The Doors

Douglas McDunna is a long-time friend of my wife's, and now mine. Along with my wife, he's one of the few who have a hard time really talking about music because it means so much to them. To get him to write this about one of his favorite bands, his favorite gods of music, is pretty cool.

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When I first started listening to the Doors 22 years ago, I was amazed at their ability to transport you to a foreign land or a scene from celtic mythology or maybe a murder. No other band has the power to give me such feelings of inescapable sorrow, unhinged debauchery or the fundamentals of love. The Doors make me want to sit in a car with strangers and drink. They make me want to go to Portugal or sit outside a strange woman's house and wait to watch her. To break free of the bonds we place on ourselves or more importantly the ones other people put on us. To forget everything we've been taught up to now and to start anew for yourself. The Doors have given me ideas to question family, friends and lovers. They are a real american experience, based on a true american invention, the blues. Something so true that there's no question as to what it means to you. WAKE UP ! you can't remember where it was had this dream stopped ?
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Peace.

Keyboards: Rhythm AND Melody

The keyboard solo in "Riders On The Storm" is what hooked me on The Doors. I'd played piano from the time my parents put me in Yamaha school, sight-reading mostly. Since then, keyboards have been usually my favorite instrument in a band. Manzarek blew me away, especially when I learned from a documentary that he sometimes sang for Jim in concerts too.

Who's your favorite keyboardist?

Peace.

SOLD - Jim Morrison 08/18/09

Vinyl Art News

So, for the past month I've been debating whether to start an email newsletter or not. What would be the point? I put most everything in this blog. Why would people want to read 2 things?

Then I realized a lot of people rely on email to stay connected, and I'd let a lot of them down by not reaching out that way. People who've bought pieces or been really supportive of my art had slipped through the cracks of my disorganized communication.

So, I'm setting out to remedy that. This is NOT going to replace this blog. I love this blog, both writing it and knowing you are reading it. It tells my stories, shows my art, and connects me with you on an almost daily basis. The newsletter is going to summarize the events relating to my Vinyl Art as a whole, where this blog presents daily goings on spontaneously. So the letter'll be great for those of you who want to catch up every once in awhile, but don't want to follow my day-to-day doings and read about specific pieces.

I pulled together an email list and sent out the first issue of my new newsletter. If you didn't get it and want it, please send me an email to let me know. It'll probably end up being like a monthly thing.

Then, after sending it off, I received an email from one of those somewhat lost contacts that is REALLY exciting. Something that'll definitely be in the next newsletter along with future related developments.

Roger Steffens let me know the plans for his Bob Marley ark-hives. The two pieces I painted along with the rest of his inCREDible collection of Bob Marley media and memorabilia will be installed and preserved at the Music Preservation Project (MPP) overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, CA. WOW! He participated in establishing this non-profit organization with its relationship with USC to digitize and preserve media collections like his. My pieces, along with others, were hung last Saturday and will be seen by lots of people. So cool! The best connection that might come from this is the fact that Carlos Santana and John Densmore are honorary members of the advisory board! Hooboy.

So we'll see what happens! I hope you'll follow my ramblings about my art either by subscribing to this blog or by letting me know you want my email newsletter, or both.

Peace.

SOLD - Jim Morrison 04/28/09

Getting Down

As I continue to add to this blog, it also continues to be a struggle to make the daily decision to be an artist. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do what I like doing, i.e. creating, being productive. It is, though, the accoutrements (said Frenchily, this is currently my wife's favorite word) of the job of professional artist, the stuff that would be delegated to support staff in a normal commercial venture, that are trying. They aren't trying in the sense that I don't like doing them. I do really like the promoting and the networking and the organizing. It gives me a chance to learn more and more about connecting with people, with humanity, which is necessary for my ultimate goal.

It's the feeling of hitting my head against a wall over and over that kinda sucks.

I don't mean to whine and complain that I don't get tons of comments or anything. This isn't about feeling ignored. I don't mind that. If I did, I wouldn't have started this blog at all. It's the getting down on oneself. Being my own worst critic and all that.

It's tough to self-motivate when the business of being an artist is as flaky as it is. It's hard to push myself to do anything but paint when my vision of success isn't materializing more rapidly. Getting down to business takes a lot of energy.

I think it requires faking oneself out. I need to trick myself to do the support work in order to keep on keepin' on and get you to connect with my art and what it can do for you. I need to stay down with the cause if I have any chance of spreading it as far as I want it to go.

Are you down? I certainly wouldn't say no to more feedback. I appreciate any time you do devote to reading my ramblings, and am especially thankful for those who feel the fear of commenting and do it anyway.

Peace.

SOLD - Jim Morrison 10/27/08

Buy Art Now!

Here's another one for Primitive Kool. It'll be for sale at their "dead rocker" show late September in San Diego, California. They currently have a whole bunch for sale on their website. Paul's been hurting recently, so if you're interested in buying one, check them out. He's offering 30% off until August 31st. Yep, 2 more days! He'll ship'em too.

Peace.

Jim Morrison 08/29/08

Making My Way Through The Dark

It's easy to discourage myself. I feel scattered, I feel unmotivated, I feel disappointed, I feel impatient. I feel my self-worth being attacked by my own inner voice. I don't know why. If I could shut that voice off I could realize all the good feedback I get and all the good things that are happening, but I get stuck in my own head. Vicious damn trap.

On this Indendence Day weekend, I'm going to try to leave it behind, to declare my independence from myself. At least until it learns how to behave.

When I listen to it, I get lost and I set out in multiple directions all at once out of fear. Fear is, after all, its main weapon. I've been taught, and taught myself, fear since I was little. Stupid fears that, while they helped shape who I am today and the life I've lived so far, have also helped my inner voice hold me back. It's rarely the end of the world, especially when it's something in my control. I'm not powerful enough to effect a devastating amount of destruction.

So, jump in the flippin' deep end of the pool. And stop worrying about little crap that makes the mind spiral inward to the point of nothingness or outward to oblivion.

Peace.

ON CONSIGNMENT - Jim Morrison 07/02/08

(Pain)ting, Despite

Here're 4 for P/Art. Couple more to go.

15 Musical Landmarks In My Life

Rockzone Records in Chandler has six pieces now: Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Michael Stipe, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, and KISS. I've got pics in my online gallery. Jerry and Otis are for Primitive Kool. I realized I haven't really talked about what music has been important to me over the years. Here, then, are some of the bands and musicians that were pivotal in shaping my musical taste and have become part of my musical culture:


The Beatles - my dad introduced me to Revolver, on vinyl of course
Genesis w/ Peter Gabriel - lead me into prog rock, thank you MTV and "Big Time"
Pink Floyd - prog rock/psychedelia crossover
Jefferson Airplane - full-blown psychedelia
Jimi Hendrix - psychedelia/blues rock connection
The Doors - added in more keyboards and hammond organ
Led Zeppelin - blues rock/heavy metal transition
Black Sabbath w/ Ozzy - "Paranoid" was my first heavy metal CD
Nirvana - grunge diversion, I was a teen in the 90s
NIN - moving into industrial, helped with teen angst too
Autechre - headlong from industrial into electronica, got a little intellectual around then
Acetone - hometown band that combined grunge, heavy metal, and interesting vocals
Lou Donaldson - got a little funky on the horn as electronica lead me into sampling
Stereophonics - a move to Phoenix and it became more about the vocals in front of the rock
Blind Melon - and passionate, pure, raw beauty

This is by *no* means near complete, but it does give a bit of an outline of my journey, musical landmarks if you will. While in college, I spent a LOT of time in used record stores listening to anything I hadn't heard before, so my interests got very diverse, and quite weird at times. Maybe someday I'll actually catalog my CDs and post a list or something. For now, here's mister Otis Redding:

Tell me about your musical journey!

eBay And Feedback!

I've gotten my first comment! Woohoo! And from another artist too. How exciting. I hope more will follow.

I also have a couple pieces available on eBay for a couple more days. I thought I'd mention them here since they haven't really caught any attention there yet. I've got Buy It Now prices on them at the price that they are mostly selling for in galleries. I know 2 days notice is short, but I'm trying to make the most of my 7 bucks for posting them:

Santana - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170142992944
Jim Morrison of The Doors - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170142994102

So, take a look and see what you think! Indeed, these two are also shown in my gallery that you can see if you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Come one, come all!