Condensed Cloud

New Blog

2011-02-20T23:57:00.001-06:00

Hello friends!

I've imported this blog into Wordpress and will be continuing to post art-icles through my new site!

Here's the link to my new blog: http://condensedcloud.wordpress.com/

my website: www.condensedcloud.com

my Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/condensedcloud

and facespace: http://www.facebook.com/ben.wuest1

~namaste~

Ajikan

2011-02-16T14:06:00.005-06:00

Buddhism is a soul business primarily dealing in ancestor death. Graveyards are man made religious landscapes. Buddhism believes in anatman or no eternal seperate self/soul but they are not burying the dead and performing rites for a soul, they are helping those that are living and grieving the passing of a part of themselves and thus by animating the soul they are able to assist in the rebirth and facilitate the ever-changing transfer of energy.

When staying in a shingon temple atop of Mt, Koyusan I had the opportunity to be guided through this graveyard and led through the Ajikan Moon Disc Meditation. Shingon meditation activates visual references such as mandalas by empowering them with mantras to harmonize the voice mind with the visual embodiment.

The Ajikan meditation consists of approaching an image of the moon and performing three prostrations followed by sitting and viewing the moon with a relaxed gaze. One than can chant "Ah Vi Ra Un Ka" 100 times to stimulate the cakra body. Following this should follow 100 homage mantras to ones guru or god and than begin chanting the seed syllable "Ah"Ah is the empty, free, eternal ah-ha. After a short period the meditator closes their eyes and continues to envision the moon in their internal vision, opening their eyes as much as one needs until able to sustain the vision.

Transforming the disc into a tiny sphere, we take the sphere into our heart center and begin breathing into it as it slowly begins to encompass all of our organs and eventually our bodies. Than allowing the ball to encompass our neighbors without judgements, we continue then to expand to the size of our building, city, state and eventually the entire world, moon, stars, galaxies until all is one within. Exit the meditation with a rapid reverse and don't forget your final prostrations!

Want more? Here's a link to a mandala of the Shingon cosmology!

And here's art on the Bardo Thodol or Land of the Dead

And the lord of the dead

Playing the game; BlackJack and Dominos

2011-02-15T21:50:00.007-06:00

As in life, art is a space of unlimited and often unpredictable possibilities. When one approaches art with open spontaneity and drops the self-conscious analytical mind they allow for the natural rhythms of life to manifest in their work. By allowing the strokes of a brush to dance freely the artist may find an effortless effort which allows for their true self to create itself through the quietude of intuitive knowledge. The allowance required to let go begins with an embrace of the entire life of spirit which far transcends artistic skill into the art of the soul. The process of discovery is not knowing the outcome but being open to change and seeing new possibilities which require leaving behind preconceptions of form. In essence, one must sense what they did not know they knew. This is the transition from becoming to being, intuition to realization, a trust and receptivity which allows the idea to reveal itself.

To illustrate chance and more specifically to the nature of taking risks I chose to print a sword swallowing Jack. Taking risks is opening yourself up to change, accepting the possible outcomes and to try. Taking a risk is a practice of faith that demonstrates your trust and willingness to overcome obstacles such as fear of rejection, failure and a need for approval. Risk taking allows release from the isolating box of over dependent certainty. A very karmic coincidental occurrence happened during my class critique and that was that our own class magician Patrick Burke had printed an Ace and together we had blackjack. I hope this piece can encourage you daily, to take a chance.

Singles:$21 Double Composition:$30

For more art on the nature of chance and risks check out this link!!

Giving Practice

2011-01-04T03:44:00.000-06:00

Corepower yoga has given me the greatest gift I've ever received and that is the gift of a Vinyasa Yoga practice. Vinyasa is not calisthenics, aerobics, gymnastics or simply stretching but really something much deeper. Vinyasa yoga directly translates as Nyasa"to place" and vi "in a special way" or "moving with intention" Practitioners flow through a sequence of various movements and asanas(postures) while concurrently linking the breath to every movement. The mind following suit becomes immovable in that it stops for nothing and is always moving in relationship with the present inhaltion and exhalations.

Yoga can be exclusively used as external exercise, or to control the external senses or even purify the inner nervous system and distill the mind. The mental support of physical assertion allows clairvoyance of perceiving ones direct nature. There is no one "right way" to practice yoga however a consistently humble practice with the best intention allows for a firm foundation for cultivating the cessation of fluctuations of the mind.

The best intention is not to get rock hard abs and than drink jag bombs til your shirt comes off. That is an ok intention but whats the best intention? Could it be to end suffering? Shanti(peace)?Moksha (liberation)? To synchronize body, mind, and spirit? To have the the opposing energies in the body balanced and shot through the sushuma channel to purify our mind and realize our true identity as god? That's a question only the yogi can answer as yoga is a self critiquing subject. Only after a yogi allows them-self to receive and perceive the present that is their practice are they than able to see, criticize and study their self to know themselves and their best Intention.

Still need a hint? The best intention is in your self and bigger than your self. Try giving your intention up to someone, something bigger than yourself and humbly receive your gift, your present, your practice.

"And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give"-Paul Mccartney

Inspired by Shel Silversteins Giving Tree

T.K.V. Desikachar
Pattabhi Jois
B.K.S Iyengar
and the teachers at CorePower Yoga

Check out more of my Corepower art!
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Yoga Power

Teeny Teens

2010-12-20T16:35:00.001-06:00

To capture the essence of teenagers I illustrated the youth of America. Here I present Attitude and Babies Having Babies. This imagery happened to remind me of a reputable Zen Parable, Please enjoy.

Is That So?

A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter's accusation, he simply replied "Is that so?"

When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. "Is that so?" Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.

For many months he took very good care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. "Is that so?" Hakuin said as he handed them the child.

Vincent Van Gone, the After Gogh

2010-12-13T00:45:00.001-06:00

I placed an airbrush artist (Kasper), a painter(Willard Malebear), three models(Allicia Christensen, Zoee Taylor, Melanie Hunt), two acrobats (Brandon Wharton & Rebecca Yale, a harpist (Andrea), and a latex specialist mask making performer(Brently Davis) all in one place and said GO

This is Vincent Van Gogh experiencing the land of the dead.

For more on the Bardo Thodol (Land of the Dead)

and Yama, the lord of Death

Project M; Welcome Home

2010-12-05T06:10:00.000-06:00

Project M is an international summer intensive program that came to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design this past summer. The project M team encourages design students to think beyond pre-deterministic linear thought pathways and enable them to utilize their potential to benefit the community through art.

The Minneapolis team chose to make Minneapolis more welcoming and homely by distributing door mats reading "welcome home" on sidewalks, apartments and homeless shelters to give the people a sense of belonging and what it feels like to be welcomed. BI hosted the show in their gallery space and gave every MCAD student a blank card with the instructions to write something to inspire the homeless during the holidays and turn them in for a chance to win door prizes. For every card donated 10$ was given to St. Anthony's homeless shelter. I didn't score a new Ipod but the real things worth winning aren't things.

Exposed

2010-11-30T20:38:00.002-06:00

With much of my work being recorded and documented by cameras for digital purposes I came to the conclusion that I might as well just paint directly into the camera. Here are my experiments.

The Healing Power of Nature

2010-11-26T18:11:00.000-06:00

Although the body has the ability to heal itself without necessarily having any outside intervention, really one of the best remedies is the great outdoors. Nature has tremendous capacity to heal, the earth provides noninvasive treatments and harmony of health through natural processes. Simply being in the restorative environment amongst nature can sooth the mind and allow one to slow down and step out of the chaotic rush of city living. The prevalence today of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, obesity, and factors related to over-stimulation by the ever-present electronic environment can be directly related to an absence of time spent enjoying nature. The article I was assigned to illustrate even goes to say that even just simply seeing the grass grow can greatly help reduce stress and promote over all well being.

The Allegory of Plato's Condo

2010-11-15T22:17:00.007-06:00

I was initially assigned to collaborate with Jeremy Andersen, Tara Miche and Tracy Olson on an installation work. The only thing certain upon beginning our project was that we wanted our sculpture to cast interactive shadows onto figurative drawings on the wall. With the nature of collaborative design, that is losing the self driven decisions to a collective consciousness, we were left with identity theft to be a subject of top interest. Our sculpture was thus then designed to have a nondescript figure positioned so that they could be read as either running in fear or as if chasing a prey.

The piece is titled Plato's Condo is reference to Plato's cave. Plato's cave is an allegorical commentary on the human race in relations to education, perception and all of reality. Within Plato's cave inhabits prisoners staring at a blank cave wall watching shadows cast by their unseen captors and the illumination of fire. The illusion of shadow puppets as created by the captors are believed to be real things by the prisoner. Plato furthermore introduces a scenario where if the captors were to see the objects casting the shadows that they would not believe them to be "real" as the shadows are.

The ego is perhaps the greatest example of Plato's cave and of identity theft. The illusive ego which can never quite be pin-pointed lives in the past. Looking behind us we will see our shadow, the past, to which the ego may claim "this is what I am" and chain itself to this belief when this is at most a new perception of what was. The shadow of our ego is only a shadow on the wall, one must simply turn around to see the light.

Conception, Benjamin Wuest, 2010

2010-11-15T02:14:00.002-06:00

The energy sculpture as explored in my previous blog entry brought up discussion of like minded energy artists such as Travis Freeman whom experimented with creating spaces for meditative realization as explored in his piece "The Meaning of Being" the energy of one hundred meditators. Freeman created a space for meditative concentration and realization as is achieved through the meditative practice of art performance whether it be painting, dripping, cutting acrobatics or simply working with chance by giving up control and allowing movement beyond the conventional laws of the self consciousness through the practice of finding harmony beyond dualism of artist and art, subject and object, being and non-being, emptiness and all forms. Freeman also played with creating spaces for group meet-ups and organizations to gather. Freeman also addresses social structure sculpture and even bridges into the healing power of art through his work "you may lay your head in my lap" which allowed any participator to lay their head in the lap of a complete stranger. This played into the exploration of social sculpture as pioneered by Joseph Bueys whom had concepts concerning the social, cultural and political function of art. Buey believed the power of human creativity and potential for art to bring about revolutionary change.

In 1962 Buey became one of the fist members of the eclectic artist group Fluxus. Fluxus is a global network of primarily minimalist composers and artists that made a switch on what an artist produces to more of a focus on the artists personality, actions and opinion as well as playing an emphasize on the connections of everyday objects and art. They played with these concepts through small pieces or "Happenings" to involving actions in large political rally's.

Happenings as explained by Allan Kaprow, the assembly artist attributed with conducting the first happenings, are "not a new style, but a moral act, a human stand of great urgency, whose professional status as art is less critical than their certainty as an ultimate existential commitment." Kaprow is commenting on conforming to the confinement of catering to a crowd and particularly with respects to monetary gain. Happenings pursued the immaterial as a fun counter to the seriousness of modern Art.

Happenings are events consisting of minimal vague instruction, opening the events to accidents and unintended effects. The audience shifts from spectator into performer, replacing criticism with support, and contributes to the randomness of events as achieved through integrating chance factors which supports Duchamp's notion of the viewer completing the art work. When chaos determines the path the performance will follow, there is no room for failure. When something goes 'wrong', something far more 'right,' more revelatory, has many times emerged. Thus every Happening is fresh, cannot be reproduced and is a priceless work of art blurring the separation between life, art, artist, and audience.

Do Not Mistake the Finger Pointing to the Balloon to be the Balloon Itself.

2010-11-12T20:39:00.000-06:00

I was delighted to be assigned to create a work based off the everyday as I in my work I regularly attempt to manifest a sense of everyday nature (Yugen) with what is right here and now (sabi) through immediate experiential aesthetic apprehension of transcending the traditional world through bridging the phenomenal with reality. The ultimate intention of my work is that the viewer may experience the same realization I experienced and realized in the process of performing the art whether it be painting, acrobatics or working with chance and allowing movement beyond conventional laws of the self consciousness and thus finding harmony beyond the dualism of subject and object, artist and art, internal and external, being and non-being and of form and emptiness.

For this project I initially wanted to do an Acroyoga performance with the BrentlyShow at Station 4 night club and turn in a video recording to those whom could not make it but I was immediately shot down and told I needed to perform in class. I shrugged that off and figured I'd fly our teacher Katinka Galanos if she must insist but than also figured I should have a back-up plan jus' in case and thus I also collaborated with Chris Lyle on a video documentary about yoga as well as made some digital imagery of Brandon Wharton and Stephanie Vilendrer performing AcroYoga. I came into class confident and hit a wall of criticism. Katinka had severe back injuries and could not fly, my video doc was apparently not considered to be a "work of art" and my images were in the wrong format. I was told to try again.

Untitled from Christopher Lyle on Vimeo.

Katinka was right, though I thought my documentary was an everyday way to portray my every day, it simply did not demand the participation of the viewer and thus allow them to detach of their ego so they may remove the self and experience a pure connection to my work and an unaltered state of their being. This was the same dilemma as Studying Zen vs. Practicing Zen. I thus came to the realization that I needed to introduce my class to the Energy Art Qi Gong and build an energy sculpture. Your participation is requested, please stand and do as I do.

Friendship Is One Mind In Multiple Bodies.

2010-10-22T12:50:00.012-05:00

For my self portrait I wanted to capture the notion that the motion of my breath was who I am and I thus took a continuous synchronized shutter shot of moving my arms with my breath while practicing the healing martial art Qi Gong. I really like how my first image came out looking like an embracing white light which captures my vision that I see all things as a welcoming extension of myself. My second self portrait is an image of myself doing the Qi Gong exercise Tuoa.

My friend Willard Malebear is genuinely genius and just beyond sane. Willard's minds mediums consist of paint, aerosol, a digital playground, ink and human flesh. I came to collaborate with Willard on the night before I had an Illustration for a package of halloween candy due. I had been particularly impressed with some of his recent digital works and asked if he would show me the ropes on digital design and photoshop painting. Willard showed me the Wacom tablet's digital canvas and the cintiq pens digital paint brush and designed a whorror monster with all sorts of ooey, gooey, sticky ickies in and of its mouth. My koala gummy bears had the perfect mascot and I thus slapped on some text and had my package design. I also took a number of pictures around of Willard and his walls and made a digital sculpture of Willard.

Brently is a body which wears the mask of flesh, fur, land, latex, puppet, paint, and passion. The Brentlyshow is a traveling circus where every character acts through multiple faces in an extension of one. Brently is a clown, the taoist fool, always moving but not knowing where. He walks blindfolded by dreams across the tight rope to which he is bound. The fool lives in the ever present newness of now, dying to every minute and being re born in every moment possessing a sense of being unchained to the past or future.

Chris Lyle is my main MCAT majoring in web and multimedia. Chris dapples in light and sound particularly through the use of video and installation work. Chris and I collaborate on projects on a regular basis through painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, performance, ideating, video and really whatever we find inspiring. Chris was working on a documentary project about yoga which was rather convenient as I needed to do a project based on my everyday nature. We were able to create this movie in under a day.

Untitled from Christopher Lyle on Vimeo.

Justice Draconis is a performer of many body arts such as fire spinning, yoga, acroyoga, the lira, spanish web, silks, and plays the Didgeridoo in the metal band Niobium. I met Justice while goofing off doing acrobatics during yoga school at Corepower Yoga. Justice had a phenomenal inversion practice and possessed a wide range of knowledge about body balancing. We thus began to practice and play.

Brandon Wharton to whom I often refer to as "Chawrles" is yoked to the yogic path. Having originally met in highschool, we continued our education through Corepower Yoga. as well as Circus school at Xelias Aerial Arts. We've performed and co-taught Acrobatic Flying Yoga at various venues and have actually recently joined a traveling circus called the Bizarre Bazaar. Brandons portrait is coupled with our Acrobatic friend and circus colleague Stephanie Vilendrer.

Free Acrobatic Flying Yoga @ Moe Bodyworks (3541 Lyndale) 5:30 Saturdays
Various Sized Prints Available.

Contact me at gilligone@gmail.com to inquire about booking the circus!

Obstruction: East Meets Wuest and Loopy Chaos

2010-10-14T00:24:00.001-05:00

I was assigned a partner to obstruct me, that is another peer of mine was required to enforce limitations on my processes for which she would design the platform for this assignment. Despite the ultimate human desire to be free, free of attachment, responsibility, limitations, laws and such we actually need and even enjoy our limitations. Freedom makes us human, our identity is choice that happens in every moment, and the way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice. Yet we like to be told what to do, when we are given a difficult choice with the burden of responsibility we ask "what would you do? what would you do if you were me?" To much choice can cause paralysis rather than liberation and it has been shown in people that they have such difficulty choosing that they put the choice off or choose to not choose at all. If we get over the paralysis and make the choice, we may not even reach our fullest satisfaction because the sheer amount of choice creates expectations for perfection which further sets us up to potentially regret what we choose because if there is any disappointment in our choice we find it that much easier to imagine the perfect alternative... The solution? Build your own obstacles to overcome, create rules for which to design a platform of play. Have no expectations, drop gaining ideas and have no fear that no matter what you choose, you have chosen your right path, accept and furthermore enjoy your choices... and your limitations.

Thus my limitations were to work digitally, involve text, have a monochromatic colour scheme, create just one piece, and to collaborate with the Baba Ram Dass, that is the author of Be Here Now. Ram Dass was a psychologist and psychedelic pioneer whom decided to take a trip to India to find his truth. Ram Dass traveled throughout India meeting many a holy man and became content with his journey but never found quite what he was looking for until he came to meet the guru Maharajji. The Guru immediately cut through all of Ram Dass's skepticism and showed him his greater self.

I thus decided to fulfill the assignment I would create a page for my own book "East Meets Wuest; Zen and the Japanese Aesthetic" which I wrote in the form of letters I mailed while studying in the Monasteries of Japan to my friends in America. I thus so illustrated the first page of the last letter which is a piece that utilizes text, is digitally crafted, monochromatic, belonging to a single piece, collaborative in that it takes a similar approach to sharing a spiritual journey and in particular in showing a part of a part of a mosaic of karmic unfolding.

We were than obstructed a second time. After coming to realize that every single piece I had turned in into my Ideation and Processing class was a performance condensed into a two dimensional format my obstruction was to perform in class. I particularly wanted to capture the sensation of leaving Japan on a flight that was just as long as the time difference and thus I arrived at the same time I left. A similar idea to that shared by Tantric Yogins whom are always departing in a state of arrival and consequently arriving in a state of departure. Tantric Yogins live in a non-dual reality where they see eating as excrement, drinking as urine, lovers as mothers and have no destination or beginning to meditation. I decided to search for inspiration with my circus folk in BrentlyLand. We started getting real loopy playing with a looping station and inspiration struck... I thus had every person in class contribute their own sound to come together full circle to create one piece in unity.

Celestial Lights 3&4, JAX CD release and Zombie Pub Crawl!

2010-10-11T15:35:00.005-05:00

Folklore Enterprises in conjunction with Cracker Jax productions unleashed another round of some of the best Dj's, Dubstep, and local homegrown soicital paintiacs showing off their galleries and performing live painting in combination with a spectacular laser light show.

For this show i unveiled my "Flying High" series:

Made a blacklight-box painting:

And used photo transfer inks to tag Zombies!

The Dead are walking and don't even realize they are dead!! To make the dead aware and free themselves of the world of given things they must realize through their animal nature that it is they who is the giver. In the Bardo Thadol, the land of the dead, they do not realize they've died and continue to walk the earthly planes. They will never transcend if they yield for the dim lights and do not move into the brightness that is the end of all illusion. (BUT DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE LASERS)

Not one person has not returned from death, we've all died many deaths and in fact have already died in this life but are not witnessing or directly perceiving that part of our fourth dimensional being right nao or any of our fifth dimensional deaths where our "un-contained soul" might not of lived through that fall, car crash or zombie attack. There are two sides to the door, we are at the entrance and exit. Birth and Death are not just beginning and end but are simultaneously happening in all moments and all realities. We may not remember our recent death or birth but transcend these self-imposed limitations! Seeing death's illusory nature, be freed of fear. Symbolically die to your past, let the ego die and be liberated into new life! The science of death is the secret to life! Live every moment as if it is the last!

works byPhong

and Jake Eidem

AND ZOMBIES!!!

Sacrifice the ego and embrace the chaotic riot. The fear of self sacrifice will develop unconscious restraints that will only lead to illusory freedom. The whole game you've been playing is also based on faith. You have had faith in the rational mind and worship its products and sense data. Only in realizing this do you realize there are doors. If you are to get out of prison the first thing you must realize is you are in prison. If you think you are free you can't escape.

Thank You Eric From Zero-G photography for the amazing party pics!

Come check out our next show at the Loft above Barfly for our Halloween Special Oct. 30th

Failure: That's How I Roll and He Art

2010-10-11T10:37:00.002-05:00

My assignment was to capture the nature of failure. I immediately came to think of failure as experienced through Yoga. In Yoga we see failure as an opportunity to get back up. Failure is an ever present possibility and experience shared by every human being but can really only be considered a "failure" if one does not learn from their experience. The universe conspires our successes and will throw us insurmountable challenges we may not be able to meet but it is the trial that defines us and more importantly how we recover from our failures. In yoga we value process over product and we even practice falling out of postures, as shown in my etching of myself rolling out of handstand, so that we can fail safe and fail better. We learn to see our failures as success thus have no fear failure as your fear will surely be your failure. Biochemically we react to failure very similarly to how we react to the fear of death, by following through and not submitting to defeat we biochemically re map and re pattern our brains plasticity and increase our potential to be a greater human being. Practice detachment of outcome, detach of your errors and embrace your practice, cherish your failures as the edge of success.

In a continuation of exploring the nature of failure I chose to experiment with the nature of love. My relationships were going nowhere but sour and recognizing this I decided to take a collage I had made with a pair of flamingos bumpin' heads thus making a heart shape and then take carbon copy paper and make a tracing of the birds. I would etch one bird and my friend the other and than we tore the birds apart and had the tastiest, juiciest, sweetest, last tiger kiss of our relationship to seal the separation. I thus call the piece He art because through breaking a heart we make art. The moment was as truly beautiful as liberating, I encourage you, no I insist that you treat yourself to treat the next kiss with your love as if it is your last, because that person just might not be there tomorrow.

Works made with Carbon on Paper. $15
Order your very own carbon copy paper with flamingo outline and break your very own heart for just $5 and get a free bonus gift of clearing up your stagnant relationship!!

EarthDance, shakin it for peace!

2010-10-10T17:40:00.000-05:00

Earth Dance is a global festival for peace celebrated in fifty different countries at over 200 locations. As shown by Marcus Young's social experiment dancing is contagious! With over a thousand people getting together we were passing around some Socially Transmittable Dancemoves for peace! We also had a globally synced meditation for peace where we all came together and joined hands in one big gigantic circle and OM'd in meditation for peace.

There were also a number of spiritual speakers for peace, a sonic sound temple, drum jams, a kid village with toys and exercises from all around the world, and a healing tent with massage, reiki, Qi Gong, Yoga and of course flying yoga magic carpet rides!

11X17 Signed Earthdance poster prints available for $15.00.

Larger Sizes and Framing may be arranged.

try a FREE flying magic carpet ride acrobatic yoga class at Moe Bodyworks(3541 Lyndale Ave) every saturday at 5:30 or come by for a massage/reiki/acupuncture/chiropractic care/herbal remedies/meditation or a variety of yoga styles that are offered everyday!

Beg, Borrow, Steal

2010-09-17T11:45:00.002-05:00

The assignment was to appropriate. The term appropriation refers to the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work^[2] (as in 'the artist uses appropriation') or refers to the new work itself (as in 'this is a piece of appropriation art'). Art practices involve the 'appropriation' of ideas, symbols, artefacts, image, sound, objects, forms or styles from other cultures, from art history, from popular culture or other aspects of man made visual or non visual culture.^[3] Inherent in the process of appropriation is the fact that the new work recontextualizes whatever it borrows to create the new work. In most cases the original 'thing' remains accessible as the original, without change. Sometimes it's re-contextualized by being copied and pasted onto a personal web page. (All the above text has been appropriated from Jonah Huangs website which appropriated wikipedia.)

For this assignment I was immediately reminded of doing Takahatsu(or alms receiving) with the monks in Japan. We were not technically begging but offering disaster preventing dharanis as well as other chants which speak of the receiver and giver being the same and then offering the opportunity for the people to donate. Although the people of Japan had to do back breaking labor for the little money they earned they still gave not because we needed the money more than them but because they genuinely thought we could do more with their money and furthermore they had faith in the dharanis and the transfer of merit.

I'd also put Takahatsu into practice one other time since my experience with the monks. I had ran out of money in Tokyo and having no funds to return to Kyoto let alone sleep or eat in Tokyo I had decided to make a sign which read "Parents Killed by Ninjas, Need Yen for Kung Fu Lessons." Strolling around the urban jungle a man had seeing my decorated backpack and asked me if was a painter. After a very broken conversation and use of a laptop on the street I found he had wanted me to paint his salon! He paid for all of my food, lodging, train fair and double what I asked for!!!

"Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents in your hand and say, "here, my poor man", but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself.It is not the reciever that is blessed, but it is the giver.Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect." Appropriated from Swami Vivekananda

Thus for this project I decided to "beg" for a charity or rather offer Dharanis or didi's off my didgi(eridoo), "borrow" people patience and time and then "steal" their money. Furthermore while I was downtown performing I saw a number of people dancing in the streets with their ipods on. I decided it looked like so much fun that I to would put on my iPod and join the dancers. The trib came down and interviewed me, asking me what I was doing for which I replied the only sense to make out of change is to plunge with it and join the dance!

The value of man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving-Einstein

Homerun

2010-09-08T21:27:00.001-05:00

For this Project I was assigned to illustrate a story written by another student that went along the lines of her and her sister were being being baby sat and getting along well for a couple of 5-8 year ol' youngens. Well the student wanted to play with one of her sisters dolls and her sister willingly obliged but began removing the shoes and the baby sitter stopped her and asked what she was doing. The sister replied that she was removing the shoes because the student would lose them. The sitter shouted "sharing is caring" and demanded the sister to not be selfish and hand over doll with accessories included. A half hour later the shoes were nowhere to be found...

I immediately thought of the wicked sisters and the ruby red slippers from the wizard of OZ. I found a particularly interesting part of the story to be that the wicked witch of the east was also the ruler of the little munchkins, that is until the house came crashing down on her and the munchkins were thus free to do what they thought best for them.

High Quality Semi-gloss photo finish prints 10X15" available in a variety of styles. $20.00

Paper Phoenix; Erasure

2010-09-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

Our assignment in Ideation was to create a piece by erasure, that is create art through the act of erasing, deconstructing, destroying...

For this project I remembered meeting the Kanin(that isthe Kancho or Head Priest's right hand man) of Eiheiji(the largest Zen Temple in the world!). The Kanin was a fascinatingly accomplished person whom was trained to die as a kamikaze pilot but given his life when the Atom Bomb dropped. Ever since the Atom bomb of Hiroshima, there had been a flame kept inside of a little red lantern. This flame was fueled by suffering, by pain and rage, and as the Buddha had said holding on to anger is like holding on to a hot coal with the intent to throw it at someone, you are the only one whom gets burned. The Buddhist monks believed that everything moves in a circle and recognized that the only way to extinguish this fire was to return the flame to the source. Organizing a group of monks together, the Kanin and crew flew to America and walked a great distance carrying the lantern to the gates of Trinity where the flame was born. The security resisted at first, but seeing the peaceful parade and the children with tens of thousands of cranes, with each containing a prayer for peace, they decided to open the gates. The band of peaceful people entered and opening the lantern they burned a specially prepared prayer on a long cloth along with thousands of cranes and a scrupulous amount of karma until the flames had extinguished themselves. The children`s prayers reached the heavens and were truly the key to getting into the gates of trinity and extinguishing the flame.

To resemble the phoenix, the bird born of ashes of old, I folded a paper crane and than deconstructed the bird to leave an empty sheet. Although the paper still carries traces of old in the creased folds, the paper is otherwise empty, not to be seeing as nothing but as a blank slate of unlimited potential where further creation can occur.

Back to School

2010-09-02T13:22:00.002-05:00

My first illustration project was to make an illustration of a random word pulled out of a hat and make it fantastical! I drew "school" which really struck a note with me as I've been catapulted out-a-stout(University of Wisconsin) across the globe to live in the monasteries of Japan and study in a Buddhist University(Ryokoku). Returning to the United States I went to Yoga School through Corepower yoga, circus school at Xelias Aerial Arts after that and am now truly at the most fantastical school yet, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design(MCAD).

I decided for this project I really wanted to use my experience with Buddhism as Buddhism is really a school of thought, that is conditioned thought processes. I've met a number of Buddhist monks tell me they are not even religious and have no faith! but that they are merely spiritual philosophers whom verify practice in action. Even philosophically debates often come out with nothing! I decided to portray the Buddha as a sad clown because although Buddhists say that Life is Suffering primarily due to desire, attachment or the belief that they are separate, Buddhist's know that it is through suffering that we actually grow, that through the eight-fold path we find the release of desire, and the right view of being connected and thus the Buddha clown has a blissful smile under his mask. I chose for the close up of Buddha to be holding the shambhavi mudra with his eyes. The shambhavi mudra is used to synchronize the hemispheres of the brain and can be practiced by focusing on your nose with both eyes and eventually on external objects as well. At first you may experience some pain and this is from the hemispheres fighting each other in which case it can help to focus on a deity to help allow the body to surrender to a greater power and relax into the meditation.

My final piece was about movement. I found the paper and discovered the motion which suggested an upward rising motion. Immediately I thought of a man being being launched from a kannon. Everytime I've left a school I've felt as if being launched into life with a new set of skills and knowledge. The other acrobats among the composition suggest students to the teachers as well as the nature of flying through space. However this piece is not finished, it is my intention to lay a net over this piece as every-time I attend a school I build a net for myself to land in; I guess it leaves something for me to work on...

The Final Judgement?

2010-09-01T20:55:00.005-05:00

Many buddhist paintings contrast hells with the heavens as means of "teaching aids" and in particular depicting the hell realms as larger to show people what to avoid and grow out of as well as means to point to the heavens. The Lord of the Dead (Enma in Japanese Buddhism or Yama in Tibetan Tantra/Hinduism) lives on the border in a liminal place. This is a rare image to see in Buddhist paintings as Buddhists primarily believe that no one should make judgement of heart or mind as all things are interconnected, impermanent, illusory and further more there is the belief that there really is no such thing as good or bad as compassion that is sympathizing suffering can certainly appreciated by many whereas ignorance stemming future suffering can be rather unfavorable but what is really good and bad when all things are empty existing out of conditionally dependent origination with no absolute essence but rather impermanent potentiality? Buddhist's believe when you judge someone you only judge yourself.

Yama, the lord of justice and time, is portrayed as the mover of samsara and guardian of spiritual practice whom plays a roll that is seeing to pass judgement on those who are dead to send them to the appropriate rebirth on earth in heaven or hell. The dead will meet the judge and be asked in front of a mirror of their naked soul where their motives originated and to as whether they saw the messenger of light. Yama is a symbol of one's own karmic accumulation and is a solidified self-reflection which will make one's karmic consequences manifest appropriately (or inappropriately) in a realm with evil doing being noting compared to the punishment in worlds after the death. The judge is really ones consciences impartiality to that of love and righteousness and the mirror is the memory. The moral to be found is to not be so hard on yourself!

Yama was born as a holy man whom was told if he meditated for 50 years, he would achieve enlightenment. On the final day of his meditation he was interrupted by two thieves whom had a stolen bull. After beheading the bull in front of the hermit,they ignored his pleas to be spared for but a few minutes and beheaded him as well. In his near-enlightened fury the holy man became Yama, the god of Death. Taking the bull's head for his own he killed the two thieves and than decided to kill everyone in Tibet. The people of Tibet, fearing for their lives, prayed to the bodhisattva Manjusri who took up their cause. He transformed himself into Yamāntaka, similar to Yama but far more powerful and horrific. In their battle, everywhere Yama turned, he found infinite versions of himself. Yamāntaka defeated Yama and turned him into a protector of Buddhism.

Yamantaka (Daitoku in Japanese Buddhism) is the terminator of death. Terminating death, that is ending the cycle of rebirth and samsara, can be considered the goal of the journey to enlightenment. We all can experience three kinds of death, that is the end of our physical life, the end of our inner ignorance to the true nature of non-dual reality along with our instinctual habitual grasping and aversions to the objective "real" objects stemmed of ignorance and finally the secret death of the subtlest level of clear light and illusory body. The mind of pure light is able to perceive that death has no intrinsic concrete existence and that our understanding of death is all relative to the the world. Realizing Yamantaka is realizing buddhahood and thus one gains immortality through transcending death.

All of the realms of life are depicted between the jaws, or in the arms of a monstrous Yama. Yama is sometimes shown with a consort that is the physical manifestation of his shakti or inner feminine energy. Shakti derives of the goddess Shakta whom set forth the wheel of manifested life by bestowing her healing spirit into the womb of every species on the earth. Shakti is in all things as a man is both mother and father, he to contains an inner femenine energy. Thus the manifestation resembles the law of correspondence "as within, so without." Your outer world is like a mirror that reflects back to you what is going on in your inner world. Everything that happens outside of you corresponds to something that's going on inside of you. When we say that your outer world is a reflection of your inner world, we mean both at a conscious and at a subconscious level.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. ~Mark Twain

Plundaarrrrrfest

2010-07-25T01:56:00.010-05:00

Thy first year say of plunderfest got all sorts a scurvy wervy. There be a camp fer space pirates, dead pirates, regularrrr pirates, vikings, lost boys, booty bay bucaneers and a course the pirates worst enemy, the ninjas. With all sorts of sheninjagans the madness set in quite nicely.

Tharr be a numbarrr of secret ninja missions but parrhaps the funnest parrrt was thy search for tha booty. I happened to intarrrcept the clues midway when my friend sweetness received harrr paarrrt of thy puzzle that said "bring me something sweet" I just so happened to of brought the vendor coconut bliss to the festival and was able to snag a full tub of bliss for a coconutcase. She slipped me the next clue which was to bring a musical instarrment to the prince of the lost boys. I happened to know peterpan personally and brought him a tune from my didgeridoo. The prince of plunder presented me with the next clue which was to bring a jolly roger to ase. This stalled the search for a mere minute, I wasn't quite sure where to find a jolly roger but I came to thine realization that I could simply draw one on a rolling paper. I rather suddenly then just so happened to find a ninja wearing an ace on his shirt dancing amongst the madness. He gave me a skull ring with a red bandannarrrr painted on and said this be yarrr final clue. Being as the ninjas flag had a jolly rogarrrr with a red bandanarrr covering is grin I knew I would needs ta find my ninja Justice. When I ran into my mate he laughed and said he hadn't even given out the first clue yet, how ye be arrrready at the finish? I decided then that I would be a humble ninja and give the booty up and become a piece of the puzzle. I told him to give the clue, find the stingers of the sea and yer plunder shall be as I was camping amongst the jamfish and I would then give the hint to say "Justice and power must be brought together so that whatever is just may be powerful and whatever is powerful may be just"

I alas regret to say that I had to leave the festival due to a misunderstanding... It is not love that is blind but jealousy. Love sees sharply, hatred sees even more sharp, but jealousy sees the sharpest for it is love and hate at the same time and yet it is nothing but fear of abandonment which lives off doubt. However doubt is just as important as faith or we will always be limited by our beliefs and thus we need to doubt our limitations and doubt our doubts so that we may have the faith, which is not blind but a willingness to try, faith in action is realization, faith is stronger than destiny. Jealousy is a dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive. The tiger who devours its pray and its own heart, troublesome to others yet torment to one self.

The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.

Satnam

Plunder Fest 2010 : LED jellyfish installations from Mallory Lighter on Vimeo.

$10 T shirts
$5 Bandanarrrs
$15 Jamfish or 5 for $50

Installation designed by Mallory Leider, Chris Lyle and Ben Wuest

Fireworks and Works of Fire; The big bang made me do it!

2010-07-14T18:19:00.007-05:00

This Independence day Chris Lyle and I decided to celebrate by painting with fireworks and fire by blowing up paint bottles, melting crayons and colouring with smoke grenades. Which was followed up by fireworks and a fire performance by Justice Draconis of Dragons Fire Theatre. Justice and company is available for booking on facebook or by e-mail at justiceofdragons@gmail.com. Some photos also feature Ashley Sweetness whom can be booked at sweetpadiddle@hotmail.com

Independence suggests the nature of free will, but in an interdependent self organizing structure is their really such a thing? The world consists of basic physical laws that govern the entire universe. You are built of an electromagnetic, carbon based life form which is subject to the laws of the universe. Matter, such as a seed or semen, comes with an inherent set of properties from an ancestral chain which dictates how we will grow and we can thus not really call our structure ours. How well we grow is dictated by outside forces such as our family which we cannot choose and thus stems a chain result of conditioned responses to whether we agree or disagree with these outside forces. It would seem the only way to influence these factors is the choice of surroundings that determines the environment of conditions.

You can't control the nature of the universe but merely arrange the laws to benefit all sentient beings. A human being is part of the whole, one with the universe. Feeling separate is not freedom, but an optical delusion that actually works as a prison trapped by our own personal desires. In a dream for example you believe your dream self to be separate from other characters however when you awaken you realize that you were in fact both the same consciousness existing in an infinitude of possible dream worlds. Realization is true freedom. Once the normal checks imposed by the conscious mind are abolished by sacrificing the ego, the unlimited scope of unconscious mind comes to play which can appear as a chaotic riot and be very frightening in that the illusory freedom of the Ego is eliminated which reveals our own transubjective reality. AnAtman or no-self is not to say that you don't exist but that you don't exist as a singular form. We are empty in that we may make use of this space and be a selfless being, one with the interdependent arising surroundings. This is borderless borders that can be perhaps best described by trying to define the end of the sun being as the heat and rays of light extend far beyond the fluctuating surface. Free yourself of this cage and embrace the universal energy.

Every object is a particle and a wave, existing in a "set place" as well as all over. The uncertainty principle states that we may not know an object speed and placement at the same time, which points to the mirage of reality. The double slit experiment reveals that unobserved particles have infinite potential where as the observed has only one possibility. A particle is not determined but by the mind that perceives it and thus all that we are is the result of what we have thought. Our mind-matrix actually creates our worlds, reality does not exist except as unlimited potential of the mind, reality is a projection of the mind. By simply observing the world we change it and when you change the world changes.

The main factor that distinguishes human beings is the large frontal lobe in the brain that enables us to focus attention and concentrate which is essential for making decisions and holding an intention. The frontal lobe enables us to draw information from our environment and storehouse memories to process and make decisions different from past choices. Although many actions are far from free and consist of habitual conditioned responses such as the flight or fight response, or lighting a cigarette, or reacting to a friend you know. These responses can barely even be considered choices, however there is a second way of making choices and that is to consciously separate ourselves from our environmental stimuli and stand back from our habitual and biological behavior in the roll of the observer. The brain then has the opportunity to reason from a quiet vantage point and can process experiential as well as intellectual knowledge to build a new design. The observer has tremendous amounts of power, although it may seem that observations are also subjective to repetitive habitual conditioning to the point where they can barely even be considered observations, but once recognized, you can discover that by your choices you can actually alter, restrain, and change what you see "out there" By turning off this "autopilot" one begins to discover possibility and be enabled to use the brain rather than be used by the brain, turn response into creation, reaction into action.

To hear the sound of one hand clapping is to hear the sound that already exists before you make it. Do not try to listen to it, the sound is all over. If you try to see the quality you have no quality. Before you take the form of a human being, you are already there, always there. Because you are already there, you are here. Similarly it is not possible for something to disappear which does not exist. You may think when you die, you no longer exist, but this is impossible. If we are looking at something it can vanish from our sight, but if you do not try to see it, that something cannot vanish. If someone is watching you, you can escape him, but if no one is watching, you cannot escape from yourself. So try not to see something in particular; achieve something special, because you have everything in your own pure quality. Understanding is to be without fear, as you cannot lose anything, there is nothing to lose.

Atoms are 99.999999999999% empty space but appear solid by their force. Thus you are not really sitting on your chair but are in actuality levitating slightly above it. Although all dharmas are ephemeral, changing, and empty they are real just as they are. The phenomenal and the void are equally real and codependent. Emptiness is an infinite field of potential which every possibility arises. Emptiness is form and form is emptiness. The signified and signifier are both dual and non-dual. The emphasis is form, not minor or universal but all forms inner-reflecting the interdependent nature of reality which is not to be seeing as an illusion but real as is.

More Core

2010-07-05T22:03:00.015-05:00

Although I had priorly been cleaning as my work for trade with corepower yoga and had come to love the meditative art of totally just cleaning mirrors, mats, floors and consciousness I have found an even greater love of combining my two passions of art and yoga together.

For one of my murals I painted a of portrait Sri Pattabhi Jois, a student of the grandfather to modern yoga as we know it today , Krishnamacharya. Pattabhi is the father of ashtanga yoga which he began exposing the world to in Mysore India. Ashtanga is a set series of asana which synchronizes breath with movement and has been thus modified into a less fixed structure known as vinyasa yoga and furthermore to the physically toning power yoga practiced at corepower yoga today. Pattabhi Jois mantra was "Practice and all is coming" so I thus wrote this mantra over and over until the smiling portrait of Pattabhi manifested.

Another Mural I painted was that of a Zen parable which I have found to be a fountain of inspiration as pursued with Juicy Zen and my Tiger Berries. The parable reads: A man being chased by a tiger takes refuge on the side of a cliff only to realize there is another tiger below. Death is certain and yet the man takes notice of a strawberry growing on the cliff side and has the tastiest, sweetest, juiciest meal of his entire life.

I then erased the strawberry and in exchange drew a butterfly with a quote saying "Happiness is a Butterfly which when pursued is always beyond grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you"

Then erasing the Tiger I painted a brush and included the Patanjali Sutra: An object is only known by a consciousness it has coloured otherwise it is not known. Patanjali is a person or a group of people who were the first to systemize raja Yoga around 250 B.C.E although it should be noted that Patanjali did not create yoga as yoga had been recorded as early as 500 B.C.E The sutras exist for one purpose and that is to aid the practitioner along the spiritual journey of re-connection

Following this piece I painted a number of other bamboo and included the quote "The Taller Bamboo Grow the Lower they Bend" Signifying not only the gaining flexibility of an older bamboo but that of a more humble one as well.

I also did live painting at our franchised Corepower Yoga in Edina in celebration of our 2 year anniversary since our opening. Corepower held donation based classes all day, live music, free spa treatment, discounted merchandise and food which all benefited towards the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Awareness and Research!

I started painting my Sun Buddha during Ella Chisotti's class on realizing the inner guardian angel which was accompanied by a harp. I then painted a moon over the sun at night with glow in the dark paints while heart-beat yoga played the patio and thus captured the hidden mother to the father.

Yoga means union, to yoke or to join two things together, hatha yoga is meant to join the solar-masculine and acitve energy with the lunar- feminine and receptive energy producing balance and greater power for an individual and by balancing sun and moon one facilitates the awakening and arising of Kundalini, and thus the awakening of a higher consciousness.

When the polarities of Ida and Pingala in the 6th chakra are aligned and balanced along the cosmic pillar, the dance of life plays out over the dance of shiva in harmony, and a bridge is created between the Sun and Moon of the physical realm. Thus the energy in the central channel (Sushumna) ascends to the 7th chakra making activity in that chakra available to the incarnating Soul. This Merging of the universal Sun and Moon is reflective of the merging of Spirit and Matter, making the divine bliss of the universe available to the Soul through its physical counterpart, the body.

Through kumbhaka*, that is breath techniques, the kundalini sleeping serpant energy is awakened and the sushuma is unblocked of impurities by the chakras and knots splitting for the union of Hatha.

Taking padmasana inhale prana with the moon, the ida or left nostril, hold and exhale slowly with the sun, the pingala or right nostril. Hold... Than inhale with the sun and exhale slowly with the moon. The practitioner who practices in this fashion will have purified the nadis, energy channels. within three months.

Contract the sun and make the kundalini serpentine mother energy move. Where is the fear of death even for one inside the mouth of death? The serpent is only deadly when coiled. The practitioner should take jalandhara bandha at the end of inhalation and uddiyana bandha at the begining of exhalation to raise the Kundalini upwards towards the brahma nadi where one will meet kali the creator of creation and destruction where neither hunger, thirst, lethargy or old age will appear. Make the comfortably sleeping energy move every day and be rid of disease. Playfully conquer death in the play of shakti.

As the external breath dissolves so does the internal, without a doubt. Breath and mind achieve stillness in the sushuma and the mind dissolves, without a doubt. Drench the body with nectar. It is truly Shiva's beloved, take the khecari bandha by covering the divine sushuma with the tongue at the back opening where the stream flows from the moon. Always reside in a divine place, know the proper opening of the sushuma and make the breath go into the middle restraining in the Brahmarandhra. With eyes half closed take the protected shambhavimudra sight to the nose and gaze through the third eye for even greater results. The Sun and Moon give time the form of day and night, sushuma is the eater of time. To prevent the sun from eating the moons nectar practice inversions and draw the energy upwards. Full release is full freedom, the Yogi in Samadhi is not eaten by time, bound to karma or overpowered by anyone. Samadhi is the destroyer of death and giver to the bliss of Brahman.

Do not worship the Atman by day. Do not worship the Atman at night. Always worship Atman by halting day and night. Take refuge in the non-duality, the changeless, O Rama you shall find peace.

*Kumbhakas: Suryabhedana, Ujjayi(constricted throat), Sitkari, Shitali, Bhastrika (knot/granti spliter), Bhramari(sharp inhale buzz), Murccha (at the end of inhalation take Jalandhara Bandha), Plavini

Akers, Brian Dana Akers (2002) The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (orinal Sanskrit by Svatmarama. Woodstock, NY. Yogavidya.com

White, David Gordon. Kiss of the Yogini

White, David Gordon. Tantra in Practice
Newman, John, Vajrayoga in Kalacakra Tantra
Foot photograph by Andy Richter http://www.andyrichterphoto.com/