Value In Abundance

"No man is an island. He's a peninsula."

A line from a song on Jefferson Airplane's "After Bathing At Baxter's", one of my favorite albums, jibes with my view of Life. We're all part of it. Life explores itself in creation by individuating into individual beings. Each with a purpose as part of the whole. With free will, we can apparently muck up that purpose, but I'm not entirely sure that's not part of the plan as well.

So, all Life, all beings are precious. Whether we were created to find the question to the answer "42" or not, we all are vital. Vital is a good word, relating to that which is necessary and that which is alive. All alive, all necessary.

My question of late to the void has been why, then, is scarcity prized? The rarer, the more expensive. Supply and demand. Why is this the system?

I'm thinking before the creation of the capitalistic way of doing things, a goat was worth what a goat was worth. That worth being determined by usefulness. In barter, I suppose need played a part in what one was willing to exchange for said goat, but quality meant more than quantity. Substance over salesmanship.

I think we've lost sight of substance, buried underneath the commercialism of our society. Solely based upon quantity of a commodity, substance is passed back and forth while at the same time being passed over by attention. Collectors don't value things based upon use, but based upon how few there are. This seems to spread to people on occasion, frighteningly, as groups are reduced to numbers for statistical analysis which is then relied upon for individual action. No wonder people feel alone, exploited, flattened. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

When the economic and possibly the social system is in crisis, the creative can dig out from underneath the complications of market value. This applies to everything made. What is real matters again. True value can be recognized, and in abundance. Preserving quality, quantity can be increased without fear of disconnection. Use, both practical and spiritual, food for the body and soul, will determine value.

I hope this happens. Humanity would do better, I think. We would work together to create value, rather than work against to horde. Value is not a zero sum game. Along with Life, it is boundless.

Remember that the peninsula is attached to the mainland.

Peace.

SOLD - Grace Slick 01/21/09

Creative Liberation

Donovan and The Beatles and other musicians made more than their share of brilliant music during those glorious late '60s, having been creatively liberated by drugs, new technologies, alternative cultures, and political upheaval. It boggles my mind to think of all that was produced during that period. My friend Michael, who'd figured this out, at one point made it his goal to collect every psychedelic album from '67-'69 from anywhere. Lofty goal, to say the least. After he'd introduced me to "After Bathing At Baxter's" by Jefferson Airplane, I was pretty much set. But this isn't about that.

This is about being an artist. This comment from a couple days ago and a follow-up tweet today made me realize I haven't talked much about my artistic motivation to paint on records or my past adventures in art. I suppose I haven't because I don't specifically think about that stuff much. I guess it's true that artists don't talk about their art much, at least as far as their personal reasons for creating.

I think this is true in large part because the art is the expression of those reasons. To explain it is kind of like explaining why a joke is funny. It's not that I don't want to, but it'd sort of defeat the purpose of the art in a way. And I don't think I'd do it well to boot.

Artistically, creatively, what's going on in my mind can't really be captured in a moment by words. That's the art's purpose. My past art influences, ideas and projects have both formed and liberated my creativity as an artist. It's not like that's over and done with. I have tricks up my sleeves.

But for now, I love creating my Vinyl Art. It is so satisfying to paint the portraits and have the pieces and concept strike a chord with as many people as it has. I do, however, have to figure out how to sell more, how to reach more of my audience, and that might lead me to pull out a couple of those tricks. So certainly stay tuned.

And those that do, by way of a simple bookmark, an RSS feed subscription, or a Twitter follow, thank you thank you thank you. That you think enough of my art, the concept and creation, and of me, the person and artist, to set aside time in your own future to pay me attention blows me away.

Peace.

Donovan 01/15/09

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You

When all is said and done, what will humanity be remembered for, what will the ages say about you?

[EDIT - 5/15/08: To all those finding this post while on a quest for information regarding JFK's inaugural address and his famous quote, I found out that it was inspired by a line written by Khalil Gibran, the author of "The Prophet". The line can be found in "The New Frontier". It's the 7th paragraph. This isn't to take away from JFK's rephrasing it into a monster of an directive to a nation, though.

Also, the contest described below is over, but I'm hoping I get to do another one! I need your help. I need enough subscribers either by RSS feed or email so that I'll get enough entries. So make it easier on yourself to keep up with my oh-so-neat little blog, and subscribe!]

"No man is an island, he's a peninsula," said Jefferson Airplane. We are all connected and we're the better for embracing that: "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated," said MLK. I guess my main purpose in creating and promoting Vinyl Art at all is to contribute as I can, seeking my way of bringing people together. So, I'm taking King's first step even though I definitely can't see the rest of the staircase, and starting my contest. Woohoo!

Your Grand Prize: one (1) piece of Vinyl Art of the recording artist of your (reasonable) choice, framed and delivered

The 9 Second Prizes: your entry featured on the sidebar of this blog

Everybody's Deadline: February 29th, 2008

How You Enter: I want to know your story (you feel comfortable enough to share) of when music had the biggest impact on your life, like a concert, or a song you danced to with your future mate, or an important moment in human history that changed you in large part due to music involved. It's gotta be true and about you. The entry can be in any form: you can write the story in a comment here, you can post an image on Flickr and send me a FlickrMail about it, you can make a video to upload to YouTube and send me a message there with it attached, you can create a post on your own blog with a trackback to here, or you can even use regular ol' snail mail (address available on request). Basically, any format, online or off, is acceptable as long as it's your creation and your story. Every entry will be moderated for appropriateness (my blog isn't "adult", ;) ) and listed in the comments to this post for all to see.

How You Become A Winner: On March 1, 2008, I'll start going through all the entries and pick the 10 top ones. By "top", I mean the most successful at communicating your story. I want to really "get" why you've chosen that particular story to tell. I'm not going to judge it based on comparisons of content. I'm going to judge the entries based on the whole package, kind of like how dogs are judged in Best of Show competitions. I know there aren't "breed standards", but I mean I'm going to look at the facts of the story and judge the entry on how well I think it conveys your experience of those facts and the impact it had on you. Then I'll pick one of the top 10 randomly as the Grand Prize winner!

I thought about putting the top 10 up for voting by you to pick the winner, but for this first contest, I want to keep it simple. I don't really know how big my audience is and how many hoops you'd be willing to jump through to win a painting at this point. Also, I'll see how many entries I get before committing to when I'll announce the winners. I'm going to do my best with this, but everybody has told me that contests can go haywire, so let's just make it a good one! You can always ask me questions to clarify before submitting your entry, I'll make important ones public. I don't care if I get all the entries on the last day of this month if you want to keep refining or if you just procrastinate, but if you want more people to see your entries, get them submitted!

If you want inspiration, or if you don't understand the Grand Prize:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and also the more entries, the better a contest will result for us all, so tell your friends! Peace.

Blues Roots

John Lee Hooker is among the blues legends that influenced most of the musicians that I listen to regularly, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, The Black Crowes, and the Rolling Stones to name a few. So this is my painting from yesterday. Whad'ya think?

I also wanted to share some more important influences on me. Since I'm already talking music, let's talk music. It is my main passion other than my wife, so I have a lot to say about it. To start, though, I wanted to list the albums that had the biggest initial impact on my outlook towards music. In no real order:

"Revolver" by The Beatles

"After Bathing At Baxter's" by Jefferson Airplane

"Foxtrot" by Genesis

These albums formed the beginnings, the roots of my deep interest in music. My passion can be traced back to these albums and their creators. This isn't to say that all that I listen to relates to these in particular, but they are why I love music as much as I do. In future posts I will explore where my musical interests have meandered, but for now this is a start. If you haven't yet, you can see my painting of Peter Gabriel from his early solo career after leaving Genesis if you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

And please leave me comments! I thrive on feedback.