Santa Monica! Art is Life!

It is crazy I have been here over a month and things are really brewing. I really miss the Bay Area, but Santa Monica is sooo beautiful. Mama Ocean really is keeping me happy, as well as the mountains~ Apu's thet call them in Peru. The LA art scene is vast, but elusive.
Next Thursday I will be exhibiting at the LA downtown ART WALK. I will be debuting Kitty Bliss to SoCal. I will let you know how that goes. And exhibiting my abstract work. My goal is to make at least $700 and it will happen.

Thinking about Kitty Bliss he is my inner child and my higher self! and that feels amazing and important to create from him. Healing will transpire!!
And on the 16th I will be joining a free art advocacy work shop in downtown LA. I am sure I will make some amazing connections there for the ARTcart and my own personal transformative art teaching.

My goal is to post every day. The interesting thing is the first image is of last Sunday when Don and I were going to AGAPE. He had to evade cause the office called.

Next Alchemy Art Experiment

My next Alchemy Art Experiment is Dissolution or Releasing the Power of Emotions
Dissolution is the process of dissolving in water the ashes left over from calcination. While calcination works on mind and ego to destroy illusions, dissolution works on the heart to release buried and repressed emotions. This surfacing of buried material allows new power to be accessed by the individual.

The process for this painting was I first mono printed my last Alchemy art experiment Calcination on the canvas. Because this experiment is all about dissolving or Dissolution I placed the canvas under my sprinkler in the garden for hours.After sometime I started painting on the canvas in an automatic abstract way. I left in dry in the garden overnight to the full moon

This art experiment has my dreams on fire....again all stream consciousness. Here a couple fragmented drea

ms.

Strange yellow eyes coming towards me--bug eyes. I was like what the hell is it. Perceptions could not id with this imagery. Such an unknown it was a half bug half man.

Dream my Mom (she passed away 14 years ago) was driving our car. It seemed like we were flying off into the water. Then we were going up a hill that was flooded. Then small room and a man in a wheel chair with blood coming from the back of his head. I turned him around and he had a huge deep gash on the side of his neck.

Dream of a monk who might have been the Beatles George Harrison. He told me that if I quiet myself the Dakini's are always there for me, protect me and wan

t me to give me want I need.

The amazing thing about this dream is the Dakinis are spiritual beings that eat our negative poisons.

Loving this process.... Love the holistic engagement. I am learning a lot and transforming. Onward to Separation my next art experiment.

Art Alchemy — Calcinatio:

My process is stream of consciousness: This is my second experiment. My prima materia is what is holding me back as an artist to rise to my greatest potential. This project is also of form of ritual/ a marker of my transition to LA. As I will moving there in seven weeks.


I found out from my first art work that I am tied up about some preconceived notions of what it means to be an artist in this world. My next experiment Calinatio-fire I for several nights burned seven candles on the top of the canvas. At one moment I used some iron oxide paint on the top the surface. I decided to bind the surface again as I still bound up by something that gets it my way. The next step was some automatic abstract painting. The amazing thing is my dreams have been on fire and I found myself really engaged within my holistic self--mind, body, and spirit. More reflection is needed. Currently, I am working on the next experiment DISSOLUTION.

Tradtionally
Calcinatio is considered the first of the alchemy procedures. It has to do with burning, subjecting the prima materia (basic material) to intense heat. The desired result is a burning away, a drying out, a process that drives away all alien substances leaving only the purest of substances, a whitened ash.

What this Means Psychologically
What this means psychologically is that through analysis the client is allowed to burn, metaphorically speaking, to become emotionally intense in a way that both dissolves and dissipates anything but the truth of the client’s psyche. Anger can often arouse the state of calcinatio and under controlled circumstances is a useful means of burning off the false and leaving the truth of an experience. With the calcinatio exerience what remains is the true psyche of the patient, released from all of its complexes, affects and distortions.

Alchemy Project -Prima Materia

Alchemy and its Process

As I am preparing to transition to LA I have begun another Alchemy process series. My first was instigated from a class that I was taking in graduate school called Alchemy with Mary Webster. In this project I came face to face to work with my social phobia.

There are seven steps in Alchemy.

The Transformative Processes

There are seven steps in the transformative processes, both for physical Alchemy as well as spiritual Alchemy. Here is a brief list of the 7 Steps of the Emerald formula.

1. Calcination 2. Dissolution 3. Separation 4. Conjunction 5. Fermentation 6. Distillation 7. Coagulation

The beginning art process is to create something the symbolizes ones Prima Materia (Prima Materia is, according to alchemists, the alleged primitive formless base of all matter, given particular manifestation through the influence of form) the issue that you wish to transform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prima_materia

The image on the left is my Prima Materia in 2006 i.e Social Phobia. This was a very painful confrontation, the gift that it brought me was healing and over five years of Jungian Therapy.

The image on the top right is my Prima Materia in 2010. I will be completing the project on October 1st and we shall see what transpires. The issue at hand is what is stopping me from becoming a successful artist.

As I look and reflect on this piece questions come to mind.

What has tied me up?
The good news is gold exists right at the beginning of this process. It is not as sticky and painful as my social phobia materia.
Others first:

I find that one of my tools for procrastination is putting others first in my artistic promotion.

I will spend hours promoting others and little on myself.

What do I fear? Do I fear success? Do I fear total validation? Do I fear failure? Do I fear judgement and rejection? Can I live my dream of becoming a full time artist and opening a healing art studio. Do I have what it takes?

OK let the process begin.

The next experiment and post is Calcination (Heat)
Calcination is the first of the seven major operations in the Alchemy of Transformation.

Chemically, the Calcination process involves heating a substance in a crucible or over an open flame until it is reduced to ashes. In the Arcanum Experiment, Calcination is represented by Sulfuric Acid, which the alchemist made from a naturally occurring substance called Vitriol. Sulfuric Acid is a powerful corrosive that eats away flesh and reacts with all metals except Gold.

Psychologically, this is a destruction of ego and our attachment to material possessions. Calcination is usually a natural humbling process as we are gradually assaulted and overcome by the trials and tribulations of life, though it can be a deliberate surrender of our inherent hubris gained through a variety of spiritual disciplines that ignite the fire of introspection and self-evaluation.

Psychologically, the Fire of Calcination can be experienced as the metabolic discipline or aerobic activity that tunes the body, burning off excess from overindulgence and producing a lean, mean, fighting machine. Calcination begins in the Base or Lead Chakra at the Sacrel Cup at the Base of the Spine.

On the Planetary level, it is the Fire of Creation, the formation of a liveable environment from molten matter and volcanic ashes. http://mystic-grove.com.au/ost/seven.html

Trying to Make this Happen

This post is stream consciousness:
Today I took my art out of Color Graphics. About ten paintings had been at this lovely corporation for two years and the employees loved them, but nothing was selling. On an energetic level this relationship was really one sided. I do love that I improved the aesthetics in the office, but honestly I have gained nothing from it, except another line on my resume. So today I decided to retrieve and cut the ties. As my car needs repair, the window on the passenger side has been shattered for a year and most recently the engine light is on cannot fix it. I can hardly afford my bills on weekly basis. My monetary life seems to be oppressing my creative one. This is what I need to amend.

Also, as a human one of failings is to be walked upon or to promote others but never myself. I need to be equal to what I do for others. I remember as a tennis super star saying sorry for acing my opponent?? This is what I need to shift. I am Ok your Ok stuff...
Hence the Facebook fanpage, which feels weird. Right know it is not helping my psychological agenda because I only eight fans. Pretty dire,but kudos for me doing it.

I also thought I had a art rep but that is not really panning out. So I feeling I need to make things happen. Today I put my work on an Internet gallery site "click here" to check out. We shall see what happens. I have turned up the heat! I will search for more opportunities to share my work and to sell my work. I really need to clear my old work out so I can began a new. I really want to sell this work, but eventually I might have to give it away. I do not want to burn it like so many overly dramatic artists have.

All I really know is my Art will always be with me and it is the only thing I can ever take with me. It is the gift I can share and that is what I teach. Also at a core level I feel ART is how I will reach my greatest potential as a human being.
I am trying to make this happen--- art is life and life is art and I want to radiate my brilliance 2010 is the year!!