It wasn't until after I graduated from college that I now feel my True Education began. Carl Sagan, Ken Wilber, Alan Watts, and Alex Grey were some of the first Teachers to ever Truly get through, and they kick started a Passion for Expanding my Awareness that persists today.
Now looking back on more than a decade of eager Study, so many authors deserve my humble Thanks, as well as my Joyously Sharing them all with You.
Astronomy, Cosmology, Chemistry, and Physics, Mythology, Theology, Sociology, and Ethics. It can seem overwhelming, especially knowing that's only a partial list, but with time on our side, and the information so readily available at libraries, wikipedia, and other online resources, they and their like, offer us an accelerated path toward Expanding Our Understanding of what It Means To Be.
I've been lucky enough to have been blessed with a life of plenty, that has offered me ample free-time to pursue my Creative Desires as well as my Philosophical Needs.
From drawing and painting, to sculpting and stained glass, from poetry and philosophy, to singing and playing guitar, I seem to have a fundamental need to be Creative in as many ways as I can find.
This image was created almost entirely with my nephew's initials, JTC, and concentric circles of his first name, Jack. It attempts to illustrate the ever-meshing electromagnetic waves that radiate out from a Star like our Sun.
This drawing was created with a Parker ballpoint pen and seemingly countless hours of delicate cross-hatching. This was an attempt to visualize our Wildly Wavey and Particled Existence.
This painting was created by allowing very watery acrylic paint to absorb into thick watercolor paper. The more thin layers of color, the brighter the image becomes. The line-work is done with a mechanical pencil sealed over with watery red paint.
The plan was easy: reduce the image down to simple intersecting waves of alternating colors. The result: a Rorschach test ripe with potent imagery.
This is one of my latest creations.
Like most of my drawings it was born in a furry of almost mindlessly quick sweeping circular scribbles that slowly suggested more permanent forms.
I rarely set out to create a specific image or theme as I draw. This frees the subject matter up from my deliberate conscious control and allows my subconscious to reveal itself through a mindless
initial creative process.
This drawing feverishly started in the upper left where my scribbles quickly turned into an arm, a cup, a face, some hands, and the suggestion of a belly. After working in a little detail to better establish some intent
, I dashed in a rough spiral in the lower right to start to balance out the composition. As I did this the spiraling form next to the outline of the belly suggested an elephant to me, so I quickly sketched in some eyes, an ear, and a mouth, to reinforce this instinct. Obviously my creature needed some legs to move about and what better way to avoid the difficulty of drawing feet than by stuffing them into slippers! The last to appear on the scene was the little birdie out of some stray scribbles and a need for compositional balance.
After the basic scene was established, the race was on to clean up most of the traces of sketchy beginnings, by carefully crosshatching chiaroscuro gradation where once there was scribbled chaos. Drawing in pencil gives me even greater opportunity for initial Carelessness thanks to the Joy of Erasing!
As this drawing slowly refined, so did my understanding of what was created: I saw a man eagerly chugging from the Cup of Life, pretending to be a Godsend, ever married to the Word, but foundationally still an Animal, slave to his Carnal Desire. I saw a wise old bird just getting noticed, Singing the Song of Life, warning not to drink too much too quickly, not to want too much too long, perching calmly, awaiting our Collective Fate...