thebiggreenpea

alchemy and movement

2010-08-09T11:30:00.001-07:00

this is an installation i just did as a backdrop for my friend ginger's dance show. they are unstretched canvas, indoor latex, on a 10 x 20 foot wall in chicago. the installation and the center piece are titled alchemy. see my blog cloudstickpeople for more info...

thebiggreenpea update

2009-10-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

i figured it was about time i update this blog to redirect viewers attention to my current work. below are the three blogs which deal with the mandalas. my last piece is the dna reflectors set, in the blog of that name. mandalaprinciple is all text, an artist statement blog for the set truth-beauty-justice.

http://mandalaprinciple.blogspot.com/
http://truthbeautyjustice.blogspot.com/
http://cloudstickpeople.blogspot.com/
http://dnareflectors.blogspot.com/

Sacred Art in the Galactic Underworld

2008-12-11T19:13:00.000-08:00

Much attention has been focused on the end of the Mayan calendar, since that is the time we live in. The calendar is a circle so the question is are these the end of times or the beginnings? Carl Johan Calleman describes the various periods of the calendar, which end in the Universal Underworld. His interpretation falls on the side of new beginnings, with a shift in human consciousness.

I have known for quite a few years that I was practicing a form of sacred art. After reading Calleman I realized my work represents mostly the Galactic Underworld ideas. I found myself traveling through fields of Light and spins, untangling DNA and reading about alchemy. The God I grew up with going to a Catholic church became quanta, sub-quantum kinetics and ancient technology. Suddenly what I thought was infinite became even more, or perhaps I was just finally learning what infinite really meant.

beginnings

2007-01-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

After college I eventually found myself at a 24 hour gas station working the late shift. One night,,,one morning I began a series of portraits of different people I found in magazines or newspapers or the backs of books. This was the very beginning of my use of color pencils and it began a long exploration of being an artist.

The series eventually became 59 portraits on 11"x18" paper. I had a show at a small gallery called the Omphale in Calumet Michigan where I got to hang the set together. In time I moved on to other works and soon decided to stick with one medium to see what I could learn. The color pencil became my favored tool. The following series grew into the 3 larger green ladies in my earlier posts and I eventually began an exploration of the mandala, still with my trusty pencils. The people series gets taken out now and then and each time I notice a stronger response from people who see them.

Ultimately I will try to publish them in a book form. That will be the dream final form for this series. It is a contemplation on what makes humans human, evolution and meanings. Incidentally, I originally chose green because I thought it would be funny. My continuing studies and reading revealed a common use of green as the color of the heart chakra.

these are the people

2007-01-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

maya

2006-09-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

maya angelou : color pencil : 38"x50"

The Maya piece is part of a 'triptych' I did relating to girl-X. I will refer you to an image below, Seeker of Vision. The third piece in this set is a prayer mandala of which I do not have any image ready yet. To her right is a haiku "maya - laughing bones know, only I shall remain after skin and bones." the three green ladies on this blog are a continuation of an earlier series I did back aroun '94. These ladies got bigger...and I soon began to focus on the mandala. I will be some day uploading this series and continuing...

2006-08-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

This is my newest mandala. It is the first of a 12 mandala series......

She is called "Spirit-catcher". She is the first large green person I worked on in '94.

dragon mandala

2006-08-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

A few years back I did a series of 4 smaller mandalas ona heavier paper. This is the one I kept for myself,,,which I refer to as a dragon mandala. As I was working on this drawing I kept imagining a craftsman in a time of knights and damsels and dragons who would create shields and art from pieces of dragons a knight would bring to him. This became more pronounced as i worked on the blue areas. I had the imagining that there is a correct way to scale a dragon and a magical order to the use of dragon. The piece is about 36"x36".

4 paintings

2006-08-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

(((ghosts and parallel lines)))

I have decided to include some of my paintings on this blog to develop a fuller picture of my work. I love painting but have not been able to fully explore this medium due to space considerations as well as the fact that the mandalas take up much time. Not much of my work gets titled but I will include titles as I go. The paintings are informed and inspired by the same interests and pursuits as the mandalas and my green people series.

bluebirdy and harry

2006-08-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

This is birdy "hiding" behind the shower curtain. Sometimes it seems like she thinks I can't see her.

2006-04-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

These mandalas are a set called Truth:Beauty:Justice (images are in reverse order)

2005-10-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

She is called 'Seeker of Vision' and she seeks to know why children are raped. This is part of 3 drawings I did, one a mandala, in response to the Girl-X incident in Chicago. Girl-X had been molested and beaten and left to die during the winter in Cabrini Green. Her condition was horrific and one wonders what it means in our world that children are raped. She seeks a healing prayer for the world.

2005-10-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

birdy

A candidate for the most beautiful Earthling.