Painting with grandson

May 4, 2018

One on one painting joint venture – a bear/wolf with Eddie, for his brother Bruno – now at school!

Eddie loves mixing up all colours to muddy, but by a cunning method – in between the freeflow colour mixup – I got him to do structure on canvas which ended up as this bear looking at a diamond… every thing that he put on canvas that looked like something I got him to follow up, and helped him not to paint/plaster the shapes over so they built… Yes suggestive structuring… scaffolding I think the term is… Raewyn’s studying early childhood education.. one guy they study, Vygotsky, says they benefit from these scaffolds for play and learning so they can explore cool new things more easily. So, Eddie got to mix up a lot of paint, but also got a bear to give his brother:)

It would be interesting to do a whole kaleidoscope of painting with a group of similar aged kids…a Renaissance creative painting Workshop…?

The Hedonomatrix and the Dreamspace

April 29, 2018

hedonomatrix copy

We may be disappearing into a culture-wide ‘Matrix’ and our prime reality, life on this fragile planet, in this vast universe, may be receding into the fog of illusion…. We are dreaming a new technodream which could doom our planet to go to hell in a handbasket. I posted this thought recently on my personal blog, here: https://wizardofeutopia.com/2018/04/27/the-hedonomatrix/

We need to dream new possibilities for living on THIS planet, THIS embodied reality. I hope I can shake myself awake enough to keep Dreamspace vision alive long enough to inspire others to join me here, to generate new good things, ways of being in the world, being our possible creator selves in harmony with the higher wisdom… we, the 21st century sleepwalkers…  I hope you will consider joining Lifegym here as we explore the possible human in many modalities. See the page on this blog about lifegym. I started a website: www.lifegym.nz

Take the RED pill… See you on the other side! Prime reality, where we can face down our demons, then dream and create a better world together. ‘Remain true to the Earth, my brothers!’ – Zarathustra

‘It’s Life, Jim, but not as we know it.’ Feedback invited on ‘LIFEGYM’ idea

April 5, 2018

LIFEGYM with yellow door copy

Well, the only constant is change, whether Evolution devolution or destruction… Hopefully this new thing which knocked on my doors of conception in the wee small hours the other day is an Evolution for Dreamspace and friends….?

The thing is, I’m an artist but I don’t want to just fill Dreamspace with Things I Created – I want there to be a Life here for more than just me. I want to Share Dreamspace and its ‘havenly’ qualities with others – and not just visitors who come, look and go away. Hence, ‘LIFEGYM’ (working title – could also be Artgym or Mindgym or Dreamgym or…)

Let me know if the following trial prospectus interests you. It’s a concept doc only, not set in stone – or woodblock – yet!

Lifegym

 

**** CONCEPT DOCUMENT 5/4/18 -YOUR FEEDBACK INVITED! ****

At Dreamspace Gallery and Workshops, 61 Carnarvon St, Gisborne

A safe haven for artists, spiritual and mental seekers A workout space for the mind and spirit…

-a supportive place to learn and create art and crafts, read, meditate, practice Yoga, Chi Gong, Positive Psychology and other life-enhancing techniques

– a venue for workshops on a rainbow of fascinating, life-enhancing topics

– meet and synergise with others of like mind and heart.

Membership of [ballpark] $17 a week gets you into your own Dreamscape, a kaleidoscope of life-enhancing experiences:

  • Use (scheduled) of the various workrooms and their equipment –
  • Painting studio
  • Picture framing, glasscutting, stained glass area
  • Blue Room for meditation etc
  • Library and fibre broadband
  • Bookbinding, embossing and printmaking room
  • Woodworking, metalwork and carving area
  • Stone/shell/bone carving and lapidary room
  • Routing and shaping room
  • Mouldmaking and casting area
  • The Ferrocement yard for sculpture of anything from garden pots to ponds to statues to ‘hobbit cabins’
  • The large gallery room for meetings, talks, dancing, yoga etc, also exhibitions and other events.
  • The ‘upper room’ to eat, drink and lounge…

 

  • Individual and group life/art/writing coaching from Peter Harris (MA in philosophy) based on his 4phase creative process philosophy – see 4phase.org – and metaphysics, a mix of Plato, Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), Nietzsche, and others of the ‘Perennial Philosophy’ of the Western tradition (and some wisdom from the East, naturally! – mainly Taoism, Tantrism and Zen).

Our goal is to create in ourselves a dynamic, ultra-creative ‘Great Health’ as Nietzsche called it, honouring the Balance of masculine-feminine, left brain-right brain, rational and intuitive, dynamic progress and stable prosperity.

As in Star Trek, ‘It’s LIFE, Jim, but not as we know it.’ It’s LIFEGYM.

Come to Dreamspace and have a look and a chat with me now! (At present open Monday to Friday 10 AM to at least 4PM but I’m normally no more than 5 minutes away –  this is Gisborne!)

 

Follow us on the website www.dreamspace.nz   and get email notifications of new posts. Phone Peter Harris 022 3326568

Embossing-etching, a new guillotine, and a Quest for the True West

March 21, 2018

After the workshop on embossed books, I was inspired to finish drafting my ‘Declaration of the True West’ poster, which I plan to etch into a steel plate and print in embossed letters with a green or black background ink… Here’s the digital version of it, as I hope it will print onto card at about A2 size (narrower to be a Golden Rectangle shape):

declaration as if printed with green

See my other blog if you’re interested in this True West vision… www.thetruewest.org

The actual print will be deckle edged by means of a deep groove on the plate, which tears the damp card during printing – a cool extra function as well as the printing of the background and the embossing – all in one pass of the etching press AKA pastry roller! I use Flint waterbased printing ink.

I had thought I’d do the poster on a wood block, but the size meant it would probably have to be plywood, and steel just seemed better, especially since it can be etched,

20180308_180647-1941863297.jpg

whereas the ply would have to be carved – a long job with so many small letters! Unless it was lasered into the wood (or MDF) – that is an option too… some of my book cover plates were lasered into perspex by Engraving Systems of Whangarei when I was up north. Looking for a laser service here in Gisborne…  So, here’s a trial card I did with the green  ink and embossed lettering and a deep groove on the lines to be deckle-edge cut…. also little boxes by the same method.

20180224_134059.jpg

Anyone interested in a workshop on embossing/etching with wood (or recycled MDF) or steel blocks? contact me! You could make a poster from A3 to over A2 size, embossed etched artwork, greeting card, bookmark, even a box… Exciting possibilities! Oh yes and as with the bookmaking workshop, I can help you design and lay out your work on computer using photoshop and Indesign, and print out for transfer to the block.

First bookbinding and embossing workshop at dreamspace

March 18, 2018

Gisborne Herald did this article:

And five keen people came and did various embossed designs -some went for embossed copper or aluminium inserts in the covers which is a new thing… We all learned and had a busy fun day of it. Thanks ladies! You all did great.

More workshops on divers topics to come I think. It broke the ice for me – no more hiding away! Oh yes I should have asked to take closeups of their books…here’s a few I did before the workshop. A new technique using etching ink on the surface and the embossed lines show in the original card colour. Then gold or bronze acrylic wiped over (or not).

Also, coming soon: the Visions of Gisborne exhibition. Bring in any artwork that portrays some vision of some aspect of Gisborne as it is or was or may be… or email me pictures of your work. Children’s art too! Contact me… wizardofeutopia@gmail.com 022 3326568 Follow this blog to get notifications of further events… sorry this first workshop was put on through the arts society and I was slack about notifying here… Next time!

Bridesmaids dresses in the Holographic Universe

February 15, 2018

Another sign we live in an interactive holographic ‘theatre of reactions’ as C.S. Peirce called it: arriving at dreamspace this morning all primed to at last get onto painting our daughter Anna’s wedding invitation painting we found what look like two bridesmaid’s dresses on the outside door handle… A good sign for a wedding painting or what!

Totally ‘random’ yet whatever the causal i.e. mechanical reasons may turn out to be, the mental/spiritual reason is clear: we are resonating with a clear weddings vibration and it is attracting things of like vibrations…so to speak!

Well hallelujah anyway – I love it! Now I just need to continue in this vibe and the painting will flow. Robert Pirsig in Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance says ‘You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.’ Or to paint something at least good, just be in the flow, move naturally toward the perceived good and away from the perceived bad, in life and in the painting, and it will turn out not bad, maybe even good:) I’m going to test this today:) and report back… watch this space… no watch your space today, and see signs of Pirsig’s mystical Quality in it…

A touchstone for Dreamspace

February 1, 2018

Yesterday a stone knapper friend of dreamspace dropped off two more adzes he made to add to our stone age display – and donated a pounamu stone for a wairua stone or touchstone for the gallery. I polished it today and shaped the chipped part so it now looks a bit like a bird… I see a hint of a whale too… Thanks Aneru!