You're on TV Art Collective

Gosh, what a fucked up week. Neck deep in the madness of life trying to find a clue that can help me understand what is going on with my karma. Life is shitty sometimes but you just gotta keep Truckin. When the goin gets tough, the tough get goin. I despise posts and blogs where people feel sorry for themselves or rant about how shitty they feel with regards to material possessions so i will spare you. I just want to throw out  a few quotes that have been running through my head this week. Then on to the Good News!

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.” 
― Jim Morrison

“The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?” 
― Bob Marley

The main topic for this blog is a new art collective a couple friends and i have started recently(i know sounds like some cheesy hippy bullshit). As you may know from the previous posts and the above images, I will be participating in an exhibition in june that is titled "You're on TV." This is the premier exhibition for this artist collective founded by Kyle P. Erickson (a glass mosaic artist) Brian Burge ( a blown glass artist) and yours truly. Its kinda funny because i have been trying to start something like this since i graduated UNM in dec 2010. I have tried to be the one to get other artists i met in school motivated about this, but the plan would fade to disinterest or inability to move forward. I had almost abandoned trying to do this because of the failures at previous attempts. Luckily, another down trodden artist was feeling the same way. After being conventionally unemployed for like 6 months, my friend kyle got me this sweet job with awesome bosses and co workers. He mentioned starting a collective and immediately my skeptical lizard brain was like, "Yeah? You and like everyone else who says that but doesn't want to do the work." But he kept bugging me and eventually we started making plans and added Brian Burge as the third member of the O.G. trifecta. This collective will be open to any and all artists who have the desire to make it and are willing to work their ass off to get to that point. It is a good support system because im not a rich wealthy kid who can afford to get a promoter, or who has the connections to get collectors to buy. The idea is to pull all our resources together to achieve success. I would just feel so blessed if you can make it to our opening and see the work we have put into this. It will be an awesome party with free live music, stand up comedy, and poetry. Throughout the course of the night we will be recording this moment in history. Free art, free music, and a specialty beer Dr. Brian Burge will be crafting for the event. Help make it a success and come celebrate this distinct moment in history!

Below is the press release for the show. Posters and invitations are shown above. Please dont hesitate to email me with your address if you would like me to send you one. The design came out so well! Its worth having a card for your collection.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 6, 2013

Press Contact: Kyle P Erickson- Exhibition Curator 505.440.8682

masterfulmosaics@gmail.com

Brian Burge- Exhibition Director- 505.463.8878

dukecitypipers@gmail.com

Zane White- Exhibition Representative 505.385.2428

 zanespirithetic@gmail.com

YOU’RE ON TV ARTIST COLLECTIVE PREMEIERES AT TECH LOVE ART SPACE

“You’re On TV Premieres”

OPENING FRIDAY, JUNE 7^TH

AT TECH LOVE 3901 CENTRAL AVE NE- RUNS JUNE 1-30

“You’re on TV” is a new artist collective bringing together artists of many trades, crafts, and educational backgrounds. The group aims to promote professional contemporary artwork from fresh younger artists living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The goal of the collective is to provide members (artists with talent and a love of community) with an economic, social, and educational base that enhances the collective ability to put on exhibitions and promote exceptional free thinking in this city. The group aims to promote cutting edge contemporary art that is both visually interesting and socially conscious; artwork that is creating a much needed arena of social dialogue and innovative thinking that preserve and expand the cultural compass of our society. By showcasing multi faceted fine art and entertainment experiences that bring together a diverse group of artists and media, we hope to expand the idea of craft, fine art, music, entertainment and collective activism existing together as a single tool for social and economic change.

The Exhibition is set to open on Friday, June 7 from 6pm until 10pm, and will feature artwork By ZpiralZ(Kyle Erickson), Zanebow(Zane White), Magma(Brian Burge), and Jaska.  Entertainment for the show includes reality TV videography by Wes Naman and Friends during the course of the night as well as performances by Slam poet Damian Flores, The ABQ Slam Poets, and Comedy performer Cyrus Moses. Admission is free but donations will be accepted to help pay all the artists involved. Guests will have the opportunity to enjoy free refreshments and meet with the artists throughout the course of the night. The show will be open from Friday, June 7^th and run through the end of the month.

This Exhibition is not constructed with an overlying theme or idea, though future exhibitions will. It is more of a raw representation of contemporary expression. Much like contemporary coffee houses, and art salons of the renaissance period, this exhibition is meant for the direct exposure of the public to progressive thought and the artistic entertainment experience. In simplified terms it is the raw trial run exhibition and is suitably titled “You’re on TV Premiers.”

You’re on TV was founded, and is currently comprised of three talented younger artists with the desire to become major contributors to the growing Albuquerque (and surrounding New Mexico) art scene. Kyle P. Erickson is a multimedia designer and glass mosaic artist whose work focuses on the dynamic of illusion and reality as both separate and single entities. His work combines exquisite palates of glass mosaic with two-dimensional, relief, and three-dimensional representations that embody ideas of self realization, reflection, and social critique. He has been working for the past 6 months on covering an Alibi newspaper box almost entirely in stained glass mosaic. Comprised mostly of stained glass mosaic (well over 5k pieces), there will also be some exquisitely blown glass work by Magma incorporated into the piece. This piece will be revealed at the “You're on TV Premiers” event and will then be placed in public for the use of distributing Alibi papers. Zane White is a multimedia artist who works primarily with ceramics and oil paint. His painted work uses elements of landscape, still life and abstraction to create a surreal environment that describes landscape as an arena for metaphysical events. His work explores images and objects, in a literary and narrative sense, as catalysts for alternative modes of thinking that will ultimately evoke a changing world consciousness. Brian Burge is a lamp work glass artist who has many years of experience and education in varying methods of glass making. His experiences from traveling to many workshops and conferences has allowed him to create precisely crafted and beautifully blown glass art that retains the flow of the primal forces that shaped its creation. His work represents the flow of energy and the idea of infinite expression through an art form that bridges the ideas of craft and fine art. Brian is also the main owner of the BORO gallery in downtown ABQ that specializes in showcasing independent artists and Exhibitions. All three artists have shown in many local galleries, national and international exhibitions, charity organizations, and Arts fairs. This exhibition will also feature a guest artist, Jaska who works in wood sculpture, pen and ink, and acrylic. Jaksa collects pieces of wood that are natural and untooled. He lets the organic shape and form dictate what it will be used for. They are often used to create masks and sculptures that show off the organic qualities present in the physics of nature. As a physics professor at UNM, his inspiration comes from the natural beauty of the laws that govern the universe. The result is organic images and sculptures that mimic the nature and flow the cosmos.

Tech Love Work Space located at 3901 Central Ave NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107 will host the exhibition. Guests visiting on normal hours of operation have the opportunity to discover this awesome place that provides a community space for fun, art, and music while adding a twist of tech (computer support, information and repair). The normal hours of operation for Tech Love are Monday – Friday 9am -5 pm and for special events. Contact the Show Director Brian Burge (505.463.8878) to set up an appointment, or if you have any questions regarding visitation, purchases, or events.  Contact Tech Love owner Tom (Office: (505) 990-2551 Cell: (505) 301-1239 Email:info@techlove.us web: http://www.techlove.us) for any questions regarding visitation or events during normal business hours. Private tours are available and encouraged! 

Miracle Work, May day, and Surrealism

     I'm getting excited for the shows I have coming up and, strangely,  I'm fairly satisfied with my progress. I'm trying to get better about taking progress shots so i can provide some education on my process. I hope to do demonstrations in the future showcasing techniques of both ceramics and painting. I have been rewriting my statements lately and trying to figure out who i am as an artist. A continual process for me. I really get sick sometimes of having to do this, but i have begun to really realize the importance of doing it, Of explaining why i decide to be a wacko artist. At this point there's really no going back anyway. Its like the first time you take psilocybin, mescaline, or LSD. I remember thinking a few years later that "They" are right about one thing. Once you take that stuff it changes you forever. You never go back if you have a clean realization. And its all for the better. Ya Dig? So that's how i feel as an artist. Iv had this realization. The facade of American material happiness and its nostalgic revisions of history have crumbled. I cant go back to it because it simply doesn't exist for me. So i focus on the trip I'm currently on. The Artist complex.
     What am I passionate about at the roots? Freedom, equality, and justice. Three separate trips in a way, because what i have discovered so far is that you need to experience freedom directly before you can know what it is. This is the first stepping stone in my opinion. Ram Daas, who is a big inspiration to me, speaks about how he felt he needed to get free. It was the force pulling at him most and consequently he did not get involved as much in social and political demonstrations in the 1960's because his main goal was getting free spiritually and mentally. The rebel part of my brain said what a pussy, but the inner mind contemplated this for a while. I began to realize the implications of this. How can you know any three of these things without knowing what freedom is? For if you think the current situation is freedom, you must feel like there is equality and justice and are satisfied with those judgements. On the other hand if you experience radical freedom from social, mental, and even biological restraints you will begin to question the way the world is set up for you know deep inside that this American dream is not free, or equal, or just. Ram Daas' revolution was one of spiritual and philosophical nature that has provided countless miracles, not those of turning water into wine, but the miracles of self realization and the experience of connection to a bigger picture. The miracles are what help make the world more equal and just because they give the gift of freedom. MLK, Malcom X, Che, Ghandi, Rivera, and Galileo all share this common thread. They birthed miracles of philosophy, action, art, and science, and are the rebels later hailed as genius. A pattern that emerges quite often. Many many more have had this experience and create their own miracles, but its the ones that give us that universal connection that end up being remembered and hailed as a great performer. This is because the connection is so deep that any amount of medial controversy or government control to create a stigmatism fails. Bob Marley, Augusto Sandino, Cesar Chavez. All of these people have been maimed by history and the media yet their support grows and thrives like a cleansing wildfire in dry over grown forest.
     My current work revolves around the concept of getting free spiritually, and retaining your love of yourself and the culture you come from. Seeing yourself and your environment as inherently beautiful. The problems it presents are the ones to focus our energy on moving forward. Where are we in relation to this cosmic realization, This mystic encounter with the one truth. This earth we are on is our mother, our goddess, our sustenance. What we do to it, we do to ourselves. The natural dictator of things is a direct representation of how the universe works, the laws of physics, chemistry, and the laws of biological life. Science and spiritual thought must come together as a team in order for our species to realize and enact the miracle we were made to perform. Alex grey said in an interview, "Our concept of god must evolve." And i agree. Evolving to a universal understanding of the laws of nature and how we fit into the picture, not how we can make the picture fit our image. The truth is what needs to be said. The mystic encounter with the divine reality of things. How our earth is set up to care for our needs through natural medicine, food to eat, forms to appreciate, and energy to create. So spiritual yet so goddamn Scientific. All signs point that way. It is the American dream and inflated ego that disguise this path and make it seem idealistic and un realistic. If hell can be a reality, so can heaven.
     Today is May Day, a commemoration celebration of may1, 1886 when unions across this country went on strike demanding fair and equal rights. Its a celebration of organize labor worldwide, and yet most Americans haven't the slightest clue of its significance with regards to their countries history and thier current situation. All of them enjoy the benefits of the blood spilled to get here and then many turn around and condemn what it is all about. Slaves criticizing the free willing again. Slaves that say, "hey master i want to be even more of a slave to your will." "Please fuck me more! I can take it." The importance of organized labor and unions is a miracle that allowed us the freedom to say NO, Fucker! Im only working 8 hours a day because i have a family to care for and a body that needs to sleep. And i need to eat so you better pay me what im worth as a human being and not as a tool to use at your whim. The achievement of another freedom that brings equality and justice closer to the front of the big picture. Stand in solidarity with unions if you are not part of one yourself. Thank them for their efforts to keep you free. They honestly do more work to keep us free than the military does. Im not about to criticize a serviceman for his beliefs, but union workers deserve as much respect and thanks as any soldier does.
     In closing i just want to touch on surrealism a bit. Since one of the main foundations for my work comes out of this movement, it has been appearing again and again in reviews and in my own writings.  Its a common misconception across educated "Elite" and the common art enthusiast that surrealism is fantasy. It is idiosyncratic in composition, content, and nature and therefore is only pure entertainment and silliness. I believed this for a long time until a great teacher of mine Sir David Coker turned me on to the truth. What is surrealism. Well, lets go back to the beginning of the movement. Surrealism first appeared in the world in 1917  coined by Guillaume Apollinaire, taken over by Andre Breton as the name of the movement he launched in 1924 with "Manifeste de Surréalisme." Taken up in English at first in the French form; the anglicized version is from 1931. It comes  from the French surréalisme (from sur- "beyond" + réalisme "realism")
We can now get a better picture of the intentions of the surrealist movement. The images they were depicting were not only real, they were beyond real. The reality of life and its juxtapositions fail in comparison to the reality that is beyond the physical realm. It enters the realm of psychology(which early surrealists were deeply interested in) and the inner workings of the mind, which eventually opened doors to the divine infinite experience. The surrealists translated this experience through their images and then were interpreted by western conventional thinkers to be imaginative fantasy without much of a basis in reality. This is a wrong interpretation. I work from the original intention of the surrealists and strive to create images that are beyond real. Images that are so real that the construction of the ego is shattered for a moment. Whether welcomed or not. Whether subconsciously or consciously. This is entirely up to the observer. And ill leave yall with some observation of your own. Progress shots of the current work im doing. Check out the previous posts for a good look at them in process!

     Peace Brothers and Sisters!