An Average Man Traveling the Tigris and Euphrates with a Heart.
After time and 12 years, an answer was given and provided.
As I have never denoted on social media my work or what I was working on, it is and will remain cryptic at this point to what I have done, what I have contemplated and what I have been through where whatever the affordance of such in others the entire series was about coping to the point of contemplating the fact that there are those that would protect and others that they would see destruct and take over after the fact.
It is the highest honor of my life as an artist, an individual that this is completely copyright protected and that has been understood of the respect of process and time and that of understanding what has occurred or what could occur. This series was always about growth and understanding. It started with what I knew and extended to what I do not.
In any aspect, others saw the value early on.
Where it is at now is nothing of what Dante wrote with complete understanding of what I understood of Dante and life experience.
It is not a replacement, it is an understanding.
It is not a discount in either aspect,
It is modern copyright and my life’s work.
For that I am proud in accomplishment where anyone should be.
From a stolen path revealed of Starving Artist to those that say No to Starving Artist.
To Cope…to Dream…
It is solidified in World History and what occurred over the last 4 years is others to discuss and look at.
My series complete to the best I could where no one would talk to me and I had to do what I had to do where words matter in the end.
Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess with or without me.
#PhaseZero #fullycopyrightprotected #soisthestory #doyouwantmefriendorfoe #historydenotes
A series based on the concept of ‘Dante’s The Divine Comedy’ in that it tackles the psychological stages of grief within the allegorical context of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. It's a series influenced heavily from Lewis Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland" and Dante Alighieri’s "The Divine Comedy" as one grows through life and challenges an answer to the question, "Who are you?"
Inspired by classic literature, fine art and myths, this multi-layered series invites the viewer to go as far "down the rabbithole" as they so desire with written word, sound design and interactive exhibitions create a full experience beyond just deciphering visual art within the context of art history, contemporary philosophy and modern therapy techniques and mechanisms.
INFERNO: BEAUTIFUL LAYERED LIES
"Art-speech is the only truth. An artist is usually a damned liar, but his art, if it be art, will tell you all the truths of his day. And that is all that matters." - D.H. Lawrence
"Beautiful Layered Lies" is a representation of both Hell and birth. In the beginning stages of trauma/life there are rarely any words able to be spoken along with confusion & insecurity on what to say.
This series narrative was driven by dream symbology where within each image certain aspects were called out next to the photograph and defined by their dream definition to explore a singular narrative as one learns to be able to speak and translate the words of others for expression.
THE LOBSTER- To see a lobster in your dream represents strength and persistence. You will hold your own ground against the difficulties and problems that you set your mind to overcome.
PURGATORIO: UGLY SIMPLE TRUTHS
"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.” - August Wilson
"Ugly Simple Truths" explores holding onto the dark parts of your life and reliving them until you are ready to find your voice and begin to want to talk about it. It is a Purgatory of emotion that you are trapped in for as long as you see fit. This series opened the door to other's telling their stories that wished to release themselves from pain. The series focused on "the Shadow Self" of psychology to create a world when models become a shadow self while tackling their fears. In addition to the models using their own words, I challenged myself to live blog Truth for Truth-given as a way to better understand my own "Ugly Simple Truths".
Each image was paired with the model's story and their own words with background music relating to each piece. Audience participation was encouraged through "blacklight confessionals" where anonymous truths were interactively shared throughout the opening to give a further sense of release.
UGLY SIMPLE TRUTH 1- This demon deals with gossip and lies. I hate when someone can write fiction as non-fiction. Words spoken travel fast and stick around once uttered or written. In an bad encounter people will paint themselves as beautiful while labelling the other to rationalize their need for justification in hurting others. Through gossip, doors are open for letting others cast judgement.
I struggled with those projections placed upon me. Whether it be through insecurities or perhaps circumstantial truths. I know I am not a saint. But I struggle to come to terms if I actually am what I've been painted.
The stories told within, an intertwine of empathy with experience, where the series is designed to confront and control a great deal of emotion and life experience that has been experienced individually and collectively in awareness. It is an understood notion, that when confronting and addressing several topics of pinnacle moments in life that drastically affected, can be molded, transformed and changed for the betterment of Self and Others in expression.
The series, designed to be ones of pillars of strengths and benchmarks of moments when people are at a point to tackle an aspect of their life and then move on from it. Neither a positive or a negative, the series hits “home” and finds that it takes strength to use words and power to claim an image. From there no matter the task of life moving forward, hope has been found in coming to grips with something of the past in the present.
A series designed to help those in silence, for when they one day are able to reclaim their time in which the soul needed to process and focus on something that they didn’t know they could be strong enough to overcome, but it never is instant until it is with a click of a shutter and imprint of change.
PARADISO: BRAVE NEW SECRETS
"If it is true that we create our own hells and control over how long we stay in the purgatory of our mind; so it must also be true that we are fully capable of creating our own heaven when we are ready to lay down our masks." -Philip Bonneau
For Heaven, the series is deeply rooted in the chess motifs drawn from Lewis Carroll’s "Through the Looking-Glass". Where music had been in the background for prior show, this series involves artist mixed playlist combining songs, compositions and sound to not only to drive narrative, but to also evoke emotional and personal reflections.
In building from previous entries, a blog was created, books written and concepts and ideas born and grew. Not yet completely shared but peppered throughout, leaving proper time for reflection and process towards meaning to conclude an over-arching theme of past, present, future to a conclusion as one finds their own answers of inner peace.
Translation from one form to the next where as much as you choose one thing, others choose for you as well. A process towards self-happiness and always a difference of opinion on how that is or what that is.
Series was Completed as I could in this phase and hidden between the pages of “Curated Jellyfish: A Paradise Stolen (Part 1 and Part 2)” and “S.O.S. - Sense of Space (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).
Where we go from here?
Who knows.
The initial thoughts behind the project was a blend of life, history, art towards coping and understanding.
As that is done in both personal narrative and exploration of what came before, what started in review of the stages of grief in 2011, evolved into stages of 8 from 2014—2017, where solidified in 2019 as being 9 and equal of looking at Dante’s 13 years of study of all of mythology to create The Divine Comedy.
From my own works, in reflection,
I took the initial idea of which is now positive and negative “process” moreso than stages of grief, where clinically I refer to them more Somatic in approach and solid.
It would be understood scientifically where the concepts of metaphysical would or would not be removed with individuals, but I happen to enjoy that the origins of a life’s work of 13 years was learned and earned by respecting all of mythology and grow from there towards something applicable to anyone on their own life journey, while I went on mine and continue to do so daily, no matter the phase I find myself in.
