PEUR[s] DU NOIR

I can't wait to get my paws on this one:



I have to wait until February though. Boo. One of the animators is Charles Burns, who wrote Black Hole. Sex, drugs, and awesome black and white imagery.

I was looking at a hole… a black hole and as I looked, the hole opened up… and I could feel myself falling forward, tumbling down into nothingness. For a while I was just floating… I was in this totally black place. It was kind of spacey but it felt nice… nice and safe.





And of course I can't wait for this:



I hope this little ownership war between fox and warner bros ends well.

Hostess Twinkies mate for life

American Gods

I'm reading American Gods right now. It is pretty fantastical and wonderful. A battle is brewing between the ancient gods and our modern gods, full of myth and mysticism. Neil Gaiman blows my mind every time I read one of his stories. I recently finished "Fragile Things" which is a compilation of short stories, poems, and other little tidbits. It was beautiful.

He's working with Henry Selick, who did Nightmare before Christmas, on a new stop motion animation movie based on his book, Coraline. I'm super stoked on that one.


This could be useful information one day.

How the food industry is deceiving you...

WOaH!

I'm not really sure where this came from, I stumbled upon it.

A fatty, fatty conspiracy

Everything seems to be bad for you to an extent, but I really wish they'd stop pumping this stuff into all of our food.

Fructose and high fructose corn syrup are not the same thing. Sugar (sucrose) is a naturally occurring compound, equal parts glucose and fructose. High Fructose corn syrup is an unbound version of fructose and glucose with a different molecular structure. It is not natural. It is manufactured through a chemical process that breaks down natural components of sugar, and extracts and converts the remaining bits into "usable" substances. And then they turn it into a nasty viscous syrup. In natural sugar fructose is a disaccharide. In HFCS it is a monosaccharide.

Fructose is processed mostly by the liver. The liver converts a bunch of fructose into triglycerides. The fructose from HFCS is processed in a different way than that of natural sugar. In HFCS, the fructose is shunted. It skips processing that occurs in the cells of the body to extract the fructose and send it to the liver. It goes straight to the liver. And it is already not bound to glucose so it is processed quickly into fat.

Also, HFCS is about 55% Fructose, unlike natural sugar. HFCS is converted to fat in your body faster than any other sugar.
So on top of that, things that don't even need sweetened have HFCS in them, as a preservative. Food can store longer, making it cheaper. For example, white bread. It is chock full of sugar. As well as a lot of other products you wouldn't expect to find it in.



And how about this:
“Most corn is grown as a monoculture, meaning that the land is used solely for corn, not rotated among crops. This maximizes yields, but at a price: It depletes soil nutrients, requiring more pesticides and fertilizer while weakening topsoil.

“The environmental footprint of HFCS is deep and wide,” writes Pollan, a prominent critic of industrial agriculture. “Look no farther than the dead zone in the Gulf [of Mexico], an area the size of New Jersey where virtually nothing will live because it has been starved of oxygen by the fertilizer runoff coming down the Mississippi from the Corn Belt. Then there is the atrazine in the water in farm country — a nasty herbicide that, at concentrations as little as 0.1 part per billion, has been shown to turn male frogs into hermaphrodites.”

Milling and chemically altering corn to form high-fructose corn syrup also is energy-intensive. That’s not to say that corn is evil and other foods aren’t; all crops require energy to grow and transport. What makes corn a target is that federal subsidies — and tariffs on imported sugar — keep prices low, paving the way for widespread use of high-fructose corn syrup and, in the process, keeping the American palate accustomed to the sweetness it provides.

Corn is a useful crop with high yields, although it uses more fertilizers and insecticides and causes more soil erosion than other crops, according to David Pimentel, a professor in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Organic corn is not a large part of the industry, but it should be,” he says. Pimentel published a study in 2005 demonstrating that, over 22 years, growing corn organically produced the same yields as conventional growing and used 33 percent less fuel.”

When Coke switched to HFCS it gave them a 70 million dollar advantage over Pepsi (30 years ago or something) Diabetes is a scary thing. My Gpa has 1 1/2 feet because of diabetes. Or more so because of his trouble coping with diabetes, but still. I want 2 whole feet.
“HFCS, a liquid sweetener commonly used in soft drinks that contains both fructose and glucose, has been accused of causing diabetes, particularly in children, and a recent study further supported this theory.

The study investigated 11 different soft drinks and found “astonishingly high” levels of reactive carbonyls, which are thought to cause cell and tissue damage.

Reactive carbonyls are associated with diabetes, as they’re found in higher levels in the bloodstreams of people with the disease. Reactive carbonyls are linked with the unbound structure of fructose and glucose molecules in HFCS, and are not found in table sugar.”
Fructose also inhibits satiation (that nice full feeling you get after a good meal). That makes us eat more. If your diet lacks important nutrients (which it will if you eat a shit ton of processed foods) you will keep getting cravings until you give your body what its lacking.

[…] President Bush signed a bill requiring taxpayers to pay farmers $4 billion a year, over a ten-year period, to grow more corn. More corn when the U.S. is desperately trying to find ways to get rid of the current surplus corn produced here. More corn when farmers are currently selling it for over a dollar less per bushel than it cost them to produce it. A $190 billion bill to grow more corn when planting less corn would increase the price farmers receive for it, and eliminate the extreme surplus. If farmers don’t benefit from this bill, then who does? The Archer Daniels Midlands, Tysons and Coca-Colas of the world. “ - Mercola.com (”Why Corn Is Not Your Best Food Choice“)

This one is long so just play it in the background while you do something else.

Will you be my friend?

I'll let you hold my teddy bear.

Watch this!

La Jette. This was Terry Gilliams inspiration for 12 monkeys:



Also this:La Cite des Enfants Perdus



I can't believe I went through this much of my life before I saw this movie. It had everything; evil conjoined twins, a sinister cult, and lots of hurdy gurdy.

Merry Christmas!

Not that I love the holidays or anything.

I heart Murakami.

I read Norwegian Wood recently, and now I'm reading Kafka on the Shore. Both of these have taken my mind on a very strange trip. They are novels by Haruki Murakami.

"Haruki Murakami is quite possibly the most successful and influential cult author in the world today. The 59-year-old sells millions of books in Japan. His fifth novel, Norwegian Wood, sold more than 3.5m copies in its first year and his work has been translated into 40 languages, in which he sells almost as well. Last year’s novella, After Dark, shifted more than 100,000 copies in English in its first three months. His books are like Japanese food — a mix of the delicate, the deliberately bland and the curiously exotic. Dreams, memory and reality swap places, all leavened with dry humour. His translator, Professor Jay Rubin, says reading Murakami changes your brain. His world-view has inspired Sofia Coppola, the author David Mitchell and American bands such as the Flaming Lips. He is a recipient of the Franz Kafka prize, has honorary degrees from Princeton and Liège, and is tipped for the Nobel prize for literature." -Stephen Armstrong from Times Online




His writing has this weird affect on me, like it starts to change the way my mind works when I'm in the middle of his novels. I guess I'm not the only one. I've read a lot of books, and his are just so magical compared to others. He takes you into his world, and its like he's aware that he can do that. He realizes as he's telling you this story that he is drawing you in and he talks to you. I think he is my new second favorite author. I still like Tom Robbins more. Maybe after I've read 10 Murakami books I'll like him more though. We'll see because I plan on reading everything he's ever written. Anything about dreams fascinates me completely. I might be egocentric in thinking this, but I feel like my dreams are more intense than the average person. They have an intense effect on my psyche. The characters in Murakami's writing are so rich, and a lot of them have very surreal, dream-like experiences.

A fairy tale from me to you (illustrated)

"You must understand, ma petite bichette," her mother was wailing. "We cannot make ends meet."

As she was being shoved into the wagon, Adele looked up and read "Cirque Spectaculaire" lining the door in weathered red paint. Tears began streaming down her face, blurring her vision. Her mother's parting gift, a necklace her father had given her, glinted at her neck. The man who had bought her eyed it. He had a stern face, and Adele was afraid of him.

"Franconi," she heard her mother calling from a distance. "She is a strange girl. Take care of her. Please..."

They traveled for much of the day before they reached the grand circus tent. Franconi put her to work immediately.

"This is not fun and games. You perform in three days. Cecile ran off with that flying trapeze son of a bitch, so you're the new act. You will be a tight rope walker."

A rush of fear ran through Adele's body. She spent the next six hours attempting the tight rope. Hard as she tried, she could not make it more than a few steps before falling. Each time she fell the ringmaster would lash her with his whip, like an animal. At midnight he left her, crying by the tightrope.

"What am I to do? I am no performer. C'est impossible."



"Bon Jour, mon cherie!" Adele looked around and saw no one. She had thought she was alone. Just then, a shabby clown midget stumbled from the shadows. He was clutching a bottle in his hand. "Why are you crying, mon cherie?" he asked kindly.

"Franconi," she grumbled. "I must learn the tight rope, but I keep falling and he whips me for punishment."

"I think I can help you," offered the little clown. He pulled a ratty pair of slippers from his overcoat. "If you wear these you will be able to cross without falling." Adele reached eagerly for the shoes. "eh eh eh..." said the clown wagging his finger at her. "You must do something for me." "Oh, anything!" She exclaimed. "I need those shoes."

"The head clown has a bottle of gold liquor. Steal it for me and I will give you the shoes." And with that the clown was gone.

Adele introduced herself to the head clown and flirted with him a bit. He offered her a drink, and she engaged him in a long conversation. Each time he made her one she pretended to drink it, but poured it into a jar at her side. By the end of the night she had filled it with the gold liquor.

The next day she performed flawlessly on the tight rope for Franconi. She noticed him eyeing her slippers. "I am quite pleased with your performance. Today I have a new trick for you." He wet the rope from a bottle and dropped a match on it. The entire rope was on fire. "But..." protested Adele.

"But NOTHING," roared Franconi. "You perform in two days!" With that he walked away.

Again, Adele sat weeping. "Ah, mon cherie." The little clown was back. He took a swig from his near empty jar. "What seems to be the problem now?"

"He lit the rope on fire! First he demands I learn to tight rope walk, now I have to do it on fire. I keep burning myself. C'est impossible," sobbed Adele.

"No, no. Nothing is impossible," slurred the clown. "I have something for you." He held out a beautiful silk cape. "What do I have to do this time?" Adele asked skeptically.

"Oh don't worry. I just need you to fix my makeup. I fell asleep and I was underneath some costumes and my makeup rubbed off."

The next day with the cape Adele performed the fire tight rope effortlessly. "Excellent," exclaimed Franconi. "You're a natural...so it shouldn't be hard for you to walk while you juggle these," he said brandishing three daggers. "Uh, no...I'll be fine," Adele said uselessly . She waited, anticipating the little clown's arrival. At two she began to worry, and searched the town for him. He was passed out in the gutter outside of a bar.

"Mon..." stuttered the clown. "Mon che..." " Adele," she offered.

"Nice to meet you," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, silly. You know me. I need your help." "Help?" The clown asked belligerently. "Yeah, help. That's all. Want me to do more tricks for you, huh? Well..."

"Oh please!" begged Adele. "The show is tomorrow night! This is the last time."

"I don--well...what's he asking you for this time?" asked the clown. She showed him the daggers.

"Ok lets see," he said as he rummaged around in his coat. "Here we are!" He was holding up a dirty looking clown nose.

"That?" asked Adele in disbelief.

"Well do you want it or not?" The clown sounded impatient.

"Ok, ok," she said reaching for it.

"Eh eh eh!" he shouted suddenly. "There is a gypsy camp 9 miles from here where they make magical fiddles. You must bring me one."

Adele wandered all night to find the gypsy camp. The gypsy's tried to kill her at first, thinking she was an intruder. The only thing she had to offer them was her mother's necklace. It was all she had left of her family, but she got the fiddle and that was what was important now. The clown's face lit up when he saw the fiddle.



Once he gave her the clown nose Adele clamored up to the rope, excited to attempt the new trick. The clown began to play and sing:


"Mon cherie, woe is me, how foolish you can be.' You crossed the rope with no help from the shoes, I could hardly believe you bought my ruse That cape is beautiful but holds no magic, The extend of your naivety is tragic That nose is only decoration this deserves a celebration!"

The little clown took a long swig from his bottle.


"Mon cherie, woe is me, how foolish you can be. You did those tricks with no help but your own and thus great talent have you shown It seems it was in you all along, I hope you liked my little song..."


As he sang, Adele stopped juggling and stood stunned in the middle of the rope. Could it be true? She plucked off the nose, and threw it along with the cape and shoes to the ground. Then she began to juggle. The little clowns fiddle playing began to fade as he stumbled out of the tent towards the bar.

"Mon cherie, woe is me..."

Mindscape

Awesome new documentary: The Mindscape of Alan Moore, about his development as an artist and becoming a "magician."



If you don't like Alan Moore I don't want to be your friend. While your at it make sure you have read From Hell, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, and Lost Girls.

Consumed...

Photoshop + Animal Insides = SO MUCH FUN!

fyi

The definition of natural flavor under the Code of Federal Regulations is: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional”

Natural Flavor sounds vegetarian friendly, but based on that definition it may, or may not be. What the hell.

Speak to Us of Freedom

"At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,
Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a car nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life, and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

[From 'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran]

So awesome!

Someone made photoshop REAL.

I don't care what you think...

I still like NIN. I went to the show in Charlottesville tonight and it was pretty pretty mind-blowing. Maybe it's because I've loved NIN since middle school and hadn't gone to a concert until now. There was a huge amount of energy and an insane light show. The variety was really great, high energy stuff mixed with soothing beautiful stuff, old mixed with new. I had an amazing time. If you ever get the chance to see a NIN show I suggest you go.

This bicycle is made of skin!

Festivities

Whew. What a fun weekend! I saw Man Man at the national on Thursday Here is a video of one of their songs:

Friday night was halloween. All the Saints put on their third annual Halloween parade. It was 'The Funeral March of Our Founding Fathers' with huge, multi-person puppets. A ton of people came out. People on bikes were blocking off the streets ahead of the parade, and Lily managed to dodge the cops and make the whole thing happen. I can't believe they would try to stop such an amazing parade. No BS played at the front and Special Ed and the Shortbus played at the back. After the parade I went to a costume party/show at Gallery 5. There was a Tom Petty cover band, and Prabir and the Substitutes played, as well. Good times. I'll probably be missing Richmond next Halloween. Oh and I need to find some pictures of my halloween costume. I was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. There was a costume contest, and Condoleeza Rice and Beans won! Gotta find a picture of that one too.

Wacky

What is with all these inanimate object-love related stop motion animations?



Also, how weird is this? This is a photo of frozen broccoli packaging.





























IT'S PEOPLE!!!

Well...

This is how my day was, how was yours?

Huge Chunks of Whale Blubber Falling Everywhere

I stumbled across this today and thought it was pretty wonderful. What do you do when you have a dead whale on your hands? The same thing we seem to do with all of our problems. Blow them up.

Oh, and here is the actual news video.

In which I ponder a few things but fail to get stuck in a tight spot.

I have this friend that I don't see much anymore. We ran into each other about a year ago and at some point in our conversation we realized we were both at that time reading 'A Confederacy of Dunces.' About a month ago, I ran into that same friend, and we realized we were both reading 'The Master and Margarita.' We don't talk much, so it was pretty coincidental. Obviously, we are attracted to the same things. It just struck me as odd.
I picked up 'A Confederacy of Dunces' purely by chance, browsing in a used book store. The cover intrigued me. As for 'The Master and Margarita' I was at Wickerman in PA, sitting on a covered wagon, watching fire spinners and listening to crazy techno in the middle of the woods, having a conversations about books with a new friend and he told me I must absolutely read this book. So the friend who keeps reading the same books as me, obviously our circumstances for finding them are different, but we keep stumbling across the same things.
So I watched 'Zeitgeist' the other night, which by the way is a german word which is pretty fantastic meaning the spirit of the times, which talks about a sort of collective consciousness... or is it subconscious?...and there are clips in 'Zeitgeist' from this movie 'Network' of which I had never heard or seen, but based on the clips I thought it sounded fantastic. What do you know, tonight a friend called and said "Hey...wanna watch this movie with me? It's called Network." So of course I watched it and it was pretty amazing.
Here is a little clip. Maybe you've seen it?

You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.

Who loves Halloween?

I do!


I've been getting into the holiday spirit by making some masks.
So...what else can I do to procrastinate from my school work besides booze it up on the town? You guessed it:














Make a puppet!















And then kill it!

Zeitgeist Addendum

This is very long but worth watching. If you haven't already seen 'Zeitgeist' start with that. This is a part 2.

Tee Hee Hee

The stuff of dreams...

The Sandman. A Stop Motion Animated Short Film By Paul Berry.
The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1991. Paul died tragically in 2001 of a tumor. He also worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Models and sets by Ian Mackinnon who set up Mackinnon and Saunders in Manchester, UK. They went on to create the models for Corpse Bride.

Paul Berry "The Sandman"
by vibliographer

And this:








I used to have a link to the 1979 version with a soundtrack I liked better...It came in the night by A raincoat.
Here is that song:





RW: Rabbit's Moon is a very directly emotional film.

KA: It's what I call a nocturne, a dream about me. It's about unrequited love and the moon is a symbol, as it has been in romantic literature, of the unattainable. The moon has always been something that's longed for. I use the figures of Commedia: Pierrot, the lost clown; Columbine, the flirt; and Harlequin, who's the devil, the trickster.

RW: Your harlequin is very spiteful.

KA: So he is. The world, to Harlequin, is a comedy. To him, it's uproarious to trick - to trip people up. Harlequin is Lucifer. To look at it from Harlequin's standpoint - which may be the devil's point of view - he's having a good time. In other words, Harlequin has no complexes; his approach to the world is very direct. You can call him cruel, but he is also a survivor and Pierrot the sad sack is not.

But Wait... There's more!

While we're on Jan:
How's bout a little meat love?

And while we're on the topic of love between inanimate objects:

I could eat Jan for every meal of the day!

Also, check out his fantastic film: Lunacy!

Some illustrations...

For this I was asked to illustration several "performances" from top left to bottom right: contain/support, communication, transportation, maintenance, recreation, and protection.


















And this is a portrait I did of Tom Waits because I love him.

eye heart magritte

Rene Magritte is one of my favorite artists. His painting, The False Mirror, was my inspiration for this piece.
René Magritte described his paintings by saying,
"My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, "What does that mean?". It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."

Attack of the Cabbage Creatures

Some of my art...

In 2005 I had an assignment to create an installation piece within two blocks of our Art Foundation building. I gathered a bunch of sticks and leaves, created an anatomically correct skeleton, and buried it in a creepy alley. Two ladies were driving by when I buried it. They stopped the car and started screaming at me. Then they got out of the car all freaking out, saying they thought I was burying a real body. I held my hands above my head and said, "It's ok, I'm an art student!"














This one was done in February of 2008. It's an illustration of a dream I had. In the dream I was taking a shower. At first, I didn't realize it was a dream. I was kinda zoned out watching the water stream off of me. I could feel the heat of the water. Everything seemed very real. But then my stomach started to hurt really bad and I doubled over in pain. A snake began to come out of my bell button, and then went down my leg and into the drain. At the moment the snake's tail left my belly button blood started gushing out and I got dizzy and passed out. When I woke up I was actually in the shower.




This is an Egon Shiele style self portrait. Not much else to say about that. I think it was from 2006.















The assignment for this was to illustration "One is not half of two, two is half of one." Being the geek I am, I thought DNA!














This one is also about a dream. I had an itching feeling and I kept scratching, but couldn't satisfy it. Eventually I ended up ripping open my chest and my heart started to strangle me. Self set-up.













For this I had to take a photo illustrating "It was the best of times, It was the worst of times."

My Logo



Also super old, a photocollage/painting type deal.

perspective changes everything

I can be endlessly inspired by David Hockney. The idea for this piece happened after I saw "The Scrabble Game."





Hockney considers a photograph is ’still to the point of being frozen, that a photograph excludes more than it revels’, and a photograph is constructed in ways which are contrary to natural vision and traditional art. Using multiple pictures he adds a sense of timing, movement, perspective and composition that is not possible to express so completely using a single image. For example in a person we may see different aspects of personality.

Mandala

This is my personal mandala. It is from early 2005.

Mandala: circle, community, connection

consciousness of seeing
consciousness of hearing
consciousness of tasting
consciousness of smelling
consciousness of the body
consciousness of thinking
consciousness of the I
basic consciousness

(come from the four outer circles of the mandala [8 tombs])

Diamond: symbol of nature of the mind, clear but shows all colors
lotus: roots in the mud, blossoms toward light
Bell: emptiness, boundless openness, gives room for wisdom

mandalas radiate outward and inward--flower, snail shells, atoms, sliced fruit
[a cell is greater than the sum of its parts]

microcosm: community or unity that is an epitome of a larger unity
macrocosm: a complex that is a large scale reproduction of one of its constituents
- a mandala is the microcosm and the macrocosm; actual moment in time
-synthesis of distinctive elements in a unified scheme representing the basic nature of existence (for personal growth)

Spiral: perpetual motion of life, spring like coils, latent power, presenting a picture of life as an endless evolutionary process bound with cycles of time, each loop brings us back to the same place, but takes us to a higher, more evolved level

White: Delusion of ignorance becomes wisdom of reality
Yellow: Delusion of pride becomes wisdom of sameness
Red: delusion of attachment becomes wisdom of discernment
Blue: delusion of anger becomes wisdom of mirror-like wisdom

The center of the mandala is the essence (is the heart)
all of our experiences can be enlightening; world is interdependent, seeing the everyday world through the joy of realization

Center: copulating couple
- union of form and emptiness that underlies all of reality
-fusion of compassion and wisdom in the awakened mind
-ordinary bliss of the orgasm
(extolled as a widow to underlying/fundamental mind of pure being)
[in the moment of orgasm we drop our baggage and move away from the dominance of conceptual thought--sexual bliss as a vehicle for opening the mind]

let disturbances come and go, more grist for the mill
"Falling in love is a mystical time of ego dissolution" -Freud

Our culture with its aggressive promulgation of sexuality has difficulty cultivating the more subtle but powerful energy of passionate intimacy

hook, lasso, chain, bell: summoning, tying, binding, intoxicating
passion is a vehicle for containing the incendiary mix of anger and desire

complete attunement has a suffocating effect/attraction based in otherness and difference as much as it depends on recurrent harmony or satisfaction

"It is only when two people forget themselves in each others presence that they can recognize each other"
Wisdom emerges in the space around words as much as the wisdom itself
a mind that is already full can not take in anything new, full of opinions and preconceptions, in order to find happiness empty yourself, happiness comes from letting go

according the to Dalai Lama seeking happiness is the purpose of life

We are looking for a way to feel more real, to feel more real we have to push ourselves further into the unkown

The inner place where the golden spiral ends is sometimes called the eye of god
1.0 to 1.61803... is called the DIVINE proportion, PHI
lotus petals would be arranged at 0.618034 petals per turn--best possible exposure for the flower
emptiness is an understandig of ones true nature, an intuition of the absence of inherent identity
Nature vs Nurture

I don't think your life is meaningless...

"I don't think your life is meaningless."

"You don't?"

"No."


"But...listen, you've just been saying life is meaningless so how can..?"

"I changed my mind."

"But...Why?"

"Thermodynamic miracles...events with odds against so astronomically they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing."

"And yet in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeeting; siring this precise son, that exact daughter..."

"...until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children copeting for fertilization, it was you, only you that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold...that is the crowning unlikelihood. The Thermodynamic miracle."

"But...if me, my birth, if thats a thermodynamic miracle...I mean, you could say that about anybody in the world!"

"Yes. Anybody in the world."

"...But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget...I forget."

"We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away."

"Come...dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."

"Dry your eyes...and let's go home."

(From Watchmen: Alan Moore)

Scapula!

AAAAAHHHH!!!!

Today I Know What I Want to Do but I Don't Know What For

This is a painting that I did as my interpretation of "The Aeon."

My whole weekend has been spent staring at cat bones. bhwew!

In the beginning...

LEMUR!
Urrrm. Blog. So I always thought blogs were things only really geeky people did. I guess either they have become more mainstream, or I have become a geek. We'll see.