twentieth century sculpture, free of the material and representational constraints of earlier conceptions of sculpture. 

I have hidden numerous Polyhydra within the work, including cubes, hexagons, and star tetrahedrons.

3) String Theory/ Einstein's Unified Field Theory
In my own words, all I want to say is that there are many different ideas out there.  With the current models for Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, there is no law that functions for one as it does the other.  Essentially these two very separate fields of study have no commonalities.  And we continue to follow the rules and laws we have set in place because 99% of the time it works.  Einstein was the one who came up with the philosophy that there exists something that unite these two fields of study.  String theory claims to have solved this age old problem, however there have been multiple "answers," just none accepted by the masses.

This work represents the miniscule- quantum mechanics through mathematics, and the infinitely  large- general relativity through space.  All these elements will mirror each other once you reach a certain degree, such as the harmonic scale starts over when you reach the next octave.

4) Ying Yang/The Torus
Most people have always known that the yinyang symbol stands for balance of opposites.  But around a year ago when I first saw this video and herd research on the Torus, I was a little blown away.  A deep obsession of mine has always been black holes.  The idea behind the Torus is that it moves inward and outward through its core into space and back again.  Perpetual loop (Theme of GEB at the top)  Some believe black holes to work this way, matter and particles being sucked in and spit out again.  At the center of every galaxy (including ours) exists a black hole, and currently we are being spit out.  




As you must have noticed at the exact center of this work is an yinyang symbol, which is also the eye of the gecko.

5)  Soundwaves, Frequencies, and Music
Light and sound exists as waves.  Each has a unique wavelength, or frequency.  Every element in the universe has a frequency.  Cymatics.  Just saying.
Our current harmonic scale was invented by Pythagoras.  One note is different from its parent by half of the string's length.  So by sectioning a piece of sting in half, and a half of a half, and a half of that half, and so on gives you the scale of A B C D E F G, then it repeats an octave.  Perpetual loop.

I have imbedded this as imagery within the sphere.  Along with one of M.C. Eshers's images called "Circle Limit."  How this was achieved:  Take 6 consecutive circles and have them intersect each other just past the larger circles edge.  Take circles that are half their diameter and then place down 12 circles, all intersecting at the larger circles intersection.  Repeat this effect and you will notice that from the absolute center of the main circle outward, all the other circles intersect along a line at a ratios of 2:1.  Our harmonic scale.  This also represent infinity, because if you follow this pattern you will never come to the edge of the main circle. Its in other word expanding at an exponential rate.

 Look up "Mathmagic Land" from 1976.  Once again references back to mathematics, music, and Lewis Carrol
I must be an egghead.

6) Mandalas  

Sanskrit for ‘circle’ or ‘center’, mandalas have been used for thousands of years by indigenous elders and spiritual traditions, as a way of giving form to their prayers and weaving visions into the fabric of reality.  In nature, the ‘circle with a center pattern is the basic structure of all creation and is reflected everywhere we look. The center of a seed, a flower, a piece of fruit. The circling rings of stone dropped into water and the spiraling shape of a tiny seashell, up to the wide circular pattern of storms, celestial currents, the Sun, our solar system – and beyond! Every atom and every cell with its nucleus is a mandala.  In the Americas, Indians have long created medicine wheels and sand mandalas for healing and as a gateway to communion with the Divine.  In Tibet, mandalas have been used throughout the ages as an active form of meditation and integral part of spiritual practice. The creation of sand mandalas can take many hours or days to complete. When finished, monks gather in ceremony and they sweep their mandala away, emptying it into a nearby body of water as a blessing.  From Christian nuns to Aztec shaman, mandalas in various forms have been drawn, carved and created throughout the ages to infuse our visions with energy, to unify groups around an idea and to help ‘Dream Our World into Being’.  Pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung used mandalas extensively in his own personal growth and as a way of communicating and understanding his clients’ subconscious.  He saw them as a “safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness.” Today mandalas are even being used in European schools and hospitals as a way of calming, centering and enlivening patients and children.  Representing wholeness, mandalas can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself, as a doorway into you are on the artistic path of life, you are surely in the right place to begin.

If you haven't noticed, the whole composition encompasses many elements of classical Tibetan mandalas.  The major one being the square, also known as "gateway of the universe."  The whole image works from the center point outward, and tries to express a form of enlightenment, a higher knowledge that can not be explained, but only experienced. 

7) Geckos 
  To read about the Gecko you can find more at this earlier post.

J-One

I must be slowly slipping away.

Living in Your Head

Don't confuse the idea of something with the object itself.

Mastery comes from the experience of something, not the expectation.

Do it because you want to, not because it's what you were told.

I've spent hours in front of a canvas this weekend, and the more time you spend in silence the more realizations that come to fruition.   These are ideas from the past, only to become true to my painting and my life once again.

Let me explain more clearly.

With myself and the people around me, I can often see that we become caught up with the idea of something.  In your head you have it all planned out, it's there, it even feels real.  In your head it's the truth, and gets to the extent that it is your reality.  It is important to let go of this misconception, because what is in your head isn't always (if ever) what is really happening.  This is how to master your reality.

In order to become a master of anything, there is a certain amount of focus and experience that needs to happen.  You can not just pick up any object and know it.  First you must hold it, then use it, and after many many hours will you then start to understand it. When you have mastered it, it's no longer a separate entity but part of you, an extension of yourself.  Don't expect to know it because you've been told.

Lastly, no one needs to do anything the way its been taught in the past.  Learn the rules so that later you may break them.   The only reason there has been any improvement or evolution in the world is because others were willing to try something new.  Be on the leading edge, do what feels right in the moment, and always create your own path.  Sure you shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel, but why not toss it out and just learn to fly?

Just some dizzy thoughts from a paint filled weekend.

Darkside

I thought when I first discovered the name Nicolas Jaar that this was some unknown genius, really I couldn't have been more wrong.  Turns out this guy has been "the next big thing" for quite sometime, and now he has a new side project.  Darkside- Dave Harrington and Nicolas Jaar, played in Berghain last week on October 8th...  I think that was their opening debut?  This means they are already Monsters of the electronic music world.  The good news is they are starting a North American tour for the release of their first album.

Trust me, do not miss this one.

1/14 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
01/15 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
01/16 – Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick
01/17 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
01/18 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
01/21 – Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club
01/22 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
01/23 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
01/24 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore Auditorium
01/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Music Box (Henry Fonda)
01/26 – Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory
01/28 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
01/30 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
01/31 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
02/01 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
02/02 – New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
02/03 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
02/05 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
02/06 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
02/07 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
02/08 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5

And if you didn't notice that's 21 nights with only 5 nights off to do the entire rim of the United States from North, West, South, then East.  Insane.

And now, for an interview!

Banksy's Website...

Or is it pronounced banksye?

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

I'm looking through the October 2013 posts, and he has made a tole free number you can call to hear an audio recording of information about the work.

Trust me on this one and do it, you will not be disappointed!

Dancing Techno Cats

Couldn't find this song on YouTube, so I uploaded it myself with on of my paintings.  The painting came from a photograph of me and my girlfriends dressed up as the Cheshire Cat for Halloween.  We all pitched in to help make the entire costume, including the helmets which were welded and had a special material stretched that allowed us to see out but no one to see in.  Spectacular really, one of my favorites yet.  Might I add, I love my girlfriends.

Photo Credit to Vasho Photography
SHAH Dj's, Vancouver's Drum'n'Bass crew.

Valentine Stip's Angst EP

Huuuup

If I hadn't been a visual artist, I would have learned dance.

Live Painting to Bass

Listen to this:  Ghostek- No Way Out

Place: Subduction, Seattle.

Goal:  Live painting.


This post is far after the event ever happened.  I was asked by a friend to do a collaboration on a painting.  I started it off before passing it to the next player.  This is the documentation of my time warp.  I cant say how long it took me, but I started before the party did.  When I turned around there was and entire warehouse filled with people below me.  Every time I've been back people call me "Artist Lady."

I found this sign sitting below one of my paintings late in the night, thank you to whoever that was :)

This is many hours into the night when my co-lab partner was ready to start working, so I passed it along and went to join the fun.

The next day we were continuing the party somewhere outdoors.  Never really painted, but instead joined the celebration.  Favorite part of the trip.  Making mud balls with an eight year old for hours by the river.

Mémoire

Swedish music is something to pay attention too...

Ciliate Baby

I'm very happy to be a part of this amazing event now four years running.  It started as a good-bye party in a parking garage, and has now grown into an art collective that is traveling to festivals.  Ciliate Art Gallery supports visual art, wearable art, performance, and music coming out of Vancouver B.C.  I am honored to know such a fantastic, loving, and supportive group of people.

All thanks goes out to Vasho Photography for having a beautiful vision.

In a Puff of Pink Smoke and Sparkles

Figuring out that may thoughts are scrambled, and to keep myself from rambling aimlessly, I'm giving this post sub-titles.

The Music

In order to make a good road concoction, you must first arrange some good old fashion mix tapes.  Suggested sounds should include some nice sing-alongs such as Little Dragon, Discovery, Bonobo, Grimes, SBTRKT, LCD SoundSystem, Robot Koch, some Purity Ring, and a dash of Radiohead.  For more upbeat I've-been-on-the-road-eight-hours sounds include Art Department, Extrawelt, LongWalkShortDock, Dark Arps, Gaiser, and some bass heavy Moderat.  Thirdly, nab up some of your favorite producer's mixes.  They may only be one track but these will be the ice cubes to your drink, they are always good and solid.

The Painting

You may or may not know my work, if you do you'll think this is something you've seen before.  You are both right and wrong.  If you would like to view the first image, you can see it here.  The first painting (4'x4' acrylic on canvas) was inspired from my visit just after an engagement party in Aspen.  I made this painting (40"x40" acrylic on canvas) as a wedding present those two friends who just now got married.  I only found it suiting that I paint them an original based on their favorite colors, yellow and orange.

The Trip

Having a warped sense of time and space makes life all the better  Because in the end, isn't it all just relative? The theory:  Go to Aspen for a wedding, so might as well visit dad and do a big road trip with a friend.  The Itinerary:  Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Aspen, Denver, Aspen, Zion, Chino Valley, and back to Vegas- in nine days.

The only way for me to sum it up is I can barely comprehend all the things I've seen, said, thought, and done.

Places to sleep included cars, nice hotels, homes, dirty hotels, and possibly a nap by the pool (and eventually a broken plane in a thunderstorm).  I have been in monsoons so trecherous there were muddy rivers wiping the mountain across the road, and valleys so hot my nail polish melted off.  More then two thousand miles have been put on our rental by stretching vast distances and elevations through every weather pattern you could imagine.  I've hiked the Grand Canyon, Arches, and to Angles Landing in Zion all in extrodinarily fashionable boots that got me either glares, stares, or smiles from passer-bys.  And the whole thing was shared with amazing family, friends, and strangers who taught me you can meet amazing people where ever you go.

The Realization

People are funny.  Or what I should really say is, humans are funny.  But most of all, deep down they are all loving caring and wonderful people.  It may not always seem like it, but somewhere in all the choas there are just a bunch of weirdos that just want to be happy.

I often remind myself it is not about me, and I do everything possible just to help others.  On this trip it was all paid back especially when I least expected it.

In a Puff, of Pink Smoke and Sparkles

Pink Smoke and Sparkles is a code name, and this trip it seems to be truer then ever.  Before the trip even started I had really weird out-of-body feelings while wide awake that I couldn't seem to control, for me that is unusual.  Before I knew it I was landing down in a plane over Vegas to see this.

Las Vegas Forest Fires: July 9th, 2013

If you don't watch the news, then you wouldn't know- Forest Fires everywhere over the U.S.  Including the place I went to school in California- which it is the friends I made there who I am visiting on this trip.  Symbolic.  No?

Idyllwild Forest Fires: July 2013

Once at the wedding, many people from the past came out of the wood works.  Each one said the same thing, "Wow!  Is that you? I didn't even recognize you!"  That happens all the time.  Everywhere.  One will learn that special glint in peoples eyes of when realization hits.

Now the second most said comment is a perfect capsulation of my exsistence.  I appear into peoples lives, make myself present, and then poof!  Gone just as quickly as I came.  At that point I litterally dissapear.

I've done this time and time again.  There is no pattern of how long it will be, where, or what will happen.  But when I do reappear, it is as if no time has passed.  That is the third most said thing people tell me.

Communication is the biggest misunderstanding between people.  Whether it is because you speak different languages or simply interpret what people say wrong.  There is also the fact that we don't always say what we mean, or what's really on our mind.  I am guilty of this, as well as everybody else.  It has broken up friendships, relationships, families, and even creates tension between strangers.  Some like to play that as a game, but for the majority it is the complete opposite of what we are trying to accomplish. 

Emotions are the truest connection people have, because those you don't control, they just are what they are.  Sometimes they are good or bad, but always true.  It's learning to know what those feeling are so that you can then evaluate the situation and hopefully come to terms with it before letting go.  The one thing I've noticed most through continuous observation is that people get stuck on the emotion, and forget the last three steps.  Learn to evauate yourself, and the postition of the people involved.  Contemplate it from both sides until you reach understanding and compassion.  When this happens, allow yourself to forgive.  That is how you let go.

What I want to say, is that although I appear and disappear in a puff of pink smoke and sparkles, every single person I encounter I love more then words could ever express.  I may not call, or keep in touch, but it doesn't mean I don't think about you.  And even when I am around, I may not not have a lot to say, but it doesn't mean I don't cherish that moment, it just means I am comfortable enough around you not to feel like I need to fill it with words.  I'm not just saying this to the people I know, this goes for every person out there and the people they know.  Somewhere out there you feel this way, and someone feels that way about you.  All of life is a snake eating its own tale.

The Mementos

While you peruse ...

because bass is the sound mountains make.

..and last but not least, becasue I still think he is the coolest guy around.