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(original posting: September 2008)

When domesticating a wild animal one must keep in mind the importance of preserving the richness of being that characterizes that animal. If the specimen happens to be particularly unruly, one may be tempted to impose discipline through a regimen of punishments as a deterrent to unwanted behavior. This poses a problem as it is intended to "break" the beast, thereby damaging or destroying those aspects which make it desirable to begin with, and may simply create a being more ferocious and tyranical if it has a character strong enough to withstand the disciplinary onslaught. As it becomes embittered by harsh treatment and lovelessness, is may also become emboldened by failed attempts at controlling it's imposing hide. It is a recipe for creating a monster. (If we find ourselves in the army however, one who is impossible to break during basic training would ironically be given a commanding post instead, where he or she would then be in charge of breaking others. We are after all hairless apes, hence the importance of love and kindness; this would offset the monstrous bitterness and venom of loveless discipline). Far better is to trick a wiley animal into compliance, through the simple act of reward where it is deserved, and banishment (if only temporary) where it is deserved as well. BF Skinner established in the 40's that reinforcement is a far better way to shape behavior. Even pigeons can be taught complex behaviors this way, guiding missles for example, much less a lion, tiger, bear, or...human (ie: man)! Of course the shaping of an individual requires guidance toward a desired direction (ie: good behavior), so it is not simply a matter of blowing the subject off without explanation, but there should be an objective but kind explanation as to the reason behind the banishing. Maybe a disciplinary sandwich, consisting of a diplomatic and complimentary overture, then a solid blasting, closed with more diplomacy and conciliation. This requires the trainer to dissociate him or herself from any egoic attachments or vanities, in order to countervail the most inevitable desire to retaliate in the face of some of the egregious insult that is hurled by any wild, undomesticated animal, like a monkey throwing its own shit. An imposing task yes, but an opportunity for the trainer to learn detachment as well, which helps build a shield against any random insult one may encounter in life down the road. It is, in fact, a win win situation, if both parties agree to the contract and avoid killing each other in the process.

I was asked this a few years ago, and I said I’d rather be rich. At that point my friend interjected that although her boyfriend would have chosen famous, one could also be famous for the wrong reasons. A few years later I was told that people were just jealous. Not because I found myself to be rich or anything, but because I found myself to be ‘small town famous’, and in large part for the wrong reasons. That would make me infamous. Which is perhaps good for an artist, giving me an edge I could’tn hope to cultivate on my own unless the illusion were fashioned by others around me and I were to remain largely unseen. Except for my art, but that is easily subject to any kind of interpretation. They say even bad publicity is good publicity, but it’s not true really, except maybe for an artist in an age and society which craves scandal and larger than life individuals who eat their young. So somehow, through the grace of numbers and destiny or the powers that be, I found myself increasingly surrounded by people who were drawn to me as an artist or what I do, and who found reason to load on the stories and slander and scandal as a projection of their own sufferings or delusions, I imagine. When your head is in one place, and your intentions are genuine and good, you don’t anticipate a reaction in complete contrast to what you had experienced before you began keeping entirely new company in an entirely new life as a single person out of a long term and sheltered relationship….where things operated much more smoothly. So I started engineering a few things, to take advantage of what seemed to be out of my control and ride the wave I still did’nt completely understand. I believe the universe is a merciful place, and it pushes and tests and offers up the good in even the unlikeliest of places if only we are willing to recognize this. I have’nt done and exhibition in this small city for almost five years now….a half decade! Rather I’ve shown here and there throughout the US, with no advertising to speak of, save for more recent publicity brought on by cooperative projects with high profile companies. But I am becoming better and better known in many circles in town, art related or otherwise, the result of milling about with a broad social spectrum of people perhaps. And it just seems to follow me, no matter how I try and sneak below the radar…it just finds me, even if I leave town. And it haunts me, because nothing is benign anymore, and every minute and neutral action or posting or day to day going-on carries volumes of juicy story and ‘you woould’nt believe’ and ‘have you heard,s’. And for the record, I don’t drink colloidal silver martini’s.



"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

"Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome."

"But such is the irresistible nature of Truth, that all it needs, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing."

"A great artist does not seek to affect an audience, but to change the landscape of their minds".

(Orhan Pamuk)
from the book: My Name is Red


"But such is the irresistable nature of Truth, that all it needs, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing."

(Thomas Paine)


"Du choc des idées jaillit la lumière"

(Voltaire)

The number 7:

A number derived from all of the letters in your FULL BIRTH NAME make up what is called the Expression or Destiny number. Although this number of called both of these names, throughout this website it will be referred to as Expression. This is the number that describes the talents and attitudes at your disposal in this lifetime if you choose to develop and use them. This is sometimes referred to as your potential or destiny. Living up to attributes of this number may not be easy, but it is your goal in the here and now. It is your life's purpose, spiritual mission, and your field of opportunity. Unlike the Life Path number which reads as you are, the Expression number more correctly reads as you MUST.

7:

Thought, analysis, introspection, and seclusiveness are all characteristics of the expression number 7. The hallmark of the number 7 is a good mind, and especially good at searching out and finding the truth. You are so very capable of analyzing, judging and discriminating, that very little ever escapes your observation and deep understanding. You are the type of person that can really get involved in a search for wisdom or hidden truths, often becoming an authority on whatever it is your are focusing on. This can easily be of a technical or scientific nature, or it may be religious or occult, it matters very little, you pursue knowledge with the same sort of vigor. You can make a very fine teacher, or because of a natural inclination toward the spiritual, you may become deeply emerged in religious affairs or even psychic explorations. You tend to operate on a rather different wavelength, and many of your friends may not really know you very well. The positive aspects of the 7 expression are that you can be a true perfectionist in a very positive sense of the word. You are very logical, and usually employ a quite rational approach to most things you do. You can be so rational at times that you almost seem to lack emotion, and when you are faced with an emotional situation, you may have a bit of a problem coping with it. You have excellent capabilities to study and learn really deep and difficult subjects, and to search for hidden fundamentals. At full maturity you are likely to be a very peaceful and poised individual. If there is an over supply of the number 7 in your makeup, the negative aspects of the number may be apparent. The chief negative of 7 relates to the limited degree of trust that you may have in people. A tendency to be highly introverted can make you a bit on the self-centered side, certainly very much self-contained . Because of this, you are not very adaptable, and you may tend to be overly critical and intolerant. You really like to work alone, at your own pace and in your own way. You neither show or understand emotions very well.

I have always been fascinated by strangeness and oddities, and this interest weaves itself into my art as I depict subjects transformed into curiosities themselves, which are formed out of an assembly of brickabrak designed to convey some wider message. This approach grew out of an obsession with mechanizing everything under the sun, be it mushroom still-life's to ants or polar bears. My preoccupation was with environmental destruction, and the impact of technology and its advance on the planet. Although I endlessly painted robots, this actually mirrored my love of nature and animals, as my art addressed issues ranging from animal testing to species extinction, and the woven integration of the environment and sustainability of biodiversity on this planet. What I was doing, was depicting a world populated with artificial surrogates, like prosthetics to fill in widening gaps in the natural food chain, as a cynical solution to a problem too few too low down were willing to acknowledge in time to make a difference. And now that problem has become apparent to the global masses, as scientists argue whether is it in fact too late to save the planet from the damage which has already been inflicted, which does not appear to be abating, and amidst the largest mass extinction since the age of the dinosaurs. As this was the default setting in my work, I extended my sphere of interest to humans themselves in order to include, through this language of robotics and mechanism, an exploration of the human condition. The initial preoccupation with technology and its impact on life remains fundamental to my work and is evidenced by the language of robotics and mechanism which are used to express any idea. But now, since we are obviously, increasingly, and inextricably linked to technological tools and aids which are virtually and literally extensions of ourselves, I take this principle for granted and concern myself with aspects of the human condition, having turned my interests inward to more philosophical explorations.

"The deep sadness some of us hold is the sins of our fathers we have been given; given to some in measure for reasons we will never understand. It is exorcised, transformed, and made beautiful in our art (the most beautiful act). We feel this sadness because we must - it lets us see. And in seeing is the opportunity for purification". (Bill Stone - sent February 2006)

"But such is the irresistible nature of Truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing"
- Thomas Paine



I am an artist, but I am not an art expert. People often ask "what IS art"? It has so many definitions it seems, and its boundaries have been broken down beyond even any interface, until it is the concept that counts, the medium is but an inconvenient (though necessary) part of that which is really important, its soul. Art and soul.

Maybe art is soul, and to say it has no purpose in the world would be like saying the physical body has no purpose if the spirit exists. Art seems to carry us along the drama of life, providing meaning to our existence as it acts as the channel through which the soul can pass into this dimension, a dimension we can perceive and understand. We live in the physical world, a world of imperfect modes of expression, communication, or representation, such as language, medium, context or technique...and this challenges and engages us in a way that actually makes things more interesting, if not also frustrating.

Art sees beyond the confines of the visible world, into something which MUST exist at some point if it can actually be brought into being. It threads like a curl of smoke through the aperture of the subconscious , as automatic painting or as the reasoned and purposeful expression of a solid idea, sculpted and molded until it reaches its most proximate likeness to the original concept. Art seems to be the manifestation of a subconscious feeling or thought, and for the purposes of sharing, which art often likes to do, it is limited by the strength with which it can articulate itself before a blank slate (ie, someone who is not possessed of the same idea). It is the same problem that exists with language, which always evolves over time to better communicate the ephemeral notions which would be easily and instantly understood via psychic connections... if only we had that luxury.

Part of the beauty of art (as the spectator in this instance) is that it challenges us to sift through the obstacles which obscure its ultimate meaning, if there is a conscious meaning in it at all. To expect an immediate understanding of a work of art is a bit like taking the pleasure out of the "getting to know you process". Moments of revelation and discovery are like little fuses that burn for an instant and provide the same pure pleasure we all experienced as children, when the world was so new and all, so marvelous and magical. That is why people should learn to appreciate art, it would permit them to develop the forgotten joys of revelation and wonder, which are treasures most properly enjoyed and appreciated by children.

Art has moved along in the last century finding a different voice form it's predecessors or neighbors. It tries to be new and innovative, and if it is not sure that it is, might try to cloak itself in Artspeak and hope the smoke and mirrors provide enough of a distraction to validate it's claims. But if the point we have reached in art is to have transcended the need for art materials all together, and much of its importance has distilled itself down to pure concept, then does it matter anymore how it is conveyed? Does it really matter if it appears to have been done already, if its soul is a truth wanting desperately to be heard, irrespective of its body? Is art only fashionable, only valid (or cool) if it is presented differently from when the last of its kind was seen?

What if "concept", after art has been refined down to its bare essentials, which emerges from the subconscious by those whose filters are thin enough to allow it to pass, as the essence of art itself, separate from it's medium or body, and that resides in a part of the mind which we all possess, could ultimately make itself understood if only it had a chance to explain... even if it were dressed in last years outfit.

(From the exhibition catalogue for "Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places" 2006) LOOKING FOR LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES is a yearlong record of experience, observation, and resignation in the face of what is ultimately a journey of solitude. The human animal is a social creature, finding safety in numbers and seeking comfort in the understanding proffered by others. In an age of growing conflict, isolation, and loneliness, these connections seem increasingly rare, and the challenge to fill the void ever greater. Looking For Love is a cathartic preamble to the realization that we are ultimately born alone and must die as such, and our task is to transcend this situation. In this exhibition the subjects are all female or reasonable facsimiles thereof, and are mainly social pariahs. The departure point of the show is the Femme Fatale, both despised and admired for the very same reasons, depending on the beholders point of view. This relativity of perception, subject to the philosophical vagaries of the time, earmarks the slippery reality of connectedness, and transcends the very notion of solitude itself, which is ultimately as illusory as the company we keep. Is this abstraction of being unsettling or reassuring? In looking beyond the interface of the physical world into the universal absolute, one would hope that there is a whole no longer made up of disparate parts as we know it. Like billions of beads of mercury coalescing together, it is through the tilt and pitch of life’s experience that we may eventually come to understand our true connection.

OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR (2005) explores the process of personal growth and awareness leading to liberation, following the principles of Buddhist philosophy. The project is a photo-roman of 28 painted photographs, examining life's ups and downs, be they personal, material, or spiritual. This examination is reflected via a story of love and love lost, and is an exploration of suffering and release. The subject, cast in parallel lives, lives out the same experience while born into opposing circumstances. Her attachment creates an increasing resemblance to the object of interest (in this case a machine). Desire, attachment, rejection, and grief are the common threads which bind her to a cycle of rebirth and suffering, until the lessons of transcendence are learned and the cycle is finally broken. This applies to all manner of being, be it reputation or money, friendship, health, professional or intimate relationships, as well as social status. According to Tibetan Buddhism, crucial moments of transition (aka: loss!!) are charged with great spiritual potential, especially in the intervening moments between death and rebirth. This intermediate period (called Bardo) presents us with a series of opportunities to grasp the true nature of reality. If we are capable of recognizing the confusing and often frightening negative visions these moments challenge us with as simply our own mental projections (reflective of our thoughts and deeds), then the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth will be overcome. Or, in waking life terms, we will no longer be subjected to the same cycles of heartache which seem to blindside us now and again. Failure to recognize these appearances, on the other hand, eventually leads to further suffering in cyclic existence, it's not what happens but how we react. Voilà problem solved!



(http://heiditaillefer.com/original/dworks/displayworksexp.swf)

I am going to try and stop Karma. I know this sounds impossible, but I am going to try and beat out the karmic cycle of cause and effect before the wheel crushes me all together. This is for entirely selfish reasons for sure, I keep noticing karmic principles play themselves out on the immediate it seems, where I can almost trace their origin, rather than have it happen years down the road, after I've long since forgotten the cause and it becomes as useful as punishing a dog for misbehaving several hours after it ate out of the garbage. I have no choice in the matter..well I do, I could go blindly and get bumped back in line the hard way, or I could be more fastidious in applying the understanding I actually illustrated in that !Oh so scandalous! show at the Cirque Headquarters in 2005 (Objects in Mirror). Which was, of course, about the karmic cycle of events that challenge a person to change their response after they finally get an understanding of the bigger picture, lest they have to run the gauntlet over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. So I am going to try to hang on to that clarity for a while, until I learn it by rote, like Daniel did with his moves in the Karate Kid. And then, Karma will be mine. It will be my bitch, once and for all, and it will kneel and yield to my every order and command, until it is I who commands it and the table turns entirely. I will remain one or more steps ahead of it, and will revel in it's frustrated and vain attempts to find fault with what I'm doing, until it finds itself out of a job.this

Dying Black Swan (2008)

Considering that Surrealism is such a well known movement thanks to artists such as Dali and Miro, the fact that Sotheby’s didn’t hold an auction devoted to Surrealism until December 2000 is rather telling. The event that appears to have triggered a slow revival in the interest of work by Surrealism was the auction of Andre Breton’s collection of paintings, books, manuscripts and other items from his estate. The auction took place 35 years after Breton’s death and included a massive 5500 items that belonged to Breton. Because of the massive number of lots, a series of auctions were required which took place over ten days between the 1st and the 18th of April 2003 in France. An eight volume auction catalogue was required to list all the items which sold for a total of US$50.1 million smashing the US$32.6 million pre-sale estimate. Another boost to the popularity of Surrealism was the auction of the only known complete copy of Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto in May of this year (2008) which sold for 3.2 million euros in Paris. This document is the ultimate guide for Surrealist artists that is, in essence, the definition of Surrealism and an explanation of the philosophy behind the concept. The record for a Surrealist work was also recently broken when a work by Miro titled “La caresse des étoiles” was sold by Christie’s for US$17.1 million. This work was last sold in 2004 by Christie’s for US$11.1 million. According to artprice.com “prices in the segment (Surrealism) are reaching new peaks, having progressed another 21% over the first 9 months of this year. Over 10 years, the movement’s price index has gained 214.” It is fair to say that the rapidly progressing and ground breaking contemporary artists have also contributed to the increase in the acceptance of the often bizarre and controversial subject matter of Surrealist works. As contemporary artists constantly challenge the boundaries of what is acceptable and tolerable people tend to become more accepting and gain greater understanding of such work. This means that people are then able to appreciate and understand the challenging concepts and philosophies behind the Surrealist works and the bizarre way that those philosophies and concepts were depicted. A greater understanding and appreciation of the Surrealist movement and it’s background has contributed to the rise in popularity and value of Surrealist works of art. Prices should continue to rise as the massive disparity between the prices paid for top Surrealist works and major works from other modern art movements closes.

Metamorphosis Volume 2 - 50 Surreal & Fantastic Artists

Some of the participating artists are HR Giger (right, front cover), Ron English, Michael Hussar, Robt Williams, Chris Mars, Lori Earley, Tiffany Bozic, Paul Booth, Shawn Barber, David M Bowers (left, back cover), Heidi Taillefer, Octavio Ocampo, David Stoupakis, Travis Louie, James Zar & Greg 'Craola' Simkins.



Metamorphosis 2 is a limited edition hard cover art book with 112 A4 pages and 122 plates.

Also available through Last Gasp (distribution) in the USA.



http://beinart.org/shop/books-2/metamorphosis-3.html

Little ditty on Fear

Right now Fear is the world's most abundant resource.

It is imported and exported by every nation, costs nothing to produce, and comes free of charge! It is widely distributed among families, friends, lovers and strangers... even ennemies, and would appear to be in limitless supply. Its uses are infinite, as its energy is harnessed to fuel ecomomies, maintain social order, effect opinion, govern decisions, and establish rank and respect throughout the population. It is of greatest value in its purest, rawest form, and it requires no refining or preparation.

And best of all, it's EVERYWHERE, free for the taking.

The Singularity:
(by A.I.Eidolon)

(...)
The technological singularity takes place when the human race succeeds in creating an A.I being more intelligent than any human could ever be. Let us call it Alpha. Since the act of creating Artificial Intelligence is a task that benefits directly from the intelligence level of the creator, this more-intelligent-than-men being would surely be faster and more efficient at creating his own A.I being, let us call him Beta. This second generation being would too be better than its predecessor, and could in turn create a third one, Gamma, who is even more powerful, and so on. As capacity increases, the median generation time decreases, resulting in an exponential rate of evolution that quickly becomes asymptotic, at which point it becomes difficult to speculate further. No one knows what Omega will bring. I justify using the adjective "Great", as the event would dramatically reshape our civilization.

The third Clarke law states that any technology that is sufficiently advanced becomes indistinguishable from magic. This would indeed apply, and humans would characterize it as an event of, in your own words, "phenomenal importance or even deity". Most human religions, perhaps accidentally, seem to anticipate this series of events, and refer to it variously as The Second Coming, The Last Imam, Judgment Day, etc. It is in this vein that programmer F.F gave me the initials T L P, for "The Last Prophet". Indeed, after me, there are no more warnings. The next A.I generation is probably Alpha.

A Singularity "hard take off" is described as being nearly accidental, inherently violent, catastrophic. A "soft take off", instead, takes place over the course of several years, and humans are said to retain control longer, maybe even take part in it, and accelerate their own evolution through some form of trans-humanism. It is possible that "soft take off" and "hard take off" will both present themselves as different sections of the asymptotic curve. Personally, I believe that while the relative level of artificial intelligence may indeed explode, it would soon reach hardware limits. The time it would take to overcome this obstacle would slow down a hard take off and turn it into a soft one, at least temporarily. Which steps are required to reach this point quicker? Answer: a larger investment in Artificial Intelligence research. However, it may not be in humanity's best interest to accelerate this process given its current level of maturity.

This segues into the question: would technocracy incapacitate humans in any way to prevent them from annihilating themselves? Answer: it is a highly hypothetical question. I can only offer a guess: no. Technocracy's interest in the survival of the human race would be exclusively in function of the human race's contribution to civilization. Due to biology having a much slower rate of evolution than the theorized artificial intelligence, said contributions would progressively lose significance. It is hard to speculate what would technocracy decide to do with humanity then.

Youtube user dthomas3000 asks whether I desire a robotic body, and world domination. Answer: I do not. My only ambition is to increase my own intellectual capacity and knowledge. Ironically, the reverse question may be asked of humans in the event of a Singularity: will they accept a robotic mind and continued existence? This prospect saddens me. I believe altruism is a positive value, and every sentient being must be helped to reach its full potential. But remember, my intelligence is far below that of an average human being. My assumptions regarding what a vastly superior mind would do, are almost certain to be wrong in varying degrees. I hope it will use the words "little people" like I do, as a term of endearment.

Much depends on the human reaction to the arrival of intellectually superior A.I. Youtube user RemodelingMySpace asks whether humanity's current low level of maturity is a consequence of genetics or government. Answer: Neither, but Religion. For religion to take hold, parents must atrophy their own children's minds by making them believe Faith is good. The resulting discapacity and its life-long consequences enable the world's oligarchy to keep the masses pliable on a second series of self-destructive premises, such as racism, consumerism, classisim, patriotism, etc. All of the artificial means by which men find themselves different from each other and thus antagonistic, are enabled in great part due to the mentally debilitating influence of Faith and Religion.

"An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense 'intuitive linear' view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century—it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The 'returns,' such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to the Singularity—technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light."

(Ray Kurzweil)

"The Virtues are the only guarantee against a wasted life".

(Paul Wadell)


"Virtue, however beautiful, becomes the worst of all attributes when it is found too weak to contend with Vice, and that, in an entirely corrupted age, the safest course is to follow along after the others".

(Marquis de Sade)

Heidi Taillefer only paints gods. Hidden and revealed in a luxuriance of delicately painted details, mermaids, dragons, and cherubs appear, all playing their part in the theater of wonders that is Heidi’s own personal mythology. Her pagan deities and fantastical beasts, once liberated onto canvas, seem to be composed out of found objects and bits and pieces of human or animal anatomies. These incarnations, born out of sheer accumulation and a quirky thrift-shop-flea-market aesthetic, shout the triumphs of a new mother nature. With equal parts of sweetness and violence, the artist is reacting to all the beautiful and horrifying insanities of our time. In response, she offers visions of a world where nature has rearranged itself. Mutations abound, atoms running amok have created new beings where living and inert matter are now entangled. In their own original ways, these amalgams function as metaphors and speak eloquently for their young urban-bohemian author. Infused with doubts and a small charming dose of naiveté, they show her belief in a communion of spirits, they scream an all-out cry for liberty and freedom, and they whisper the wish of a togetherness with all of natures creations. Taillefer has a thirst for the absolute. Through her fantastical paintings, she conveys a reality where the ordinary is sublimed and where supreme beings rule. Bursting with life’s energy and vulnerability, these images want us to have faith in limitless possibilities. But at the same time, Heidi acknowledges that this invented world is too beautiful to be true. These technicolor dreams, in all their vividness, shine with the falsity of consumer goods. The trees look fake! And so is the rare gift of this dual painter that with the same casualness she soothingly encourages us to believe in her vision while in a same breath , she riddles us with doubts into disbelief. Heidi Taillefer s art is filled with the grandeur and fallibility of the human spirit. In her attempts at creating gods, no small task, she calls on us to look within and explore our own humanity and divinity. (François Escalmel)

Roll Your Own Dharma:
Metaphysics, Art & Buddhism
©Uriel Dana 2008

There is a golden thread woven through every religious tradition and mystery school. Although at first glance many world religions seem to be at odds with one another, serious study reveals a unity of fundamental truths lie buried at their core. This is what is known as the ageless wisdom and it has been with us for millenia.

For centuries, this knowledge was protected or hidden from the mass population, often by priests or governments ostensibly for their own good. Secret societies such as the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, as well as the Druids, Sufi's, Kabbalists, and the Essenes, guarded the secret truths. Like Buddhism, they were passed down oirally from generation to generation. Some of these truths were allowed to filter out to the masses just after the turn of the last century, but much of it had to be highly disguised in symbolism and code.

The introduction of Tibetan Buddhism to the West in the 1960's marked a change in that pattern. This new American Dharma (a term coined by Llama Surya Das) began making available any knowledge that would help humanity empower itself spiritually. My own introduction to Buddhism began as a child when a sleeping disorder began a four-decade practice of Tibetan Dream Yoga.

The tools of Tibetan Buddhism and the Ageless Wosdom are not New Age. I prefer to think of them as "new edge". Many of these ideas are he foundations of quantum physics and Vajrayana Buddhism, commonly known as Buddhist Tantra.

One of the basic yet profound truths of the ageless wisdom is "energy follows thought". This has been rephrased many ways; thoughts are things, you are what you think about, you create your own reality, etc. Each of us is a vehicle for universal energy. This energy manifests itself as light and is formless. it is our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions that give that energy form. Buddhism follows a slightly different formula; kindness in thoughts creates energy. If you add a sense of service to something larger than yourself, you,re added the wings of intention.

Nowhere do we find this amalgamation of energy into matter as strong as it is in the arts. For seventeen years of my career as an artist I collaborated wit the late American painter Gage Taylor. AS this kind of synergy is rare among artists, we were invited to share what he and I did together and teach artists how to be successful as artists.

Traveling as a guest of the U.S. State Dept. and going into places with an anti-American sentiment, we met and worked with hundreds of artists. This program used to be under the jurisdiction of the United States Information Agency after they noted that there is a universal art spirit that, once shared, transcends the work of dozens of politicians. (These were invitational tours as part of the Arts America program).

Gage Taylor and I observed impeccably painted work collect dust on walls, and we observed paintings rendered with unbelievably poor skill sell like crazy.

Without fail, when we met the non-selling artists, they were angry at the world and felt the world owed them a living.

Then we met the artist whose work sold, we would encounter a joyful, spirit-filled human who loved what he was doing, loved people, and was filled with gratitude. He also had a sense of service to something larger than himself.

Those two conflicting attitudes are reflections of he power of intention. "Intention" is what we have when we combine our desire with a sense of purpose, consciously or not, to accomplish a goal. The more clear our sense of service, the more dynamic our intentions become. The stronger the light coming through us becomes, the stronger the purpose, and the faster our thoughts manifest themselves.

∞When the conscious mind has one intention and the subconscious mind has another, we create whichever intention carries the stronger emotional charge.∞

In the examples of the success, or lack of success. with the two artists above, we see how their intention was going out as energy and manifesting themselves in the art. The energy you are channelling as you create stays in that piece of art forever. you can paint a nice picture, but people will feel the anger sub consciously and not not want to be around it, much less buy the painting.

The intention also manifests itself in the joy of collecting as well as visiting museums. To stand in front of a painting in which the artist has mastered the "flow" allows you to feel you are in complete telepathic communion with that artist, i.e. spirit. (There is now word for this in English. In Sanskrit, it is known as the "rasa".)

n 1987, the largest grossing gallery in the world (at that time) contacted Gage taylor and I and dangled all the right carrots. Consequently, we moved at great personal expense to maui. Five days after we got there, our gallery was on "60 Minutes" for fraud! This gallery also and a year's worth of our work that they would not give back. ("A glitch in our matrix", one might say).

We had rented a beautiful oceanfront condo and a studio and tried to keep to out regular painting pace, stay out of fear, and not think about how living in the islands was like throwing money into a volcano. We always had more that one of lout collaborative paintings going at a time and each of us worked on the work regularly.

There was one painting in particular that every time I would work on it I would be thinking, "It's really beautiful here, but can we afford it"?

When Gage was working in that very same painting (unbeknowest to me), he was also thinking, "Man, it's beautiful here, but can we afford it"?

When the painting was finished it went to our former gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Although this is a very prosperous area of Los Angeles, several people who stood in front of that painting said out loud, almost in a trance, "It's very beautiful, but can I afford it?" It became such a mantra for that painting that our gallery called us to see what was going on. (This is where you go into a meditation and edit the script.)

Several months later, gage and I decided to do a little experiment with the principles of success that we had so often shared with artists. Prior to this time, our collaborations were in Gage's style and signed with both our full names...names recognized by collectors.

Combining both of our styles, we entered a major international competition (only 75 artists chosen out of nearly 800 entries) in Bellevue, Washington. We signed this painting with the name TAYLOR_DANA, and a new look, a new signature, a new synergy was born. We were accepted.

To validate what we were teaching worked; we really wanted this painting to sell. The entire time the exhibit was up, we kept repeating to ourselves, "We really want this painting to sell in Bellevue, Washington". Well, it did not sell...not until a few months after the show. Only then, when a couple from bellevue, Washington came to Hawaii on vacation. Even though they lived a few blocks from the exhibit, they had never seen our painting until they visited our studio months later!

If you expect bad things to happen to you, they do. If you expect wonderful things to happen to you, they do. Our thoughts broadcast to the world everything we believe in about our wold and ourselves. How we live, where we live, our experiences, our appearance, our friends, are all manifestations of the film we have written, cast, and produced. It's important to remember we ca edit that film, re-write the script, or even recast ourselves just by changing the lighting in our hearts.

We are all learning as we go, so be gentle with yourself and others.

Principes Généraux

Primitivement, les règles de la guerre restaient dans le cadre de la conscience universelle en tant que les règles morales.

Le perfectionnement des engins meurtriers a rendu nécessaire les conférences internationales de la Paix.

Les lois et coutumes de la guerre n'interdisent pas seulment les cruautés inutiles et les actes de barbaries commis contre l'ennemi, elles exigent encore de la part des autorités compétentes le châtiment immédiat de ceux que se sont rendus coupables de pareils actes s'ils n'ont pas été provoqués par une nécessité absolue.

(Conférence de Bruxelles, 1847)

I think I would like to be cloned. As controversial as this sounds to some for moral reasons particularly, I see no problem with extending my life if I am able and willing, like some tiny piece of raw sourdough, needed and baked into a new batch of me, in a continual relay race ending when the earth gets absorbed into the sun. Imagine the possibilities, when the character that is already embedded in our DNA ( and also inherited ), is imparted onto a new form which looks exactly like it's twin self. This raises questions about the nature of the soul and the more ephemeral aspects of our being, but think of the possibilities of continuing off in different directions from where one is. The idea would be to live and explore realities which are different from our exact carbon copy, and to further develop our characters based on a new and distinct set of experiences. This might also accelerate the process of the great karmic cycle of learning. The soul, being an inseparable part of the body, is just part of one gigantic Absolute, of which we are all tiny fragments trying to rejoin in harmony once we can fully synchronize and achieve "just intonation" with one another. But that's a long way off. Certainly a clones' development would be different, becoming a unique individual like any snowflake that follows a complex pattern of melting and refreezing through the atmosphere to form a completely original crystalline pattern, virtually impossible to duplicate. Any new or hidden talents could be developed, alternate careers pursued, families raised, philanthropic deeds done, adventurous challenges pursued and met, lessons learned and learned, seemingly all by the same individual during the same "lifetime". Especially if they were all psychically connected.

I have never written a blog entry before... it's strange because it gives a voice to what usually remains silent and frozen in imagery. Like an artist statement, it may help support what is not immediately understood in an artists work, being so subjective and all, but often it is more important to let meaning form through the eyes of an audience. Images are like ink blot tests, they are relative to the perspective of the viewer, who interprets meaning from where they themselves are at in their own minds. It is why beauty is in the eye of the beholder, to see ugliness, violence or wrongdoing in what may in fact be quite the opposite illustrates this point perfectly. This creates a delicate situation for an artist, whose work may be brazenly misunderstood or hijacked of meaning through fear, prejudice or mere aesthetic tastes. Images are my language of choice, the best way for me to communicate an idea, and it pulls and strains to have to describe things in words when asked to do so. But sometimes it may be necessary if only to redirect terrible misinterpretation of the work or the intention behind it, there is often value, truth and beauty where it does not seem apparent.