Saturday, February 20, 2010

LABYRINTH of FOREVER: Doorway for the Spirit Chasers

 So I'm doing it again. I've entered the annual Art For Progress competition: Clash of the Artists 2010 and I need YOUR VOTE!  

 It's a small annual global contest with a handful of competitive categories: Visual Art, Music, Film, Fashion, DJ, and Creative.  I've put a video in the Creative category.   Some of you may remember I won this back in 2008 with a video presentation of my photo series SPLIT.  

This video is a new edit of work I directed (shot by Fury Young) last Spring.  I prepared a treatment and scripted scenes for this a couple years ago, originally to be part of my CrowDeD series. 

I then adapted it for a projection piece used in a 30 minute dance performance at Nina Buisson's Avant Garde Festival in June 09'.  

It's a much shorter edit now, at 7 mins, with the new title, LABYRINTH of FOREVER: Doorway for the Spirit Chasers. Mystic Urchin supplemented it with some great text too! I hope you like it. 

Please click the links to vote - when you get there, scroll down on the Art for Progress Creative voting page to find my video.  Thanks y'all!

NOTE: You will be sent a confirmation email with link that you need to click on or your vote won't go through.  

---

VOTE FOR THIS VIDEO

LABYRINTH of FOREVER: Doorway for the Spirit Chasers from SeBiArt on Vimeo.

|excerpt|

the promise of forever frightens us,

threatening to bury us 

in an immeasurable matrix

of darkness…

hold to your frequency 

to live forever

~Mystic Urchin~   

CREDITS:

Art and Film Direction by Berette Macaulay

Performers in Order of Appearance:

Maki Shinagawa

Cristal Albornoz

Berette Macaulay

Shot by Fury Young

Text by Steve ‘Urchin’ Wilson

Painting and Costumes by Cristal Albornoz

Additional photography SeBiArt

Film, Sound, and Text Editing by Berette Macaulay

A SeBiArt Production.

 *Add'l Behind the Hidden Gate colour foto inserts I promised in a recent post.

RELATED JOURNEY POSTS: 

I Friggin WON!!! Ha - I got support like Obama!! lol! (Feb 2008)

Avant Garde Festival (May 2009)

Behind The Hidden Gate (Jan 2010)

Friday, February 19, 2010

"I'm On a Horse" LOL

I just got this and had to share. "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" smells like the best damn advertising in a while. It's good for repeated guffaws. I'm not sure what I'm more amazed by - the smooth set transitions, or the unwavering seductive aplomb of actor Isaiah Mustafa throughout this crazy single-shot ad!

Check it out, and how they did it.

"Did You Know"

The making of Old Spice's commercial: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like - an interview by Leo LaPorte of TWIT with the hilarious writers Craig Allen and Eric Kallman of Wieden + Kennedy [ad agency] to find out how they did it.)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ku to Clear the View

There is need to sway
Naked Rhythm summons blues
Wind and Whispers dance.

~Mystic Urchin~

"Life is a theater - invite your audience carefully. Not everyone is spiritually healthy and mature enough to have a front row seat in our lives.

There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you LET GO, or at least minimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships/fellowships!

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention to:

Which ones lift and which ones lean?
Which ones encourage and which ones discourage?
Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?
When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse?
Which ones always have DRAMA or don't really understand, know and appreciate you and the gift that lies within you?

When you seek growth, peace of mind, love and truth, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the FRONT ROW and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

You cannot change the people around you....but you can change the people you are around! Ask God for godly wisdom and discernment and choose wisely the people who sit in the front row of your life."

writer unknown

thanks for passing this along Chuchi!

SOMEWHAT RELATED JOURNEY POST: The Ongoing Attempt (2007)

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Wanderer: An Old Path to Renewal

A few days ago I did myself the therapeutic favour of visiting an old friend and explorer, Colette Garrick, owner of THE WANDERER* - a peaceful and alluring  haven of colour, art, ancient metals and jewels, pottery,and crystal wonder.

She - a beautiful, inquisitive, and generous spirit.  For years, Colette's nomadic journeys have sparked local interests in the decorative pieces and amulets she collects from cultures around the world; hence 'the wanderer'.

When I was in high school I spent so much time here, and also spent much of my student fortune on crystals and silver rings that I collected seemingly by the pound.  

Having lived away for so long now, I've drifted far from so many aspects of my past.  It was truly a soulful treatment to pass through these gates again, and I walked out with a spirit quartz (from South Africa) and a colour treated Aqua Aura - scintillating stones believed to be imbued with the energy of peace, purity, and community...to keep clear the channels of creativity. Score!

The extra treat was this painting by Kacey Ferguson.  I HAD to get it.  His technique is incomprehensible, but it was his imagination I found to be absolutely irresistible.

I learned too that Colette grew up under the thumb of the recently deceased Albert Huie (1920-2010), known as the "father of Jamaican painting".  She shared a cathartic goodbye/thank you letter she wrote after his passing, which brought to life a couple of odd memories I had of him: his smooth knocked knees always revealed by his long working plaid shorts, and 

the pronounced angle of his right forefinger knuckle - made permanent from years of pressing the paint brush to the canvas.

I didn't know him well, but I did spend 1 year of my life sitting for him every Saturday when I was 18.  Me, a figdety troublesome subject who refused to remove my panties, and him a jovial and patient older artist excited by youthful energy, yet unrushed by it.

I wanted to share this some time ago, but I decided against it after hearing of his death. And, well, there was great trepidation about posting the nude too - though Huie's impressionistic nudes have always been celebrated here.  

Anyway, dear Colette furrowed those distinctively arched brows of hers and instructed I post away.  And as another friend added, "If you are feeling like you want to put the Huie paintings up on your blog, don't let your tits get in the way. :-)" Haha - thanks Justin! Here goes:

Albert Huie nude and portrait

*If you're ever in Kingston, Jamaica, you must visit THE WANDERER:

3 Queensway, Kingston 10, Tel. 876-926-6071

Also hit the link at the top for a YardEdge interview with Colette. 

NB. Photographer of Huie pic unknown.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

SUPPORT POST: Valentine Couture

A bit for the day of love, and a bit for fashion.

It's fashion week - and while I don't actively follow this scene anymore, I was inspired to share stuff from two New York girls of mine.

First, an extraordinarily talented designer, Prizy Sebastian, who has an event happening today at the Waldorf Astoria. If you're in New York - check it out. You've seen her work in my portfolio before - from the Deadly Sins* shoot we did a couple years ago.

About Prizy Sebastian

Next there's the innovative artist, visual worker ,and fashionista - Lili, who's combing all the FW events to bring the best picks n' tips to her readers at: UnoCosa'S Scrapbook. She and her partner, Velizar, are also genius graphic artists whose sense of design and styling makes my head spin. I've had her on my blogroll for a while - but the timing was perfect to highlight her incredible endeavors in the blogosphere. Check her out.

* from Deadly Sins with Prizy Sebastian

and Lisa Sellers Jewelry

I'm off now to spread some light...Happy Valentines Day my lovelies

" ...a happy life consists in tranquility of mind." ~Cicero~

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Find A Quiet Seat...

...and get yourself sorted. 

(Advice to self really, but yeah, to you too my dears.) 

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dear Chanticleear [with Flowers for McQueen]

I must say I'm proud to know this very talented young poet, Matthew Hittinger, whom I met some years ago at a friend's party. I'd like to share a really fun and clever piece he wrote shortly after this meeting which I always enjoy reading...and not just because he named me in it. Heehee. Seriously check out his site - he's really a gifted, saucy, and fun writer.

http://matthewhittinger.com/

And here's a garden visit for you too, and flowers for the tragic passing of another clever and saucy talent, Alexander McQueen. Quite shockingly, he hung himself today. And surprisingly, I can't find any major news articles about it yet - but the fashion industry is spinning and screaming from the loss of this unique, daring, and fearlessly creative genius.

Click here to read more>>

Monday, February 8, 2010

Wanna Create? Get Yourself a Genius

I've been known to nag and complain a bit about the pressure and frustration  of living as a creative, or artist, or...or... as an irresponsible, aimless, indulgent crazy person - ooops, there went the guilty voices again.  Yes, that tenuous balancing act of living creatively, and somehow surviving while trying to convincingly appear to be sane and somewhat responsible.  Hmmm. 

Well a friend of mine just sent this on and I HAD to share it.  Thanks Nicky - you got it.  Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) sharing some sound and funny advice on how to keep creating in a safe bubble by getting yourself a genius!  Uh - let there be light. 

RELATED JOURNEY POST:  What Is It To Live Creatively? (2009)

Friday, February 5, 2010

Ku Of Truth

Done this before, but never explained. Every now and then I'll be posting 'Kuz'...Haikus that is...as seen occasionally in my quote box to the right. Most of them are written by Steve Wilson nee Mystic Urchin, but all writers are welcome! If you've got one - send it along, I'll post it along with a SeBiArt image that compliments it.

Quick Haiku Definition: Japanese style of poetry using 17 moras (or syllables), formed in 3 metrical phrases, usually about nature's seasons. In English, the verse is shown as 3 separate lines of 5, 7, and 5 moras. The skill here is economic verbal expression in creating imagery and mystery we can feel. We here will break the Japanese rules a bit by making the Ku about whatever strikes the mind and heart. Fascinated? See more HERE.

Enough adieu. To this week's Ku.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its an unsung truth
There is beauty in heartache
Proof of recent love

~Mystic Urchin~

kWotes and Haikus

A government which robs Peter to
pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. 

~ George Bernard Shaw

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

Live with your toes digging into the earth, with your eyes open wide, and your heart warm. This way you won't miss a thing little one. :)

~Scoop

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

~Daniel J. Boorstin

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

~Steve Jobs

Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.

~Leo Tolstoy

I'd rather be busy than bored;
I'd rather burn out than rust out.

~Johnny Mandolin

We are all we are all the time.

~Karin Wilson of YardEdge.net

Whatever you ardently desire,
Sincerely believe in,
Vividly imagine, and
Enthusiastically act upon,
Must inevitably come to pass.

- Sybil Leek, Diary of a Witch

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning
of the people by the people for the people.

~Oscar Wilde

For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.

Ivan Panin

Remember to play after every storm.

~Mattie Stepanek~

The most original thing you've ever come across is actually yourself.

~Saul Williams~

Why fight it?
Be seduced by your purpose.

~Scoop~

The light at the end of the tunnel
is not an illusion. The tunnel is.

~unknown~

Fear is just another word for ignorance
...
Freedom is something that dies unless it's used

~Hunter S. Thompson~

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

~Marcel Proust~

Unexpected beauty in life shatters our monument to suffering.

~Scoop 2001~

Once you label me, you negate me.

~Kierkegard~

The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to re dream our world. The fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re dreamed. Each reality can have it.

~Ben Okri~

Cautionary actions to prevent future pain or loss may also function as obstacles to any happiness you could have presently.

~Berette Macaulay~

Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.

~unknown~

We shall not cease from exploration, but at the end of all of our exploring will be to return to the place from which we originated and to know it for the first time.

~T.S. Elliot~

Isn't it funny how the word 'politics' is made up of the words 'poli' meaning 'many' in Latin, and 'tics' as in 'bloodsucking creatures’?

~Anonymous~

"You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he, "it makes you quite invaluable as a companion."

~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle~

Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.

~Ben Okri~

[I am] not so interested in the length of the road so much as the width.

~A. Regsmith~

Losers fold; winners take hits.

Forget the odds; draw, raise, bluff, call, stand.

~unknown~

Great ideas are no different from useless thoughts until they are put to use.

~Kynan Cooke, 1994~

In life you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.

~anonymous~

It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before, to test your limits, to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

~Anais Nin~

Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. …the willfully unimaginative see more monsters, they are often more afraid.

~JK Rowling~

Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.

~Marcus Garvey~

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

~Elbert Hubbard~

a simple guide:
no NOW...no JOY...no LIFE.

~Robert Holden~

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

~Bertrand Russell~

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.

~John Lennon~

Being proactive instead of reactive always lessens the pressures of adversity.

~Kevin C. Robinson~

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.

~Hunter S. Thompson, 1988~

The minute you try to prove yourself is the moment you've lost the point. 'Doing it' moves you forward, 'proving it' takes you back.

~Berette Macaulay~

I want death to find me planting my cabbages.

~Michel de Montaigne~

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.

~Douglas Adams~

In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind.

~Norah Ephron~

Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.

~Shakti Gawain~

Can you get over
Something you truly enjoy
And if indeed, why?

~Mystic Urchin~

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

~William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"~

There are indeed a thousand ways of acquiring an opinion that have nothing to do with rational thinking.

~R.J. Hollingdale~

There is need to sway
Naked Rhythm summons blues
Wind and Whispers dance.

~Mystic Urchin~

Chill out somewhere for a minute. Things get clearer when you get quiet.

~Scoop~

Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love.

~Charles Peguy~

We are so accustomed
to disguising ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

~Francois de La Rochefoucauld~

A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away.

~Arthur Miller~

There is no truth; everything is permitted.

~William S. Burroughs~

Nothing is true or false but thinking makes it so. You believe you have appeased the thunder and lightening and the ground that grows your grain; you believe it, you have.
~Shakespeare~

Knowing how to see is much more important than what kind of camera or lights you have.

~ David Harry Stuart~

Every work comes into being in the same way as the cosmos – by means of catastrophes…

~Wassily Kandinsky~

Every man takes
The limits of his
Own field of vision
For the limits of the world.

~Arthure Schopenhauer~ 1788-1860, Studies in Pessimism

Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.

~Dorothea Lange~

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.

Catherine Drinker Bowen

Nature Will Hold You
Live within Integrity
Sweet Dew Forever

~Ku by Scoop~

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
~Hunter S. Thompson~

I refuse to lose my mind to the sadness locked in the illusion of my finitude.

~Chuma and Fiswe~

fear of mediocrity creates it by narrowing your vision of yourself. get as far away from fear as you can by daring your ass to face it everyday.

~Berette Macaulay~

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming -WOO HOO what a ride! ~JAH – E~

Kill the arrogance. It will never serve you in the long run - as ultimately it acts as an inhibitor.

~Berette Macaulay~

Desire is a magnificent nomadic energy.

~Scoop, inspired by Nietzche~

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

~Lou Holtz~

There’s no great genius without some touch of madness.

~Seneca~

Live for the truth or lie
What are the consequences?
RECIPROCITY

~Ku by Scoop~

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

~Hunter S. Thompson~

Water marks the way,
We wander thru wet slipways,
Happy to be damp.

~ Ku by Steve Wilson, nee Mystic Urchin ~

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”

MIND THE GAP

The delights of self-discovery are always available.

-Gail Sheehy

"Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Your Words,Watch Your Words, They Become Your Actions, Watch Your Actions, They Become Your Habits, Watch Your Habits, They Become Your Character, Watch Your Character For It Becomes Your Destiny"

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.

-Dorothea Lange-

“Fear is temporary. Regret lasts a lifetime.”

“Caution is the death of Creativity”

Let your deeds themselves praise you, for here I leave them
in all their glory, lacking words to extol them.

~Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha~

Saturday, February 20, 2010

LABYRINTH of FOREVER: Doorway for the Spirit Chasers

Friday, February 19, 2010

"I'm On a Horse" LOL

The making of Old Spice's commercial: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like - an interview by Leo LaPorte of TWIT with the hilarious writers Craig Allen and Eric Kallman of Wieden + Kennedy [ad agency] to find out how they did it.)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ku to Clear the View

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Wanderer: An Old Path to Renewal

Sunday, February 14, 2010

SUPPORT POST: Valentine Couture

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Find A Quiet Seat...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dear Chanticleear [with Flowers for McQueen]

Monday, February 8, 2010

Wanna Create? Get Yourself a Genius

Friday, February 5, 2010

Ku Of Truth

kWotes and Haikus

i•ma•gine | e•volve

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