We live in a world where artists are more often than not starved into submission and I’ve come to realize that a lot of the commissioned work I’ve done to stave off that fate ultimately does my own creative voice no favors. Artistically, I think I’ve unwittingly attached my wagon to other peoples’ stars and caught myself up in that “one step forward, two steps back” kind of thing. While I’ve forged some valuable relationships and won’t depart from commissions altogether, I am redirecting my primary focus for the sake of preserving my own artistic vision.

I have found spirit and clarity in awareness, consciousness expansion and in nurturing a true, loving relationship that I only wish more people would allow themselves to be familiar with. These things, and a sense of family, have become the most important things in my life. I am eternally grateful for having them, but it’s a hungry, beautiful beast that can no longer sustain itself without the nourishment that can only come from adapting to a new sense of responsibility, a responsibility to more than just myself. It’s been a stressful process! But, it’s the good kind of stress, eustress, and I couldn’t welcome the challenge more openly. So, whereas my enthusiasm for creating the visuals for others’ ideas may be waning, it’s not at all because I’ve lost confidence in what I do. It’s because I’ve come to gain profound insight, confidence and faith in my own visions and in where I should be directing the flow of my creative energy that I’ve set myself on this trajectory.

I was created in the image of The Creator, as was spoke to me directly in a timeless space of acquiring experiential knowledge, so whenever I’m not being truly creative myself, I’m suffering from an identity crisis. I know that now and I’ve committed myself to exhibit more purely sourced artwork. And, with that, I can assure you statements from even farther out there are on the way.

I had dinner with a vegetarian recently who said that eating anything that could feel was not an option. “Plants don’t feel?”, I challenged. A cold glare and two years of anatomy and physiology courses were put up as a clearly impenetrable defense to any further discussion.

But, the conversation doesn’t end there. At least not when you have your own online journal where you can complete a point.

This world hurts in more ways than just the physical, we’ve just lost our connection to that which can’t be weighed, counted or measured by conventional science. The web of life is unimaginably vast and the plants are a major, major part of it. Without them we would not be here. The reverse is not true. Through ayahuasca I have learned that plants, all plants, do feel… and they have much to say about how we conduct ourselves in the world we share. I could go on and on about this, but I’m married to no gospel and have no idea what I’ll say tomorrow as I walk this path of continued revelation of inner gnosis. I find my stances are ever-changing as decades of preconceived notions are shattered. However, I have no interest in building up my ego with the things I do to better myself and, in fact, make a point of deconstructing it. I only wish more people would challenge themselves to do the same.

I am open to discussion and new perspectives, but I will say, admittedly with conviction…

Plants feel.

“I think ayahuasca can show us how beautiful we are inside and what kinds of possibilities we have for love and actions of kindness. One of the great assets of ayahuasca is that it’s a plant. And what better way to root ourselves back into the web of nature and a compassion for this web of life than through the plants themselves? The plants are talking to us. We need to listen.” -Alex Grey

What the hell was that last night over Norway? Thousands saw it, many of whom submitted their pictures here. There’s plenty of video too. And I like the timing.

I won’t be so bold to speculate what it was one way or the next, but I will say I agree with vendetta007mike, a commenter on YouTube, who said, “It’s not a Russian missile that is failed, but the heads of those who claimed that.”

I once read that among the predictions made by Myrddin Wyllt – the madman and prophet that Merlin, the great wizard of Arthurian legend, is based on – was that one day a man standing on one shore would instantly speak to a man standing on another through a “talking stone”. As if seeing someone yapping on their cell phone or chiseling glyphs into it with their thumbs wasn’t already enough to make me think he might have been onto something, I also like to note that stone is the basis of our modern technology – quartz in particular – and is used in the silicon chips that run cell phones and computers. It makes it easier for me to go along with this kind of craziness, the kind that inspires my work.

Anyway… with this in mind, and as a nod to my own recent dream about a white stone with unbelievable consciousness implications, I just got a white iPhone and finally jacked myself into the mobile world. Uh-oh, here we go…