Muddy Rivers and Carpets
Spirits rise from glasses
Brown liquid and gold
Spirits come up from low mud creeks
through the carpets to my strings
Ooze, slide, and stretch
I sing
Jm
Illustration by Jean-Francois Dumont
posted by jm at 3:20 PM
Monday, April 09, 2007
Spirits rise from glasses
Brown liquid and gold
Spirits come up from low mud creeks
through the carpets to my strings
Ooze, slide, and stretch
I sing
Jm
Illustration by Jean-Francois Dumont
About Me
- Name: jm
I am a brilliant creation of the universe formed from the cosmic protoplasm sailing into eternity. I have two hands, two feet, a couple of great ears, and I'm clipping through life at a moderate pace; minding my p*s and q*s, crossing my t*s, dotting every i.
Previous Posts
- A Late Spring Afternoon
- Dust motes swimming in the darkLight in boxes from...
- Forest for the Trees
- ?
- Shoots & Grasses
- Drinks on the veranda. We'll watch the rice g...
- ZZZZZZZ
- Eggs-tra! Eggs-tra!
- Please Enter
- Enchantment
46 Comments:
Interesting how the images in the last two posts have emphasized the left pinkie eh?
"Spirits come up from low mud creeks"
These creeks of the south sure seem to find resonance in you JM. I love the languid feel..."ooze, slide, and stretch."
I didn't even notice that!!!!! left pinkie. Must look into this.
Tseka, a turning point has come with the Pluto transit. A long long struggle. The languid is on the horizon and I am ready. I haven't relaxed in a long long time. I can't play music otherwise. So now it will get interesting.
Little finger, according to Louise Hay: family and pretending. Interesting with the recent family affair. I also feel a new day coming concerning my fingers!
It does seem that the Pluto square the Sun combined with the eclipse changed things. We, my son and i felt the tension, palpable, as if the cosmos herself would burst, and then on the other side a calming sea. We float now, detritus on the new tide.
I think none of us have relaxed in a long time, we are ready now.. all this hurry scurry took us very far away from where we wish to be.
Detritus was one of M's favorite words. It's a great one.
We float now, detritus on the new tide.
I love it.
hurry scurry took us very far away from where we wish to be.
It always does for me.
I think this was the deepest work of Pluto on our 28s, and now we can relax, catch our breaths, and start to proceed, or at least prepare for the last pass and then onward. I think it's a rebirthing, and the stations are like transition, where the pressure is beyond what you thought you could endure. It should lift in increments now, especially after the direction changes.
I love astrology for this. The synchronization timewise.
It does seem that the Pluto square the Sun combined with the eclipse changed things.
I'm always reluctant to believe this, but in this case, I think this is so.
The changes have been there for a long time and probably are manifesting now at the end of this long Pluto journey through Sagittarius. Change always comes. When it becomes obvious, I find relief.
I'm inspired again after seeing Water Tracings.
I'm waiting to see the new galleries and then we can talk. I have some ideas. I believe we're going to pull/pluck ourselves out of the molding process with great work and success as artists if we want it. I feel something unfolding. Something different for me.
I am thoroughly enjoying relationship with another artist.
They are coming a lot of other demands are in my life at the moment.
I agree, it is wonderful to share.
wonderful.
Slow progress......
Now more than ever, I want to master the natural, easy, extension of myself. In terms of my music career, I know I will know when the time comes, and it will feel right. This moment is right too. I think the biggest thing I'm working on now is to delete the anxiety all the way around. It appears to be useless at this point.
I do think what we're doing here and now is integral. It's all process.
I have a technical question. In Water Tracings, the water looks silver. Did you use silver color or create the effect otherwise?
The painting is mixed media as all of my work is. The piece is originally painted in transparent watercolour using traditional technique, then cut apart. I repaint the pieces using pigments and metals suspended in lacquer before i reassemble them then paint into the whole thing again. I stole a lot of the technique from the Edo period of Japanese woodblock printing. My absolute fav period- that is where the crosshatching in some of the work comes from also, it is a Buddhist symbolism completely out of context- they used to paint / carve certain shapes as a language) They used konaunmo ground lining of shell which they blew on the damp print - that is what gave the silky pearlescent finish. I got someone to bring some back from Japan for me. Experimented with vehicles for it landed on lacquer and got off into a whole new exploration. The water lines in this piece is a mix of metallics and konanumo. Shimmer. Not quite your sequins. heheh. Between the vertical lines i inserted more done the same way it is much softer than gilding still reads as soft to the eye a watercolour. Water based lacquers very very thin a veil. Been doing this for about 30 years, fooling around with inimical mediums. Uranus in my 5th do ya figure?
O my god. I had no idea, yet I must have since I asked the question. There is a luminescence in that piece that I rarely see. I also notice how attracted your eye is to light in photos.
It's amazing how complicated the procedure is, yet how clear the result. The layered process creates the depth and substance, but to have all that work undetectable is the genius. You must have great skill in fine tuning.
Yes, I think that wild Uranus is implicated!
This is what drives me crazy. I'm reluctant to put out anything as it's all work in progress. But it always will be. I have so little interest in what I've already done.
I love the use of metals in this kind of work. You do it with subtlety, so it has allure rather than attack...the usual by the others. Are there others who are doing anything similar to what you do?
I think the process you've developed is part of the salability. People are interested in these things.
The only way to experience this is live. Now I'm beginning to understand.
It comes home to all the metal in blood I think, this mixture of metal and water. Everything is so mixed up. So mixed media is the truth!
I identify since emotion and metal are completely connected in the keyboards. The metal strike that creates soft sound. Metal gives strength.
Absolutely about the metals and the allure, it's in our blood. A lot of myth is woven into the work but no one really would know, maybe they feel it. Luminescence is a frequent comment.
Also the sense of moment. I loved what you had to say about that sunset you experienced with your Taurus friend. That sense is what i really am after. Why i write not sketch why years pass waiting for the birth.
The salability aspect... certainly the work is unique people reconize it as mine, this appeals. Sets it apart from competing with others. No one else is doing anything quite like this to my knowledge. Cut and paste most kindergarteners love but long days doing, most adults would not love. It is a meditation for me each little piece an individual painting. Because of the metals and the edges the work changes with the light mimicing a natural landscape.
I am going to put up a gallery of small work online. I was reading about Neith's mom and it inspired me to think about balancing the scales.
Perhaps it is like your stuggle with recording. I would like to share my work with many instead of a few. The prices have gone too high for this...or the average income sunk too low. So i have been painting - the small pieces in the rain on the porch not cut just simple songs but in my style sheer exuberance and they make me overjoyed that i can offer something different yet still wonderful (or at least i think so...) we shall see.
There really isn't any risk just experiment...
A lot of myth is woven into the work but no one really would know, maybe they feel it.
I think it's better this way. too much intellectualization can interfere, and those who get it on that level, will inquire.
We do it for ourselves anyway.
That Taurus sunset was so remarkable. His house was on a peculiar slant facing slightly Southwest. Deep in the city, but you wouldn't know it. Big garden. Art on the walls. And a beautiful man from Spain who spoke with a softness and lowness. And slowly. Holding the contented cat. The three of us. But I felt alone too. Very comfortable. No excitement, no crowding. A gorgeous Taurus dinner followed the sunset. His energy made the experience seem infinite. I also aspire to this now.
I especially want to get this internalized at this point.
I think we can do anything, big or small, and let the sales plot their own course. I, too, think about doing this or that, but I think I'll do this and that.
My mythological longings, my personal history, my future, my chemistry, my anatomy, myself... are all in my songs. They are not anyone else's experience.
So what they glean is out of my control, and really should not be my concern.
Money is between me and It.
Like the Taurus sunset. Let it slowly proceed. It will be right, especially if I don't interfere.
I do think, however, that your skill should be recognized. All art is part craft, which is what the fairs and volunteer little galleries are often about, but I think you have gone too far beyond craft and you are a genuine fine artist. One that should be taken seriously. Notice should be there, especially considering your uniqueness. Your life's blood has gone into your body of work, and this gives it tremendous value, mixed with real talent.
The real thing is so so rare. It should be elevated. I need it. I can barely stand the nonbeauty and gracelessness that surround me. The desecration. I truly need it out there. The last people that should be shortchanged in all of this is ourselves. There is responsibility born with great talent. We all feel it.
It's like me playing the corner bar, or Carnegie Hall. I've been in the bar, but people in the know have told me I should be presented in the appropriate surroundings.
For me, too, it's a "we'll see".
I've done both, but one thing that separates craft from art in my experience, and with other artists, is the fear factor. The emotional cache is opened up, and vulnerability is there. Loss of control. Unconscious parts not normally stayed with. It requires courage to do it.
I think this should be rewarded.
All true jm
and yet the art world does not work as it did even 20 years ago. It reflects the place we are as a society divided with gate-keepers.
I live by my art, it is my only income. Most of my life i have supported others as well on just that income.
My art is ready to be uptown. There was once a large number of galleries that sold just my kind of art, emerging contemporary mid-range prices- collectible but not stratosphere nor exclusive party NY galleries. Where are they now?
So i have a following along the west coast in nice small galleries where i am the odd one but where i have been found for the last 15 or 20 years.It isn't quite the corner bar. More the get away to the quaint Carmel. Truth is i like to do one or two very good artfairs a year. I learn so much from the people who see the work.
I'd like to find the place i fit.
"We'll see" is frequently on my lips.
A few years ago there was a movement among studio artists, i think it started in philly, Gallery artists so fed up with the high commissions working for peanuts they all got together and bought full page ads in newspapers and then went out and took over some of the really well known festivals. It worked for only a couple of years. I'm not sure what really happened.
I do know this, there are people looking for us. It is the venue that is lacking.
That's what my dream was about last night. And I see it developing in the latest art district here. Artists taking control.
It's cyclical, so it's hard to say when emerging artists will dominate again. They will. I still think as Uranus heads into Aries, we will have an
upswing.
I'd like to find the place i fit.
"We'll see" is frequently on my lips.
I'm beginning to think this isn't even the pursuit. I think we can be sucessful without even worrying about the fit. This has been a big issue with me.
I'm thinking of one blues club right now. I am entirely different from what they have, and I first I rejected the idea. But the more I think about it, the more I think I should completely ignore what was and what will be, and consider the moment I appear, my own, fit or no fit. At least there's no food.
It reflects the place we are as a society divided with gate-keepers
I read where they are now talking about reversing the tax breaks for the wealthy. This portends a loosening of the gate.
Considering how long you've been making out there with your art, you're bound to see the changing cycles.
So when I see the light in Water Tracings, the first thing I think is that the light should not be darkened. It should sing and influence the surroundings. Maybe not fit in at all, but stand out in all its glory.
I think there is ego behind this for both of us, Pluto working with yours now, and Saturn with mine.
Who are they to determine anything? Buy it or leave it. Nothing should be diminished in the exchange. Rejection is equal to a sale.
A little SN here too.
Things have changed in the art world, but you've changed too.
Ja i was just thinking about the 80s there was excitement for Art. We had Joan of Art Mondale, corporate tax breaks for buying art from contemporary american artists and we had Miami Vice a TV show that took place or had story lines with hip bauhous type galleries.
I'm ready for the re-runs!!!! I'm protected i don't own a tv. Bring it on.
I have lost any sense about rejection.
Or sales for that matter. I paint.
You sing.
The money exchange is coincidental.
I don't mind showing my work anywhere. I did a little benefit to support my buddy a sculptor for the N'atl Park. I mean - well let's say i sized up the situation got back in my truck and drove home to get professional panels to hang art work (pegboard was the offering + sandbags) OK i'm committed i have my little studies, it's a good cause, i bring out several large beauties. It rained we are cold and miserable. BUT so are the visitors to the park they come i sold a piece to a museum person from Rome. Another to a film person in LA. Now how would we have met otherwise? In the end it was fun cold we drank a hell of a lot a coffee and ate donuts (did i mention my buddy is ex cop? a libra) So there you have it. I say that jazz club sounds like just the place. You will dazzle them!
Tseka, nothing is predictable, but this could be happening again, considering our tarnished USA image. What better way to build it back up?
You remember when I talked about the show of American artists the Louvre just had?
I'm working with my psychological part, now that I think things are changing again. I want to be ready.
before, the contemps were largely lacking in technique, but now with Capricorn, I think it will be different. Art goes nowhere. It just hides for awhile. everything good did since 9/11. We had some fear to deal with. We are getting far enough away now, that we can start to think about other things.
It's been hard for me to feel so helpless about this, but in retrospect, I think I will see the good
I don't mind showing my work anywhere.
Yeah. You're right.
That include my friend's party.
My biggest hurdle is learning not to try too hard.
Judy Collins is doing a one-woman show on Broadway. She's 68, I think.
A person can always do it, no matter what the trend.
Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell real. Themselves.
Don't we still love them? We baby boomers never got over our 60s-70s we still seem to be trying to integrate integrity, freedom, and the capitalist structure.
The wheel has turned but i think this saturn in leo had a lot to say. Further i think Pluto in sag was not just about sag but Leo the trine to the Pluto in Leo generation...
It's all up for review. Personally i feel optimistic for the first time in a long while and given all that is going on around me i should not.
And now we have a nice long Jupiter trine Saturn that should be good for something.
Personally i feel optimistic for the first time in a long while and given all that is going on around me i should not.
Funny, isn't it?
I think you are absolutely right about the Pluto in Leo generation. What emerges now at the end will be the final result. Thank you for this.
I'm at the bridge. I have mixed feelings, but I seem to have no choice, and your statement is just the thing. It's good enough out there. It's always a combination. I've reached the end of the drawing board phase, and I cannot progress as an artist without public diseemination from here on out. This has been excruciating. I dropped it altogether, realizing this. But I know it.
The timing with the Pluto trine Leo is perfect. The void is just about complete, and it's probably time, somewhere by the turn of the year.
This has been most illuminating. Part of my sadness is knowing there will be less creative and more practical,ie..repetition. But that will change once the other takes over.
Very good thought about the trine.
The Jupiter Saturn trine is very significant. There has been a definite upswing in the country, whether people want to recognize it or not. A lot will take shape by the next election, hopefully with someone not yet determined taking over. The details don't matter though. The Deomcrats will be in power for awhile, and that's good for the arts. I think we'll see funding return. Art in public places. City planning I think is going to be a huge wave coming up. It's all in the cards.
With this Jup-Sat trine, I think we can use it to get ready. Keep our spirits up.
The numbness you talked about is a lot of it. It's hard to believe things can be anything but tragic at this point. But we're about due for something else. Maybe just medium misery! That would be an improvement.
Events have just turned personally for me in this direction, and I'm beginning to see the logic in it all. I stopped writing for good reason. The new phase must enter. I could write into infinity and never perform, but that's not advisable. So I had to cold turkey.
Tonight I especially see it clearly. Like the Taurus sunset. No big deal, but a very big deal. Just stand up and sing in rhythm, like the setting sun every day.
Sheesh, what a mind can do to interfere!
It's really coming in. The bridge. Communication. My interim statement: the blog. Pluto opposing my Gemini planets. One step at a time, across the bridge. I think I'm close to the end now. Next stop: the 6th house Mars. Entirely different.
Very very illuminating. Water Tracings.
In some ways the 60-70s is the only alternative model we have. We shut down for so long.
We have come to the end of the line on this current one. Inspiration is lacking. More than i can recall i am hearing echoes of the 60's, civil rights, equality, alternative lifestyle, socialized medicine. Community projects to solve problems. Now we just have to figure a way to get the confounded laws that prevent this out of the way so the people can do the work. Bureaucratization is the killer, why i so want to see a more libertarian candidate, i really don't expect one on the national level but some are emerging regionally, ya never know.."we'll see"
Something i felt during the "60's" was that the wave of enthusiasm could lift even those who were reluctant. Trying was more important than failure. That fear factor snuck in.
It's amazing tseka. I just noticed the progression in the last 3 posts. First the musician on his porch playing to the fields. Then the thinker. Then to the musician playing in the bar.
Muddy rivers to carpets. Dirty carpets, probably..:)I'll be right at home. Set me up bartender!
would appear that we just need to remember what we already know eh??
The fear factor had to come and go. I think the change is some loss of innocence. The 60's were naive in the idealism.
There has been a clear undestanding of how the communities will have to solve some of their own problems now. We are big on referendums on all the ballots. Direct democracy. I think this is the wave coming.
So when do you sing at this club? I will pour my energy for success toward you. I know Vishinu will want to offer you a blessing maybe we can get zelda on some nice nutritious uranian eggs for you
referendums are completely corrupted here in CA big money (national) puts up the bill, then months of advertising on TV to sell it. Direct democracy i'm all for. Participatory democracy.
would appear that we just need to remember what we already know eh??
It's like avoiding the bends. Remember a little bit at a time.
Somehow after tonight, though, I think this knowledge will stick. In preparation for action.
The insight into the creative shutdown will be very helpful. I had inklings, but I see it now.
Part of the end of the Saturn in Leo is admiring myself, and that means the songs I've already finished! Time to stop depending on the future masterpiece. It'll come in time.
Vishinu and Zelda and tseka! I will do well.
Probably after my 12 labors. The nodes.
yep, gradual progress.
They will love you
and if they don't i still will
g'night dearhearted one.
I think the refs here are funded a lot locally, and the money is shifting to the Dems.
For example, we just voted to forfeit a tax refund and put it back into the state coffers. That had to be local.
Good night, Water and Wind Goddess.
Songs of Water is enchanting. My favorite is "Open to the Sky." I have a fondness for motes of light dancing on the water. :o)
BTW, I'm still here... appropriately enough, just struggling to stay afloat.
LOL, joe. It IS a struggle.
I have a fondness for motes of light dancing on the water.
Ecstasy.
Exactly. I even came up with a word for them, back when I still believed in unicorns: sunsparkles. Perhaps not terribly original, but it fits. :o)
Joe! a capricorn who believed in Unicorns and loves sunsparkles a great word. You make me happy.
Bet you could slip easily into jm's "Everworld" too.
Sunsparkles! Of course. It takes water to make it so.
back when I still believed in unicorns:
You mean you don't now??
<< Home