Dec.25th, 2012

Hanging out with the Family, and we were surprised with this lovely moment!

Rockenbach Productions

In preparation for starting a company, I thought it suitable to design a logo.  It is based on a goldfish named Honeydew.

It was when I was sitting in my kitchen talking to my fish when I realized that he would make a perfect logo.  I'm not sure what instinct told me that, but I decided to go with it.

It wasn't unti later I finished the drawing that I looked up some information on fish/goldfish as a totem. Here is what I found:

Fish:

Independence, Potential, Adaptation Fish can teach us to adapt to all environments; they can teach us to streamline our lives; they can give us protection when we need it; and connect us to the creative element of life: water.

A Fish swimming down symbolizes the involution of spirit, while a Fish swimming up is the evolution of the spirit. They reveal the strength of the currents of our lives and  see clearly in the murky waters of the future. When Fish entered your life as a Totem, it will often signal one of the senses being awakened: visions, prophetic dreams, or clairaudience is possible. There will be greater contact with the spiritual realm. Goldfish: This Totem brings peace and prosperity to those who have it.  Look for new opportunities and take advantage of them.

Cool, its a good thing I listen to my intuition. Goldfish:

This is what the drawing looks like.  I use this as a template to create a Vector image that I can safely use for any occasion.

At one point I though having a more graphic oriented image would be better, but the translation from drawing to vector became sloppy.  This is still a Vector image, but with less of a blur.  I was happy with this translation and might keep it around for a while.

Something for Enjoyment

Click Here

While in Istanbul, I had the pleasure of meeting this fellow.  Makes me happy to be alive.

Totem Animal Series pt1

I enjoy an absurd amount of detail.  So anytime I get a small pen in my hand, craziness ensues.

A little while ago, I started asking people what their favorite animals are.  I will be working on this series until I've given out all the completed images.

What is Home?

Possibly just another unstable condition...



Three days before arriving back in the town where I grew up, after living for 8 months out of a backpack, I happened to sit down with an artist whose work I've admired since childhood in a conversation prompted by the question "what is home?"

There are many different answers to this question, and quite possibly just as many places.  

So what is home?  Is it where you choose to put your stuff?  Is it where you grew up? Is it where your family is? Where your heart is? Your friends? Or just simply where you sleep?

Like any young person I thought I had all of life's problems figured out in collage.  I had a wonderful epiphany and decided that home is where the people you consider to be your family is.  For me those people are spread throughout Vancouver BC, therefore there is a whole city I call home!  How great is that?  But because I'm not a Canadian citizen, I have been booted out and can no longer live there without Visas.  So now what?

I know! A backpack became home and I traveled to many spectaculare places, sharing my time with one stranger after the next. Being places I had never seen, while at the same time feeling like I had lived there before.  Somehow I had slipped into new homes so comfortable it took no almost no effort.

Now that it has all come to an end, the next step is returning to the place where I was born,  meaning home-by-default.  But none of this answers the question for what home is to me now.

This is the point where a new dissection of this ever changing condition is required in order to come to terms with the problem.  In order to reevaluate this, one needs to clear all expectations and start from scratch.

Having techniques for bringing awareness to the present will be different for everyone, for me the solution is music and art. That is what makes my world turn.  Take advantage of the things that are within your control, except that everything else is left up for mystery.  Find the answers that work for you and remember these are not the simple solutions to the question, in order for this advise to work takes great introspection and disciplined practice.  The reward?  How much you will grow as a human.

For now, home will have to be within.

Life is always evolving, welcome the changes, go with the flow.

http://www.honshin.com/ is where you can find Nicholas' work, there are slideshows for all his paintings, ceramics, jewelry, and more.

Gives Me the Gigglies

I haven't been talkative much recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been brewing up something good.  I need to do research and sift through the ideas before I make a serious post.  Until then, here are some videos that have put a smile on my face; makes me want to take a road trip.




And if your craving some music, here is a nice follow up:

About How to Dance

It has been a little while since I have been able or had time to make any new updates.  I do not have a computer or a camera anymore, so it makes it a bit more difficult to share my adventures.  But today I did stumble upon a great piece of writing.  If you've never danced like this, it's about time you try!

"We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance

But the claw our way back into the belly
Of the sacred, sensual animal dance
The unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms
of our hands and feet dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
But the wring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance.
The slap the apology from our posture dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see, monkey do dance
One two dance like you
One two three, dance like me dance
But the grave robber, tomb stalker
Tearing scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our soul dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the nice, invisible, self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama shaman shaking ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings, return our wings
sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into the luminous skin of love dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance but the meeting of the trinity: the body, breath and beat dance

The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I? Yes you may take ten giant leaps dance
The olly olly oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance.

We have come to be danced
Where the kingdoms collide
In the cathedral of flesh
To burn back into the light
To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
To root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced! We have come.”
~ by Jewel Mathieson

from her book "This Dance: A Poultice..." (jewelmathieson.blogspot.com)