Currently working on the third edition of my Japanese Gardens - a Journey into zen book and it all ties into the questions of possessions, having, not having, and what is it to have.
EMINENT DOMAIN Exhibition - organized by Scotto Mycklebust /
An epic eminent art party and exhibition Scotto Mycklebust threw at 524 West 26th in New York. The work I liked was by a Pakistani artist - painting on carpets and performance with a shroud made of bullet casings. The work is about the particular types of violence we practice in the US which is school shootings and other targeted decimations like the Orlando massacre. In Pakistan, violence is what they refer to as "honor killings".
Violence is very popular and practiced widely in the world today, although on a very human level we all agreed it is completely senseless. Violence, although completely absurd, is very popular today for three reasons:
- it is very profitable and
- allows for complete control of another human being or an entire state
- it is easy
Because you do not need hard work or study, or the labors of love, because love is difficult. Violence and guns, on the other hand, are cheap and easy. All you have to do is wave a gun and you are instantly in control of another human being and their entire world. No need for labor, no need of any sort of skill - these days in the US even toddlers kill people, inadvertently.
Practicing non violence is very difficult, labor and love intensive, and deadly.
Just look at the lives or Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, both bringing dramatic changes to the world. Because killing is easy and non-violence very difficult because requires talking, love, sharing - all the hard things.
Green, trees, nature, ponds... twigs /
Here I met a turtle, in such a place it's very difficult to think the world needs any art, all the best was already made here. I get into this Thoreau mode, and can't stop looking at the grass, all the twigs, and how well composed the colors are, and how everything is always harmonious and pretty much complete. I realized I understood why painters painted the same scene over and over, the same exact place perhaps with different lighting, because Nature has everything already, can't be beat when it comes to creativity and beauty.
The shadows are so well placed, the twigs, the colors. Marvelous patterns, never to be repeated.
..
Think for yourself first - my "i am always writing" book, and this is number one rule in it /
We are back to relying to the opinions of all kinds of royalty, media royalty, political royalty, opinion royalty, kitchen royalty, banking royalty. We forgot that it took storming the Bastille to establish the equality of the common man and this is what this country is based upon. The sweat and the thought of the common man. in fact the most important thing and rule number one is - think for yourself first. The gift of the enlightenment combined with our 21st century ability to access all information instantaneously… always depend on yourself to think, learn to develop your judgement with historical or any other perspective you choose.
You are the utmost authority, chances are the learned have as many chances to get it right as any of us.
Self-reliance updated for the 21st century.
Having recently become overly reliant on images and words from long times past, on this glorious July morning occasion I wanted to mention that the most important words and thoughts you will ever read and have are your own. No one else is more important or wiser than what you got inside. That’s why we were given this faculty – and this is why the thoughts of “sages and bards” are only second to the bard inside.
World Trade center sketch I did in Tilt Brush /
I have had this realization for a while now but for me certain death is not being able to create and just throw things out there and mess with various mediums until something new hatches. I have had many instance in my life where I had to go by on $5 a day.. heck, I had done it for months at $2 a day ( hello dollar pizza ) - but I cannot imagine my world without the adventure of art. I can go on without food but without having to use my faculties and writhe my hands into drawings - I can't do.
Automatic in Unity 3D - Constructed my Automatic pen and ink drawing in Unity 3D /
Constructed my Automatic pen and ink drawing in Unity 3D
Vader Tesseract Video /
Vader Tesseract /
Vader Tesseract is a sculpture I made in Zbrush based on my recent encounter with three NYPD detectives who decided to visit one morning and encountered my vader drawings on the wall, and almost decided to buy one on the spot. No worries not in trouble myself but realized I indeed have a vader drawing on every wall, almost a Vader Tesseract.
10 Hours of Amazing Ocean | BBC Earth /
I am so scared of deep water, but this amazing, unadulterated, unscripted, untouched, unspoiled, uncontrived beauty really makes me want to overcome that and learn how to dive and snorkel. I am dreaming to snorkel the great barrier reef, soon!
The ArtTruck - coming to a Manhattan street soon /
The ArtTruck installation has long been in my head, even before the time I made my cross country drive between Florida and California, about 3000 miles which I used wisely, to think. TheArt truck is special in that it was originally inspired by the American trucking culture I have long been fascinated with. I meant it as a countryside version of an art installation, where a large truck makes frequent stops along highways - at truck stops and rest areas, and out of the cargo hold come art materials. Primed canvas is stretched over the truck and then a quick and impromptu painting happens with people that happen to be there.
To make it work in Manhattan I went to U-haul on 23rd street and took some measurements and decided to use a van for the first ArtTruck project. Then I found a 3d model of a similar cargo van online and draped /dressed it in primed canvas to visualize what wrapping it and then painting it might look like.
One of my long term projects is Epicurus House /
One of my long term projects is Epicurus House, based on Epicurus philosophy. I envision it as a cross between ideas incubator and a zen garden with the focus on advancing civilization ( rather than mere reflection ). So what is Epicurus philosophy? from http://thephilosophersmail.com/perspective/the-great-philosophers-3-epicurus/
..Epicurus made three important innovations:
- Firstly, he decided that he would live together with friends. Enough of seeing them only now and then. He bought a modestly priced plot of land outside of Athens and built a place where he and his friends could live side by side on a permanent basis. Everyone had their rooms, and there were common areas downstairs and in the grounds. That way, the residents would always be surrounded by people who shared their outlooks, were entertaining and kind. Children were looked after in rota. Everyone ate together. One could chat in the corridors late at night. It was the world’s first proper commune.
- Secondly, everyone in the commune stopped working for other people. They accepted cuts in their income in return for being able to focus on fulfilling work. Some of Epicurus’s friends devoted themselves to farming, others to cooking, a few to making furniture and art. They had far less money, but ample intrinsic satisfaction.
- And thirdly, Epicurus and his friends devoted themselves to finding calm through rational analysis and insight. They spent periods of every day reflecting on their anxieties, improving their understanding of their psyches and mastering the great questions of philosophy.
Even today, Epicurus remains an indispensable guide to life in advanced consumer capitalist societies because advertising – on which this system is based – functions on cleverly muddling people up about what they think they need to be happy.
An extraordinary number of adverts focus on the three very things that Epicurus identified as false lures of happiness: romantic love, professional status and luxury.
Adverts wouldn’t work as well as they do if they didn’t operate with an accurate sense of what our real needs are. Yet while they excite us by evoking them, they refuse to quench them properly. Beer ads will show us groups of friends hugging – but only sell us alcohol (that we might end up drinking alone). Fancy watch ads will show us high-status professionals walking purposefully to the office, but won’t know how to answer the desire for intrinsically satisfying work. And adverts for tropical beaches may titillate us with their serenity, but can’t – on their own – deliver the true calm we crave
Epicurus invites us to change our understanding of ourselves and to alter society accordingly. We mustn’t exhaust ourselves and the planet in a race for things that wouldn’t possibly satisfy us even if we got them. We need a return to philosophy and a lot more seriousness about the business of being happy.
In terms of 21st century context I envision the house as a place for digital nomads who are interested in art and technology, a co-working and co-living space without for-profit agenda and providing a refuge from the financialization of thought.
A place for people who see themselves as lifelong learners and philosophers without the title, also a place for people who do not see value in owning expensive furniture or cars but see value in conversation and exchanging ideas for advancing civilization.
I see the house as a temporary or long-terms pit stop rather than a permanent dig. Unlike a hotel or an airbnb - the only currency would be courteous conversation and friendly attitude, and common goal of advancing civilization. With the only constant being the values of the people who reside in it.
Jackson Pollock MTA /
In the greatest city in the world art just happens :) New York's MTA - Metropolitan Transportation Agency which is in charge of the subway is making art too. Currently the MTA is under a lot of pressure and this took place at the Columbus Circle subway station around 11pm. The workers probably thought I am photographing them to complain. Nothing of that sort.
Pollock's famous painting just a few blocks away: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78386 .
Darth Vader pen and ink drawing /
I am working on a couple of new animations both based on my life here in New York /
The first one is "Laundromat", based on a real-life story.
Automatic Vertigo /
Animation and simulation with pen and ink drawings, based on a drawing with the same name:http://www.mirenarhee.com/pdrawings/mirena_rhee-drawing-automatic-states.html
More dancing in new York city /
Today! Drawings and .. New York city at its best /