4/7/16

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others" __  Martha Graham  

 

 

 “All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.” -  Federico Fellini, Italian film director 

 

 

4/22/16 - "SO THIS IS WHY IT SNOWED SO MUCH IN APRIL"

 

So I'm not dreaming as I write this, and don't sue me if it goes astray. I found out about the death of Prince Rogers Nelson yesterday as I was about to go for a run. The breaking news came via TMZ, so I gave it only a little credence. They'd reported his death just a few days earlier after he'd fallen ill and canceled a couple shows a week before. Once outside, I'd turned on my IPOD and "Mathematics of Love" by George Clinton was concluding from the day before. I told myself that if the next song was by Prince, that the news had to be true. It was and it was. It was something I thought I'd live to see , but never really never wanted to. Death has seemed more frequent these days, especially impacting me in personal ways. I'd just gotten over the death of David Bowie (another creative mentor of mine) and now this.

 

Other than my brother Lennell, (who passed away in March of 2015) he was the coolest human being I'd known. As of this writing the cause of death is not known, but for me it doesn't matter. I dread the subsequent media Circus to follow more than I did the news of his untimely passing. People don't generally see You as you are. They usually see You as THEY are.

 

To say that Prince was an inspiration of mine is a massive understatement. He makes appearances in some of my latest paintings and my novel ("ENIGMAN" ) in mysterious ways. Just yesterday I got news from my publisher that "HEADROOM" (A Musical Retrospective with Poetic Introspection) had just gone into production, and Prince is weaved throughout the book like a ghostly inspiration through collage since many of the musicians in it were influenced by him. And I actually could've used him more, but chose not to or because I became fatigued by the five month process, which tends to happen. I'm not the best closer around but I'm working on that. There's still more to do and miles to go before I sleep. As Prince says in one song, "Ain't nothin' but a Muffin, but we got a lot of butter to go." ~

 

 

5/14/16 - "PERSONALITY & ESSENCE"

 

It occured to me that my creative process is an amalgam of Personality and Essence.
"Personality" involves all those things you have learned,
not learned or refused to learn due to Ego. (Every human being has their blind-spots)
If Ego were an instrument, Personality would be the Music that it Plays.

 

"Essence" is who you are before you're born and begin to learn or unlearn the things you already have knowledge of without being taught.
(Haven't you ever met someone new and felt you've always known each other?
Don't you possess a skill that you never learned in someone’s classroom?)

 

Creative ideas can come from both sources, intellectual and intuitive and most times alternately contibute to the completion of a work.
Some ideas are visions of direct perception and executed with little intellectualizing. Some ideas are the direct result of conscious motive and education.
Most are the result of a dalliance between spiritual conception and scholarly consideration, each at intervals compensating for one another's
strenghths and weaknesses.

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5/28/16

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“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” - Pablo Picasso

"If You are thirsty the river will come to you." - Sat Pren

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1119/16

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Income separates people into class, but it doesn’t give you any.

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The Spiral Path" = "Good Citizen" / "The Straight Path" = "HERO"

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Don't apologize because of external dissonance. Apologize because of internal cognizance.

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 Until "Racism" is actually consistently punished by the Justice system in general and people in specific, Nationalist will cloak themselves in first amendment protections in order to practice it while calling themselves "Patriots".

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When the pervasive sentiment of human interaction becomes to "dumb things down" for the populace, the enlightened among us immediately become the enemy of the State.

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"BLAH-BLAH, WOOF-WOOF, CRACKLE-CRACKLE" — Jimi Hendrix

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 “When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free.” — Tom Robbins

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If you find yourself in a "Den of Vipers" and you want to get out alive, the first thing you have to do

is acknowledge that you're "IN A DEN OF VIPERS" .

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 You can't traffic in psychological hatred and violence for eighteen months and then expect

no response of physical hatred and violence for eighteen months in return. #lawsofnature

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TAO TE CHING - Chapter 50

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"Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die.
Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves);
and three are ministers of death.

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There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose movements tend to the land (or place)

of death. And for what reason? Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life.

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But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life entrusted to him for a time travels on

the land without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat or sharp weapon.

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The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws,

nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what reason? Because there is in him no place of death." - LAO TZU

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Bigotry is much easier to kill once you've flushed it from the Underbrush .

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Apparently we needed more "T.V. in our Reality", because Reality T.V. just wasn't entertaining enough . . . ~ #thedevolutionwillbetelevised ~

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