GOD MUSE or MONSTER

"AND GOD MADE MAN IN HIS IMAGE"...........or was it the other way around?
Haven't we seen more proof of MAN making GOD in his image?? The books are edited and doctored, the images and icons hijacked, the ethics are compromised and intentionally confusing. Its these questions that guide my next show.

For my next solo show debuting October 4th at LITM in Jersey City titled "GOD MUSE OR MONSTER" I focus on my first great Muse-the fundamental laws for which have been inspiring me for years. Ideas like opposition, identity, freedom, sacrifice and perception. I discuss this Muse of mine more in depth in my previous post if you're interested, but the show also delves into the danger of believing too firmly in our chosen interpretations and inspirations, as these can often lead us down some dangerous roads. Treating our Muses like Gods & our Gods like Muses can inadvertently create Monsters.

"GOD MUSE OR MONSTER" asks us to pay attention to how we honor the Muses, Monsters and Gods of our life. Veneration, reverence, symmetry and opposition are some of the themes focused on in this show. In the case with the terms God, Muse and Monster we find that these themes are often used interchangeably and when they are..the results can sometimes be detrimental.
In cases like these I ask these questions;
- Can spirituality & Religion maintain any vestige of truth when we can pick and choose which virtues we will honor with the passing of a Pope, a President,or the Wind.?
-Is there really a difference between a God or Monster when man's interpretation of God's will has separated it from virtue and aligned it with dominance and power?
- If God is your Muse and you behave without Virtue, are you the Monster or was that God speaking through you?
- If we worship our Muse like a God, is there a difference?

I will close with one statement for those believers who will see my work as an attempt at discrediting their faith; I do believe in GOD, this is merely my way of fine tuning my approach at distinguishing the difference between that which is contrived and that which is "real". I'm a neo-nomadic pilgrim paying homage to the God that blesses my travels and guides my ethos.
- Fathom

Helping myself understand what I'm saying..by understanding my obsession

I've been working at describing a particular theme that has consumed my attention for over 14 yrs now. The last 8 years have been my attempts at describing these thoughts visually and is ultimately what coerced me away from my chosen field in Industrial Design and into visual art. It began with some casual conversation on the nature of reality and it's "pulse" that seemed prevalent in all of life's functions. How the universal laws that govern our reality tend to have a Contracting & Expanding force driving them. It was those early philosophical conversations that would eventually inspire all my work. Our Universe, our breathing, child birth, weather patterns, digestion, you name it there is a contracting/expanding force involved, the "pulse" of our world is inherent in all aspects of our lives from micro to macrocosm and I couldn't not see it.

Everywhere I looked I saw things as C/E. I see it as a metaphor and a reality. It's in our patterns of speech; vowels and consonants as well as in our mathematics and engineering. I filled books and books on the subject as my obsession grew. I watched movies and looked for symbolism and sure enough whenever an epic tale was being told there was proof the author was aware of this fundamental law that I felt was greatly overlooked and understated. It can also be understood as Attraction/Reflection in a simpler state but nonetheless it seems C/E is something that we naturally take for granted and hardly consider applying to the formula when we are trying to better understand how the world works. -Perhaps it is my illusion that it is so important.. but in any case, when I began painting , naturally it was my 1st muse.

I didn't know that is what I was painting right away, but by the 3rd or 4th painting I discovered I was still obsessing over C/E and began fine tuning the process. It wasn't just C/E that I was now focused on, it was how each interaction between energies has a root energy and what that energy may look like in it's primordial state. Perhaps it resembles the objects of outer space, deep in the ocean or like biology under a microscope? The old philosophical question of "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Well I suppose if sound waves are not received then how can it be measured/translated as an actual sound? So that was my jump off point...What does the untranslated energy of an idea/event look like at its most primitive before its been reconfigured into a perceiver's mind?

The work has changed a bunch since those initial inspired days of smearing and scratching at paint on a back lit surface. I've taken to fabricating my own lightboxes, including doors made from recovered woods and parts, the addition of vaccuformed plastics to make 3d shapes, numerous dissolvent techniques, combining it into furniture and installing the work in semi-permanent environments like The Gallery Lounge where the work is LED lit. With every evolution I feel closer to explaining what it is I feel to be true, whether I'm right or not, that is:

"This world is not necessarily an illusion, but can be understood as a fractional reality built and limited by all beings senses. The sincere description of reality would either begotten by the impossible comprehension of all the sensations and translations that have ever existed in the minds of every organism across millenia, OR by the comprehension of the latent general laws that have yielded the circumstantial happenings of our reality- That is to say, that those whom claim any knowledge on the subject of God or Science owe it to themselves to explore the general nature of things before speaking on behalf of the greater nature of things."

By understanding my obsession with my first Muse I hope to move forward cautiously and peacefully because at times a Muse is a monster or a God and other times a God is a Muse and a Monster. Stay tuned for my Solo show at LITM with this title in Mind. GOD MUSE or MONSTER opening October 4th.
-Fathom

Artists never cease to amaze me.

I am lucky in all aspects of my life to surround myself with creative genuine people. A friend of mine shared a link the other day which made me remember that almost anything can be possible with the right imagination (and the right resources as well).


CLICK to watch a video of Andreas Franke's new exhibition.

READ a little more about it here.

Anyone up for a trip?

-VOGEL

Tryin to save Facebook (from the outside)

YODA- Thinking this will work do you?
Fathom- It's worth a try old man.

Yoda- full of anger these people are, you can't just remove the HATE essence from Facebook and end their suffering.
Fathom- Aren't you the one that said "Hate leads to SUFFERING"?? This is our only choice. I'm not going back in Yoda. .. I can't.

Yoda- Persistent you are. Agree with your methods I do not, but you're right...Hope these people need, or anger will spread.

Fathom- I got out just in time my pointy eared pal. It's just not the same, people are mean, angry and miserable. Facebook's privacy policy is garbage and all these porn-bots and pop up windows are making people crazy!! Googleplus has already begun taking over Yoda...people are evacuating.....we have to move fast, or I fear there won't be a Facebook worth saving!!

RockSoup Radio comin soon??!

Well radio stations are kinda a thing of the past, but we hope to get some funds together and begin hosting a bi weekly program called The Greenhouse Gallery which will be in podcast format and available right here on our 660 blog.

The 5W's boil down to this; Cris Nyne and I would co-host a 1/2 hr program recorded here at 660 Grand that focuses on the arts and news here in Jersey City. Artist interviews as well as lively commentary on the issues effecting us in a fast growing city with a history of uprooting or undermining it's artists.

1st episode introduces you to us via an interview by our producer Tiffany Camhi, a fellow 660'er. Stay tuned by following our blog and spreading the word.

Get back in yer studio or suffer the walk of shame.

I was doin good. I really was. I booked the show, bought materials, did a sketch of the interior, planned the number of works for the show, and started sketching out some ideas; I NEVER SKETCH! Hell I even went as far as to hire a sketch artist to do a full rendering skecth of the venue so I can kill two birds with one stone. 1. get resource material to work with and 2. own a piece of art from a local artist. I felt I was well on my way. I've already began a number of pieces and put together a book outlining all the potential works that will be included in the show and even ordered the blank pizza boxes(don't ask) for the promotional end of the show. But then something happened...
dramatic pause
...a typical weekend in Jersey City is what happened. Somehow even though I'm trying to watch my spending I still managed to find myself downtown having the drinx and celebrating with the artists and scenesters of downtown JC. Sure there were good reasons for all the fun & debauchery, but if you tally up the 2 days out + a day of recupe inbetween + a day on the back end where nuthin gets done = you got yerself 4 days of nuthin!! BUT thas not all....then you gotta do the CSI shit and figure out that you ALSO didn't do didley the two days before this debacle which is a new total= 6 days of no real studio time!! That's unacceptable.

Sure I went through there, said hi. Had a drink, thumbed thru the sketches, but what progress was really done? In the end I still found myself shuffling downstairs to visit my studio, which felt like an old abandoned house that had all the signs that life once existed there but hasn't since I just stepped into it. Objects become artifacts; An old dirty plate and crusty fork, some empty beer cans, art materials left out on the floor and a pile of puppy shit because lil charlie figured out I hadn't been back there in days. Nice.

I did the walk of shame this morning and apologized to my old abandoned studio. I admitted that I'm a fukkup and will try harder next time, but she looked at me like she always does- like she knows I'll do it again, like she loves me anyway.
-Fathom