Salutations, conceptartists. My name is Geo. Conceptart.org has nurtured my artistic growth for years, it is an honor to post at last.
My intention is to connect my art with information. To that end, I have interlaced my post with links to related documentaries and articles. As artists who spend long stretches of time on the computer, I encourage turning them on while painting. My hope is this material will provide you with intense inspiration and motivation as it has for me.
Tantric Marriage
Within the body there is a fountain of energy that lay dormant. By studying and practicing the wisdom of the ancients, we may learn to unlock and kindle this sacred fire. Prana, Chi, Kundalini, the Force, there are many names for it. By learning to purify and strengthen our bodies and minds, and transcending the waves of emotional turbulence, we may learn to raise this energy and activate higher levels of consciousness that amplify every aspect of our lives. As we generate this loving transformation within ourselves, we radiate that frequency out into the world we experience. When we create balance in ourselves, we create balance in the Universe.
Jai Shiva Shakti.
Om Mani Padme Hum
This piece was inspired by the months I spent in Dharamsala, India while studying to complete my Yoga teacher training course. My teacher Sivadas said that there was unrest among the local people because the rains were 3 months late. The rhythmic cycles by which the farmers have planted their crops since time immemorial are thrown into chaos by global warming. Pause to consider the scope of this. It is now happening all over the world, and all of the indigenous people, without voice in any form of mainstream media, are subject to grim uncertainty about how they will feed their children.
Yet within this ominous prospect, the seeds of hope have taken sprout. Crisis provokes leaps in evolution. I wanted to depict the transmutation of Darkness into Light, for as the suffering of the planet becomes impossible to ignore, we raise the clarion call to compassionate action. 'As the lotus rises untainted from the mud, so too does our consciousness bloom.'
Documentary:
2012: Time for Change - From Conscious Evolution to Practical Solutions
Anapurnadevi
The Hindu Goddess of the Harvest. As our world roils in the throes of climate change, population growth, species extinction, and industrial pollution, we face a period of urgent transformation and realignment. The Earth is capable of supporting us all, if we can rise to our role as her steward. As artists, we may help engender the sustainable paradigm shift and usher in a new utopian era of abundance and harmony with the Earth.
Coalition of the Willing - 15 min inspiring animation
HOME - stunning airbone footage documentary
Here Comes the Sun - uplifting solar power documentary
The Future of Food - big agriculture/GMO documentary
Shaper of the Merkaba
As I learn to manipulate digital clay, shifting pixels around in a virtual environment, I work to deepen my lucid awareness of waking life as yet another virtual world, as malleable to our imagination as the clay.
I had a dream that I was sitting in a dim room. I held up a jewel, a tiger’s eye striped with jasper. I spoke the ancient Vedic axiom, ‘I Am That,’ and suddenly my body and the room dissolved as if it were the disturbed reflection on the surface of water. The ripple pattern was in the shape of the Merkaba. Reality shimmered away and I experienced myself as the infinite unmanifest Void (Purusha, Shunya, Nirvana, the Vacuum). It is the feeling of utter peace, the quiet eternal Awareness that we return to each night. My body and the room shimmered back into existence, and I played with the phenomenon several times, speaking the spell and hazing into and out of astral reality.
The Shaper of the Merkaba is our higher Self in its creator aspect. This piece is a celebration of the fact that we are all the shapers of our own realities.
Cyberspacial Telepathy
This was originally a live piece that I worked on at the Final Oracle Gathering, side by side with Android. That was a grand occasion. This piece was printed in Projections magazine and released at the Rainbow Serpent Festival in Australia. I paired the art with an article on an issue that I feel strongly about, the mining of coltan for use in consumer electronics.
Coltan is a rare mineral that can withstand high degrees of heat, so it has become an essential ingredient in the battery capacitors of our consumer electronics, including all of our laptops, mp3 players and cell phones. Coltan is mined in the Congo by slave labor, including what the United States Department of Labor listed as the “worst forms of child labor.” Gorillas are slaughtered and the meat is sold to miners and armies that control the area. Warlords kill to control the mines, and the soldiers mass rape the local women as means of psychological warfare against the men. 5.4 million deaths have been attributed to the mining. I think that this is a dark truth worth knowing as we surf our facebook profiles and use our phones to call our loved ones, for our technologically privileged lifestyles come at a terrible price.
I think this issue is particularly important to understand as a digital artist. Our tech was clawed from the guts of the Earth. When we realize where our toys are coming from, it illustrates our responsibility to use that technology to sublimate the very system that produces it. We have the power to manifest imagery that can resonate in the hearts and minds of millions of people. We can use the power of our digital networks to organize and transmit a message of Unity. Let us use these tools for the benefit of all beings.
>> Beyond Cyberspace Article
Chris Jordan photography piece
Documentary:
The Real Mobile Phone Wars
Galactik Ganesha
During my travels I saw Ganesh depicted in Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist and Thai traditional art. I find it striking that the appeal of the elephant headed god is so multicultural. Lord Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles, the messenger and scribe of the gods, analogous to Hermes in the Greek tradition or Thoth in the Egyptian. Yogis propitiate Ganesh to remove obstructions from their channels, so that the Kundalini may rise uninhibited and ignite the higher states of awareness.
Triumvirate
The Hindu triumvirate of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer, given a Neo-Tribal Cyber Fusion spin.
Geographik Caduceus
The archetype of the caduceus is ancient, appearing in disparate cultures across centuries. Twin serpents rise from the Earth as the double helix of life, where the wings of the bird are flung wide as they attain the Heavens, creating the bridge of Axis Mundi. It represents the inner path of the Healer, bringing knowledge down from higher planes of consciousness to rejuvenate the Tribe.
Arcology Fleet
I made this to commemorate the caravan migration of my friends and allies to a new home base, where we now pool our powers of creation on a single project of global significance...
Prosperity
Painted live at Prosperity Festival, 09
Burmese March
In honor of the thousands of Burmese monks and student activists who stood up in protest of the brutal junta regime in September 2007. Hundreds of protestors were killed during the ensuing crackdown. Subjected to beatings and arrests, the demonstrators maintained their commitment to non-violence, empowered by the knowledge that the true Self is immortal. Their bravery is commemorated here.
Live Projector Performance Paintings:
I made most of these in 2008 and 9 at underground music festivals as VJ performances.
The Gift of Bass
Fundraiser piece for the Transcendent Church of Bass in Seattle
Emerald City Sci-Fi
Neuroglobin
Holographic Buddha Network
Feedback
These 3 were created during a single 24 hour period for an art making marathon thrown by the Center on Contemporary Arts in Seattle.
Nanorganic
Painted live at Connexion, Seattle 2008
Primal Mysticism
Painted live at Peking Duckstep, Seattle 09
Shakti Insight
Painted live at Chillaxity, Seattle 09
Urban Subversion
Painted Live at H’Art Opening, Seattle 09
Printed in Projections Magazine, Rainbow Serpent Festival
Lotus Link
Somatic Revolution
Painted Live at Somatic Revolution, Orcas Island 08
Ecstatic Shakti Alignment
Rain City Groove
Painted live at the Buddhaful Groove Drive fundraiser, Seattle 09
Older work:
Viradical Caduceus
Animus Paradigm
Industrial Anesthesia
Whoever controls the media controls our minds. This is one of the most important issues to understand if we are to change our world for the better. Who’s programming you, and why?
Documentary:
The Corporation
Documentary:
Manufacturing Consent
Avarice
“It remains to be seen how many people in our time will make that journey from war to nonviolent action against war. It is the great challenge of our time: how to achieve justice, with struggle, but without war.” -Howard Zinn
Documentary:
Why We Fight
A particularly pertinent documentary for artists in the game industry:
Moral Kombat
Moral Kombat website
Shadow Surge
Each of us has a part of our mind where we store negative thoughts and emotions. Jung called this ‘the shadow.’ The healing process of psychotherapy works by teaching people to face these facets of the unconscious. In order to mature and develop, the individual must be open to the parts of oneself beyond the ego. Methods to achieve this include paying attention to dreams, exploring spiritual concepts, and questioning the roles placed on us by society. Here is a fascinating documentary series on the subject: The Century of the Self.
Hacktivist
I am on a mission to virally spread radical ideas.
This documentary is filled with them.
Zeitgeist: Addendum
Neuromural
Mycelial Beatscape
Fungi and mycelial networks present an amazingly powerful means of healing our damaged ecosystem! Here is a Paul Stamets video on TED all about it.
Millenial Uprising
Painted Live at Freq Out, Seattle 08
Generation WE video
Concept design for the Rachel Corrie Foundation mural in Olympia WA.
Documentary:
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land
Battle in the Belly of the Beast
Painted Live at Manifest, Seattle 08
I've been very inspired by such authors as Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Ken Wilber, and Joseph Campbell among many others. I try to find opportunities to tag creative works with breadcrumbs that lead to specific information. To that end, I've worked with a few friends on a site called the Datachurch:
Datachurch
It's an archive of (r)evolutionary content to share with people, especially those who have never been exposed to the ideas inside. Navigate to the tag menu on the right and click on whatever garners your interest.
Portraits:
My beloved.
My Yoga teacher Sivadas. I studied with him for 2 months in Dharamsala at the foot of the Himalayas, the home of the Karmapa and the Dalai Lama.
Concept art
Brooding Ruler
Gaian Snake Charmer
I graduated from the Evergreen State College in the summer of 07, where I absorbed the exquisite artwork and ethos of Alex Grey, and pursued an independent course of study including digital painting, creative writing, and comics/sequential art. I draw great inspiration from Android, many of the pieces here were created as live projector performances at festivals and electronic music events. Clearly my art is very reminiscent of Andrew's, and I intend to continue steering my work in new directions. I remember looking at Andrew's and Sparth's portfolios in college and immediately knowing, 'this is what I want to do with my life.'
In college, I had first thought to become a concept artist for videogames and film, which led me to digital painting, like so many members of this community. However, my continued research led me to realize that in their current state, games and Hollywood are very much the opiate used to distract people into consumer zombies while the world burns. As more and more of us become aware the scope of the challenges facing our planet, I believe that we can transform the entertainment industry from the inside into a force of great change. I look to The Matrix, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Captain Planet, and many other projects as examples of how subversive art can be disseminated through mass media.
In the age of globalization and world-spanning communication networks, our Tribe expands to include the whole of the earth, and our Earth is in dire need of healing. Our planet's ability to support life is being destroyed by greed. The people of the world are enslaved by the debt system and the military industrial complex, mesmerized by corporate media entertainment. Each of us must learn to free our minds from the dominator culture, recognize our interdependence, and seek our own empowerment within.
Soon after graduating from college, I attended Conceptart.org's Revelations workshop in Seattle, which completely transformed and elevated every aspect of my life. Artistically, socially, financially, romantically, everything about my world was completely transformed for the better as a result of attending the workshop. I am very grateful to have had the privilege, and highly recommend attending. Likewise I am grateful for all of you who create this community, you have profoundly changed my life and so many others. With all my heart, I thank you.
.gif ";)")
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks