Enter the Theater of the Womb. Day two of Skyin with me on paintbrush, Justin James on drums, and special guest Jesse Hahn. The video below is approximately 30 minutes but if you can make it all the way through it, you can witness how our magic takes place, unfolds, and blossoms into something tangible and beautiful. 

This piece was particularly hard to make for strange reasons that can only be described with feelings of which there are no words to describe, yet upon its creation, its meaning came to light and made perfect sense, thus its name, Theater of the Womb.

<3

-J.Feelgood

'We Grow Together' was a piece I created a few weeks ago when I first started work with Justin James at his drum studio. We began to explore something neither of us an artists had done, seen, or even heard of before. 

While he played his drumset, or keyboard ( sometimes at the same time ), the music fueled my paintings, and in perfect exchange, what I was painting fueled what he played. Then we discovered there could be a language between sound and color. In our discovery of both science and art, we began to have conversations through our art forms, with one another. 

We gave it the name, 'Skyin'. It's levels beyond the technical showboating of Jazz, it goes beyond modern art abstractions, it's a collaboration of both music and painting, both gaining from one another, the product produced is the energy between the two while it's being created, not necessarily the music recorded for later listening or the painting when finished. 

'We Grow Together' was painted in approximately 13 minutes, (the time lapse video shown below cuts your watching time down to 3 or 4 minutes, for your convenience) and is a wonderful example of how when we begin Skyin, there is no intent or idea initially, its just feeling what's out there, feeling the universe, going with it, embracing it, growing with it, acknowledging your gift from the universe and giving thanks, showing appreciation by using your gift in wonderful effortless gratitude. When you really feel thankful for how beautiful life is and how amazing it is that we're here to even feel all, creating has no rules, no boundaries, it's just you and the expression of creation. 

When I look at what I created with the musical collaboration of Justin James in this painting, it depicts the essence of the individual's relationship with the universe and the grounded bond between the two and how they grow as one through that tie. 

More vids, art, music, and discoveries to come.

Art is the reason for every moment. Live that.

-J.Feelgood

There are a few people who didn't go to ACL. I personally have never been. I'm just not interested in it and never have been. I would rather water and nourish a seedling than join a piss parade on plastic trees. Instead of attending the tinkerbot fanfare, I heard Danny was performing at an amazing alternative event. Ditch The Fest fest, which for $5, you can see something like 20 bands from 4pm though 2am at Scoot Inn.

 That's an awesome deal if you're breathing or interested in basically anything at all. Did I mention it only cost $5?

Most of the line up consists of the next in line to be Gary Clark Jr famous. (Remember when he made a clean sweep at the Austin Music Awards? What a boss.) My point here is, if you get a chance to see any of these folks perform before they get super famous, its a story you can tell all the young people who are cool in the future and listen to older music, just like the amazing phenomena of when a young person jams Led Zeppelin or Miles Davis, about how you got to see them, throw a drink back with them, and see all that magical artistness that beams like lightning bolts from their eyes. 

I met Danny over the summer at my dear friend Sheakaz's ( Kaz, for short ) birthday party. Every year, Kaz throws his own little KazFest, where he has a couple of bands he likes perform in his living room and all of close friends get together and do all that 'man we've been friends for so long it's awesome' good time kinda party stuff. Kaz invited Danny to come play, Danny came and blew us all away. I'll post that video some other time. At any rate, It was then that I became Dannyfan. 

So here I am on a Saturday night and we all meet up at Scoot Inn to catch his Ditch The Fest fest performance and one song in, it starts to rain. Not a sprinkle, but a straight up downpour. You want to see dedication? I turned around and saw loyalty like no other. Fans with open arms embracing the rain, cheering for Danny to play, play, play! It was a magical moment. Watch him perform and you'd swear he was born with a guitar in his hand and a song in his voice. He watches his audience, as he sings, as he plays, his eyes are watching everything, his mind thinking, wondering, pondering all kinds of things. He feels his audience, hears their hearts and connects with them on such a deep level, with a sound that you can't help but move to. Finishing up a 30 minute set, he closed covering a soul riveting rendition of Tool's Aenima. We were dancing up and down in the rain while he screamed, 'Learn to swim, learn to swim!'. It was epic.

Here is his website. Buy his new album.
www.dannymalone.com

This video is absolute shit quality and doesn't do him justice, but if you're into his sound, you won't mind. 

- J.Feelgood

PS. Wish you were there.

I had a pupil of mine stop by for a session yesterday and we went over the points highlighted in my Art of Happiness article from several months ago. One of the parts he had difficulty with was loving himself. I felt, as I aim to progress sharing the concept of a Life Diet with all of you, that this is one of the key elements to being successful in the endeavor. 

It's interesting to me that it could be such a difficult thing to love oneself. We all grow up in contrasting social developments and yet in them, we have one common veil that blinds us all. The only real way to grow as a spiritual being is to think and feel as the soul that you are. We must separate yourself from the idea of being a mere animal foxtrotting about with a material purpose and obligation to the benefit of others before ourselves. I realize that last part sounds a bit bold, but as a dear friend told me once upon an epiphany, "The best way to help others is to help yourself."

Let's dive into the construct of the veil that blinds us. There are two kinds of paradigms that should be noted first. 

1. Those who attempt to desperately control their reality, which is an impossibility, thus futile and a negative.
2. Those who create their reality, which is encumbered by endless possibility, a positive.

The veil that blinds us in the trial of identity itself. When we are born we know only the love of our maker and beyond that, there is a constant battle of people vying for identifying us as extensions of their own ego. 

Imagine being a guest in a new country. You don't know the language and everyone is dressed in outfits you've never seen before. They have cultural traditions that make no sense at all. All of them want you to be like them, wear their outfits, speak their tongue, and take part in the activities that make them feel as though they are one with something. That is you the moment you are born.

The best thing to do, as difficult as it is and insane to comprehend at first is to try to realize just how much you do not know, for example, you know just as much about what is going on inside of you as you do the strange and miraculous world around you.

The body is a machine. The mind is a computer. The soul is the operator. That was the hard part, the rest is easy. First of all, you have to disassociate the labels of the constructs in your memory data storage in order to begin the process of self-ratification, then, re-identify those pre-existing constructs with labels you identify with as your own.

Think back to when you saw your first circle. If this is difficult, fast forward to the first time someone identified that object as a circle. This person is responsible for defining how you think to this day.

Disassociate this memory. Forget that person and their label for that object. Call it whatever you wish, you may even call it a circle, but it is your label now, your construct.

Repeat this step for every single construct in your data core. Fundamental objects are like elements, they are constructs for complex real time parameters, just as elements are used to create complex compounds.

Unraveling this a bit further, understand what it means that your mind is a computer. It utilizes hardware, software, electricity, etc. When you disassociate your pre-existing labels you are free to see your mind at work and how every moment you are associating, referencing, labeling, filing, and documenting the world around you.

The goal now, is to isolate the various programs at work, they will be running simultaneously or triggered after certain circumstances. Isolate, identify, prioritize and execute new commands.

Take a moment now to soak all of that in. The universe doesn't understand labels. It isn't in its language. All it knows is beauty because the universe is a constant explosion of perfect moments becoming new perfect moments becoming new perfect moments becoming new perfect moments, etc.

Self love is accepting that you are another perfect moment of the universe, you are the universe, just as your nose is you, your toes are you, your eyes are you, your atoms are you, all of those are part of the universe. When you step in front of a mirror, pass by a window, or look over the side of a boat into ununscathed waters and to see your reflection, all you should see is the beauty of the universe at work. 

When you see that, tell me, what's not to love?

-J.Feelgood