I did this Mixed media piece I created almost a year ago as a gift for a friend….  In any case,  it was inspired by a photo I took thats long since been lost.  See the next post for whats left of the photo.   Thought i’d upload and share.

Enjoy!

This drawing was practice for a live model that was coming in the next week. We were experimenting with drawing human form.

There's no "right" interpretation of the human form, right?

One night I was driving on a dark dirt road in the heart of rural Costa Rica when I came across this sign.  It seemed so familiar, but something was off about it, so I hit the brakes and looked closer.

It wasn’t its beat-up condition, nor the fact that we seemed miles away from any school that caught my attention. It was the silhouettes of the figures, their heads, they were huge! Far larger than the heads on the US version (pic on the right). Was the added emphasis to help humanize the picture in an effort to get drivers to slow down? Maybe they just didn’t grasp anatomy down there the same way American sign-makers did (real people’s heads are normal-sized down there). 

Later I looked back to the American version and noticed that at least on the Costa Rican sign the people had feet, let alone heads that are attached to their bodies. I cursed myself for looking too far into it, but I guess working in the design world has resulted in such observations becoming a staple of my life, wherever I go. 

So for now I’ll chalk it up to different artistic interpretations of the human form. But I figured it was a note-worthy distinction none-the-less. Indeed, indeed.

(Costa Rica is an incredible place to visit by the way, with a dizzying array of attractions and some of the most accessible and well-preserved natural beauty I’ve ever seen.)

“Everything we say is a reflection of the world of people. You talk and act the way you do because you’re clinging to the human form.” – don Juan, The Power of Silence

The dominant paradigm is a by-product of the foreign installation.  It challenges humans to comply with a prescribed mode of behavior that does not inherently belong to them.   It has been ingrained since the time of conception and is cultivated throughout the lifetime of each human, dictating to them how to act, speak, and conduct themselves in alignment with the unconscious culture, the people that keep the wheel spinning, each of them a mere cog in the wheel.

Humans are essentially following a value structure that has been handed down from generation to generation over a very long period of time.  A hierarchy has been created that leaves little or no room for deviation.  And it has been growing out of control for too long.  It is time to break free of the mold, to lose human form.  Daniel Quinn refers to this paradigm as Mother Culture.  In his book Ishmael, “Mother Culture is the constant hum in the background that we don’t recognize as a separate entity because she has always been here, will always be here.”  In his books, Quinn talks about how flawed this paradigm is in how it believes that if something doesn’t work then we’ll do more of it.  If something doesn’t work then it doesn’t work and we must find a new way to approach it but Mother Culture leaves little room for ingenuity and instead changes the players thinking that somehow they can apply the old way more fervently to reach a desired outcome. 

A warrior seeks to lose human form, to break free of the mold of man and all of the attributes that are associated to it.  To lose human form means to enter into a high level of detachment, the state of being in which one overcomes his attachment to desire for things, people, and mostly, the concepts of the world.   From this new, heightened awareness one moves more into the configuration of pure being…through perceiving.  Perceiving with detachment becomes more like a knowing, it is an opportunity to align oneself while deepening the connection one has to raw energy and in essence, become many of the fibers of energy floating all around us, simultaneously.

With this said, human beings innately know how to conduct themselves appropriately to their surroundings and environment, no longer limited by attempting to adhere to the strict expectations placed upon them by the dominant paradigmatic structure.  A sense of balance is restored as a deeper connection is reestablished with the earth.  The ability to perceive is limitless and enhanced once the long imprinted perceptual filters of civilized behavior have been subverted. 

There are millions of perceptory fields available to humans at all times and many of these are amazingly beautiful.  It is the very thing don Juan spoke of to Carlos, freeing oneself from the entanglement of the lines of energy that don’t belong to you, making yourself free to grab on to the lines or fibers of your own choosing, of your own creation to valiantly go where no one has gone before. 

We are living in a time where it is becoming critical to gently and ruthlessly assist people in waking up, to stop their world in order to allow them to become aware of the lie they have been living.  The way of the Toltec warrior is not a secret and should not be treated as one.  While it is considered to be shrouded in mystery, it really is not, it is a fundamental return to oneself that allows one to see the greater truth of all things, beyond the myth of civilization.

Suggested Resources:

Ishmael – Daniel Quinn
Beyond Civilization – Daniel Quinn
The Fire from Within – Carlos Castaneda
Powder – 1995 movie

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day (Gen. 32:24).

God is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God.  It was the Son of Man, the Angel of the Covenant.  It was God in human form pressing down and pressing out the old Jacob life;  and ere the morning broke, God had prevailed and Jacob fell with his thigh dislocated.  But as he fell, he fell into the arms of God, and there he clung and wrestled, too, until the blessing came;  and the new life was born and he arose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the divine, the natural to the supernatural.  And as he went forth that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was the re instead;  and the heavenly voice proclaimed, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”

Beloved, this must ever be a typical scene in every transformed life.  There comes a crisis hour to each of us, if God has called us t the highest and best, when all resources fail;  when we face either ruin or something higher than we ever dreamed;  when we must have infinite help from God and yet, ere we can have it, we must let something go;  we must surrender completely;  we must cease from our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness, and become crucified with Christ and alive in Him.  God knows how to lead us up to this crisis, and He knows how to lead us through.

Is He leading you thus?  Is this the meaning of your deep trial, or your difficult surroundings, or that impossible situation, or that trying place through which you cannot be without Him, and yet you have not enough of Him to give you’re the victory?

Oh, turn to Jacob’s God!  Cast yourself helplessly at His feet.  Die to your strength and wisdom in His loving arms and rise, like Jacob, into His strength and all-sufficiency.  There is no way out of you hard and narrow place but at the top.  You must get deliverance by rising higher and coming into a new experience with God.  Oh, may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of the Mighty One of Jacob!—But God.

At Thy feet I fall,

Yield Three up my all,

To suffer live, or die

For my Lord crucified.

[Source : 感恩於台湾生命电视台(LifeTV, Taiwan)委托华藏光明ALCOO数码制作3D动画片地藏菩萨的故事]

This is a front cover from an old art project Shib had to do.  It’s a manga version of her in underwear.

…Her and her pants…

Dancers

Forgive the terrible scan quality; my computer is getting rather old and decrepit which means my scanner driver doesn’t seem to want to work. Anyhow, dancing has been my passion for a long time. I remember at the age of five repeatedly asking my Mum to put on classical music so I could swirl around our living room being a ‘ballerina’. It sounds cliché but I love being in tune with the music, tailoring my movements to the tempo. Injury prevents me from indulging too often – it makes me angry that my body doesn’t do what I want it to – but it hasn’t dampened my love for dance. I love the pleasing lines and the graceful tension that shoots through the dancers muscles.

From the book God Calling (www.twolisteners.org )

May 31 Prayer Without Words

Lord, hear us, we pray.                                

Hear and I answer.  Spend much time in prayer.  Prayer is of many kinds, but of whatever kind, prayer is the linking up of the soul and mind and heart to God.

So that if it is only a glance of faith, a look or word of Love, or confidence, and no supplication is expressed, it yet follows that supply and all necessary are secured.

Because the soul, being linked to God, united to Him, receives in and through Him all things.  And the soul, when in human form, needs too the things belonging to its habitation.

Pray without ceasing.  1 Thessalonians 5:17

Brilliant imagry from the 50’s - 

(lifted from www.encyclopedia.com)

Children are grouped by physique into five groups, ranging from tall and thin to short and thick‐set. A healthy child will grow, as measured by height and weight, along one of these channels at a standard rate; if he/she deviates from the channel, malnutrition is suspected.

(images lifted from www.life.com )

Pediatrician Norman C. Wetzel, creater of Wetzel grid, working at his desk.

Normal growth illustrated by children standing on enlarged replica of Wetzel grid.

Pole climbers, all at the same stage of total body size but in different channels of body shape, demonstrating physical performance typical of each channel.

Athletes categorized by specific body types.

Deviation from normal growth being represented in this charting of the contrasting development of the two boys at right.

Doctor using Wetzel grid to show how physical handicaps have set back child’s growth.

Girl pondering question of psychiatrist O. B. Markey (R) who is probing emotional upset which has slowed her growth.

I have stated a new series of work. What I am aiming at is using simple abstractions, movements within the human form.

This is the first real idea for this work. I used Photoshop CS4 to manipulate the images into one almost solid form.

In the second part of this working research. I have layered Transparency Film on-top of one another for the desired result.

I am trying different mediums with this work and investigation.

If you get the opportunity (and you have to be quick), go to Lincoln and see member Janet Wain’s solo exhibition Body Maps at The Gallery at St Martins  just off to the left as you look at the bottom of Steep Hill.  The clue is in the title, Janet’s inspiring work is based around the female form and geological maps artfully and thought provokingly brought together.  The exhibition is from 13th – 19th April 10am – 4pm.

For speeds sake as I have run out of time to post today, rather than repeat what I have posted on my own blog about this very well presented exhibition, please follow the link to Rarelizzie to read and see all the images. 

I would also like to point out that I have missed blogging about Heather Farquhar’s solo exhibitions as I have been away, and I stupidly lost the password to the blog as well!  My apologies Heather, I will do better next time [blogmeister]

OK, I just had to let you know about a fabulous exhibition I have just been to in Lincoln.  It is not on for long, just this week from 13th to 19th April 10am – 4pm at the Gallery at St Martins but it really is worth seeing.  The artist, Janet Wain is truly an artist, and a very modest one; she just happens to work in textiles.  Not that that is an accident I hasten to add!  Her work has great integrity, and she has based this exhibition on her interpretation of the female form and geological maps.  The two sources combine together to create beautiful and moving images that invite contemplation and consideration from across the gallery floor, but also excite and reward the eye when viewed close to.

The piece above is a perfect example of her clever use of colour, computer skills and talent for drawing, as well as her imaginative interpretation of geological maps.

Changes of scale do not phase her, and although most of the work in the exhibition is in these lovely earth tones, there are some vibrant contrasts which focus on human hands.  You can see a bit of this in the image below which is a view of the front of the little gallery in Lincoln.

The image below was tricky to shoot as it is behind glass, so I apologise for it not being quite up to scratch, but you can still see that Janet is a gifted artist.  her work is subtle and to my mind shows insight and compassion for her subject matter.  Whatever Janet does, she always makes me think more about what I do, and why I am doing it, she really does inspire me.  Janet is a member of Nolitex as am I, and we are very fortunate to have her as part of our group: Her professionalism, and innate eye for design and composition combined with her gentle and encouraging manner make her not only a wonderful person to know, but a bit of an icon too.  Now I bet I have made her blush!

And if Janet’s beautifully wrought and professionally hung work is not enough of a draw for you, then just behind the gallery is The Cheese Society Shop and cafe.  Not only does it sell delicious and unusual cheeses, but also serves seriously good food and coffee.  We got there at around 11.30am thinking we might have a coffee, but decided that lunch was too enticing so stayed for an early lunch.  I am very glad we did because by 12 o’clock every table was full with knowledgeable locals who understand what a wonderful and largely-undiscovered-by-tourists gem  of an eatery they have there.  The outside is nothing to look at, but everything inside is excellent quality, and largely locally sourced.  And of course, there is the whole of the rest of Lincoln to explore.

You can find the gallery in St Martins Square at the foot of Steep Hill (off to the left if you are looking up towards the Cathedral).  We (my friend Judith Burnett and I) parked in a little the car park by the canal opposite the Waterfront shopping centre and it took just 5 mins to reach the gallery by walking up the high street and just as the road narrows to go up Steep Hill we turned left into St Martins Square.

Go there NOW!

I started to focus on a few particular fables that attracted my attention. One in particular ‘The Peacock and the Crane’ I started to read meaning into the tag line ‘Fine feathers don’t make fine birds’. I related the tag line to how in society we emphasis the importance of looking good however, in some circumstance this is no true reflection of our abilities or skills. I tried to represent this by using imagery of models, and transforming this imagery into something you start to question.

The Peacock and the Crane.
A Peacock, spreading its gorgeous tail, mocked a Crane that passed by, ridiculing the ashen hue of its plumage, and saying: “I am robed like a king, in gold and purple, and all the colors of the rainbow; while you have not a bit of color on your wings.” “True,” replied the Crane, “but I soar to the heights of heaven, and lift up my voice to the stars, while you walk below, like a cock, among the birds of the dunghill.”

Fine feathers don’t make fine birds.

Tony Hancock’s 1960 film is not only one of the best films that have been made about the life of an artist it’s also pretty funny too.. You can read a full summary of the plot here but it’s basically a parody of the Somerset Maugham story The Moon and Sixpence, (itself based in part on the life of Gauguin) where the English comedian Tony Hancock gives up a life of dull bowler hatted conformity to live the life of an artist in the Paris of the 1950’s.
The character Tony Hancock plays in the film is a hilariously bad painter (and an early influence on Iggy Pop’s graphic work I’m sure) who falls in with another artist called Paul. While Hancock is lionised by the Parisian art establishment with his “infantile” school of art, Paul who is ironically a genuinely good but unrecognised painter is so thrown into emotional turmoil that he decides to give up art in order to move back to London to live with Hancock’s landlady and get a proper job with the bowler hats. At this point a dealer played by the fantastic George Sanders pays a visit to their old studio. He mistakes the paintings that Paul has left behind for Hancock’s paintings and offers Tony a contract which at this point being totally peniless he is forced to accept. From this point he has to pretend that Paul’s work is his. One very funny scene shows him at a private viewing of “his” pictures with a beret and cape smoking from a cigarette holder. When he thinks noone is looking he quickly turns round one of the Paul pictures to show one of his infantilist masterpieces before being promptly told by his dealer to turn it around the other way again.
Both the good and bad paintings were produced by the artist and teacher Alisdair Grant who at the time had recently graduated from the Royal College of Art. He fed the writers of the film examples of what was going on in the art scene at the time. Tony Hancock riding over a painting with a bicycle is a great spoof of Abstract Expressionism and his comments about “Infantillism” are brilliantly close to some of the things that Picasso had been quoted as saying about Cubism.
The great success of the film is the way in which it questions standards of what is good and bad in art as well as making us laugh at the same time. Finally Paul returns to France and produces some paintings which are indistinguishable from the naive stuff that Hancock was producing at the beginning of the film but which George Sanders now believes are amazing. The message seems to be that if you are a true artist whatever you do will somehow be art. Baffled by this Hancock returns to London and at the end of his film we see he has returned to live with his landlady Mrs Cravatte in his old flat and produces a new version of the sculpture “Aphroditie at the Waterhole” which we see at the beginning of the film in the above clip. I hope you enjoy it.

in response to Claudette’s Weekly Writing Challenge #8: Inner World. http://claudetteellinger.wordpress.com/

What is a Personal Mythology? There are several definitions out there, as well as many different books that have been written on the subject. Here, you will find my definition based in my own personal experience.

About thirty years ago, I spontaneously began creating a personal mythology based in quiet meditation and imagination. I had no idea that was what I was doing at the time. Just thought I had discovered a wonderful little way of finding the peace I was seeking in the midst of a hectic life as wife and the mother of four active children. You can read more about the details of all of that in an article I wrote on Dec.13th, of 2008, titled A Tiger Named Pain, and posted on my other site:
http://1sojournal.wordpress.com/
Just use the search box on the sidebar, type in Tiger named Pain and click on it.

While attempting to create a quiet place to withdraw for a few moments each day, I stumbled into what I came to call “My Secret Garden.” Going there was my means of relaxing, at least for a while. Once comfortable, however, I began to have visitors. Imaginary wild creatures, who would come and softly (sometimes not so softly) tell me their stories.

After several of these unexpected visits, I realized that these wild creatures were ones I had always found fascinating and interesting. I began to read about each of the species represented in my imagination. What I found was even more intriguing. Each creature had myths and legends attached to it. They were actually symbols of certain character qualities found in the human psyche.

It took some time, but I finally began to realize that I was interacting, on this imaginary level, with the pieces and parts of my own personality. Whew! As I listened to their stories, heard their particular needs, I learned a great deal about my own person and how I operate and actually came to be who and what I am.

Some of my visitors came in human form:  myself in images from photographs, others that I recognized and knew from real life, sometimes acting in very contrary ways to what I knew about their persons. I will write about some of those experiences in later blogs. Suffice it to say, my inner world went from empty to heavily populated over the course of the next few years.

Not only that, but my “Secret Garden,” didn’t remain a quiet place I retired to of an afternoon. Spontaneous imagery began to occur at odd moments and in all the places I went. It was rapid fire, occurring in less than a second or two, and then gone, but hardly forgotten. It might relate to what was actually going on in the moment, or to some random thought that had occurred to me within that present moment.

Sometimes it was no more than a flashing glimpse of one of my inner creatures or people. But, the connections to that glimpse could alter my direction, as well as my knowing and understanding. When I would meet new people, I would wait til I was alone and then visualize them inside my inner world. Depending on how my imaginary creatures and people reacted to that individual, I could often decide on how to proceed, or if I should at all.

I started college the same day my youngest child started kindergarten. In the course of taking a few basic psychology classes, I finally found a definition for what I had been experiencing and doing. My “Secret Garden” was a Personal Mythology that filled my inner world, and fueled my imagination, as well as my intuition.

Being a talker, I spoke quite freely about my experiences. There were those who simply nodded and stared at me with cocked-eye expressions. There were also a few, not many, who suggested that I might be suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. I lacked the background history necessary for that one. However, there were far more who were interested and wanted to know if they could do the same. They saw it as a practical and possibly easily accessible tool for living life on a deeper level. I would agree.

Eventually, I got a divorce, graduated from college, and started work as the General Manager of a bookstore. That access to the written word helped me to explore far more deeply all the areas of interest I was drawn toward. Then the opportunity to teach came along, and I used my knowledge of imagery in my writing classes.

I had spent some time reading the Anne McCaffrey series on dragons. I loved her imaginative take on these wonderful creatures of legend and mythology. So, it wasn’t a big surprise when dragons began to appear within my inner world. One, a Tinker-Bell sized creature, who couldn’t seem to sit still but danced through the air where her emerald green and yellow scales glinted and flashed in time to her delightful laughter. She told me with a giggle that her name was Tui, short for Intuition. She always makes me smile.

I will write more about the dragons and the purpose they fulfill in another blog. Personal Mythology, like all other Mythology, is the story within the story. The difference is that the symbolism involved is personally oriented. Mythology is an analogy. A story told in order to underline certain morals, issues, qualities, skills and abilities, meant to give knowledge and possible direction. Perhaps we humans can accept those messages more readily because they come from a bit of distance and unfold with time and new understanding.

As the music starts, the beat takes hold of her body. She engages with the music, fostering a relationship, a commitment. She closes her eyes allowing her soul to be free and slowly she relinquishes her power to the music.

Dance, dance, dance. It calls.

As she feels the music, like light travelling through her body, she begins to move. The first step always the hardest. And suddenly she feels free. An interpretation, a story told through her flowing, twisting, turning body. Travelling across the dance floor, her every action so sweet, so full of conviction and emotion. She is lost in a moment of time.

Beautiful. That moment of time, dancing like no one is watching.

She’s back in our lives! Fantastic life model and fastest thing on two wheels (bicycle that is) Elise was finally able to pose for us this week. The fifteen minute drawings below were done by myself after the break from a vantage point on the steps by the entrance, hence the foreshortening.

human form

Here is the human form of War. I’m loosely following the book’s description of her. I’m still keeping the idea that she’s beautiful and whatnot..but with some changes.

Anyway, I decided to make her look like the outdoors-type. Considering she’s depicted as a munitions dealer it isn’t that hard.
The sketch on the far left is showing her teeth before her full transformation. Granted the quality isn’t grand, but her teeth are composed of hollow-point bullets, and her laugh is that of an AK-47 rapport.

I’ll post the other ones a bit later, but not so far apart. I’m working on the full sheet for each one. It’s harder than I’m giving myself credit for.

This is an early work based on the psychology of self image and expression. Lewis and I both made this during a testing time in our lives and all that aggression and anger we have tried to slot into this project. This was one of the first videos we made. At this time I was researching the Design Industry which has always been a source of inspiration. I would like to thank (again) for their help the team at Toca Me who answered all emails I sent them.

http://www.toca-me.com

This experimental video was made in 2003/04.

Dialogue written by: William Esdale.

It all started with “ONE”
I am angry,
nothing is loathing me more than myself.
Art would be a great discipline,
but then I am not the type for psychology.

It all started with “TWO”
I am angry,
nothing is loathing me more than myself.
Art would be a great discipline,
but then I am not the type for psychology.

It all started with “THREE”
I am angry,
nothing is loathing me more than myself.
Art would be a great discipline,
but then I am not the type for psychology.