And I had one of the most amazing and life-changing psychdelic-induced spiritual awakenings while listening to Bach's Air on G-String.
Bach, in fact, was my goto music for all psychedlic trips.
Every piece is a pyschotherapeutic masterpiece. It first lulls you in deeply and makes you feel incredibly safe and comforted before it starts to softly touch your most vulnerable unconscious traumas. He then slowly increases the intensity, while holding you safely in this bitter-sweet musical embrace, until you are brought to your knees in pain. But he never leaves you there. As soon enough pain is experienced and replaced by a divine humblness, he slowly takes you back to the surface and to everyday safety.
Only to do it again with the next piece, touching a different trauma. I spent hours doing this kind of therapy and healing myself of trauma that I not even touched doing weekly individual and group therapy for three years during my pyschotherapy training.
When humanity is ready, proper psychadelic-assisted therapy will revoluitionize psychptherapy. It will be as game-changing as the microscope was for science and the telescope for astronomy.
And not only psychoptherapy. Everything will explode with love and awareness when psychedlics eventually will become mainsstream and used in the right way. Not as an escapist drug, but as a teacher and healer sent from the incredible intelligent and advanced world of fungis.
I never knew what music was until I listened to Bach under my intentional psychedlic sessions. Psychedlics combined with Bach gifted me an audience with God.
Bach saw it all, knew it all, and felt and experienced it all and had this mind-blowing talent and skills to turn it into music. He became an orphane at a young age.
Like you, his passion for music was all that mattered to him. If I recall it correctly, as a young man he walked for almost two weeks (there and back), just to listen to a concert he wanted to hear.
It is one of the things that makes me proud to be of German decent - just by assossiation. The other - but to a much lesser extent - are Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Both incredible unafraid thinkers that sacarified everything for their calling, but Bach was complete.
Thank you Melissa, yes, always evolving. It is interesting that many dealers want artists to stick to an artificial brand style, to make them recognizable and to be a commodity. But that is not how the creative process works when an artist is left to follow their muse.
Spot-on. I notice it often with music. Musicians ALWAYS get condemned in the public eye as not as good as they used to be after a few albums—either because they started doing something new instead of sticking to the same old stuff that pleases the crowd, or because they decided to 'mail it in' and adhere to this brand style long after their muse had moved on.
It's a strange thing, because from a sales perspective, an artist's name does become a brand to a certain extent, but the artist themselves is absolutely not. I imagine there's not really any way around it, except to create what you want to create and allow people to receive it however they will.
Thoughtful and observant reply. Can you think of musicians that evolved along with their careers? Tina Turner comes to mind for me. The great pianist, Andrei Gavrilov, was famous in the 80s and then spoke out against the USSR, and they destroyed his career. Now at 60 something he doing incredible work re-interpreting Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, after 3 years of total immersion. I am so lucky to have been stubbornly independent, and vetoed any path that involved compromise. Which also came along with not networking well, : ( I am learning from @starfirecodes how better to do that. Also, I recall a speech by Madonna a few years ago, where she spoke as if she were a victim survivor of the music industry, ridiculous, when she got everything she wanted from it. Scratch fame, and there is often nefarious forces behind the brand.
Tina Turner is a great example. I'm not familiar with Gavrilov, but this is making me want to give him a listen.
Vic Chesnutt put out his album "At the Cut" (my absolute favorite album) shortly before his death; it and the album that came before it were a huge departure from basically everything he had done before. These are actually some of his most popular songs, too—an untimely death will do that for an artist, I suppose.
The Smashing Pumpkins are another great example. Billy Corgan has come up with an entirely new 'sound' on every album he has ever done, and in my opinion, putting personal preferences aside, the quality of his work has only improved.
I am definitely skeptical of stories like Madonna's (it's easy to claim 'victim' while resting on your millions of dollars), although I guess it must be kind of sad once the fame and glory wears off to look at a career that has remained spiritually empty.
I'm glad you managed to avoid this, despite the numerous other challenges the all-pervasive problem of networking may have caused.
Wow, your artwork is always incredible; I agree that studio painting is very special. You have an excellent way of capturing light and people. Thank you so much for sharing your story and art!
Loved reading about what you took on /learned from your fellow artists, sister and models - how they added to you and your art, almost shadowing your explanations of the techniques and colours you used in your pieces.
Also, loved you pointing out what I refer to as "Easter eggs" in your paintings, the little tributes to the great artists and ideas you feel important.
So awesome to have these insights shared by the actual artist and not guessed at by historians and the like.
WOW! So much to take in. You paint from love, that is clear. I love so many of these. I am just going to say that I am so excited to have you here, speaking to us all about your experience and your are SO GOOD at what you do. It's exciting. I love the sculpture painting as well. The woman in Blue, Your self portraits.......I like how you are looking at the "camera" from under that forward tilted hat. You are so good with light and spirit in a person. I am glad you have little messages around about what is important to you. To me that adds another layer of "good magic" that we need. There's enough negative messaging being hidden in art! Let's hide positive messages.
Michael! I’m behind in my reading of these fantastic memoirs! I think what you have posted here are some of my absolute favorite works you have done…and what a collection it is!
— Manhattan at Night
— Man from Manhattan …what a fabulous perspective!
— The Sculptor
— A Writer and an Artist
— Woman Wearing a Hat — Who chose that terrific outfit? It appears to be definitely influenced by Indiana Jones…the film premiered in 1981 the same year as your painting!🌟
— Woman in Blue — What an entrancing woman is Jette van der Meij!
— Promethia — And you created the absolute perfect setting for her.
Novelist Kay Nolte Smith was one of Joyce’s and my favorite authors in the 80s. We were in Oregon by that time, but I later found out she lived just up the parkway from me when I lived in New Jersey in the 70s.
Finally, did you ever cross paths with the songwriter and author Shel Silverstein while you were living in the East Village? I think he had an apartment there around the same time.
Thank you so much Michael, sorry for the delay, but I swear I replied on my phone (but my connection is unstable). So now I am making sure I reply via my PC. I love how you listed specific works. Lynia, the model for The Sculptor and Woman Wearing a Hat, she owned a high end fashion boutique, and canvased Paris for her supply. Definitely she brought the element of fashion I don't have. I never met Kay, other than sitting in the casket viewing room. First time I am hearing the name Shel Silverstein. Our building only had young naive artists and I only lived in the East Village for one year.
And thank *you*, Michael. All of your models have that deep beauty that projects their intellectual and physical charisma…all beautifully captured and communicated by your artistry.
Shel Silverstein probably spent a lot of time in the Village coffeehouse music scene. Just for future reference, I think you may recognize his most famous song, “A Boy Named Sue.” Johnny Cash recorded it back in 1969, and it hit number 2 on the charts (my interest in songwriting is showing!). He was also a cartoonist and children’s book author…one title you may have seen in a bookstore: “Where The Sidewalk Ends.”
I LOVE these writings about your fascinating life Michael. There are so many facets to your life story. And I do understand your “riff”. 😉 EXCELLENT!
You are a few years my junior, and in 1977 or 78 I read Atlas Shrugged and became an instant fan of Ayn Rand’s. Up until that point in my life, I had never been introduced to her perspective. It should be required reading for every high school senior in my opinion! Especially today.
I really can’t put all this into words Michael, but your art is authentic and reflects so much pathos. Art which inspires my soul every single day when I look at it! I can understand why important collectors acquire your amazing work! Stay magical Michael! 🪄✨✨💖✨
Glad I got to see this grouping of paintings along with story. These are quite something. I like them quite a bit. Could certainly see them being lost in a certain segment of the art world...oh, hell..
I very much enjoy these bio articles. It’s grand to see how you progress and change - and why. Thank you’
"progress and change - and why." Thank you!
Very beautiful art. Thank you.
And I had one of the most amazing and life-changing psychdelic-induced spiritual awakenings while listening to Bach's Air on G-String.
Bach, in fact, was my goto music for all psychedlic trips.
Every piece is a pyschotherapeutic masterpiece. It first lulls you in deeply and makes you feel incredibly safe and comforted before it starts to softly touch your most vulnerable unconscious traumas. He then slowly increases the intensity, while holding you safely in this bitter-sweet musical embrace, until you are brought to your knees in pain. But he never leaves you there. As soon enough pain is experienced and replaced by a divine humblness, he slowly takes you back to the surface and to everyday safety.
Only to do it again with the next piece, touching a different trauma. I spent hours doing this kind of therapy and healing myself of trauma that I not even touched doing weekly individual and group therapy for three years during my pyschotherapy training.
When humanity is ready, proper psychadelic-assisted therapy will revoluitionize psychptherapy. It will be as game-changing as the microscope was for science and the telescope for astronomy.
And not only psychoptherapy. Everything will explode with love and awareness when psychedlics eventually will become mainsstream and used in the right way. Not as an escapist drug, but as a teacher and healer sent from the incredible intelligent and advanced world of fungis.
I never knew what music was until I listened to Bach under my intentional psychedlic sessions. Psychedlics combined with Bach gifted me an audience with God.
Bach saw it all, knew it all, and felt and experienced it all and had this mind-blowing talent and skills to turn it into music. He became an orphane at a young age.
Like you, his passion for music was all that mattered to him. If I recall it correctly, as a young man he walked for almost two weeks (there and back), just to listen to a concert he wanted to hear.
It is one of the things that makes me proud to be of German decent - just by assossiation. The other - but to a much lesser extent - are Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Both incredible unafraid thinkers that sacarified everything for their calling, but Bach was complete.
What a wonderful mixture of tennis player and artist, it’s very interesting to see the development to full-time artist.
Looking forward to the next chapter 💙🙏💫
Thank you Joyce, I appreciate the nudge.
Wow—what a change in your art from the last chapter to this one.
Loved this, as always.
Thank you Melissa, yes, always evolving. It is interesting that many dealers want artists to stick to an artificial brand style, to make them recognizable and to be a commodity. But that is not how the creative process works when an artist is left to follow their muse.
Spot-on. I notice it often with music. Musicians ALWAYS get condemned in the public eye as not as good as they used to be after a few albums—either because they started doing something new instead of sticking to the same old stuff that pleases the crowd, or because they decided to 'mail it in' and adhere to this brand style long after their muse had moved on.
It's a strange thing, because from a sales perspective, an artist's name does become a brand to a certain extent, but the artist themselves is absolutely not. I imagine there's not really any way around it, except to create what you want to create and allow people to receive it however they will.
Thoughtful and observant reply. Can you think of musicians that evolved along with their careers? Tina Turner comes to mind for me. The great pianist, Andrei Gavrilov, was famous in the 80s and then spoke out against the USSR, and they destroyed his career. Now at 60 something he doing incredible work re-interpreting Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, after 3 years of total immersion. I am so lucky to have been stubbornly independent, and vetoed any path that involved compromise. Which also came along with not networking well, : ( I am learning from @starfirecodes how better to do that. Also, I recall a speech by Madonna a few years ago, where she spoke as if she were a victim survivor of the music industry, ridiculous, when she got everything she wanted from it. Scratch fame, and there is often nefarious forces behind the brand.
Tina Turner is a great example. I'm not familiar with Gavrilov, but this is making me want to give him a listen.
Vic Chesnutt put out his album "At the Cut" (my absolute favorite album) shortly before his death; it and the album that came before it were a huge departure from basically everything he had done before. These are actually some of his most popular songs, too—an untimely death will do that for an artist, I suppose.
The Smashing Pumpkins are another great example. Billy Corgan has come up with an entirely new 'sound' on every album he has ever done, and in my opinion, putting personal preferences aside, the quality of his work has only improved.
I am definitely skeptical of stories like Madonna's (it's easy to claim 'victim' while resting on your millions of dollars), although I guess it must be kind of sad once the fame and glory wears off to look at a career that has remained spiritually empty.
I'm glad you managed to avoid this, despite the numerous other challenges the all-pervasive problem of networking may have caused.
I like the way you think! : )
Wow, your artwork is always incredible; I agree that studio painting is very special. You have an excellent way of capturing light and people. Thank you so much for sharing your story and art!
What an inspiring comment Jenn, thank you!
You’re welcome!
I second this.
Loved reading about what you took on /learned from your fellow artists, sister and models - how they added to you and your art, almost shadowing your explanations of the techniques and colours you used in your pieces.
Also, loved you pointing out what I refer to as "Easter eggs" in your paintings, the little tributes to the great artists and ideas you feel important.
So awesome to have these insights shared by the actual artist and not guessed at by historians and the like.
MESMERIZED by the Lady in Blue. 💙
What a gracious compliment, thank you Mia! 😀💜💫
Thanks for restacking @John Mistretta!
WOW! So much to take in. You paint from love, that is clear. I love so many of these. I am just going to say that I am so excited to have you here, speaking to us all about your experience and your are SO GOOD at what you do. It's exciting. I love the sculpture painting as well. The woman in Blue, Your self portraits.......I like how you are looking at the "camera" from under that forward tilted hat. You are so good with light and spirit in a person. I am glad you have little messages around about what is important to you. To me that adds another layer of "good magic" that we need. There's enough negative messaging being hidden in art! Let's hide positive messages.
Michael! I’m behind in my reading of these fantastic memoirs! I think what you have posted here are some of my absolute favorite works you have done…and what a collection it is!
— Manhattan at Night
— Man from Manhattan …what a fabulous perspective!
— The Sculptor
— A Writer and an Artist
— Woman Wearing a Hat — Who chose that terrific outfit? It appears to be definitely influenced by Indiana Jones…the film premiered in 1981 the same year as your painting!🌟
— Woman in Blue — What an entrancing woman is Jette van der Meij!
— Promethia — And you created the absolute perfect setting for her.
Novelist Kay Nolte Smith was one of Joyce’s and my favorite authors in the 80s. We were in Oregon by that time, but I later found out she lived just up the parkway from me when I lived in New Jersey in the 70s.
Finally, did you ever cross paths with the songwriter and author Shel Silverstein while you were living in the East Village? I think he had an apartment there around the same time.
Now, on to Chapter 5!
Thank you so much Michael, sorry for the delay, but I swear I replied on my phone (but my connection is unstable). So now I am making sure I reply via my PC. I love how you listed specific works. Lynia, the model for The Sculptor and Woman Wearing a Hat, she owned a high end fashion boutique, and canvased Paris for her supply. Definitely she brought the element of fashion I don't have. I never met Kay, other than sitting in the casket viewing room. First time I am hearing the name Shel Silverstein. Our building only had young naive artists and I only lived in the East Village for one year.
And thank *you*, Michael. All of your models have that deep beauty that projects their intellectual and physical charisma…all beautifully captured and communicated by your artistry.
Shel Silverstein probably spent a lot of time in the Village coffeehouse music scene. Just for future reference, I think you may recognize his most famous song, “A Boy Named Sue.” Johnny Cash recorded it back in 1969, and it hit number 2 on the charts (my interest in songwriting is showing!). He was also a cartoonist and children’s book author…one title you may have seen in a bookstore: “Where The Sidewalk Ends.”
I LOVE these writings about your fascinating life Michael. There are so many facets to your life story. And I do understand your “riff”. 😉 EXCELLENT!
You are a few years my junior, and in 1977 or 78 I read Atlas Shrugged and became an instant fan of Ayn Rand’s. Up until that point in my life, I had never been introduced to her perspective. It should be required reading for every high school senior in my opinion! Especially today.
I really can’t put all this into words Michael, but your art is authentic and reflects so much pathos. Art which inspires my soul every single day when I look at it! I can understand why important collectors acquire your amazing work! Stay magical Michael! 🪄✨✨💖✨
Glad I got to see this grouping of paintings along with story. These are quite something. I like them quite a bit. Could certainly see them being lost in a certain segment of the art world...oh, hell..
Thanks Judson.
Truly beautiful and great art on so many levels. Colors, character, mood, thoughtfulness, subjects. Wow!
Thank you so much LadyK. 😀