I love your drawings! You give us so much to contemplate. I have always believed, but not always practiced the idea of "Infinite Possibility" Our Thoughts are OUR CURRENCY. They are ENERGY Forms we imagine and use to project experience on to the screen of Life. It is up to us to fully embrace our imaginations and creatively bring them forth! The portrait of you looks so much like the photos of you that you shared!
Thank you Kara, you are giving me some stuff to think about. Recently, I positively shared some other artists works, and I discussed highlights from what I saw, and I assumed because they did the works they would know it in the way I did. Both of them, told they had never thought that way about their work, yet it was in their work, and I could easily point it out. I am still a little surprised by it. I look at words, aesthetics, kind of like a recipe book, mince the onions and etc. it all seems fairly straightforward. Your comment reminds me of a great quote (but I don't endorse her) by Oprah Winfrey, “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.” I feel that with the things that you can control, but there are things, like wanting to be President, that you cannot.
well, there is this other part of the infinite possibility thing... it's called Probability. BUT!! So much does have to do with what we believe about reality. How we have been conditioned. Your experience about the other artists shows that we all have our own inner knowing about things, and reality is subjective for the most part. Because we have our own inner truths, I feel, that those who attempt to control our minds, work feverishly to construct our inner thoughts for us, so that the world "they" wish to create is what we project, rather than our own dreams. Then there seems to be some physical rules to this reality; for instance, humans cannot give birth to pigs. But if you remember my post on embracing the monster, Human creativity may very possibly be creating human/pig creatures.. We live in a very strange world. Magnificently beautiful to horrifically ugly and all the possibilities in between. What matters, literally, is how you decide to think/believe and use your own imagination.. as Oprah states. Why these people though, in one way are showing us the truth, and in another way are using that truth to dominate over us.
It is so nice to contemplate your thoughts. : ) As I am getting older I keep coming back to Aristotle's concept of eudaemonia, there are special moments, a centered happiness, that is an end itself, not a means to another goal, or someone else's goal. I trust people that practice that, and usually they want others to succeed in their own hopes and dreams.
Oh! I feel so crushed for you as I read this; your life in New York immersed in art sounds so ideal and wonderful and fulfilling. I love how you describe your thought processes and what led you to paint the subjects and the things that influenced your style. Amazing! The art is gorgeous, you are immensely talented and so generous to share all this beauty here. Thank you.
I appreciate your commenting and the things you chose to point out. Writing a memoir feels a bit like a mind field. I had made several attempts over the last several years, and I couldn't find the key, but I think this is on the right track. Your comments reinforced that, thank you.
Utilizing every aspect of what makes your life meaningful Michael to paint, draw and awaken my wonder and awe, at what a human can place on a canvas, excites wonder and awe. Beauti is seen by all as LOVE, dear Michael, and it awakens a deep spiritual and soulful meaning of being that connects us all. Right now we need what connects us all. Thank you Michael for your gift to me this night. Sharon
AND "WELL" you should! For does not beauti and LOVE do that very thing? YES IT DOES until you well over and have a moment that blows you over the Rainbow into another realm all together. I am OVER WHELMED by the beauty and love you create Michael and I have no words really for it. Love, Sharon
I read this article twice, because so much of it resonates with me. I love how you gather inspiration from so many different sources. It’s all harmonized to bring this wonderful piece! I’m mesmerized by your various depictions of “persist”. I’m not sure why, but the black-and-white graphite one reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock setting.
Thank you for reading and commenting Charlotte. I’m happy it resonates for you. Interesting about the Hitchcock feeling, I can see it now that you mention it. Nice twist with “Persist”.
I guess it’s that classic cool blonde look with a message of mystery. A man lurking in the background pursuing one of Hitchcock’s beauties. If he had a more portly figure you might even wonder if it’s not Hitchcock himself pursuing Tippi Hedren.
It occurred to me that it might have been a typo, but "persist" has an interesting nudging feeling. I don't think I mentioned in the chapter, but you will relate to the feeling of going for it big time...it is not a happy, or celebratory feeling, one knows it could crash and burn, so there is the tension of risk, and putting it on the line. There is the element of angst, but that can be overcome by talent, confidence, and excitement. Ha, maybe the painting couldn't be called "Butterflies" as in ones stomach?! BTW, can you see how I riffed from you?
Thanks for sharing your process, it completely changes your perspective on a work when you can see all the developmental stages. It is a raw and emotional painting. In regards to your 'rejection', that is everything that is wrong with the art business - the gatekeepers who make or break an artist's career in a moment based on their gut intuition and a deep desire to preserve their own reputation in a market based solely on trends.
Now, in the digital age, we have a new set of gatekeepers for artists that are forced into the world of 'content creation' and attention based audiences. Algorithms that are based on the whims of a massive, random selection of people looking for a quick and shallow dopamine hit. Hard to say which gatekeepers are worse. Neither one is a win for the artist.
“Now, in the digital age, we have a new set of gatekeepers for artists that are forced into the world of 'content creation' and attention based audiences.” 🙌 Well said. One post I did got almost 400k views on Reddit and 7 views on X, with roughly the same number of followers. 🤔
Yeah it's frustrating, I will post the exact same content on youtube, facebook and instagram and it will perform drastically different on each platform. I can never tell which one it's going to do well on either, it feels completely random, hard to pin down what you are doing right or wrong. If anything.
The algorithms are very similar to the hoops and whistles a sociopath wants people to perform. It says: to become popular you must follow are rules a, b, and c...and then we set you on the right path. When people start doing that, it then changes the algorithms, disrupting humanity, and then testing them to see how many hoops and whistles they will go through.
“Pursuit” is yet ANOTHER favorite painting, and the story behind it makes it even more intriguing. I can’t help but think that Ayn Rand would have loved the painting and wryly appreciated that story about “New York isn’t ready for this kind of art.” Ha!
I’m glad you think this memoir is on track, because I couldn’t agree more with you and with Jenn’s highly accurate assessment of it being “compelling and well written.” 👏👏👏
Finally, did you end up getting those standing-only tix to Leontyne’s final performance? 🎼🎭
Thank you so much for your assessment and thoughts. I’m feeling tremendous relief in getting the memoir in the right ballpark. It actually has to be well-curated. I was talking with my mom today, and telling her a fascinating story (CIA-sex sites-recruitment-objectivism) that I will not include, lol. I didn’t take the bait and came out smelling like a rose, but another not so much. I still have difficult choices to make. Yes got tickets for two dates of Price’s last performances of Aida. I was in the audience this night: https://youtu.be/jVFMCTQvrMQ?feature=shared
Oh, I’m so glad you were able to see those performances! And thank you for the youtube link…it must have been stunningly emotional to be there in person.
P.S. I hope that sometime we might get to hear those stories you were telling your mother but aren’t including in your memoir!
I love your drawings! You give us so much to contemplate. I have always believed, but not always practiced the idea of "Infinite Possibility" Our Thoughts are OUR CURRENCY. They are ENERGY Forms we imagine and use to project experience on to the screen of Life. It is up to us to fully embrace our imaginations and creatively bring them forth! The portrait of you looks so much like the photos of you that you shared!
Thank you Kara, you are giving me some stuff to think about. Recently, I positively shared some other artists works, and I discussed highlights from what I saw, and I assumed because they did the works they would know it in the way I did. Both of them, told they had never thought that way about their work, yet it was in their work, and I could easily point it out. I am still a little surprised by it. I look at words, aesthetics, kind of like a recipe book, mince the onions and etc. it all seems fairly straightforward. Your comment reminds me of a great quote (but I don't endorse her) by Oprah Winfrey, “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.” I feel that with the things that you can control, but there are things, like wanting to be President, that you cannot.
well, there is this other part of the infinite possibility thing... it's called Probability. BUT!! So much does have to do with what we believe about reality. How we have been conditioned. Your experience about the other artists shows that we all have our own inner knowing about things, and reality is subjective for the most part. Because we have our own inner truths, I feel, that those who attempt to control our minds, work feverishly to construct our inner thoughts for us, so that the world "they" wish to create is what we project, rather than our own dreams. Then there seems to be some physical rules to this reality; for instance, humans cannot give birth to pigs. But if you remember my post on embracing the monster, Human creativity may very possibly be creating human/pig creatures.. We live in a very strange world. Magnificently beautiful to horrifically ugly and all the possibilities in between. What matters, literally, is how you decide to think/believe and use your own imagination.. as Oprah states. Why these people though, in one way are showing us the truth, and in another way are using that truth to dominate over us.
It is so nice to contemplate your thoughts. : ) As I am getting older I keep coming back to Aristotle's concept of eudaemonia, there are special moments, a centered happiness, that is an end itself, not a means to another goal, or someone else's goal. I trust people that practice that, and usually they want others to succeed in their own hopes and dreams.
Oh! I feel so crushed for you as I read this; your life in New York immersed in art sounds so ideal and wonderful and fulfilling. I love how you describe your thought processes and what led you to paint the subjects and the things that influenced your style. Amazing! The art is gorgeous, you are immensely talented and so generous to share all this beauty here. Thank you.
I appreciate your commenting and the things you chose to point out. Writing a memoir feels a bit like a mind field. I had made several attempts over the last several years, and I couldn't find the key, but I think this is on the right track. Your comments reinforced that, thank you.
You are welcome, it is interesting, compelling and well written; seems like now is the time it was meant to be born ☺️
Utilizing every aspect of what makes your life meaningful Michael to paint, draw and awaken my wonder and awe, at what a human can place on a canvas, excites wonder and awe. Beauti is seen by all as LOVE, dear Michael, and it awakens a deep spiritual and soulful meaning of being that connects us all. Right now we need what connects us all. Thank you Michael for your gift to me this night. Sharon
Ah, come on, you are making me well up. Deeply touched, thank you Sharon.
AND "WELL" you should! For does not beauti and LOVE do that very thing? YES IT DOES until you well over and have a moment that blows you over the Rainbow into another realm all together. I am OVER WHELMED by the beauty and love you create Michael and I have no words really for it. Love, Sharon
Deeply touched Sharon. Thank you. 💜
I read this article twice, because so much of it resonates with me. I love how you gather inspiration from so many different sources. It’s all harmonized to bring this wonderful piece! I’m mesmerized by your various depictions of “persist”. I’m not sure why, but the black-and-white graphite one reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock setting.
Thank you for reading and commenting Charlotte. I’m happy it resonates for you. Interesting about the Hitchcock feeling, I can see it now that you mention it. Nice twist with “Persist”.
Pursuit is what meant to write! 😄
I guess it’s that classic cool blonde look with a message of mystery. A man lurking in the background pursuing one of Hitchcock’s beauties. If he had a more portly figure you might even wonder if it’s not Hitchcock himself pursuing Tippi Hedren.
It occurred to me that it might have been a typo, but "persist" has an interesting nudging feeling. I don't think I mentioned in the chapter, but you will relate to the feeling of going for it big time...it is not a happy, or celebratory feeling, one knows it could crash and burn, so there is the tension of risk, and putting it on the line. There is the element of angst, but that can be overcome by talent, confidence, and excitement. Ha, maybe the painting couldn't be called "Butterflies" as in ones stomach?! BTW, can you see how I riffed from you?
Beautiful. Congratulations, Michael 🙏💜🙏
Thank you Elliot. 😀💜💫
Thank you, Michael 🙏
Thanks for sharing your process, it completely changes your perspective on a work when you can see all the developmental stages. It is a raw and emotional painting. In regards to your 'rejection', that is everything that is wrong with the art business - the gatekeepers who make or break an artist's career in a moment based on their gut intuition and a deep desire to preserve their own reputation in a market based solely on trends.
Now, in the digital age, we have a new set of gatekeepers for artists that are forced into the world of 'content creation' and attention based audiences. Algorithms that are based on the whims of a massive, random selection of people looking for a quick and shallow dopamine hit. Hard to say which gatekeepers are worse. Neither one is a win for the artist.
“Now, in the digital age, we have a new set of gatekeepers for artists that are forced into the world of 'content creation' and attention based audiences.” 🙌 Well said. One post I did got almost 400k views on Reddit and 7 views on X, with roughly the same number of followers. 🤔
Yeah it's frustrating, I will post the exact same content on youtube, facebook and instagram and it will perform drastically different on each platform. I can never tell which one it's going to do well on either, it feels completely random, hard to pin down what you are doing right or wrong. If anything.
The algorithms are very similar to the hoops and whistles a sociopath wants people to perform. It says: to become popular you must follow are rules a, b, and c...and then we set you on the right path. When people start doing that, it then changes the algorithms, disrupting humanity, and then testing them to see how many hoops and whistles they will go through.
“Pursuit” is yet ANOTHER favorite painting, and the story behind it makes it even more intriguing. I can’t help but think that Ayn Rand would have loved the painting and wryly appreciated that story about “New York isn’t ready for this kind of art.” Ha!
I’m glad you think this memoir is on track, because I couldn’t agree more with you and with Jenn’s highly accurate assessment of it being “compelling and well written.” 👏👏👏
Finally, did you end up getting those standing-only tix to Leontyne’s final performance? 🎼🎭
Thank you so much for your assessment and thoughts. I’m feeling tremendous relief in getting the memoir in the right ballpark. It actually has to be well-curated. I was talking with my mom today, and telling her a fascinating story (CIA-sex sites-recruitment-objectivism) that I will not include, lol. I didn’t take the bait and came out smelling like a rose, but another not so much. I still have difficult choices to make. Yes got tickets for two dates of Price’s last performances of Aida. I was in the audience this night: https://youtu.be/jVFMCTQvrMQ?feature=shared
Oh, I’m so glad you were able to see those performances! And thank you for the youtube link…it must have been stunningly emotional to be there in person.
P.S. I hope that sometime we might get to hear those stories you were telling your mother but aren’t including in your memoir!
Of course! 😀😀😀