Artist Statement

Had to write an artist statement for a project I'm working on at OSU. After I wrote it, I realized that I kind of like it. Anyway, here it is:

As an artist, I want to communicate to people all of the freedoms which they already posses. I wish to use my art to help other people discover things about themselves, and to help them initiate self growth and self creation. The material world is full of distractions and self-manifested restrictions. I want to convince people that they do not need to live in fear, letting imaginary rules and imaginary boundaries rule their lives.

I want to share the joy that I have experienced in my own self-liberation, because all of this is what creating both art and music does for me. It is a channel of expression, a communication between others and myself, and between myself and myself. It is also one of the most important elements of my relationship with my wife, and this is why we work together as a single, powerful entity on all of our personal projects. It is a way of life for us, and concerns about our future are only that we will always be continuing to better ourselves, our communication with ourselves, with each other, with other people, our connection to everything; the entire universe.

Lastly, I completely believe in the revolution (call it underground, indie, whatever) that is happening all around us in which the people are rejecting the commercial crap that we are being force-fed, and starting to create our own world to live in. No institution, no corporation, no industry, no structure should be stealing away the waking lives of living, breathing people. Artists do not need to be a special group of 'gifted' or 'talented' people who have been filtered by some established and trusted system. We are all the artists, and I'm going to TELL EVERYONE.

School, Music, etc

We're learning quite a bit from our classes this quarter, and being pretty productive with all of it already. It's so nice to have some art/tech courses instead of just fine arts. I think we got ALOT out of all the fine art stuff last quarter, but we definitely have more of a connection with all the possibilities technology has to offer.

We've been fine tuning some new music, wanting to play some shows around. A few local bands have been offering to let us open for them at some of their shows, so we are trying to prepare for that. Still haven't done any recording but we are both okay with that, as we are making so much progress with the songwriting and practices.

Anyhow, I have more work to do, so back to it.

New Year

Yeaaah

This is going to be a very auspicious year...
I'm ecstatic!

(dancing)

holidays

this year, amber and i went on a walk on the night of winter solstice. it was unseasonably warm that night but very windy, and there were parties going on around the village. we walked by one house that had a giant peace sign formed from xmas lights and little paper bags with tea lights lining the porch steps and walkway. as we cut down the narrow brick alleyway, we saw a fenced in yard out back complete with party noises that included: laughing, guitar playing, drumming, chatting, howling, etc. this put us in the mindset even further so after completing our walk, we returned home with some wine and had our own little shindig with music and discussions about the light beginning to defeat the darkness. anyways it was really nice.

christmas, seeming not so exciting as it approached, actually turned out to be really nice this year. there were no bad energies and no drama from either of our families. we (and amber's mom too) did kind of get 'busted' by amber's younger sister, but nothing conclusive enough to accuse- i'm sure she'll figure us out some day, but she'll have to get over it. other than that, everyone was really fun to hang out with. even my sister and her husband were pretty jolly.

amber and i, upon buying gifts for everyone else could not afford to get each other anything, so we decided to move our gift exchanging back a week to new years eve, which i think we both agree is better in some ways anyways. i think we both agree that new years has a lot of magical and symbolic properties about it that are very important to us. not sure what we are doing as of yet for new years eve. cowboy hillbilly hippie folk band is playing at vics or ekoostik hookah is playing at the newport. not sure if i have to work new years day or not.

i sort of wanted to be free from this corporate bullshit job by the end of this year, i guess it's too bad i don't have something better lined up to start in january because i could just leave my current job and have new years off completely. i'm gonna have to change jobs anyways: serving tables in jan, feb, and march at this place is pretty worthless. i am getting some portfolios together- going to apply to shoot for the lantern, and try to find some design work around town.

school is starting on the 3rd and even though i know we wish we had a longer break, we are both pretty excited about this quarter. last quarter was like a fine-art-foundation-boot camp or something, but this one will be all art-tech and we will be doing some pretty cool stuff :)

we're also both really excited about this new year coming up. we feel a lot of good things coming, and we are really happy with our personal and spiritual progress for this year. we both feel wiser and we've done so much growing. we are both more ourselves now than ever. also: all the work that we have been putting in to our art and music (and all the struggle we've faced as a result of it) is finally starting to show results, so with a sigh of relief, we know that we've been doing the right thing for us all along and it will all work out for us.

all for now :)

.....

....
the barricaded
speak fortress, sanctuary
while forces battle
....

Free!

ha! on break from school!
oh! the things we will do!

2 1/3 more days of school

wednesday, friday, small part of monday!
we are greatly looking forward to taking a much needed break!


whew!

maybe this ohio winter won't be so bad

went to an old friends house last night downtown and we watched the concert for george. also we listened to george harrison's second studio album- living in the material world- on vinyl. our friend has a pretty extensive record collection. anyways it was cool to hang with someone who isn't preachy or weepy or completely self-absorbed (it's kind of been a while). also ran into someone i used to work with who used to be a firefighter, now a journalist, and traveling. he seems pretty happy and its pretty cool to see some personal evolution taking place there.

we're doing better with school projects not kicking our ass. we seem to be through the worst. did a new tarot card reading recently that also seems to agree with this. still no money, but we have food and house, so who cares?
today is a good day. beautiful colors in the leaves and warm sun beams all about.

peace to all.

goin on...

just goin on...

fighting back

the past couple of days have been interesting for me. things are kind of coming to a boiling point, and people are moving into positions to try and break us with their imaginary weapons. sunday, i started fighting back. two days in a row i have had to be backed into a corner where i had no choice but to defend myself, and i've had flex my metaphysical muscles a little. why do people think that because we are young, that this means we are ignorant or inexperienced or what have you... ? everyone mistakes my silence for ignorance, but i am being humble. i listen to people tell me how to be an artist, how to make money, how to be spiritual, how to do this and that,.. all from people who can't get it together themselves. they are talking for their own sake, not mine. and i'm listening for their sake. you can tell that the thought never occurs to them that i might actually have something to say at all, let alone something that is more meaningful than their petty shit. anyone who needs to boost their own ego or maybe reassure themselves of something need not use me right now. i'm running out of much normally ample patience, and i'm tired of being used.

i've figured something out, though. people are bitter toward us because they cannot work out in their head how we get away with living outside of society's rules. they think we don't suffer any consequences for our choices, but they are wrong. the consequences are actually created by the bitter bystanders themselves. they have been treated unfairly for breaking out of societies boundaries, so when they see someone else do it, they say 'well if i couldn't do it you can't either'. what they do not understand is that we do not live in fear of consequence as they do, and therefore we do not let imaginary rules and imaginary boundaries rule our lives. sure, we take crap for our lifestyles, and sometimes things get hard, but this is nothing compared with the benefits that we receive: benefits which are infinite, transcending time, space, matter, rules, observations, etc etc etc. we have been given so many wonderful gifts that are infinitely more powerful than any rule, any fear or anger, any insecurity, and certainly any asshole with some false material-given sense of power.

these people and their rules have no real power over us. we are ALL as free as we believe we are.

thank you to wayne coyne (and the w.a.n.d) for teaching me this. i aspire to spread such beautiful messages of hope and love.

feeling weary

mean people suck
glad i'm not one of them

experiment in time travel #2

thursday night well after midnight, we had been working on school work since the minute we got up in the morning, and we still had not even started another project that was due the next day. amber was recovering from a cold, i was falling ill with one, we were tired and essentially ran out of food in the house. upset and discouraged (starting to freak out), we decided to go hang out with some friends in the back yard for a bit to clear our minds. after spending a wonderful hour outside, it was now even later and we decided to make coffee and get back to work. after coming inside, we completed about 8 hours worth of work in roughly ten minutes. we were still up late enough to only get about 3 or 4 hours of sleep, but the next day we both were recovered from our colds (i never even fully got one) and all the anxiety we felt about school had been lifted. we had a great day :) we're lucky that amber is a genius and has mystical powers. this is our second time travel, the first being at a may day festival in west virginia. yes, one can transcend time and space if the mindset is right.

more projects

have about 20 hours worth of work to do in the next 36 hours. worn down. ambers sick and i'm getting there.

90 degrees, 70 degrees, 40 degrees; ohio

so after a long spell of 93 degree days, we are instantly zapped down to the 40s and 50s. this seems to have made everyone either tired or sick. luckily, amber and i are just tired. classes are rolling along much smoother now. haven't pulled any all nighters this week :)

now that connie has moved out, our secret garden is all that remains outside the cafe. the vibe is changing around here a bit, not necessarily for better or worse, but incomparably different. there are still lots of good folks around and now (hopefully) some of the drama has subsided. there have been an alarming number of disturbances since the end of summer involving so many good people. we are so fortunate to be a part of this family. i can only hope that harmony can be restored for everyone. amber and i are trying to keep the community at peace. the consciousness of this place and these people is so powerful, and capable of doing so much good.

anyways, having a fire tonight out back. hoping to do some chillin outside.

wire

ugh. its late. still sculpting. amber too. my hands are blistering from this wire. i gotta just relax- we are doing much too much work here.