Or-Gone Energy

I met alot of shanti shanti people on my journey into the woods by founding a student-recognized meditational organization called Zen Living. Having chanted at the moon on the roof of buildings with Hindu priests and meditated with Buddhist Sangha's, when I received a call from a man whom ran a Zen Group in the sister city of Eau Claire whom told me about a workshop at their spiritual headquarters in the golden temple of Chanhassen, I immediatley jumped on the opportunity and invited a crew to the event.

I had decided to look into exactly what I was getting myself into. Upon researching Eckankar I found out that they were a straight up cult. The people had some Buddhist/Hindu beliefs but mixed up the ideas a bit, getting to attached to the results of karma and such. The cult had many other strange beliefs and rituals involving drinking liquids and going on spiritual journeys, as well as a power hungry mahatma (leader) who designed their scripture to give him more power. Power truly becomes corruptable when the leader begins to hoard the power to "hold his position" rather than giving it back to the people, which would really generate more power.

Coincidently a friend of mine whom I am giving Yoga lessons in exchange for Kung fu (wing-Chun) had come over to my house and told me he had spent the entire prior day building an "Or-Gone Generator" The Or-Gone transmitters work by plastering a fiberglass resin around a crystal and metal coils. The hardened resin squeezes the crystal which releases an energy pulse that is conducted into the metal and released. The energy produced helps plants grow, increases libido and prevents mind control. Suddenly it clicked with me that I had a perfect use for the generators.

Rolling with a crew and a bag full of generators we went down to the temple and "gifted" the community. The people expressed positive thoughts in a very hollow and meek manner. The people seemed tricked into following beliefs that were fabricated by a power thirsty being. I can't be positive to as whether the plants or sexual energy of the place will be increasing, but if I free'd just one mind, the journey was well worth the trouble.

Orgone Energy Generators $5.00 + shipping

The Printing Pony Express

I find serigraphy to be an incredibly American form of art, quick, easy, profitable and with high production results. All the same I found the medium to be very expressive, pliable and plastic in nature. I very rapidly learned the art of screen-printing through classwork and after my initial Zen Living Tea-Shirt sales had lined me up a few more printing gigs, I saw the opportunity against all odds and took a shot at starting a business in this economy. An optimist sees opportunity in every danger whereas the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity. I took every job I could and made myself visible to every organization and business on campus.

I actually designed the Printing Pony Express's card as a self portrait for my serigraphy class. The image was designed using a Japanese woodblock print composition and the "Ukiyo-e" stylization of flattened space. I chose to portray the pony express, the name taken from the little engine that could, denoting to the manifestation of the machine of mankind as well as the walls we build all bearing down upon a lone soul of a samurai on a pony. I've also taken up quite an interest in Samurai as well as the Bushido code. The Bushido code burns with mad death, when one has a choice between life and death, one must always choose death, this must be understood to understand the bushido. Here I pictured the fearless samurai racing towards the train pulling back his sword in a moment of climax, an ode to Bernini's sculpture of david pulling back his sling shot.

Domino

My friend and colleague Jake Olson was having trouble in finding the relevance of art and had found only pure abstract expressionism to possibly be able capture the human condition. Jake's inquisitive nature rubbed off on me and while painting the butterflies of "Domino", I could not find the relevance of my efforts to the greater picture. "Domino" was a study on chaos theory or "the butterfly effect" which I believe to be relevant to everybody, as it takes everybody to turn a butterflies wings into hurricanes. I find chaos theory particularly relevant to my life as for somewhat chaotic reasons I am being kicked out of Stout and catapulted across the globe to the monasteries of Japan to study Zen Painting. This project was particularly fun, as to capture the chaos I was attempting expressionistic splatter art and spray effect in my prior sketchs vegetation to help in capturing the chaotic nature of the earth. After many trials I found that I could capture chaos with just the Butterflies. I found this solution to really contain a lot of movement and capture the essence of each butterfly effecting the wind space of the neighboring insect. After finishing the painting I burned the image onto my silk screen and printed several copies. I found this to be a very good discovery as I will be turning my future Zen Paintings into Tea-Shirts. I then took ink and dragged stripes across the piece creating the American flag. The end resulted in bringing eastern art around the globe through the very americanized proccess of screen printing. Looking at the finished pieces was having relevance slap me in the face. The lesson I took was that you can live life like nothing (is relevant) matters or like everything (is relevant) matters.

Yoga Immersion

  

        
MandAllah Mat- A mandala is a meditative art designed to have the creator and viewer achieve mental clairvoyance. The geometric pattern found in the circle resembles the cosmos, a map linking microcosmic spiritual growth to that of macrocosmic cosmic truths. At the center of this Mandala, a figure sits in the Lotus with a glow in the dark chakra totem pole resting in front of him. Each animal on the totem pole resembles a different energy center or chakra as explained below. These Chakras are believed to be the source of all our energy and are a doorway into perceiving human  realities such as what drives us as well as what hinders us. This luminous energy body which acts as a template for how we live and die can be cultivated and sustained through yogic concentration. “The rising serpent” is an image often associated with the opening of the nadis channels which allows the flow of prana to circulate through spinal resonators .

The Mulhadara cakra is found at the base of the spine and is resembled as a snake. This is the root support,  often associated with stability, trust, safety and the earth. This cakra expels energetic waste from the the energy  body as well as works as a gateway for the energy of  mother earth. When out of balance we feel motherless, masculine and search for security in material things. The drives are primal, instinctual need to survive and to find food, shelter and a mate. Operating in the Mulhadara one is absorbed in the senses and engaged primarily in the  physical realm.


The Swadisthana Cakra is three inches below the navel and resembled as an alligator. This cakra otherwise known as her favorite standing place is associated with creativity, sensuality and water. This cakra metabolizes energy nutrients  from the earth and expels from the nervous system although can be known to carry rejection residue which leads to anger, fear, a need to control others , codependency or even dependent isolation. The drives are lustful, erotic, fantastical, high adrenaline and romantic, although this cakra has a knack for turning romance into intimacy and sex into love.


The Manipura Cakra located at the solar plexus and resembled by a Ram. This cakra otherwise known as the jeweled city is the home of the ego as well as the digestive fire that woks as the fuel for dreams and can be used to manifest aspirations or if imbalanced  can destroy our primary nature lead to a superior/inferior complex. This cakra can replenish reserves of energy or burn out. Awaken this cakra for fearless resolve and witness obstacles crumble but douse the flames before consumed and be heated by the coals of confidence.


The Anahata Cakra is the heart cakra resembled by an antelope. This cakra is often associated with compassion, forgiveness,  unconditional love for all sentient beings,  and air. Love not in the sense of something to "fall in", object related or sentimental but a true love for creation. This love is not means to let go of previous pain or those who have hurt us  but an end all in its self. Balance in the heart cakra allows for  commitment and integrates masculine and femenine energies and thus no longer seek love outside of ourselves.


The Vishuddha Cakra located at the base of the throat and resembled as an elephant. This cakra is often associated with purity, communication, truth, and ether. This cakra acts as the psychic center where we can envision a freedom of infinite possibilities and act on this recognized field of endeavor to reach mastery of a do (or way). This cakra is the voice to the heart and from the heart that asks what is your truth? and gives you the courage to live it.  Imbalance can lead to intoxication of knowledge and valuing right over right understanding.


The Ajna Cakra is located at the third eye and resembled as an om. This cakra is the telepathic command center  linked to the divine within. Cultivated, this cakra brings humility and allows the practitioner to know their true self at all times.


The Sahasrara Cakra is located at the crown of the head and resembles the subtlest of subtle, the cosmic consciousness. This cakra acts as a portal to the heavens as the first is to the earth. This cakra transcends time in linear, or causal relations by releasing grips to "a past" No longer are we subject to the imprints on the cakra body, once today is no longer a result of an earlier incident but a completely new moment. Malfunctions here can cause spiritual regression masqueraded as enlightenment but when correctly operating allows for connection of collective consciousness.

Seize the Screen

Take hold of life! Own up to your death, make every day count, live each moment in its entirety for eternity. This is the message I want people to read upon seeing Carpe-. The writer pictured is spraying Diem but has only gotten as far to write Die. This creates a play on the term to seize the day, to seize death. The red outline of the figure is intended to imply that the artist is also sprayed in, a creation of himself, existing beyond the mortal body.


This abstract landscape was built out of a series of pictures taken on a journey through Menomonie Wisconsin's natural phenomenon, Trip Falls, located in paradise valley. Right at the beginning of the spring the water begins to rush and freeze and create absolutely breath taking formations. Capturing the general flow of things on my journey through the falls I felt compelled to capture the essence of water through frozen movement. I feel I accomplished this by building the land masses and water to create the illusion of movement through space. This process gave me the idea to call the piece Trip Walls.



Prints 22.5X42cm -$30

All Work and No Play makes Jack a Dull Boy

Upon meeting the psychology club's President Courtney, she was curious to what Qi-Gong was. I very conveniently had a picture of Zen Livings Tea-shirts on me and showing the shirt to her, I told her this was an exercise called holding the wheel. With talk of T-shirts, the psychology club had told me of their plan to print some t-shirts with the quote "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, Than a frontal Lobotomy." Immediately Jack Nicholson of Once flew over the Cuckoo's Nest popped into my mind. I was very conveniently prescribed a bottle of Vicodan's several days later. With a bottle in front me, I took the Ken Kesey Joker approach to the piece.

Tea Shirts - $8  (all profits go towards bringing healing instructors to Menomonie)

Finito

Life Drawing has been a very beneficial class for me. Learning new ways to approach the human form and drawing in general has dramatically affected my process and in turn product. Art school is more about learning processes than product. Everything is a process, especially a work of art. Learning new ways of working as well as seeing helps depict the three dimensionality of form. Seeing internal structures and planes rather than value helps set up a good foundation that can alter ways of building mass on flat surface. An artistic block can be overcome by looking at the process through a different vantage point. These alternative approaches to creating form create new platforms to manipulate space and conceptually develop the figure.

Life drawing has also taught me the importance of line quality. A simple line can hold a lot of information about weight, spatial configuration and planar changes. A few lines together can describe a lot about space, light, form, muscle tension and even motion. A picture of lines is also much more maneuverable than a picture built out of value. A few internal lines can be far more descriptive than an outline or shadow shapes.

Drawing and Yoga are two of my greatest passions, the combination of the two is just utterly delightful. I found the yoga to be very beneficial to life drawing through mirror neurons and muscle memory. I often felt my muscles while building or drawing them. This gave me an intuitive spatial memory of the form being depicted. Actually feeling the muscles through memory helped me develop a sense of tension in the figure and where to stress line quality. Building the muscles also helped me in understanding internal structures, I do wish I could of drawn the maniken from a few more angles.