sleepyAPRIL presents Window 212

I was recently part of UpART at the Gladstone Hotel and created a wall to wall to ceiling mural! Check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2349022&id=122601678&l=755fcd56ad

http://www.blogto.com/arts/2010/11/site-specific_installations_transform_the_gladstone_at_upart_2010/

the happening

welcome to the land of bad ideas...

it's happening

the tumble

“We watched,

disbelieving and helpless,

on that savage day.

People we love

began falling,

helpless and in disbelief.”

Eric Fischl

the cell

are you ever scared of what might happen if you just let yourself go?

the attic

i like the way you talk to me

i like the way you use your hands

i like the way you hold my waist

and tell me that i'm beautiful

and tell me that i'm wonderful

and tell me that i'm magical

and beautiful

and special

and different

tell me that i'm different

tell me that i'm genuine

i hide no secrets

from you

i hide

from me

i hate myself

i hate myself

and you

especially you

the trophy

the wasteland

april is the cruellest month, breeding

lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

memory and desire, stirring

dull roots with spring rain

my friend, blood shaking my heart

the awful daring of a moment's surrender

which an age of prudence can never retract

by this, and this only, we have existed

which is not to be found in our obituaries

or in memories draped by the beneficent spider

or under seals broken by the lean solicitor

in our empty rooms

how many wars do we have to survive to learn about peace?

how many soldiers do we have to bury to learn about love?

we can sit back and watch while these wars tear apart the beauty of our world and gawk as we see it for what it really is; we can stand to the side while we are one by one reduced to faceless creatures with animal survival urges, famished and animated by a mass terror.    

what are the roots that clutch, what branches grow

out of this stony rubbish?...

quotes from the wasteland by t.s. eliot

the wardrobe

if the world is a stage and we are the performers

then we better dance for the puppeteer master

dance and bow and smile and laugh

because we are just cowards in sheep costumes

laughing and dancing

thank you and thank you and thank you good night

the wall

The next series of drawings represent the walls that we surround ourselves with.  They may be the walls that we build to protect ourselves, the walls on which we display our proudest moments or the walls that conceal our deepest secrets.

How do these walls reflect our image?

How does an outsider interpret the objects we collect?

Perhaps these walls have witnessed more than we'd like to share, perhaps they speak louder than we would ever dare.

can we find our reflection in the things around us?  can we deny the fact that we are shaped by the activities we choose? is it so difficult to imagine the strength of the energies we transmit to each other?

We Are Infinite Consciousness Living In A Holographic Illusion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgeTPubpE8s&feature=channel

The Power of Human Emotion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcBHwYmCHw&feature=channel

the dream

don't you ever feel like there has got to be something else out there other than what we see?

think matrix meets the 4th dimension and has a jungian lovechild.

Speaking of the 4th dimension...

Want a movie that will make you crazy?

I recommend Primer (2004)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/

Still can't figure it out?  Maybe this will help:

http://neuwanstein.fw.hu/primer_timeline.html

the gardener

reinventing the wheel

Chakras

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra

"As humans, we exist within the 49th Octave of Vibration of the electromagnetic light spectrum. Below this range are barely visible radiant heat, then invisible infrared, television and radiowaves, sound and brain waves; above it is barely visible ultraviolet, then the invisible frequencies of chemicals and perfumes, followed by x-rays, gamma rays, radium rays and unknown cosmic rays. 

Understanding existence and physical form as an interpretation of light energy through the physical eyes will open up greater potential to explore the energetic boundaries of color, form and light that are perceived as immediate reality..."

There are seven major Chakras that run lengthwise down from your head to the base of your spine concentrated at points at your crown, brow, throat, heart, solar plexus, and genitals.  These points are directly related to crucial hormonal and chemical systems that run our body subconsciously.  By concentrating energy on these points, you can find a complete balance between all these systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra#The_Seven_Major_Chakras

the journey

freudian slip

"my external sensations are no less private to myself than are my thoughts or my feelings.
in either case my experience falls within my own circle.
a circle closed on the outside

i and with all its elements alike,
every sphere is opaque to the others which surround it."

F.H. Bradley

the second birth / (red rock castle)

"the wilderness found him out...

i think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know...

it echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core."

joseph conrad

heart of darkness

the escape

this is not a

venus escapes




this drawing was inspired by the women who were brave enough to pursue their dreams;

only to be used for the pleasures of a hardened world.

the price of what they lost cost more than they had ever dreamed.

Taken from http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/060731

"Human trafficking takes root in industries that already are known to have labor violations — sub-poverty wages, no benefits, no labor relations, and illegal immigrants. Traffickers lure poverty-stricken females with false promises of high-paying jobs as house cleaners, nannies, and models. Many times, drugs are forcefully induced to facilitate kidnapping. The traffickers slip the victims across the border and are often dumped in unsafe or illegal living and working conditions. Far from home, their personal identities, passports, birth certificates, identification cards, and address books are also taken away. By the time the females realize they have been duped, it is too late for them to escape. Once inside the U.S., the entrapped women and girls are forced into prostitution, pornography, and other forms of sexual exploitation under the most distressing conditions."

Taken from http://www.afajournal.org/2004/april/404culture.asp

On the psychological damage:

“The young women have been in captivity for a period of weeks to months or years. Initially there is shock and disbelief. Many young women describe not being able to believe that they had been sold. … Once they realize that in fact they are sold, they fight the brothel owner’s demand that they accept customers. Refusal leads to beatings, being locked in a room, and going without food. This persists until the young woman gives up and realizes that indeed they are trapped and have no options.… At some point in this process, the young woman becomes submissive in order to avoid further beatings and torment; her ‘spirit is broken.’ She surrenders, becomes resigned and accomodates to the circumstances of captivity.”

For more information


General:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking
http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html#SexTrafficking
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/canada.htm


Toronto, Canada News:
http://thetorontotimes.com/content/view/583/68/
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/01/15/sex-slaves-hidden-police-say.aspx


Sex Slaves, a documentary film expose:
http://www.apltd.ca/sexslaves/

the awakening

the world as we know it is full of corruption.
it is difficult to know who to trust, what is fake, or even to know why we pursue the things that we do.

is money-making, social achievement and posterity really the key to success in our world? can we even satiate that incessant desire inside? it seems as if these things are plain human nature, not to be excused as cultural as we'd like to believe.

hemera's island

we've been looking through the wrong end of the glass.

the key to understanding ourselves lies not on the illuminated stage, the coordinated scripts we act through each day.

it lies within, in the darkness of ourselves, the side more often ignored and shamed than forgotten.

diamonds and shiny things

lose your mind, and come to your senses.
- fritz perls

the fall

metroptopus

sometimes we fight for things we have lost
more often we fight for the things we cannot have

mount moriah

rarely do we fight for the things we do not understand