My Work contribution to the Visual Aids: Post cards from the edge event:: Hosted by Zieher Smith Gallery in their new location at 516 West 20th Street, NYC- January 8-10, 2010 Benefit Sale [TAKE A POSTCARD HOME] Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 11:00 – 6:00 Sunday, January 10, 2010 from 12:00 – 4:00 For Complete information go here:: www.thebody.com/visualaids/current/postcards2009.html
“Visions in New York City ” - Short Films and Videos – Art Basel Miami, Verge Fair. 2009
Curated by Maurizio Pellegrin and Heather Van Uxem
Presented at The Verge Art Fair by Gitana Rosa Gallery and Fedele Spadafora
Along with Co-curator and Artist Heather Van Uxem
Special screening Saturday, December 5, from 6 to 9pm. 2009
The Catalina Hotel, 1732 Collins Ave
Ryan Seslow Installation at the Hillwood Art Museum.
I have been holding off on responding to this new piece since its installation this past few days ago. There is a part of me that is unsettled. It has nothing to do with the outcome of the installation itself, or the individual works with in the module. Its about the context of how the ART is being viewed, and where it should go after. I select content from several place and spaces with in my existence. I synthesize the use of my very conscious ego while unloading the unconscious data that pops up into my stream of everyday thought. I accept and allow. I am enormously affected by popular culture. I love images in and or themselves. I find colorful advertising stimulating. Full of design, shape, and form first before the message itself. I minimize things to examine them, and then I put them back together for another thorough exam. In this particular show something new happened. New questions have captivated me. I am working on them as we speak. I am obsessed with their dealings. The show took less than one hour and 30 minutes to install. It consists of over 150 pieces. I realized as I was installing, a new kind of urgency that took over. The work needed to be installed fast, much faster than the last 10 works of this scale. Why? I asked myself. What was this new energy all about? Then a question hit me while I was composing the work, which is 100% intuitive based on the number of works that I have, plus the scale of the space I have been allocated. Urgency is a non physical thing, but it can be measured in physical time. Duration began to play a roll in the process. Well, what good is this if I am the only one who knows how long it takes to install? And why does that matter? Duration and urgency are terms that I resonate with. They excite me. I unconsciously induce them. This is a good thing as the attraction demands explanation. This form, the written word is a powerful tool. It helps to clarify and become objective even with the most subjective of experiences. For the first time in my career as an installation artist I had evoked a new desire to perform the installation process live. Don’t get me wrong, I have created public art before, but I never publicized that fact that I was going to do it at a specific time and date. So, if you were walking by and found the installation interesting, you could stop and watch for a while, but Im pretty sure my selfish focus would have deflected you, and or encouraged you to move on. I have released that. I believe it comes from the context of how and where the art is shown. In the gallery and museum space only those who are invited, and or choose to come will view the works. I find this population to be very small in the grand scheme of things. I have a greater need to reach a larger audience on a more public scale, on a more global scale, and on a more selfless scale. It is my intention to activate the human potential with my work. It is my intention to activate and evoke your imagination with my work. To do this, I need to collaborate more with other people. Not just the art educated, and museum and gallery savvy, but the overall collective. Im going to add more to this entry soon.
On view as a part of the Long island University Art Department Faculty Exhibition. The Hillwood Art Museum is Located in Brookville NY, Campus of CW Post, Long Island University. December 1st – 23rd 2009. Opening night is Thursday December 3rd 5pm – 8 pm
I am the co-creator and curator of The Streaming Festival Student Edition. This is an international exhibition that streams out of The Netherlands. The program runs November 13th – 19th 2009.
We are here to activate your creative potential. We are here to extend and develop an international platform that will allow for networking and interaction with artists and educators from all over the world.
The program and its participants examine the works that were created during an artists student years. We are here to promote streaming Internet based exhibitions that includes the entire world as it’s audience. This is the streaming festival student edition’s first inaugural show, it is our intention to build and develop its process through the interactions that take place on the site and in the forums.
All are welcome to participate in the reviewing!
My New Film ” Transcending Situational Potential “ is a part of The Streaming Festival 4th Edition.
The exhibition runs November 20 – 30th 2009. Its on NOW, check it out!
” The Streaming Festival is an international audio visual art and film event. This event takes place on the internet, where films are broadcasted full screen with high image quality. The Streaming Festival takes place once a year. “
11-1-2009 – Film still projection experimentation.
Face it, we all love the fact that we need to control things. It’s a part of our human make up. Every so often, I feel that it is important to let ourselves go. Go,meaning, allow for something new to dictate to the habitual way that we do things. In this case, the WAY that we make our art, and or create our works on a regular basis. I believe that all human beings are creators, artists with in context, mostly by means of the unconscious. This is a wonderful energy for self discovery, healing, re-inventing the self, and simply learning. It is infinite and you are much more than you know you are…. OK, to the point. Experimentation. The image above is based on a film that I made in 2005. ” Installation ongoing part 3 “. The film stars Michael Perinelli ( @michaelkristin ) You can watch the film here : www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENdpN_zZyQ The emphasis is on composition but more so on technique development. Technique meaning, while developing and experimenting with new ways of creating works, I would document and record the process. I want to make assessments and ask critical questions from existing works as well as with new ones. We should not underestimate the power of older works or past ideas because the are most likely fragments of our future selves at the time anyway. The image above is a film still held on pause. I let the film play and pause it on various compositions that I find visually, aesthetically, and thought provokingly interesting . While set on pause I take various snap shots of the still frames and print them out onto transparency paper. The transparencies are then projected with an overhead projector directly onto the monitor that has a still frame from the film set on pause. At this point using a variety of capturing mediums ( my digital camera, digital video camera, 16 mm camera, and camera phone ) I take a series of pictures. This creates a layering effect with various grains of textures. This allows for many options. Some of these images are printed, some of them can be manipulated with photo-shop, some of them are cut up and placed into hand made arrangements of 2 dimensional works on paper. Some of them will be turned into still frames and displayed with the film itself as an installation. The list goes on, I’m sure you get the idea. Take peek into your index of past works, find the diamonds in the rough waiting to be cultivated by your imagination, or your new awareness. You know, the one that time has induced.
Invitation card for a group exhibition I am participating in at the Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, NYC, November 2009, Curated by Maurizio Pellegrin
Friday 13 November 2009: The screening of “Visions in New York City” between the hours of 6:00 pm and 9:00pm. Please view the attachment invitation image or the website http://www.visionsinnyc.com for details.
Raffi Asdorian makes abstract short films and music videos. He is currently working on a feature film. I believe that digital distribution is the future of media and technology. More : http://raffiasdourian.blogspot.com/
A sneak peep into the building process of my new installation. The actual composition is alway intuitive, but the works seem to pile up as they await their next temporary home. I love this aesthetic unconscious awareness, especially when it prompts me to take a photo so urgently. Thats an energy, its an important one. The next installation will be installed into the Hillwood Art Museum, Brookville, NY as a part of the Long Island University Art Dept. Faculty Exhibition. Installation date is set for November 24th 2009. More details to follow soon.
Imagination and Recognition have to do with YOUR mental images. Your Imagination is non physical. It is your past, present, and future. It is always becoming, as so yourself. It is the outright re-imagery in the mind’s eye of all of your life’s experiences. It is also the creation of new and original mental images or visions by the recombination of old experiential elements. There is an aspect of your deepest self that knows it is everything and everyone. Recognition relates predominantly to the mental images that are the replicas of past experiences. It is the faculty of your mind by which one will recognize his / her remembered experiences as a part of the past. If it were not for this sense of familiarity and of the perceived ownership we have of a past index of recalled mental images, there would be no way for us to distinguish the sense-perceptions of the past from those of the present. We do have unconscious physiological blue prints that were created by the emotional reaction to those experiences. Often, these thoughts patterns go on running
on ” auto pilot “, or through the unconscious use of one’s subconscious mind. The subconscious mind does not have a sense of humor. It believes everything you say and emote. Recognition is therefore an element of vital necessity to every act of memory. So then, how does one become aware of its unconscious habitual thoughts, especially if they are negative? How can you use your Imagination to become aware of what is
going on inside of you? Stay tuned, more on this soon…
Every physical ” Thing ” is but a concrete realization of your human thoughts molded out of the formless infinite intelligence of matter. Your mind is both finite and infinite. It is eternally creative and creating the organization of formless matter and material forces into concrete realities. Your realities.
Do you understand the working characteristics and principles of your Mind?
Can you clearly explain how your thoughts become ” things” ?
If not, this is your chance to begin “how to ” understand this important part of your existence.
Behind every thing and every act is ( and always has been), thought. Your picturing thoughts of sufficient intensity shape and fashion the physical events you experience. Creative imagination is an absolute prerequisite to the material achievements you wish to experience by specific desire.
So, what ROLE does your IMAGINATION play in this process?
Your conscience is the endowment of an infinite intelligence, it is responsible
for all one thinks, feels, acts and does. Past, current and forth coming experiences both purposely intended and unconsciously manifested teaches the individual it’s desirable contrasts.
Every thought is a cause. Keep this in mind! Each thought carries with it the ” Intended Emotional Energy” to effect its realization. This is always in effect. Even if you are completely unaware of how you FEEL when you are thinking. Use your imagination in your daily life and the strange ” serendipities and synchronicities ” will not not seem so ” coincidental ” after a while. Like any other skill, building a faculty with your imagination takes practice. It takes practice to hold a mental image for more than 2 minutes ( trust me, try it ! ) you will see results, but you must make it a habitual practice.
The Next Post will suggest ” HOW TO Practice the Use of your Imagination “.
Stay Tuned.
In the mean time- check out visual Imagination here:
Desire by Creating a Mental Image of what you wish to Experience, Fuel that Mental Image with
the Feeling of Childlike Excitement. Practice this each day.
What is your truth? How do we know when we know it? This is one of many interesting problems for the profound contemporary thinker. The idea of truth
has been philosophized and written upon at great length. It is ongoing with little evidence that it will slow down. I feel that each search for truth(s) must declare a certain position. What we think and what we feel must match, but what if they don’t? One will keep in mind, clearly, that the simplest theory of knowledge is that of its own personal experiences. Would you agree, if we believe everything the media and newspapers tell us, we are surely living life on default? Must all knowledge must be acquired through the physical experiences of our outside world? And of our mental states in relationship to it? When we look at “something” we obtain an impression through our eyes, an impression of a sensory based experience, we are usually able to make a statement to ourselves: “This ” thing ” is ” such “… This is merely one of the simplest statements that can be made. Through the process of our sight we decide upon a meaning connected to how we feel both physically and emotionally. We may be affected by the smell, or a very sweet taste. A shrill sound may also create impressions. Are these assertions superficial in character and limiting upon the duration of time the experience has granted us? On this physical plane, nature is orderly and consistent, it will do today as it just did yesterday, perhaps one may experience a slight variation. What does this say about the way you think?
Modern science has explained space, but they still have not fully
explained time. Time is the inexplicable intelligent substance of
everything. With time everything is possible, but without time…,
nothing? The infinite supply of time is a miracle. Is it not? It is
a concept that goes beyond the comprehensible vastness of
astonishing. When we examine the idea of Time,..Oh, you mean
that you simply do not have Time to try to understand Time?
By the way, when was the last time that you positively
examined time in relationship to your LIFE? Each day we wake
up and you discover that day has been magically granted
another twenty-four hours! 24 hours to experience the
unmanufactured cellular fibers in the universe of your life!
Is this not yours? It is the most wonderful of possessions.
No other human being can take these 24 hours from you.
It is not for sale today or any other day. It can never be stolen,
indeed not. No other human being receives more or less than
you receive. Isn’t that right? Your use and understanding of
time is the ideal linear democracy! So where do you stand on the
boundaries of your Time? In the multidimensional realm of
time there are not higher or lower levels of wealth or intelligence.
Time does not punishment you or anyone else. In fact, you
can waste your time as much as you would like, and the supply
will just keep keeping on, never be withheld from you. You
cannot waste tomorrow or the future because the universe is
mass producing more of it just for you. So, now that you
attention has been kept, and you are fully activated, what is
your next move? Your happiness is the goal for each and everything
that you do. Think about it, WHY do you DO the things that
you do….to be happy of course. So, what will happen when science
DOES actually fully explain TIME? What does this mean
for the nature of our thoughts and our desire to
experience things? Time travel anyone?
Change your life simply by changing your life! React in a new way to your habitual patterns of behavior and you will discover a new awareness about yourself.
Sit back, relax, watch, this video art synthesis will remove your unwanted unconscious blocks.
The perceptual ” facts of life” are conveyed through our senses. A direct train to the expanding consciousness within us. The elements and fragmented interpretations stimulate our world of thought and feeling. This formula constitutes our “real life.” Your thoughts and feelings are very, VERY intimately connected. What would you say, when new ideas form with in you, or you receive an immediate flash of an idea, are these mental perceptions accompanied or unaccompanied by some feeling? How do you decipher? Why is it important to know how you feel while you think? I do believe that there are many a means of giving expression to the emotional side of our mental activity. But how do we catch it? There is a very sensual side to feeling. The intellect constructs, it adds from perceived or agreed upon facts brought to our consciousness by the senses. If our physical senses are limited, when will one know if its assessment is accurately measured in this world of spiritual phenomena? Hmmm? Do you consider your life to be spiritual? ( Not to be confused with religious, spiritual and religious are two separate ideas.) If so, can you describe HOW?
Perhaps there is an ever changing human equation in each one of us. On a subconscious level it seeks to create several points of view that go ” outside the human comprehension.” It therefore depends on ” Other Suchness” to invent mechanical and technical instruments to do a degree of measuring for our sense perceptions. An intermediary device between the non-physical and the physical. But if you think about it today, why are these intermediary devices getting smaller and smaller? What if we view this from a purely artistic intelligence. Lets say, that from your highest creative potential lies with in you a dormant aspect of yourself. It is not interested in things from a mechanical standpoint of accuracy, but purely in the effect of observation. An observation of the feeling living consciousness itself. Our feelings are connected to an incomprehensible wide range of experiences, each one has certain emotions belonging to the particular sense perception connected with it. Is it not fascinating?
Your memory is a vast storehouse of artistic content and material.
These are treasures of which one may know little about until a chance
association activates its dark recesses. From your early years on the
mind has been storing up impression after impression. Deeply embedding
a card catalog of everything and everyone into the mysterious
chambers collected from the fragments of nature, works of art, the
perception of time, and anything else that comes within the field of your
vision. It is from this “hard drive ” that the imagination draws its material.
I have discovered that the memory has a great advantage over ones direct
vision, oh yes, it retains far more vividly the seemingly important things,
and has a funny habit of losing what is unessential to vague pictorial impressions.
What is the “essential” in a reflection? What is it that makes one want to
imagine, dream, and reflect? I know, we can easily approach some very
debatable ground here. Indeed we can and do ask questions, the
answers to which will vary with each individual and his or her perceptions.
Rays and rays of light strike our retina. They convey vibrating particles
of atoms to our brain, and from our brain to whatever is ourselves….
What are your laws that govern the mental,emotional, physical harmony
of your universe? How do you decide when they come? Is it derived
from trees, the sky, the earth, our own flesh or blood that interests us
human beings? Or rather that through these things in a time line of
memorable moments one is permitted a consciousness of deeper things?
Perhaps it is the process itself that impels us to seek just what
exactly is moving him or her. Records of these moments in which
one installs the truth in things seen that which one wishes to convey
to others. Do you experience flashes of inspiration?
What about flashes of intuitions? Flashes of unexplainable actions
that you are propelled into? This is purely the work of the creative
human imagination! It is your greatest tool. It is your artistic impulse
that takes on the role of ” consciousness alchemist! ” The continual
observation of anything you have set your mind on day after day,
comes with it a series of impressions, as both the physical eyes and
the mind’s eye become more and more familiar with the details
of the subject. Long behold the original E-motion that was the
reason of the whole experience in the first place……
There is another point that I would like to make about Vibrating Energy.
Our friends, the Scientists, have taught us that all matter is in vibration.
Let me re-emphasize this : All MATTER is in vibration. Ageless philosophies
point to the theory that matter itself is nothing more than centers of force in
vibration. What is the lowest vibration? Cockroaches? Vermin? A stomache
ache after several ice creams?..No, The lowest vibration we know is that
of sound. Second, and at a much higher rate, heat. Electricity is also a
form of vibration. To this very modern day many scientists feel that life
is a “species” of vibration. That this vibration is so high that we have no
possible means of measuring it. Even the most powerful electron microscopes
can not give us a clear enough measurement that can be easily translated into
common language for all to ponder and discuss. Our vibration is so high, that the
basic conversation itself ” saturates comprehension and blows the circuits .”
We have all had a basic education of science. But when does the topic of human
vibration come up in relationship to how one can use and develope this energy?
Can this knowledge and application transform lives? Especially if it is so powerful.
it certainly seems so. As we were the youthful students of science we knew
that air appeared to be the medium for conveying the vibrations of sound and
metal was the medium for conveying the electric vibrations. What about the
vibrations of heat and light? What was this intermediary device or vehicle for
our physical eyes to observe? We were told that we had to imagine an invisible
substance which fills all space and has no exact property of matter that we can
distinguish upon……….. except of course that the conveying vibrations of light
can take on MILLIONS of VARIOUS forms. Millions huh? So if thoughts can be
measured as light energy that can take on millions of potential forms, and this
energy vibrates no differently than anything or anyone else how can one select
a life of default with out knowing? How does all of this connect to the mind itself?
Also in relationship to the bodies physiology?
Default meaning that we are assumed to BELIEVE the things we see in Books
at a tender age of confussion with in the body.
( Remember what you were like at 13, 14 or 15 ? )
Facts in science are indeed amazing. I have no conflict with this, but, BUT:
I feel that some theories have come to be adopted by students because they
explain certain phenomena of all kinds, and they do this better than any other
theories which have been offered at the time.
When was the last time you investigated your thoughts in relationship to HOW
they work in relationship to modern science?
Thoughts = Vibrating Light Energy = Everything and Everyone
Last spring I was invited to curate an all video art based exhibition for the permanent collection at the Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, CUNY. I am happy to announce that the exhibition can now be viewed in its entirety online. The exhibition can also be viewed in the galleries media room upon request.
“Video Synthesis” is an examination of the Inter-relationships of Video Art, Performance, Experimental Film, & Vanguard Documentary. The purpose of this exhibition is to survey, expose, and raise the awareness of motion related art through the medium of video. The works exhibited have all been created using a digital video camera and computer based editing software as a means of expression and communication. It was my intention to select a diverse array of artists that focus on various subjects and techniques to execute their work. The show will present fragments of traditional video art, aspects of performance based art, narrative experimental film, and vanguard documentary. The works have been placed in a chronological order to be viewed one after another. I feel that each piece will add to what synthesizes fragments of a larger whole. The chronological flow of each piece creates a perceptual module.
Aesthetics is your perceptual science on beauty. It is
developed as your system of rules that express the relationships
between objects and your sensory pleasures of them. It is also
your system of conditions to which the objects, in order to
be beautiful, must conform! It is difficult to say from my
perception, where your personal stance as the
aesthetic observer ends, that is your job. The inner critic
begins here. Objects and things are defined by purposes, the
aim of each thing is in discussion with your system of
principles. When this occurs the science of aesthetics will
take shape, criticism will set in. The analysis of the
experience by means of your inner laws already formulated
( conscious or not ) endure power in the realm of beauty,
and to the perception of its dualistic aesthetic conditions.
Every fragmented aspect of aesthetics begins by
declaring the existence and claims of its methods of review.
Psychological, philosophical, subtractive, emotional, and
reflective. These components will install beauty into its place.
Many other concepts seek to engage the general principles
of beauty from the objects of the aesthetic experience.
The process need not be as complex as it may sound.
Another human being can not take away another aesthetic
perception and or experience. But you say, human beings
are easily persuaded? Visible beauty, as an aesthetic value
of pure form is not the only element involved, because it
must be decided whether or not it is the only element involved.
In a work of art, what belongs to its beauty?
Brilliant color-schemes? The convincing expression of emotion?
Composition? Transcendence? Materiality? How do you define what
Art is anyway? Why is this question important?
How do you identify when you are having an aesthetic dialog with
yourself? These feelings arise in the state of contemplation
while silently observing, looking, taking in what the limited
senses explain of the object, place, person or thing. But what
is it that makes an object, place, person or thing beautiful?
To contemplate an object is to ponder upon the idea or image
of it. We have grasped the idea by taking some form of action
on it. This may simply be a conversation with a friend,
colleague, or complete stranger. You may have this conversation
with yourself, or you may write it down. This helps us understand how
we think about things? Reaching this point by successful strides,
a perfect moment appears. It may be a split second or a dreamy
stand still of time. It will have a truth in which we touch the
confines of our being, we can grasp it in this space and
temporarily possess it. The aesthetic experience is one of which
that grasps the complex conditions of our being and it even
gives ourselves back to us completed.
Well, Does it?
Im sure that you have heard: ” I can’t help my thoughts.”
This is false. The control of your thinking mind is perfectly
possible. Nothing happens to us outside our own brain.
Nothing hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the
brain, How much do you know about your brain? How
it functions and why it does what it does? Have you given
this any thought in relationship to your own life? The
importance of being able to control what goes on in the
brain is crucial. This idea is one of the oldest truths, it is
this concept whose profound truth and urgency most people
live and die without realizing. You may hear people complain
of the lack of ability to concentrate, not knowing that they
may acquire this power, if they choose, and understood why.
Without the power to concentrate and dictate to the brain
( to ensure obedience ) the perception of true life may
seem impossible. Your mind control is crucial to your
relationship with existence. The first order of business of
each day should be to put the mind in place. We look after
our bodies, inside and out; we run the dangers of hacking
many hairs off our skin; we employ a massive army of
individuals, the banker, the butcher, the neighbor, the teacher,
the boss, the policeman, the media, and every other potential
role of suchness of title.Why do we not devote a little
bit more attention to the far more delicate machinery of
our minds? “What? ” you say, ” I am to cultivate my own
mind in the street, on the train platform, in my car, and in
then in crowded streets of life,.. again?” YES, Of course!
Precisely! There is nothing simpler. No special tools are
required. Everything that you need is already inside of you.
You just need the exposure and awareness to see and
understand it. Nevertheless, the affair is not easy, It takes
practice and effort. This I admit.
So, HOW do you begin to ” Watch your Mind “?
From the minute that you wake up each morning concentrate
your mind on a subject (it can be any subject matter to begin
with, but lets try to focus on a POSITIVE thing). At first,
you will not have gone ten steps before your mind has
vanished away under your very eyes and is already
around the corner with another subject….Your job in
the beginning stages is too become aware of this! Bring
it back, focus, and hold your attention to the subject
or thought at hand. By the time that you have reached your
first stop of the day ( office, work, school, bank, supermarket,
ect..) you will have lost and brought it back about fifty times.
Do not despair, Continue focusing, Keep it up, You will succeed.
You cannot by any chance fail if you persevere. I will repeat
that: You cannot by any chance fail if you persevere! It is
LAZY to pretend that your mind is incapable of concentration.
Lets reflect a bit here, do you remember one that morning
when you received a serious announcement, letter, or phone
call which demanded a very carefully-worded answer from you?
How did you keep your mind so steadily focused on the subject
of the answer without a second’s intermission, until you reached
your office, work, school, bank, supermarket, ect..?
At that point you instantly sat down and wrote the answer?
That was a case in which you were so influenced by the
circumstances to such a degree of emotion that you were able
to dominate your mind like a bent dictator. You insisted that its
work should be done, and its work was done, now, was that
purely completed on “auto pilot” , your ” unconscious mind
” did it for you? I think not. The regular practice of concentration
can reprogram your habitual thinking. No matter what place or
time, the exercise is a very convenient one. I do not really care
what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate.
But be it known that one who concentrates on fears or lack,
will indeed attract more fear and lack!It is the focused disciplin
of the thinking process that counts! You may as well ” kill two
birds with one stone” , and concentrate on something useful
and positive. Try it! Get your mind in hand.
And see how the process cures half of the evils of
life–especially worry, that miserable, avoidable
worry!
Up and Down we go, the inner politics of your psyche try to pull one
over on you. The subconscious aspect of " the change " that you have
made feels a need to react..... that reaction becomes a cause.....
Video Art by Ryan Seslow
I want to include a more general idea of pictures of various kinds, it seems to me that while picture & image making belongs to the fine arts, it is now a very useful art in many other ways. Books, magazines and web pages are illustrated, how much more easily do we understand the subject we are studying through the help we get from pictures and images of objects or places that we have not seen, but wish to know about. Pictures and images of natural scenery bring all of the countries of this world before our eyes. They do this in such a way, that by looking at them we understand a great deal more about the places we have never seen, and may never be able to visit. By the way, who does not love pictures? Human beings get pleasure searching through magazines, books, web pages, stacks of old and new photos, and catalogs. We are information sponges. Our subconscious mind absorbs everything. Every image is stored and archived ready for potential use! We should regard visual images as one of the most agreeable means of education. What one does with this information is of great importance! The visual, emotional, and metal use of images give us a clear idea of what we have not yet seen, they excite our imaginations, and often help us to create what it is we desire to experience. When was the last time that you gathered several images of “ places and things “ you would like to experience, learn about or simply have? What does this exercise do for the imagination? It stimulates it, it activates it, it begins a process of manifestation.The constant cultivation of ones imagination is very important, because in this way we can add much to our individual happiness. This is the result of cultivating the perceptive and imaginative faculties, and once this is done, we have a source of pleasure within ourselves and not dependent on others which can never be taken from us.
The Ongoing Portrait Project is an expanding script that will visually examen human connections in relationship to one’s self. You have not found this page by accident, you have been lead here. Welcome aboard. This project will expand off of the web and into physical reality. Its infancy begins here.
Can you see a part of yourself inside of Every other Human being?
Request participation info here: ryan@ryanseslow.com
Your mind can be observed and known. But each person can know only his own mind, and not another! You may look into anothers face and try to guess the meaning that lies within the smile or flash of the eye. You may perceive to read something of the mind’s activity, but it is only your perception. Can we directly meet another mind? We may learn to recognize each others features, know the voices, and even respond to the gestures of our hands, but the mind and the consciousness which does our thinking and feels our joys and sorrows, we can never know anothers completely. We can never know another mind at all except through the bodily acts and its expressions. Nor is there any possible way in which one can reveal another mind, ones spiritual self, to anyone except through these means. Only you can ever know you! Only I can ever know I. Between your consciousness and mine there exists a wide gap that cannot be bridged. Each of us lives apart. No matter how close we believe we are to another. We may work together, live together, come to even love or hate each other, and yet our inner most spiritual selves forever stand alone. We live our own lives, think our own thoughts, and arrive at our own destiny through the habitual thoughts we think. Consciously or Unconsciously.
INTROSPECTION is the ONLY MEANS of observing your CONSCIOUSNESS!
What is mind? What exactly is the thing that we call our consciousness? There is not a definition that can ever make it clearer than it is at this moment to each of us. The only possible way to know what your mind is, is to look in upon our your consciousness and observe what is transpiring there. YES, this takes work and practice. Do you not owe this to yourself? You wish to Grow? You wish to Evolve? You wish to expand and experience certain things based upon your desires, correct? We must introspect. One can never come to understand the actual nature of ones mind and its laws simply by going to lectures, reading text books, or googling “ the mind “ alone. There is comprehensive psychology only in your living experiences. You must be aware of these experiences by identifying them!
Lectures , books and the Internet may tell us what to look for when we introspect, and how to understand what we find. But the
statements and descriptions about our minds must be verified by our own observation and experience before they become a vital truth to us! Until the unconscious is made conscious of what it has not understood before, an inner struggle for this truth may take a long long time. So, how do you do this? HOW do we INTROSPECT? Introspection can be viewed as an art form. It must to be learned. Some people can master it easily, some have more difficulty, and for some it is feared. Fear in itself can transcend into habitual thought patterns, making everything and everyone seem to be against you. It does not have to be this way. In order to introspect one must catch himself being unaware, in the very act of thinking, remembering, deciding, loving, hating, and any other thought that continues to ” pop up “ most of the time. These phases of your consciousness are always present, they never pause in their restless patterns and we must catch them as they go. This is not as easy as it appears. The moment we turn to look in upon our mind, that momentary consciousness changes. The thing we meant to examine is gone, and something else has taken its place. All that is left then is a view of the mental object while it is still fresh in the memory. At this moment one must catch it again when it returns, and upon this realization, one MUST CHANGE THE THOUGHT COMPLETELY! Yes, this takes practice and work, but it is possible. How aware are you of your own thoughts? What are you thinking about most of the time? Are you on auto pilot? Or are you consciously choosing your thoughts?
Everyone should desire to have a good imagination. Not everyone would agree as to what constitutes a good imagination. Hmmm, If I were to ask you whether you have a good imagination, you may fall to considering whether you are capable of creating seemingly non physical intangible realms of thought and unrealities out of “airy nothings.” You may be forced to compare yourself with the great creators of the world ( Artists, Musicians, World Leaders, Authors, ECt… ) and judge your power of imagination by your ability to produce such ” ART or HISTORY ” as made those great human beings famous. Why would you do such a thing? How often do you find yourself saying : ” I cant do that ” before it has even been attempted? A good imagination, like a good memory, is the one which serves its owner best. The artist, the architect, the teacher, the professional whatever you may be, all need to use the imagination in their world no less than writers need it in theirs, but each person needs a specialized kind adapted to the particular work which he/ she has to do. What do you do or wish to do? Weather you know it or not, your desires come directly from your subconscious, the subjective mind, in other words, your imagination!
Imagination is not just a process of thoughts which must deal chiefly with non physical realities and impossibilities, and or the end result just for our amusement when we have nothing better to do than to follow its wandering and ramblings. Your Imagination is a commonplace, a necessary process which co-creates the way for our everyday thinking and acting. Did I mention that you have complete control over this! It is a process without which we think and act by haphazard chance or blind imitation. The process by which acquires past images from our mental, and emotional states experienced are activated and made to serve our evolving present moments. Our imagination looks into our future and builds our patterns
and lays out our plans. It sets up the inner ideals and pictures within us in the acts of achieving them. Can you SEE yourself in this process? When you visualize something, do include yourself in this mental picture? If not, YOU MUST! The Imagination enables us to live our happiest and saddest moments, our greatest achievements and our defeats before we reach them! The imagination can look into the past and allow us to live with our beginning and see things in the process of the making. It comes into our present and plays a part in every act from the simplest to the most complex. Have you considered this?
Your thoughts will become actual tangible things! Each and every form that exists is the expression of a thought, idea or desire.
MILESTONE! Welcome to the Ryan Seslow Ongoing Retrospective!
The ART of Ryan Seslow has hit 5,000 works. I began using Flickr in 2006 to see how long it would take to create 5,000 works of ART, and archive the progress as an experiment. Well, the progress continues and we have reached our goal. Please check out the 3 year ongoing works of Ryan Seslow. : http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmsmovement/sets
Acrylic paint residue arranged onto a ready made form.
New works in 2009.
Welcome to the ART of Ryan Seslow.
It is a multidisciplinary experience. I suggest that you begin your travels on the HOME page.
This blog promotes the idea that we experience the physical world of form through manifesting our inner dialogs outwardly. The conversations that one has with itself will solidify fragments of infinite
possibility. As the navigator, one will discover its vastness, an energy directly connected to
everything and everyone. Consider the concept and context of what you perceive as “self “, as a physical absorbent of expanding potential. Every human being, every momentary encounter,
every relationship, every object, & every geographical location will serve as a portal of your expansion. What is your relationship to the facility of your learning potentials? And where
do you want to GO?! I use and teach a multidisciplinary artistic process to navigate my world.
I welcome you to explore with me, welcome aboard, you have been cast into the ongoing script.
Ryan Seslow is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York.
Working in all mediums Seslow shows his work both nationally and internationally.
He is also a professor of fine arts teaching studio art courses simultaneously between 4 colleges in the NY area.
More Wall building, installation art continues in 2009,
Enjoy
RMS
Your memory is a vast storehouse of artistic content and material.
These are treasures of which one may know little about until a chance
association activates its dark recesses. From your early years on the
mind has been storing up impression after impression. Deeply embedding
a card catalog of everything and everyone into the mysterious
chambers collected from the fragments of nature, works of art, the
perception of time, and anything else that comes within the field of your
vision. It is from this “hard drive ” that the imagination draws its material.
I have discovered that the memory has a great advantage over ones direct
vision, oh yes, it retains far more vividly the seemingly important things,
and has a funny habit of losing what is unessential to vague pictorial impressions.
What is the “essential” in a reflection? What is it that makes one want to
imagine, dream, and reflect? I know, we can easily approach some very
debatable ground here. Indeed we can and do ask questions, the
answers to which will vary with each individual and his or her perceptions.
Rays and rays of light strike our retina. They convey vibrating particles
of atoms to our brain, and from our brain to whatever is ourselves….
What are your laws that govern the mental,emotional, physical harmony
of your universe? How do you decide when they come? Is it derived
from trees, the sky, the earth, our own flesh or blood that interests us
human beings? Or rather that through these things in a time line of
memorable moments one is permitted a consciousness of deeper things?
Perhaps it is the process itself that impels us to seek just what
exactly is moving him or her. Records of these moments in which
one installs the truth in things seen that which one wishes to convey
to others. Do you experience flashes of inspiration?
What about flashes of intuitions? Flashes of unexplainable actions
that you are propelled into? This is purely the work of the creative
human imagination! It is your greatest tool. It is your artistic impulse
that takes on the role of ” consciousness alchemist! ” The continual
observation of anything you have set your mind on day after day,
comes with it a series of impressions, as both the physical eyes and
the mind’s eye become more and more familiar with the details
of the subject. Long behold the original E-motion that was the
reason of the whole experience in the first place……
Drawing Connections: Spirituality, Creativity, Imagination, and Your Potential- Inter-Related?
Could this be the activating formula that we have been waiting for?
What is Spirituality?
Spirituality is NOT just an association with any one type of religion or philosophy. One must understand this. Spirituality manifests itself through many variations of life. Spirituality is an understanding that life expands from a certain inwardness. Upon the awareness of this inwardness, one knows there exists something from which we came and will one day return to. This understanding makes our heart beat, it makes winter change effortlessly into spring. It is far move evolved than the limitations of our five physical senses. Spirituality is a personal relationship with ones self in relationship to its perceived creator. Spirituality is an ongoing journey and learning experience from the inside out.
What is Creativity?
Creativity is the action and ability to give tangible form to an idea, impulse or intuition. It can be a brand new idea, or it can be an extension of something that already exists. Creativity can change the context of something in a new and innovating way. Please understand that all creativity begins inside of us. It starts out as all things do, as an energy, a thought, it starts out as a non- physical thing. This non physical energy is spiritual. It comes to us from the infinite source of supply. Some call this God, some call it the divine, some call it the universe, some simply call it universal omnipotence. Creativity’s desire is your desire and need of physical expression. Creativity can be expressed infinitely, it should not be limited to any one discipline of expression.
What is the Imagination?
The Imagination is one’s ability to perceive, intuitively sense, form ideas, create mental images and sensations of potential things and or events. These experiences could be directly related to ones own life and or the lives of others. The imagination is infinite, it is the storehouse of all potential perceptions that can be become reality. Everything tangible begins in ones imagination.
What is ones Creative Human Potential?
It is the certainty and capacity for ones creative and imaginative intentions coming into physical being. There is an inner likeliness of the expected mental image and feeling associated to it to become and be.
It is my pleasure and goal to take concepts of creativity, imagination, spirituality and the overall human potential, to make them accessible and understandably applicable for everyone. These concepts play a role in the shaping of our reality as we know it. Our thoughts affect our bodies just as they affect our physical world.
How are you currently creating your experiences?
Spiritual Awareness + Imagination = Creativity.
Creativity is the Desire of Self Expression.
Self Expression + Your Creative Potential = An Innovative Injunction ( The experience and all of the content involved to make it happen ).
I am asking you to consider using the meanings of these terms for your personal growth. By researching more information on your own, you will be led to find the content that you resonate with. We are here to co-create our physical reality, this makes us responsible for creating the manuals for our lives!
The creative imagination first asserts itself inwardly through the projection of mental images, mental pictures, feelings, sensations and emotions. This energy exists not only for its creator, but for all.
Imaginative creation is induced and expanded inwardly as something big or small, but no matter, we must understand that its birth is organic and
non physical. The manifestation process of an intended experience created in the imagination requires the physical injunction of an action. Human beings must facilitate this action. ( it can be as simple as “ doing something”, answering your phone, taking a walk, painting a stroke, sending an e-mail, writing a note to yourself, dancing, ect…)
Studies with Light and Space, this installation challenges the context of my Paintings. Technology evolves and expands with or with out us, or is the definition of technology a fragment of our own sub-personalities. Perhaps one that we do not know very well. I love technology.
3-23-2009
Ryan
The imaginative metamorphosis and your creative self transformation is an ongoing evolving process. It continues through out your life, if you are aware of that or not. It first occurs through a transfer of “situational partial resemblances of remembrance.” These experiences depend upon on the vague resemblances of our everyday encounters: The clouds above move and as they change form you begin to see an animal, or an old tree looks like human being in gesture or action, the sounds of the ocean may evoke the emotion of a baby’s cry. These examples harbor on a resemblance with a predominating element already existing in your unconscious mind. They have been cataloged and indexed into your being. Sadly, we do not seem to think we have access to extend and trans-mutate these things as expressions or use them as injunctions towards manifestations. Our perceptions provoke feelings, and these feelings form mental pictures that
become the “signs.” These could be plastic or purely symbolic. Perception is a contributing factor, but the main function of the imagination is to invent, not to perceive. The experiential process
may create in metaphors, templates, immediate actions, intuitions, symbols, or allegories. This process and experience is NOT restricted only to the world of art, it has the same potentiality for any discipline, subject or content creation. It will need your confidence, belief, energy, and love. The next time you find yourself experiencing the: ” Hey, look, the clouds look like a German Sheppard! ” Take note of this effortless act of nature, know that you are a part of that same creative imaginative energy, and begin to open yourself to the same process, I’m not suggesting that you attempt to shape shift into a German Sheppard, but you get the idea.
Fragments of the Future.
Functional -vs- Non Functional. Aesthetics -vs- Formal Clarity.
Several Silicone rubber molds are being made of various hybrid objects.
It is my interest to find subjectivity with concrete clarity, ah , more to come.
The New Studio Installation is in Progress – April 2009.
Activating awareness to the mundane, minimizing the contexts of forms.
Is it safe to assume that anything can be turned into Art?
Is there such a thing as a “creative block?”
Have you ever thought of networking with yourself?
Dialogs with the self as human experiment continue.
And, saving plastic forms of all kinds …
Ryan Seslow , Black and White : A Collection of Drawings for Coloring 1995-2007. This book can be printed as many times as one may desire from any ordinary printer. You can print the entire book, or choose only selected illustrations one at a time. After printing, color the illustrations in by hand with crayons, colored pencils, pastels, oil sticks, or paint them with water colors! If you enjoy playing on your computer, you can open the illustrations in your computer’s Paint Program! Using the color swatches and tools option you can draw, paint and fill in selected areas for a more graphic feel. If your printer allows you to print color, you can print your completed master piece out in color! Maybe you are a collage’ artist who loves to cut and paste? Print out a variety of multiple illustrations to create various compositions, arrangements or hybrids! Paste them together and create you own book! Do you love to make stickers? Print your favorite illustrations onto sticker paper, cut them out and stick them everywhere! Maybe you’re a lover of black and white illustrations? Print the images onto glossy photo paper and frame them up, IT’S ART! Remember, these are just a few options that you can start with. Sky is the limit!
For more info: ryan@ryanseslow.com
Time? Well…? Are you wasting it? Putting off your ideas for tomorrow, or the weekend, or how about when you have time over the summer….ENERGY! Take action my friends! Do not let creative ideas or energies leave your first impressions or intuitions. I have jumped out of bed at 4:00 A.M. on many a nights to take action. Well, this may seem extreme, but what follows after the action you take will solidify your understanding and need. It may be a day later, or even a week, but the next piece of the puzzle will then present itself, and you will say YES to it! You are your creative potential, you are your memory banks of infinite ideas. Allow them in will you!
Visual Images communicate messages. Intentional and perhaps subliminal. Composing images together creates a formula, in this case it is subliminal yet distracting and overstimulating. If you had to describe what you see in just 20 words, what would that be?
Acrylic Plastic Cast Series.
The original was carved and sculpted out of clay.
I used a silicon rubber to create the mold for casting.
Mold making is a wonderful method for creating multiples.
Multiples = Repetition of the same form. Repetition is a powerful design principle indeed. These are wall pieces for now, but I have some ideas for installation on the ground as well.I’m not sure just how many I will need to full fill the desire that I have just yet. These are about 4 inches square. So far I have casted them in plastic, rubber, plaster, water ( frozen to ice ) and cement.
More to come.
4-20-09
This piece was created for the SPRING FEVER exhibit curated by Andrew Michael Ford at The Kings County Bar /Gallery 286 Seigel Street, Brooklyn NY. The opening is @ 8pm 4-25-09
The New painting series is based upon a series of ceramic sculptures that were carved in 2007.
The ceramic forms were created horizontally. As an experiment to discover new forms both 3 dimensionally and 2 dimensionally I have simply studied the forms and rendered them as drawings. The pencil studies evolved into ink line drawings and silk screen prints. I turned the images vertically to see what would happen. Although I feel the horizontal forms work well, the vertical image holds up as a stronger painting. This painting is 48″ X 64″ it is black oil stick draw onto the canvas, the interior forms are filled with acrylic paint. There 8 paintings in this series to date.
I have branded this image as the official Icon of the human Imagination.
New Paintings in 2009. Acrylic on Masonite. 18″ X 48 “
This is a work in progress. It deals with the perception of emotions.
What do emotions look like internally? As we often perceive emotions as
feelings, how do we translate those impulses into images that communicate the intensity of the actual feeling? This is the first example from this series. More soon.
Enjoy.
What to do when your ART is NOT selling or moving -
By Ryan Seslow – 7-14-2009
OK, you are super productive, your ART is amazing, and you have total confidence in yourself and your work…BUT, it is not selling at this moment, in fact it has not moved in months now! You see it, it is collecting dust, it is piling up, it is getting in the way of creating new works, you are stacking other things on top of it and no longer know where or what is there…
Guess what, you have got yourself a GOOD problem, I know, I know, How so?
First of all, you get to continue your education on resourcefulness and stretch that mind of yours. As an artist you are already a creative surge of problem solving energy! You solve complex compositional issues with space, color, scale and content, so why not transcend this faculty of yours onto the game board of your physical life? These skills do not only exist on canvas, paper, in stone, plaster or on the digital monitor, they are with in, and it is time to activate them into a new context. Follow me now,
Where do you begin?
First: ADMIT IT, be honest with yourself, stop sulking, blaming someone or something, or teetering the boarder line of “giving up art”. Just know that there is a new challenge upon you. Be grateful for it, and take the challenge. Persistence wins, dedication wins, trust wins. Make a commitment to yourself. Create a new outlook and start your new mission here.
Think global but start local.
Of course we all want the world to see our work, and who we are, this is a natural human desire manifesting itself as the infinite energy of human expression! This is a process, I’m not saying that it can not hit big over night, but keeping realistic goals help you build a new formula. You would be surprised as to how many other artists there are in your current town, weather its a big city or a small one horse town, there are many other artists just like you out there seeking to connect.
Take New Action.
1. It helps to Know what other Artists you like – Artists like to promote other artists. Did you know that? If not, WHY NOT? What other artists living and dead inspire you and your work? Share that with other people. Like attracts like.
2. Try your local phone book or simply put into a search engine: ” your town name / artist ” or ” your town and state / artist /artist organizations “. Find out who the locals are, what they are doing, and how you can connect with them. You would be surprised as to what kind of support they have, the festivals they put on, and who they may know to help you and your specific style of work. Artists like to meet other artists. Art enthusiasts like to meet artists and help them as well.
3. Contact your local Public Library! Most public libraries have a gallery space and or more than one area where they display the works of local artists. Call up or visit and ask who is in charge of the exhibitions. Contact this person, introduce yourself and see what opportunities and programs are available. I am certain that you will make contacts and be offered opportunities and resources.
4. Contact the local Public & Private secondary Schools in your area. Ask them about the community art organizations and courses that take place as a part of the adult education programs. Again, you will make contacts and find resources. This is also good practice. As artists we need to constantly research and assert ourselves!
5. Contact the Local Colleges and Universities – You can contact the ART departments directly! I know this because I am a college Art professor! Every art department, or college / university libraries all have gallery spaces where they display the works of their students, local, and outside artists. Ask them about the campus community art organizations and courses that take place as a part of the adult education programs. Again, you will make contacts and find resources.
6. Ask local businesses for support. You would be surprised as to how many people will say yes to helping you once you ASK THEM. Once again, this practice of asking for help will pay off. Get pro active, go out there and ASK. I have witnessed several colleagues sell their works and obtain shows through local businesses that generate a lot of everyday traffic.
7. The INTERNET- Yes, thats right. You can build local connections and beyond from your presence online. Please see my recent articles :
Have you run out of ideas, concepts and or content for creating new works of ART?
Create some new techniques. It is important to know and understand how we learn.
Actually, you could apply this exercise to any form of creative development. The trick is to become aware of the fact that YOU can create new methods yourself, but today, I’m going to share one with you. Feel free to add to this, build upon it, and share it.
Perhaps you are looking for something you do not want, like distractions! Has that Ego gotten in the way… again, distracting you for countless hours…
So, Lets create your new Formula: change by actually changing what you do…
A very Simple exercise for re-aligning yourself with your creative thought and action process. Read this, then read it a second time and then try it! Trust me!
Step 1. The Single Written Word Brainstorm Session 101- On a piece of paper write out a list of all of the single words that represent the modular parts of yourself. This could begin with your morals, values, personality traits, desires, fears, perceptions of the world, places in the world that you have been, favorite colors, favorite people, world events that you resonate with, things that you dislike and or any other content that you connect to as a part of your life. ( Think in Nouns if you must ) The list can have over 100 words and continue building as you use the exercise, but start with 20-25 single words.
Step 2. Begin to Create and assemble your personalized Visual Image data base: This should be a folder or a place / space where your new content can easily be accessed! Now, while looking at your list, read it over, see what you can edit. Add somethings, remove a few things. Now, begin a series of reflective exercises that allow for you to do one of the following techniques for manifesting images for these words: draw, capture, cut out, scan, photograph, discover, paint, record, edit, and convert all of these single words into a single tangible 2-dimensional visual image. One word at a time! Yes, this will be time consuming, but at the same time it will help you narrow down your single word results to the most objective images that you really want to work with. This will also help you stretch the boundaries of HOW you acquire content. It is your intention to shake things up a bit, to induce a new method and pattern of discovery. A discovery about yourself and what you resonate with. This invokes further changes as you repeat the process! You may realize that you can find and or create multiples of each one of these words, that is great, do so if you can. Isolating each word is a challenge to create multiples. Variation is a strong and essential principle of design.
Step 3. Exercises for Choosing and placing Content as a Composition: This part should be interesting, fun and thought provoking. Now that you have brainstormed a series of words that you resonate with, and have formed or gathered some images of these words/ things/people/places you may now start to think of arranging them together into a composition. A composition is the visual ordering of HOW the elements and content are arranged with in a specific space. Lets say that you have a canvas that is 20 inches square, those boundaries represent your picture plane. Lets say that you have narrowed down your content to these words: This can be completely random at first , so ALLOW your intuition to explore and then express itself. You can pick it apart after the fact by asking endless questions. This will assist the critical thinking process. ( and that is a whole other blog post ) So, here are my random elements as an example : New York City, Bananas, & Helicopters. This is totally arbitrary, but at this point your can begin to play with the foreground, the middle ground and the back round. By placing the images / content onto or into the picture plane. Ask yourself: What image should be closest to the viewer? What falls in between the furthest point and the foreground? Can these images become hybrids based on their form, and shape? What if you reduced the content to simple forms, like silhouettes? Arrange the images multiples times, see what you connect with. You may want to take some digital photos and save them as references, you do this whole exercise using photoshop if you are a digital person. Either way, the process itself will create a new understanding in process and action. Feel free to glue the images down if you want. The final outcome may begin communicating with you, it may ask you to add more content. You will give birth to a “next new something”!
Step 4. Make sure this FUN, learning is a process that you actively want to participate in. By choosing content that already excites or inspires you will induce the best results. I know you will surprise yourself.
Since the beginning of May, we have initiated a new project which consists in broadcasting a special online program every month. Each month we show another program with a different perspective and theme. To celebrate this development an offline screening of the first Special Program Fragments took place in Geborgen Kamers in April 2009, The Hague, the Netherlands.
Special programs are composed by guest curators, or festival partners.
A Meta- language finds its way into the consciousness of two human beings. Perplexed, and thrown into action, the energy begins to solidify. With: Michael Perinelli & Ryan Seslow
Streaming Festival interview with :Ryan Seslow on his Film ” Birth ” -http://bit.ly/QmgX0
” Unscripted Immediacy “ – Call for Short Video ART works. Curated by Ryan Seslow.
” Unscripted Immediacy ” is seeking submissions for a rolling group exhibition of Short VIDEO ART works. The works should examine the Intuitive and Immediate potential expressions of the spoken word mixed with actions and gestures of the human body.
This photo is a Re-Post photo. It is a metaphor to remind me to ACT, take action right away when Ideas bubble up. You have ideas, tons of them right? What is your process for recording them? Do you act on them right away? Do you jot them down on a little note pad that you keep in your left pants pocket ? Do you freak out when you notice that you left home with out it? Do you have several ideas each day and blow them off by saying to yourself ” Ill get to it next weekend?” Do you jump out of bed with ideas in the middle of the night, intending to write them down, only to be distracted by ice cream…..?
Please share your process and your habitual ritual of IDEA building, storing and recording.
Where Do I begin? First, knowing what you have to say, is important, and it can help others.
Step 1. Write your personal mission statement. – Mission Statement Definition according to WikiPedia- ” A mission statement is a brief written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. Ideally, a mission statement guides the actions of the organization, spells out its overall goal, provides a sense of direction, and guides decision making for all levels of management.” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_statement
Step 2. Create A FREE Blog , Accounts & Profiles on these Social Networking Websites:
This is a basic formula for building a FREE contact network. There are several other resources like StumbleUpon, Linked-In, Tumblr and Diggs. So, how far you want to go is up to you. I would start with the 4 above. Research the potential of these sites and what they can do for you, your ideas, your business, and message to the globe. YES, the GLOBE, you are about to go GLOBAL. You will find endless resources of articles and services that can assist. WordPress offers great widgets that allow you to sync all of these sites together. When you post to one of them it updates your main hub on WordPress.
Step 3. Commit to participating on these sites for 1-2 hours / 3- 4 days per week at first. It takes about a month or so to gain a working knowledge of the functionalities of the application interfaces. It could be faster, it depends on you. ( passion and desire not included , so YOU must FUEL that! ) Don’t be afraid to make mistakes! Mistakes are perfect ice breakers to engage and ask questions to other users! Ask sincere questions, and you will get sincere answers. Bottom Line!
Step 4. Engage!! Engage by meeting people. Some people feel that it is a lot easier to meet people virtually than in person. I am personally pretty outgoing so I find both methods to be interesting and FUN. FUN is the key here. But if you are a shy person in the real physical world, creating virtual relationships may in fact help you in meet people in everyday physical life. Find like minds by reading the profiles of other people. Do not dismiss this part! Make sure your profile explains who you are, and what you are about. (Read the Mission statement definition again ) Reach out. Respond to people who make comments about things you have posted or shared. Respond to what you resonate with, and by all means SHARE , retweet ( or RT – a twitter term ) useful , helpful information! Share your process and experiences with others. People will most likely not just come to you, some may find you, but most will discover you through your interaction and abilites to contact, share and engage. Become a transformer, a virtual router to connect others!
Why Flickr and Image use ? : Images speak to us in many ways. A great interesting photo or a great photo of something interesting is always captivating. We are narrative thinkers, it is how our brains work. Think of this scenario, we have all done this or have watched someone do this. Someone asks you a question that you do not know the answer to, for a second you pause, and then find yourself glancing UPWARDS. Have you ever noticed this before? If not, Im sure that you have watched someone else do this. You are looking up because it is the natural physiological response of the body looking up to find a mental image. UP relates to UP and Out there, as in the Mind is everywhere and infinite. Deep, well yeah! We think in pictures and images. Yes of course we also think in feelings, emotions and other sensory responses, but images shape our visual world. Share your process, thoughts, feelings, interests in images by using Flickr.
Im an Artist, but this need not be only directed at Artists. I started using Flickr back in 2006 to begin a small micro test. I make a lot of Art. I am highly passionate and productive about Art making, so I wanted to begin documenting my process in a chronological way that I could share with others. Flickr helps me do this. I also wanted to see how long it would take me to create 5,000 works of art this way. ( I passed the deadline this past January but this is now irrelevant! ) What I learned in this process is that I can upload and share my process with others…all over the world! And they began responding to that. I can show them HOW a new work of my art begins, and what it looks like in process, and finally when it is finished. I can take shots from my work environment, and I can show the space where I am working. I can keep things organic because my process is very loose and organic. I rarely chose to polish anything or give the impression that my work or space is immaculate, or super clean, not that that is a bad thing! Here I can be Me and share HOW I am ME. I have built my virtual community based on that sincerity. I have also watched my flickr contacts begin to find me on other networks like Twitter and Facebook. There is a great viral quality to this formula.
This is a BASIC 101 format, I will add to this as I continue my journey!
5-27-2009 -Image: Last Installation in Studio 12 # F2- Time to move on.
It is time to move into a new space. Downsizing a bit here. It will be a challenge, smaller physical space is the issue.
I find moving to be about inner transitions, a shift with in the self to discover something new. So, in essence we shed one space or part of ourselves to allow the new to unfold. I’m looking forward to this, even though it will physically be smaller, perhaps this is all I need for further expansion? I love changes.
I recently moved into a new space. This is always exciting.
My formula for this is : New Space = New Energy = MORE NEW ART.
Its a living and working space. How many artists out there also live in the space they create their works in? Probably a 50 / 50 percentage. I build large installations most of the time, they are modular and portable. Many small parts make up a large whole. The process is intuitive, a habitual intuitive ritual takes over. I simply get out of my own way. There are many things that I am learning from this ongoing process. ( Too many to list just now ) however I will delegate that idea to separate upcoming post.
A New Studio Installation is underway, updated picts to follow.
Settling into the new, NEW.
6-3-09
INSPIRE Collective and friends wish to thank you all for a great show this year…we want you to know, changing this HUGE building this is only the beginning!!! We will continue as always! What we helped to start now with this visual display of art will be an initiative for future creative action in Tel Aviv public space and hopefully will inspire people to re-create and inspire their own atmospheres around the world! www.idiotthewise.com
For updates on future art exhibitions, events, etc. send us an email with “STREET ART MAILING LIST PLEASE” in the title to: idiotthewise@gmail.com
Your conscious self is awakened by the perceptual illusions that surround you. Activate yourself and take control. Time is winning. Experimentation with self as content.
“What might happen? “
This is a good question I like to begin with when creating new works. The image here is based on a tiny photographic reference that I found on the street while living in Antwerp, Belgium for a month last winter. It was simply a small ad for pork. When I further examined the details, I noticed that it was from 1964! The ad was written in Flemish as well. So, from that experience, I re-drew the image with my own twist on it. I later blew it up and created a mirror version of the image, hence the two pigs. After painting the images I decided to make some multiples. I cut a few of them out. Maybe some of them will get wheat pasted onto the streets while I am abroad, maybe they wont? Who knows. I laid these two down onto the floor of my studio and created this image. I am digging it right now. Posters to follow. PORK!
RmS
6-8-09
Buckminster Fuller stencils arrive in Amsterdam.
Perhaps you may find some stencils and wheat pastes of Buckminster Fuller here in Amsterdam. I brought along a series of works to share and give away to the streets and its wonderful people. Locations, well, maybe they are here, and maybe they are gone by now?
More to come.
RmS
Art is an Energy, it has a need to use us human beings as its modes of communication and expression. Its spilling out of the galleries and the museums, but you already knew this. Its on the streets and it has taken over technology. What is the future of art asking us to consider? Is it asking us simply, what is NOT art? Or, have human beings received a new meta kind of upgrade that synthesizes so many things together. Are we more modular in our thinking and perceptions? What does it mean when you see some form of art on the street in every corner of almost every city worldwide? Are wemissing this occurrence?
Arrived- London England- To Northern England-Durham
I don’t really enjoy creating art with religious subject matter, as far as I know anyway. I’m not doubting that this drawing has erupted from my unconscious mind. I have been traveling a lot for the last five years. I have been to many historic churches, cathedrals and other religious ancient ruins. I am in the process of exploring ” how and why ” this drawing has become. I do like the line quality, and the composition itself. I may play with some color as well. More to come, as a rendition of the last supper is under way!
RmS
6-23-2009
6-26-2009
I stand before something ancient today, the structure is aesthetically beautiful, but I have a hard time getting my head around it. There are several other structures like it, some older, some younger. There are also several super modern structures next to it too, architectural masterpieces from yesterday and today, they live together simultaneously in the three dimensional world of form that we perceive. It is amazing and thought provoking. The simplicity and complexity of forms. The can never die, only transform themselves into more. They can simplify and de-familiarize us to their existence. The contexts of the content also grabs our attention as our energies and thoughts solidify into ideas. These are creative ideas, ideas worth taking action on, because they are expressive. So, my friends, when you SEE something that causes you to stop, and your world stands still, acknowledge this as an awareness of creative importance. If you do that, I promise that you will have more!
Check out my Time Traveler page above to follow me on my adventures.
As an artist, I have learned that method and procedure must never cease. General knowledge of materiality will go much more in depth than we will ever know from learning it one time! I spend more than 15 hours each week acquiring and experimenting with various materials. The experimentation through materiality is precisely how I developed a comprehensive understanding of just how the body is constantly engaged in an “action and gesture process”. This would become the conscious awareness of my understanding of why I am so interested in space, and what does and can happen with-in a space. This idea alone is a powerful one that I did not understand when I first began studying my own understanding of why I make art. I have discovered that one has to engage themselves into this thought process first. Learn to see the world as art, as a whole. I became conscious that I was ” a space” as all human beings are as any other object is. The only difference between human objects versus any other object is that we are the most intelligent objects. I am conducting extensive experiments through the use of various materials, to become acquainted with them, stretch their limits, exploit them, and find the relationships to things that lead me to greater skill and knowledge. At the same time I follow how each material affects my physical body, and the physical space these actions occur with in. To communicate with process, I feel that one must use their entire being to understand awareness and the control of content. I understand that content is not always going to be joyous; it will sometimes bring out qualities that are of a more complex nature.
I have always been drawn to the use of color. I believe that my understanding and consistent evolution with color has been through painting, and simply looking at things. I have spent most of my painting exploration with acrylics and oils on various surfaces. (Studies on canvas, paper, steel, aluminum, plastics, and recyclable containers. The recent use of colored papers and collage’ expanded from this experimentation directly). Using the simplicity of a geometric shapes and forms, I spend and have spent extended amounts of time developing my knowledge of color. My intentions were to first develop mixing techniques that would allow me to work fast. I need immediacy as an artist, this I know of my process. Quickly I found color combinations that would work well together in a layering technique. Using the sphere I could make multiples very fast. The use of repetition could change a large space with a two-dimensional illusion, this idea lead me to execute a series of installations of flat color with-in three-dimensional spaces. I believe that certain materials can be lifeless without color. The use of color forces me to make decisions, important ones! Color will affect the viewers eye first, it may intensify what is being experienced or it may distract the eye causing the illusion to discover problematic and conflicting contrasts.
Do you often question, observe, & describe what you see, hear, smell, touch and feel? If not WHY NOT!? OK, I’m sorry I yelled at you. There is an extraordinary world out there. How do we fine tune our sensory experiences? It all begins with understanding the physical game board. A traditional artist’s vocabulary easily can apply to the external physical world. What are the elements of art? The elements of art are: line, shape, form, space, texture, value and color. In the physical world we also will apply the principles of three dimensional design in relationship to the elements of art. The principles of three dimensional deal directly with shape, form, space, weight, balance, volume, and mass. Our physical body represents a positive form, our cars are positive forms, our house is a positive form, a city represents a series of positive forms. Notice that positive forms exist in space and thus must have an opposite to understand the whole. Negative space is everything out side of the positive space. Negative space in its most infinite example is the the sky above us. The vastness of the sky represents negative physical space. Everything and everyone is a physical tangible form. Weather you are aware of this or not, we as forms arrange ourselves onto the large ongoing canvas we call reality. Observation of how and what we experience heightens our awareness. The everyday seemingly mundane experience of “ going to get milk “ or “walking to your mailbox “ can easily be used as a daily example of becoming aware. From the moment that you walk out of your living space and into the natural elements of nature you can begin to observe and monitor your experience. Well developed observation and description skills are great activators of the imagination. Simply by verbally speaking to yourself ( either out loud or to yourself inside ) you can begin by creating a script of your sensory adventures.
Details people, details.
Here is a basic example of such:
I opened the door with my right hand. I am taking notice to the coolness of the door knob. The knob itself is a gold color that resembles brass.The texture of the knob is smooth and cold. My hand fits comfortably over the knob. With my keys already in my left hand I insert it into the lock, I notice how the teeth of the key falls effortlessly into the slot.The key has a distinct sound as it enters the lock. I slowly turn the key to feel the contractions of the locks internal mechanism, it makes a series of clicking sounds that are vaguely different yet complimentary. I turn around and begin to walk towards the staircase. I feel each step and the different surface of the stairs. The staircase is cement, it feels different than the hard wood flooring that leads to my doorway. The air temperature is different now, it was much warmer in my apartment, I now feel a change in physical temperature. My arms react first as the sensation spreads over my chest and down my back. I reach the bottom step and proceed to my mailbox, it is two steps away from the bottom of the stairs. The surface of the floor is also cement, it feels similar to the stairs. I reach my key up to the lock and proceed to place it into the slot, it is a smaller key and a smaller key slot, the lock opens with little sound, I can feel that the interior mechanism is not as sophisticated as the lock on my door, ect ect… This is just one simple potential examples how you can observe, feel and describe what is occurring at any given moment. This repeated process and practice puts you directly in control of your surroundings. Repetition creates order. The habitual practice of this simple exercise on a regular basis will strengthen the relationship between your conscious and subconscious mind. These descriptions will also develop your imagination. As you begin to think about these exercises after the actions have taken place, they will help form mental pictures. Your descriptive thoughts and feelings are causes, the result will be access to the desired effect. The effect can be a series of mental pictures that begin to repeat themselves while strengthening each time the exercises is performed.
Photographing European Street Art & Graffiti Video 2006 – 2009
Time Traveler: Photographing European Street Art & Graffiti Video 2006 – 2009 – is an exploration through the street art and graffiti that left a lasting impression on me as I toured through the cities of Paris, Lyon, Rouen, Antwerp, Brussels, Amsterdam,Verbier and More.
“Creative people are a different breed. If you’ve spent your life dedicated to your craft, to putting your gift out there, you might not have taken the time to learn all the money stuff. The Affluent Artist™ has come to terms with money and recognizes that it is an ally, another tool to further your creation. Financial Independence allows you to become your own patron, to create without monetary conflict. We at the Affluent Artist (TM) are dedicated to helping you learn the money stuff, to helping you welcome abundance, to helping cut through the Wall Street Jargon. We believe that God has a special love for creative people, after all, that is his line of work!” Rick DiBiasio
Fact: As of 07/01/09 this is the current world’s population: 6,768,167,712….and growing.
Why do so many people get bent out of shape when a particular subject is brought up? It is because they have a specific psychological and physiological emotional blue print that is running with in their subconscious memory bank. They react, often before actually thinking or even listening. It seems almost as if the non physical vibrational aspect of the situation presents itself before words or actions are actually experienced. I ask you, how do you retain what you have learned in your life? Why is this important? This brings us to the conscious creation of building our own personal manuals. Have you ever heard someone say, ” If only we were given an instructions manual for navigating earth upon our arrival here… ” It seems like a valid statement but wouldn’t that make things pretty bland if everyone was following the exact same set of instructions? Lets open up a bit more here now. Lets look at how diverse the planet is. Have you ever wondered why there are over 6 billion human beings existing simultaneously on this planet? Or why everyone is uniquely different looking? How does that relate to how you think about the planet as a whole? How does that variety play a role in your thinking? Do you think globally or do you think locally? Do you often think that you are just from your birth or current town before you remember that you are living on planet earth first? Our thoughts come from the same place that we do, a non – physical space as infinite and endless as the sky above you. Have you looked up and out there lately?
Have you ever asked yourself, what is my relationship to those other 6 billion people? What do you have in common? What can be learned from this awareness in itself? No two human being think exactly alike, each human life is a unique universe in itself. Perhaps each human life is one aspect of an infinite potential for any given thought, idea or concept. Why would we take things personally if one person tells us something we do not want to hear? For example, lets say that you have a great desire to express your love and appreciation for trees. You have impulses to draw them, paint them, sit endlessly under them and speak of them with great passions. You decide that a short poem would be a sufficient means of expression to begin asserting yourself about your passion. You write the poem and with great joy and desire you feel fulfilled with the first step of taking action on your creative impulses! After you decide to share it with your cousin Ralph, he reads it and shrugs his shoulders, he says, ” Its OK”, with little emotion and almost no interest. You react sadly, and decide at that point with the emotions of sadness and unworthiness that you will no longer write poems ever again. Hmmm This is actually the law of attraction at work, it sends that emotionally charged request directly to the subconscious and burns a blue print. The blue print will create a defense mechanism that says ” I do not want to feel this feeling of rejection again, so I will no longer write poems about trees because no one will like them. “
I have seen this happen time and time again with people in various aspects of their lives. In fact, we all have one specific hurt or incident that will run with in us until we identify what that is. I have seen people harbor these kinds of defenses until they are elderly people, still convinced by their subconscious mind that things are a certain way. Now, why would we let one persons response alter what we had so proudly expressed? Especially if we know that there are over 6 billion people existing simultaneously on this planet? What if cousin Ralph was the physical manifestation of that miniscule percentage of the 6 billion people who did not read the poem, what about the other huge percentage of others who would potentially love it, publish it, purchase it, print it, lecture about it, turn it into a painting or a play or a feature film. What are the potentials and possibilities of each thought that you have? Have you ever thought to write that down? Have you ever purely focused on all of the potential positive outcomes based upon the infinite abundance of things around you right now. Take a second to look around you. What do you see? Take a look out of your window. Do you see the abundance of nature? Look up, there is an infinite abundant amount of endless sky. Why is that sky so vast? What is your relationship to the endless almost incomprehensible amount of sky above? Our outer external physical world is a direct reflection of what is going on inside of us. Consciously, unconsciously, and subconsciously. If we take the physical example of the endless vastness of the sky above us, we can see a clear example of just how vast we are as human beings both inside and out. We are more than what we are taught to think about ourselves, and how much potential we have.
Why all human beings are artists: Traditional roles of the Modern day Artist.
The traditional roles of the modern artist continue to evolve and break through boundaries. There are always fantastic disagreements in this
perception. What is art? What is not art? Who gets to decide anyway? Do we need to be interdependent on others to make our own assumptions and judgements? If we are stable in our own opinion and percetions, then why should we have to depend on institutions like museums and commercial galleries to help? For contrasts obviously. Im not doubting their importance, but what is your personal relationship to art? When is the last time you really thought about that word and what it means to you? What is the modern day definition for this subject? Is the question itself outdated? Perhaps it is time for you to define it for yourself and live that definition? Unfortunatly most people have bought into the idea that art is only something that a very select group of talented human beings can do. If you do not have the “ gift or talent “ that was discoverd when you were 2 years old, then you should not attempt to make any art and or anything creative. So, they give up on art as they perceive it usually after the 4th or 5th grade. Leaving the art to the special kids who seem to get favored with attention by their art teachers. They will be exposed to the art of Michealangelo and Leonardo and forever compare themselves to the masters…Why do we do this?
Ask yourself: what is art in 2009? What is an artist in 2009? From this day forth I predict several radical changes. No longer will art thrive on the traditional appearance of tangible objects and things isolated to specific spaces like traditional museums, galleries and even non-traditional space that we still reserve for art, but evolve into something greater and more personalized than we could have even thought. A complete pesonalization of one’s multi-sensory world. Art events will evolve into ongoings of situational realities specifically created and run by the personalization of a collective idea. The artist is the art. The art is the artist. The artist is each unique human being. Each human being who consciously chooses to co-create their life synthesizing the physical and non-physical aspects of their existence. The next new medium that will synthesize and Im suggesting that specific conscious intentions implimented by human beings will manifest themselves into. I am currently a working artist. I work in many traditional art mediums and materials such as paint, pastel,wood, metal, video, and collage, but my greatest asset and medium is my consciousness. With in this space we have access to our imagination. Your imagination is the mental tool that form images in your minds eye. This is the tool that begins to put your ideas and dreams into motion. I think when most adults think of imagination they think of it as a thing of their youth. That only children day dream and imagine about things while they are playing with toys and invisible worlds of make believe. Your imagination is your dream creator. It never leaves you, artist.
The purpose of this essay is to activate and expose you to your greatest asset and resource on this planet. Yourself. Thats right, YOU. When I say yourself, I don’t mean what job you have, or how old you are, or what sex you are, or how much money you make annually or where you went on vacation last year. When I say yourself, I want you to open yourself to a new way of thinking about yourself. This short guide will expose you to several methods and ways that you can begin to do this. I must ask you to dare to do so. I believe that you found this blog through an inner vibration that resonates within you. You may think that you have stumbled upon this by chance, but on a deeper level you have asked for it. On an unconscious level that is trying to get your attention. This guide will help you how to see and feel those unconscious impulses that come to us on a regular basis. The hunches and impulses that we seem to second guess so often and perhaps dismiss as coincidence, luck, or chance. A new perceptual self awareness is already vibrating within in you. After you complete this essay and begin to engage and apply the exercises stated, you will hopefully discover yourself in a whole new awareness about your life and your relationship to it.
A little story, I had no idea how conditioned in thought and feeling I had become until I discovered my interest in how the human consciousness works. I had no idea how many layers there were. I had no idea how our upbringing, our culture, our school system, and exposure to all kinds of things in everyday life would shape our emotional blueprint while giving us exactly what we thought about. I had questions: How often do we see things repeat themselves? How often do you find yourself repeating behaviors that you do not like? How many people do you know who seem to be stuck in a specific period in time? We may hear friends say ” Wow, John is stuck in 1996 “. What are your habitual behaviors and thoughts? Can you list them? If so, have you? Here is a great example of habitual programming where you really need not be present anymore, your body knows what to do with or with out your conscious mind. You have purposely programmed your subconscious mind to work for you. You put yourself on Autopilot. Example 1: Your alarm clock rings at 6:30 am. You get yourself out of bed, into a shower, you will shave, or put on make up, comb or style your hair, you will dress yourself and perhaps have something to eat, you man check your e-mail right away or open up the newspaper and out the door you go in perfect ritual each day. The fact is, you now do this unconsciously, the same way, each and everyday. This process has become a ritual that you did create consciously yourself at one time. Probably because you did not know at that time, that you could in fact program the way this ritual would be performed. You did this same routine each day with diligent repetition until you convinced your subconscious mind to the point where it no longer needed to depend on you consciously. The body now knew what to do by habit. Note here that, what ever feelings and emotions you put into that same routine have also followed you through out time as well. If waking up at 6:30 am meant that it was time to be miserable because it was early and that was the time you had to go to work, then those were pretty much the same feelings that would start off everyday. We are personally responsible for generating those thoughts and feelings. The subconscious mind is a sponge for what the eyes see and what the body feels. It connects the two together, hence creating several different types of physiological triggers. Have you ever gotten the feeling something bad may happen after you have just watched a movie or walked down a busy street? Have you ever asked yourself why that is, or how it related to you at the moment? Can our greatest fears be of ourselves, and what we desire? Can we possibly be responsible for habitually building unconscious perceptions of ourselves that keep us in a state of scarcity, fear and lack? Is it possible that we unconsciously feel grounded in that safety zone and actually ask for more of that? Could our past beliefs, circcumstances and life experiences be our greatest contrasting asset until this point? You bet it could. From this day forth, you have a new awareness that is leading to the omnipotence of yourself. Everything you seek and desire is already with in you. In fact, it has brought you to this point. I am asking you to use the information in this blog on a regular basis. To reread it and discover what you resonate with. Upon declaring your resonance, emphasize what applications work best. The experimental aspects of this blog will induce your creativity on a open level where several positive outcomes will be perceived. Practice the creative exercises on a regular basis. Repetition creates order. Practice makes perfect! It is now your intention to install positive, open, highly energetic emotional thoughts and ideas into all of your experiences. Yes, you want to create those!
Go here, USEFUL ARTICLES, ESSAYS AND HOW TO’S BY RYAN SESLOW: http://bit.ly/9Vq54
Here we are, half way through a great summer. I’m busy in between teaching summer courses, traveling, creating new works, and preparing for several up coming shows this fall. Somehow, I seem to fit in time to be with my family and friends, and also relax and recharge. I also make time to network with fantastic people from all walks of life over the Internet. The social media connections that one can make have proved to become a vital asset to my work and my vision. It is time to upgrade and make some changes. To make things more efficient, I will be changing from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. This will allow me to operate from one central hub a bit easier. Ill keep you posted on how soon and all that stuff as it develops.
I have a student that recently made an observation about me at 8:00 AM for our art appreciation course that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She said, ” you are always so happy at 8:00 am .” I could see that part of her was asking me how do I do it, and the other part of her was taking awareness of this fact. After all it had only been about 3 weeks since the course began. I told her honestly, It is a habit that I created on purpose. By choice. I began to practice feeling a new way as I woke up each day. The practice began before I went to sleep each night. In the calm space just before I would fall asleep I would turn this request over to my subconscious mind. ” Each morning I wake with happy vital energy, I am so grateful for the endless supply of energy that I experience.” It was that simple. It was not always like this I explained. For over ten years I had woken up at various times to report to my place of work with a sour face and a grumpy disposition. After I finished my undergraduate work I began working for my families business. I had not yet had the desire to report to graduate school or
even conceive the idea to teach, especially at the college level. My job
required me to wake up by 4:45 am and to be on the road by 5:00 AM
commuting into Brooklyn. I was living on Long Island in the city of Long Beach. It was a 40 minute commute if I did not hit traffic. Work began at 6:00 AM. No excuses. As I think back now knowing what I know about how the mind, I ask myself why did I choose to be miserable by default simply because it was early in the morning? Who’s belief and thought was that anyway? I had never even thought to question my own beliefs! I had no idea if I was a “morning person” or not? For some reason, “other” unconscious beliefs about the early morning had kicked in. That is how powerful the subconscious mind is. We absorb everything we see, hear, taste, smell, touch and even perceive. This information gets filtered through many levels of our human experience. For example, I no longer watch the prime-time news or read the news papers as the first thing I do in my day or the last thing that I do to end my day. The media has grown extremely negative over the years, polarizing all of the things that seem to keep going wrong in the world. I do believe it is good to be informed about what is going on in the world, but I feel we have to do some personal research to find what we resonate with as our source. So, the next time a negative thought or feeling comes over you, ask yourself, do I really believe this as my truth, or is this a default belief that I’m perpetuating on auto pilot. We are constantly changing and growing, so we must play a starring role in shaping our inner world.
What you see, feel and think before bed, and just as you wake up, plays a huge role in your everyday life. Choose GOOD STUFF.
Model for creating a learning manual, an integrating synthesis of the multidisciplinary creative human potential.
Exposure = Awareness ( conscious and unconscious )
A. Choose a subject matter. The subject matter can be anything ( Art, Culture, History,Science, ect.. ) Having been exposed to the new subject, the New Found Awareness plants the evolutionary learning seed. B. The student can now perceive the subject matter and begin to define its language. Create a series of steps, by objectifying your subject first. What is the subject’s formal vocabulary? Consider all of your research methods by brainstorm a list of possible sources to obtain your information. (ex. library, internet, periodicles, magazines, audio tapes, videos, films, dictionaries, interviews, exhibitions, museums, galleries, cultural centers, actual people who have experience with the subject, ect…) C. Create a vocabulary reference sheet for your self. – Allow for plenty of additional space. As your research and learning
experience begins to assimilate, you will continue to find that you are faced with additional words and terms that will relate and inter-depend upon your perception of the subject’s evolution. D. Awareness of the objective subject matter’s contrast and context. You will begin to find that your subject matter has a vastness of contrasting aspects to it. It has broken itself into many fragments that make up its whole, two parts make up a whole, it is how we are able to perceive and polarize our attention to any one single concept. ( Ex. Consider the use of the experience of a Sunrise as your perceived subject matter, sunrise has a direct polar opposite perceptual experience that gives us the visual and perceptual order for us to understand it as a subject, nightfall turns daylight into darkness. You may begin to list a series of contexts of “how” one may experience both subjects, sunrise and nightfall, where one may experience these everyday occurrences.
You brain will search for visual images that ” connect ” the words and terms in your exercise. It will direct you how and where to look for them physically.
Awareness Prompts and Induces Reflective Actions ( the process of engaging with the subject matter )
Exercise #1: Create a method of research and experimentation to apply the subjects vocabulary. Document the process step by step, you will soon see exactly HOW you learn things.
New Drawings: Plans for Public Sculpture in 2009 8-14-2009
Im excited to announce a new project in Public Sculpture. Im not going to leak all the details, but here is a rough sketch of one of the pieces above. Your going to have to use you imagination a bit to conceive the colors and materials. These are large works, intended to compliment specific landscapes. OK, so Below are some more links to view the other plans as well. Im excited and inspired by these drawings. Even though a lot of my work is sculptural and installation based, intuition and immediacy sometimes needs to be backed up by something semi-tangible like a drawing. Drawing about seeing. When the minds eye ” sees ” something non physically we depend on the skill and action of drawing to bring our idea to life, even if it is in its infancy. If you can devote yourself to creating one small sketch or a drawing each day, you will watch the birth of many of your ideas coming to life. By doing this, you are consciously instructing the brain and your consciousness to be on the look out for new ideas. Practice makes perfect, but practice also puts your subconscious mind to work, the subconscious builds habits for you! Drawing is a good habit to have as an artist, or even as one who appreciates art and the art of ideas.
This image has transcended a few of my favorite process based techniques. It started as a simple series of drawings. The head is based on a plaster bust that I use for one of my drawing classes at Queensborough community college here in NY. I often use the plaster bust to demonstrate examples in drawing. Mostly gesture and contour studies. More often than non, I LIKE the outcome of my own demonstrations, and always seem to plug them into my works. This is a good exercise, for anyone! How often do you push yourself to develop new and exciting ideas for your works? How often do you push yourself out of your comfort zone? I knew that once I had the drawing down to my liking, it would hold up even better as a screen print. The image under the bust is of a reduction sculpture that I carved out of a block of clay. After the piece was fired, I began drawing it. Again, this is good practice for the brain, and for pushing out of the comfort zone. I re-drew the sculpture about 25 times before I felt good about the line quality! Did I mention practice? So, with a little screen drawing fluid and screen filler I repainted the image onto a freshly stretched silk screen. Its about 11 x 14 in size. I began printing on all purpose white bond paper. I never go right to the most expensive printmaking papers, I am more interested in the process of experimentation first. I want to print on non traditional materials and see what happens. The good printmaking paper will always be waiting for me, and you. This image was printed onto a piece of leather that I found on the street. ” On the street ” ( a weekly ritual for me ) I discovered that someone was throwing away an old leather chair… I cut a few pieces of it off before having to make a run for it!! Just kidding, the owner shouted out ” TAKE THE WHOLE THING MAN!! ” I thanked him and explained what my intention was, he shrugged, confusingly looking at me with his mouth open.. I laughed to myself. I am happy with the outcome, I even placed an orange gel over the lens of my camera to create this effect. So, 5 steps into the process, this is my end result, this is one of over 40 variations of the suchness of process. Yep, more to come, indeed. Stretch your comfort zone, if you can draw it, you can make a print of it, if you can print it, you can sculpt it, if you can sculpt it, you can photograph it, if you can photograph it, you can re-draw it, ect, ect, ect ect, Enjoy process.
RmS
The Image above is me, it is me holding up a mirror and looking into it. Ok, perhaps not exactly, but it is one potentiality of how I see and perceive myself. This is a watered down acrylic painting mixed with some colored pencil over it. I layered it with a nice thick clear acrylic medium. It is mounted on a sturdy illustration board. I may frame it, I may not. I think Ill let my friends and followers on TWITTER help me decide WHAT to do with it next. I posted a quote on my twitter feed yesterday that said this: ” Our twitter feed of friends and followers represent the many parts of ourselves, we can examine the parts of ourselves we may not see yet. “ I was sitting in traffic when I posted this. It was grid lock on the Long Island Expressway. I normally do not text or tweet while driving, but we were stopped dead for about 5 minutes. This is two great examples of immediacy and self expression and why twitter is such a great tool for both! We never know when and where inspiration is going to come. In my own experiences, it is when I am not looking for it, but I have fined tuned my intuition to be on radar for it, to a degree. So, as I was looking around at all of the other stopped cars, I had a moment of Satori. Yes, satori, one of those experiences where you realize that you are connected to everything and everyone. I felt all ego based perceptions of separation dissolve! I always love when this happens. It is a euphoric feeling and sensation. At that moment of gratitude, these words came into my head. ” Your twitter feed of friends and followers is another great example of this exact same experience. Everyone is connected. All of those people simply represent the many parts of ourself that you are, have not yet met, developed, or even refuse to see in yourself, you can examine those parts of yourself through the interface and sharing experience the technology allows, you can use twitter as a giant microscope that can examine yourself as the millions of fragments that you are” …….. !!!!!!!!!! WHAT! I was overwhelmed to say the least, and where the hell did that come from! I said this out loud, then I realized that my windows were wide open. I got a few perplexed looks back my way. I HAVE TO EXPRESS THIS RIGHT AWAY!! Hence, my tweet! I had another dilemma, how do I say this in 140 characters! ARG! Talk about immediate revisions! Finally I got it down and hence the @ messages and several DMs flowed in. I am excited to turn this into a little post for the blog today. We humans are much more than we were ever taught to think of ourselves as. We are literally infinite universes of potential. We are interconnected, and we really are ONE. This is serious creative potential and we need to understand that. We have so much power to think and feel and share. Twitter is one fragment of the infinite other ways to express and experience this, but if you have never thought of yourself, your followers and those you follow this way, perhaps this insight will add to your experience.
The image above is a work of art. It consists of many fragments that make up the whole. I may even add a few more things to it. I would not call myself a “collage artist ” simply because arranging forms and shapes into a composition does not fully define that title, collage artist. In today’s world, do artists really need titles other than: artist? I know, for marketing sake we cant spread ourselves too thin…blah blah blah. Is yesterdays marketing still todays marketing reality for artists? When is the last time you really thought about HOW you promote your work to yourself? Not the world, but to YOURSELF first. Are you clear on that? Can you write that out easily and effortlessly? No? Then we have some work to do. This is GOOD work to do, gaining clarity is a process, oh yes, it takes time. What if the whole outside world is really INSIDE of YOU, and your self definitions and perceptions project outwardly into ” the world?” Hmm…. expansive thought aye? Today is a good day to plant some seeds. How about, you ARE the artist that you say you are. You may have a great passion for painting or sculpture, but the process that leads you to the final result has many more steps, actions and experiences than just one title can define. I believe that we humans are in a great flux, a revolution of the self identity in relationship to the larger world is slowly getting smaller and smaller, just like electronic devices are ( by the way, there is a physical example. ) Do you see a relationship there? Before the remote control, we had to operate everything manually, outwardly, then the remote came along and we could sit in our chairs and operate things through an ” intermediary device.” Now we have remote access and search engines…( have you thought about how that is a reflection of yourself?) We have technology to help automate things, and we do not even have any idea HOW these things actually work ( well, the people who create them do,) but most people don’t, we just expect everything work, right? I encourage you to try a few things the next time you approach your next drawing, painting, sculpture, digital art design, logo design, dance moves, recipe creation and any other form of self expression that you place your artistic self into. DO IT ANOTHER WAY. And do it consciously. Trace your steps by documenting them ( DONT JUDGE THEM FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ) just allow yourself to try something NEW, record it, and then do it again. Documenting the process will help you SEE that you have done something differently. The brain will get a message, and it will respond. Your subconscious will get a new message and it will also respond! We are the architects of our lives, and we have to be consciously participating in the process. It is a fun process, but most people are lazy, yes, it is true. But, we have the power to change that. I use the creative process of self expression to learn and expand HOW I think and Communicate. I document it in many ways. Computers can make this very easy and efficient for us. We can make all of this public or keep it private. I recommend going public because it TELLS the world OUT there ( which is really inside of us ) that we are here and we are reaching out, and this is what we are about. Thrive your ENERGY into what you put out there and you will connect with a network of like minds. Magically people ( fragments of YOURSELF ) will appear with the same interests and thoughts, or they may present you with an opportunity. We are responsible for creating the manual of our own lives, thats part of our journey!
Funny, this drawing took about 2 hours to execute. It’s a nice reminder for me. It’s yet another tangible example of how immediate drawing is. In this case, the immediate “action” of drawing. I didn’t have a plan, idea or concept to work from. I simply wanted to draw. My focus was on the subject and thought of drawing. Sometimes we have to get out of our own way and just let our unconscious express itself. More often than not, it is the unconscious that is trying to get our attention! It has something important to share, but often, we dismiss it, or second guess it. Why? I am really enjoying this drawing. Im also enjoying getting out of my own way again. In reflection, the drawing has induced an old series of memories. For years I had fought a love hate relationship of being perceived as an ” illustrator.” Especially back when I was in undergraduate college. I cant image why I would create such a limiting belief back then? But at the time, I was younger and insecure as the competition then seemed intense. I used to confuse infinite creativity as competition. Pretty funny to think about now, but at the time it seemed real! I always wanted to be known simply as an artist, I never wanted a specialty, or an artistic title, and I still don’t. I know better now of course, perceived titles are little boxes we create for ourselves. We can hang out in them for a while and learn something ( which is a good healthy thing when we GET the lesson ) or we can linger there forever thinking the outside world has held us in there…ouch. This unconscious drawing tells me that I still want to work from my imagination more often. Im repressing desires, unexplored content and subject matter. Im going to let go of my familiar rules when contemplating a body of new works. I seem to have a desire to create more fictional characters, compose them into unrealistic situations, and also revisit some of my old techniques. Im excited and grateful to be a part of the process!
Dear Colleagues & Freinds,
I would like for you all to share this with your Undergraduate and Graduate level ART students. We are accepting submissions for an International Exhibition focusing on : Video Art, New Media, Animation & Experimental Film for ART STUDENTS.
Participation is simple. Art Professors / Art Teachers are invited to submit a program consisting of works made by their students. Submit the program and description to the Streaming Festival Student Edition and it will be streamed in November 2009. Students and staff will have a chance to comment on any of the works within the programs aimed at creating an exchange of opinions, ideas and information. Teachers are invited to participate in the review committee to reflect on the work of the students and write reviews on the programs submitted by other academies. Participation is completely free; there are no submission fees or other costs. The festival team takes care of all the technical details in order to show the program through the streaming servers.
Consciously and Unconsciously we are branding ourselves! This is the fact of the matter, as I perceive of course. Indeed some people are doing this intentionally with much energy and enthusiasm! Others are becoming aware as the process unfolds. I am one of those people. It did not register at first because I had no real plan other than SHARING, hoping that others would learn from my example, and in return I would learn from what others were sharing. Seemed simple enough? An exchange of honest use value! It seems to me, that the software synthesis of our multiple social media networks mixed in with our technology devices make us ” portable global brands.” Wow, thats a lot of power! Do you like the sound of that? JOHNNY SOMEBODY: THE PORTABLE GLOBAL BRAND! That is a lot of energy. That is a fantastic outlet for self expression, business and network building that redefines the ongoing definition of social media promotional networking business suchness… What you say matters. What you put out onto the web matters. It will reach other people, and not just a mere few people. Social media and the use of the web can give one the reach of millions, and while that escalates, some will begin reaching billions. Incomprehensible? Yeah, really! So, How do you want to influence others? What kind of value do you have to offer that can inspire and induce others into creative action taking? For some, it is doing what one normally does. In my case it is my ART. Im simply an artist that wants to share and continue learning from YOU all. Im Not a complex artist, just someone who loves to make a lot of art, and share it. The illustration attached to this post is based on that eureka moment. You know those moments, when you get still for a few minutes and come to this energetic realization. I noticed this as I began to realize what windows are open in my browser simultaneously…. all the time. Right now along with several articles from my ” network ” I see, twitter feeds, facebook, friendfeed, flickr, wordpress and gmail windows open… they are breathing, buzzing with energy, awaiting my next command so that they can assist and synthesize my personal formula ( and keep it all documented in a nice chronological order ) So, the eureka moment came through a reflection period. As most artists will often review their past works along with what they are working on, I like to do this once or twice a week. Reflect and review what I have written, posted, created and so forth. The illustration above is a fictional brand packaging. It comes directly through my imagination and my unconscious ( which absorbs anything and everything weather you want to or not ) , this is my release. Im on a much more serious mission… having FUN with branding myself.
“Transcending Situational Potential” : The NEW film by Ryan Seslow
2009 : Run Time: 15:03 : Written, Directed, & Produced by Ryan Seslow : Michael Perinelli as Professor Universe, Ryan Seslow as The Fragmented Personality : Original Music by Brigitte Boardman
Synopsis: Professor Universe, considered purely brilliant by some, and by others, a raging quack. The professor activates his audience through ” technology based interventions.” He claims, ” The modern day student will find all of their teachers, and find them well.” He talks us through a seemingly benign series of self identity issues related to one’s own perceptual personality. Short lectures are followed by fragmented art forms that seem to be symbolic, controversial, and indeed overstimulating. Professor Universe declares that the synthesis of these visual and auditory actions create an unconscious formula. THe formula itself is known to activate a new level of human awareness and creative potential.
The Collective Giant Egg Project ” The Ongoing Concept of Onesness” http://tgegg.posterous.com/ by @ryanseslow #Madagascar I am a participating artist in the The Collective Giant Egg Project. I have submitted three works to support the event. Artists, Writers, Architects, Photographers, Poets, Working together to help Save the Rainforests of Madagascar. More info is here: http://sites.google.com/site/gianteggevent
My new installation at the Brother Chapman Gallery is a part of the Iona College Art department faculty exhibition. As a professor I have been teaching studio art courses at Iona for 5 years now. I am grateful to have had my colleagues agree to letting me use a corner space to install this large piece! I am overstimulated, I admit it. I also admit that I love that part of me. Overstimulation which was once stated to be “hyperactive” seems to have transcended itself nicely. I cant blame the doctors of the 1970’s who’s misdiagnosis of my early symptoms of radical creativity were something else…I think I will send them this image, as well as some of the other images in this series. I am interested in fragments. As a subject matter and also as an exploring muse for content. Fragmentation has a strong association to the context of things being Modular. Many parts must come together or function together to make up a whole. My installation is perhaps a linear sequence of my unconscious mind’s timeline of repeated mental images. I hold or have held onto these images for reasons both known and unknown. Some of these reasons are purely aesthetic to the core of their traditional principles. Line, color, shape, texture, and value. While others appear to be objective at first glance, their placement suggests otherwise. The composition is an intuitive energy. The installation process has not any set plan. The works are laid out on the floor. An urgency sets in, a creative impulse to compose while liberating the imagination and the unconscious. The process can and will be recorded as performance based art in the future. That is simply because nature takes over, its the natural progression of evolution of an idea. It transcends and changes form, infinitely. The unconscious mind is our main operating system, it handles most of the body’s biological functions, we don’t think about them much. We just expect them to work. I have cultivated a new faculty, and this process into a habitual ritual with my imagination. The idea was to synthesize the intuition, the unconscious mind and the imagination to create a harmonious series of actions. The actions result in a large scale mental collage of the past, present and future of my human experience while using traditional forms of drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, video & installation. Although the video monitor can not be seen in this particular image, a series of video works were created for the installation as well. For those who come to see the works in person the monitor is located to the far left of the installation. The narrative of the work is ongoing and subject to redefinition, unconsciously!
Installation @ The Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery / Iona College Faculty Exhibition , New Rochelle NY – 10/13 -12/3/2009 -
On Oct. 13th at 7:00 pm EST. The Outside the Box iChat Seminar Series starts with well known and prolific artist/educator: Ryan Seslow.
We will be doing this in Humanities Hall Room 208 CW Post Campus of Long Island University every Tues eve. at 7:00pm via iChat .
All are welcome, Please come to participate.
Funny, but true, and maybe we should not even say that, its just fact. The world is moving fast, no matter how far behind you are with technology. Im re-posting this image for a second time, it has a different context for this post. I made this piece about a year ago. Its an old fashioned ethc a sketch toy, it was being thrown away by an artist’s wife whom had just passed away. At the time I was a part of the helping squad to clean out the old artist’s wares. This was a long time ago as I was still in my MFA program. I cant even remember how we had been selected to help out. Anyway, I did not feel impulsed to do anything with this object at the time. It sat in my studio for about 6 years before I even thought about. Hell, I didn’t even try to use it as what it had been created for! I did not want to “etch a sketch” on it. I just wanted to look at it, and befriend it as a physical metaphor of change. Technologies and faculties change, we must participate in the upgrade itself. When was the last time you revamped your skills? Or questioned the way you were creating your works? ” We do what can at the time that our technology allows ” , hmmm, that used to hold up in the 1960s perhaps, perhaps? I follow a meta lifestyle, meaning as I live here in the now, I also have created a part of me who is always thinking and imagining how and what new technologies will continue to transcend. Especially themselves, into my life and into my art. Right now, ask your self, what role does technology play in your work/ art? What skills are lacking, and why haven’t you updated them? What part of yourself do you see in the new developing technologies of today’s world? You do realize that everyone and everything is a part of you? All but a fragmented series of reflections.
