Remove The Bolts 1

Remove The Bolts 1

Here is a new version for my Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) W series. It's called Remove The Bolts because I removed a page from an old repair manual for a Ford Mustang (1979 - 1993), and integrated it into a digital collage with pieces from Wrecked Tangle W1. Are there deeper messages in this one? The only thing I can think of right now that might indicate a deeper message is the fact that some text from the other side of the page from the repair manual bled through so you can make some of it out. I'm all for the subconscious communication phenomena when making art. Sometimes I can see messages or words associated with synchronistic events in my dreams or throughout my day.

Relationships with things or people is the reality pretty much all of us experience. Giving visual form and color to our myriad of relationships would tend to "bleed through" into the creation of art, I sincerely believe. I feel more of a sense of accomplishment and command after I work something out on the picture plane. It is a similar feeling to putting words to one's dreams, feelings, and experiences with relationships. A sense of clear-headedness is felt, and a feeling of being in command of oneself. Thank you, again, for your viewership and unconscious support!

eVan--December 25th, 2011

The Cubicle Block of Writers

I started creating this image from a small selection from Wrecked Tangle W1. The selection I chose was obviously where the letter R is placed. I rotated this selection on a new picture plane, and put them all together in the order that you see here. I decided that putting a selection of the W from Wrecked Tangle W1 would give this picture a homeostatic, yet asymmetrical, balance. This version you see here is the seventh variation on this current theme. While thinking of the title, I saw three things. I saw the W, the R, and all the blocks. I made a connection with the association of "writer's block." I thought of all the cubicles in corporate office buildings, and how these kinds of situations contribute to writer's block as well. A cartesian plane of cubicles can be likened unto a street block simultaneously. Therefore, I titled this sub-series: The Cubicle Block of Writers.

eVan--December 15th, 2011

A Conjunction of Metro-Planes

Here is an example of some of my inspirations concerning three dimensional manipulations of planes and landscapes. It stems from different artists in history who have worked in similar concepts. I'm primarily interested in impossible futuristic conceptions of city-scapes, biologies, computers and expressing how technologies could operate in this vein of inspiration. There are many more variations on this theme, of course, which I have recorded in my sketchbook for furthering this line of thought.

Some galleries have branded my art as too cerebral for the mass public to digest. If this is the case, then so be it. While I do enjoy feedback from others and listening to other peoples' thoughts and ideas, I don't want to make mindless art without some kind of purpose. Even the pop artists of the 20th century had a purpose behind making art work that had no depth in the extreme.

eVan-- December 10th, 2011

The Neuro-Bioptic Corner 1

For the time being, here is a variation on the Wrecked Tangle W series. The acronym Bx is incorporated, and repeated in this image. Bx stands for biopsy in medical terminology. I've been exploring the concept of nerves and how nerves are located throughout the human body. There are retinal nerves in the eye which help modulate light that we see directly and reflected throughout our surroundings. Most of us have two functioning eyes, so I called this optical phenomena The Neuro-Bioptic Corner. There is an enlarged repetition of a square in the lower left hand corner of this picture, hence the usage of the word "corner" in the title. Thanks for your nervous attention-ship!

Wrecked Tangle W1

After postponing this project for a while, I finally decided to embark on the last stages of it's voyage once again. This is the very first, and original, image for the "W" series to my Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) art project. I will be making variations and more versions based on this here design. I will be posting most of the rest of them on my Flickr account, as well as my Artbreak account. Thanks for your patience, and I'll keep you all posted.

--eVan, December 5th, 2011

Documented Plans of the Masters of Mankind

Here is a sweet note by George Kennan who headed the State Department planning staff until 1950. It is a document he wrote in 1948. I selected this text from a book by Noam Chomsky called How The World Works, and the text starts on page 11...

"We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population...In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this disparity...To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives...We should cease talk about vague and...unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."


So "the day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts"? It looks like the flexing of those muscles are happening on a real, unreported, yet massive scale in the countries we commit war crimes in, according to the Geneva Conventions, every day. What Kennan is talking about, I think, is what is now manifesting as the Occupy Wall Street protests, and, to a certain extent, many of the Tea Party's grievances.

Thanks for your readership here,

eVan

Hands Together For Japan: Art Auction

Hello everyone in the virtual realms of blogging, Twitter, and any other electronic socializations! Facebook is not included here because you can't look at this event that I posted there on my artist's page without signing up or logging in. Here you can look at it without any more effort than a single click! I am sharing an art auction event in which I contributed a print of mine called Megalopolis Untitled Number Nine 28. The sales money will go to help people in Japan recover from the tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster there. You all are invited to attend and maybe purchase some truly original art work for a wonderful cause! Thank you... 

http://www.crowdrise.com/amurthandstogetherforjapan/fundraiser/peacepal

Summary of Qualifications:

-  One man show at O'Niell's Pub on Juan Tabo, Albuquerque, NM - May 2011
-  Five works shown at the Hardback Cafe in Hastings Bookstore on Juan Tabo, Albuquerque, NM - April 2011
-  Two works shown in The Body Show at 105 Art Gallery, Albuquerque, NM - February 2011
-  One man show at O'Neill's Pub, Albuquerque, NM - December 2010
-  Three 3D works displayed at 105 Art Gallery for The Gift of Art Small Works show, Albuquerque, NM - December 2010
-  Three paintings shown at 105 Art Gallery for the Pushing The Limits show, Downtown Albuquerque, NM - November 2010
-  Three prints from "Wrecked Tangles (Encircled)" online art series shown at [AC]2 Gallery's Drawn To Painting artist exhibition, Albuquerque, NM - November 2010
-  Two paintings displayed at The Flying Star Cafe in Nob Hill, Albuquerque, NM - Summer/Fall 2010
-  Two works displayed in The Art of Sensuality at [AC]2 Gallery as part of fifteen artist show, Albuquerque, NM – February/March 2010
-  Paintings displayed at Satellite Cafe by Cottonwood Mall, Albuquerque, NM – Winter 2008/2009
-  Paintings displayed at The Flying Star Cafe, Bernalillo, NM – Fall/Winter 2008
-  Paintings displayed at Satellite Cafe at Uptown, Albuquerque, NM – Summer/Fall 2008
-  Paintings displayed at Satellite Cafe in Nob Hill, Albuquerque, NM – Spring/Summer 2008
-  Paintings displayed at The Flying Star Cafe, Downtown Albuquerque,
NM – Spring 2008
-  Special entry into The Master Works of New Mexico Tenth Annual Competition, Albuquerque, NM – Spring 2008
-  Painting sold at O'Neill's Pub, Albuquerque, NM - Summer 2008
-  Paintings Displayed at O'Neill's Pub, Albuquerque, NM - Summer 2008
-  Artist affiliated with The Judith Shaw Gallery - Summer 2007
-  Painting sold - Heller Art Images, Omaha, NE - 2006
-  Artist affilliated with Heller Art Images, Omaha, NE - 2005 to 2006
-  Two paintings displayed in "The Street of Dreams" show home event in Omaha, NE - Summer 2006
-  Artist affilliated with Adventure In Art, Omaha, NE - 2005 to 2006
-  Two artist show - 13th Street Gallery, Omaha, NE - 2004
-  Purchase award for oil painting at Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE - 2003
-  Scholorship and best of show at Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE - 2002
-  One-man show - Borders Book Store, Omaha, NE - 2001
-  One-man show - Java Books, Riverside, CA - 2000
-  One-man show - The Wing Art Gallery, Moreno Valley, CA - 1999
-  Special Presentation - Agora Gallery, Soho, New York City - 1996
-  Several Showings - Mugsy's Cafe, Riverside,  CA - 1996 to 1998
-  Two shows - Life Arts Building, Riverside, CA - 1995/1996
-  Two man show - Skinny Gallery at The Press Enterprise, Riverside, CA - 1995
-  Painting shown in Muse Magazine, Vol. VIII, Issue I, 1994, Arts and Literature, Riverside Community College, Riverside, CA - 1994
-  Three shows sponsored by The Press Enterprise for high school competitions in surrounding area at Riverside Art Museum, Riverside CA - 1991-1993
-  Special Mention with Ramona Highschool for The Press-Enterprise High School Arts Competition - 1992
-  Purchase Award with Ramona Highschool for The Press-Enterprise High School Arts Competition - 1991

Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) L series on Facebook at Art of eVan fan page

Wrecked Tangle L9

3D Wrecked Tangle Art Projects

3D Cardboard Car

Fates, Alternative Realities, and Twists on Personal Paths

I'm figuring out how to turn depressing existential funks into works of art that somehow uplift and inspire. Is that possible? I believe twists of fate are real. I've learned from success oriented people such as Jim Britt that everyone has a blueprint, if you will, of the amount of money they believe they are worth and can earn. It doesn't matter how good you are at something if your blueprint for success is consistently the same year after year. One way to gauge what that figure is for you on that blueprint is to look at your gross income at the end of each year and see what general, consistent figure you get. I've heard it explained that this blueprint is the same kind of blueprint for those who exercise. People will generally stay within a certain exercise routine and expect to lose weight, but they don't because they stay within a certain routine rather than push themselves or try something different.

I wanted to suggest that when it comes to money that I don't think it's always best to work harder. This can exhaust you and make you incapable of earning more wealth. Why am I talking about money since I've made some definitely clear remarks in the virtual world that I disagree with corporate-ocracy? That's a good question. Well, I believe there is nothing wrong with working to earn something. The difference that I define for myself is that I would rather work for myself than someone or something else that has no problem in defining my whole life for me. I find my grandfather inspiring because he was a farmer in Eastern Nebraska. He grew crops and raised live-stock year after year. He ran his own business essentially, and served the well-being of others through this kind of production. He also invested in the stock-market to earn even more money. He was pretty smart with this according to my dad.

My strengths and passions obviously center around the creative fields. Most notably image making, and writing. I truly believe that people have an appetite for what I create. Having a strength with ideas, seeing alternative futures, maximizing what resources I do have, seeing the individual strengths in myself and others, and having a commanding presence definitely contribute to the exciting things I will create in this world.

An HTML lesson from HTML for Dummies...

The Oxen and the Wheels

From Aesop's Fables

A pair of Oxen wer drawing a heavily loaded wagon along a miry country road. They had to use all their strength to pull the wagon, but they did not complain.


The wheels of the wagon were of a different sort. Though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of the Oxen, they creaked and groaned at every turn. The poor Oxen, pulling with all their might to draw the wagon through the deep mud, had their ears filled with the loud complaining of the Wheels. And this, you may well know, made their work so much the harder to endure.


"Silence!" the Oxen cried at last, out of patience. "What have you Wheels to complain about so loudly? We are drawing all the weight, not you, and we are keeping still about it besides."

They complain most who suffer least.

Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) K series on Facebook at Art of eVan fan page

Wrecked Tangle K14

It Itches Like Unrelievable Imagination

She said that she was the mother

Of another creation in her mind.

Pregnant possibilities were born

From not getting what she wanted.

The last time we made fires crack

And briars stack

Was when the sizzles flowed

Like juices on frying pans.

Every instance was talked about

In such a suggestive way

That everyone involved wanted to say it...

But it was kept below the surface...

And the surface tension developed

Like matter on the scapes of Mercury.

It was sheer plasmic phantasmagoria...

Making like conundrums

Under the skins of percussion drums

Made for instant access past the sound barrier

And echo chambers of ear drums.

With these few lines

I leave a space in your imagination

To ooze the rest of what you want...

What you want...

It gives you both lack and fulfillment.

It makes for an easier slide

Up into a space that longs

For an addition to itself.

Such a pickled tinge.

Like a tiny death in throes of joy.

Skirting around fickle pleasures

Only makes for a lexicon of sin.

Like a fire consumed with itself,

Demonically wanting more fiber to satiate itself.

Fires always want more,

And, in exchange, they light your way,

Therefore telling tantalizing stories of truth.

But only bit by bit by bit by bit...

eVan–––February 14th, 2011

New Brochure for Limited Edition Prints, 2011...

Inside of brochure 11" X 8.5"

Outside of brochure 11" X 8.5

Correlations in Science, Metaphysics, and Philosophy

Because of the uncertainty principle developed by Werner Heisenberg, and Pharmakon, derived by Jacques Derrida from texts by Plato, I come to a more or less clear understanding that everything is in a constant state of creation and destruction. This writing only has the ability to put it as simple as my semi-educated mind can type it at this moment in time. There are creative stages in destructive cycles, like an elderly person composing music. Or, likewise, there are destructive stages in creative cycles, like a teen-ager crashing automobiles because of “too much intoxication.” 

Creation, as we know it, is possible precisely because of its state of uncertainty. There is a theory in modern mathematics called fractal, which utilizes fractal structures. In other words, every finite form possesses an infinite scale of smaller forms and structures of that same form. An example would be the forms or structures of broccoli or clouds. The more one zooms one’s visual perception in to the form or structure, the more of the same structure, on a smaller and smaller scale, successively appears. This implies the possibility that the whole universe is actually contained in each individual form or structure. 

The uncertainty principle is an understanding that Heisenberg, a German theoretical physicist, developed after researching quantum theory and finding irregular or “uncertain” phenomena while observing material particles at atomic and sub-atomic scales. He found that matter behaved like energy and material particles at different times and under different conditions. Particles, on a sub-atomic level, both have wave-like and physical properties. I think describing the uncertainty principle in my amateur, and, perhaps, ignorant way is sufficient for the development of my brief thesis.

I have recently been reading about the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. One of his main points of reference is the word Pharmakon and the legendary Greek story behind it, as written by Plato addressing a supposed conversation between his teacher, Socrates, and one of his students named Phaedrus, who returns to Socrates after hearing a disagreeable speech by a sophist of the time named Lysias, who expounded on the benefits detriments of lovers, and non-lovers. Socrates harkens a story from an Egyptian legend in which a king named Thamus has a discussion with a god named Theuth, who is a son of the Egyptian god Thoth, about the gift of writing. Theuth sells his idea for a gift to Thamus by proclaiming that writing will be a “remedy” for the peoples’ memory. Thamus disagrees by responding that its effects will likely be the opposite; “it is a remedy for reminding, not remembering, he says, with the appearance but not the reality of wisdom.” The king further says that it will give people a false sense of wisdom, therefore they’ll be difficult to get along with because of a false sense of entitlement. Phamakon is a word that has a double meaning to it which almost renders it meaningless. It basically means “remedy” and “poison” simultaneously. This renders the term as an “undecided” agent which perverts its usage by any author or writer who has the intention to use it in only one of its two inherent properties, thus repressing the unused, unwritten property, which still is present by definition. 

Taoist philosophy has a primary symbol called Ying and Yang which represents a static depiction of polarity or opposites in nature and humankind. Taking a written look at the visual structure of Ying and Yang, we find a wholly circular shape. The circle is divided in to two sides by a backwards “s” contoured line. One side of the formation is called Ying, which is defined as the female/passive/negative/dark side. The other side is called Yang which is defined as the masculine/active/positive/light side. 

Ying and Yang have concomitant features inside either side; the light side has a dark circle which looks like an eye on a simplified head of a fish, and the dark side has a similar eye or circle in it which is light. The symbol, as a whole, is intended to suggest that there is a little bit of darkness in the light, and a little bit of light in the darkness. This is ultimately intended to lead one’s understanding to the holistic property in the duality of everything we know in reality, which, in turn, is a requirement for the transcendence of an individual’s sense of separation and alienation in his or her world, or her or his world. The wholeness of the symbol’s circular shape suggests that there is no separation in all of creation, thus illustrating that the differences are only unstable illusions indefinitely in transition, back and forth.

Trace is part of a philosophy that is identified as deconstruction. Jacques Derrida himself didn’t acquiesce to the implications of the term “deconstruction” to define his philosophical approach perhaps because it wouldn’t be congruent of him to accept that term due to the “undecided” nature of his philosophical perception. The term deconstruction does, however, describe how his philosophy operates when it is applied to other philosophies, and written literature. Trace is specifically described in the idea of difference. We know that there are distinguishable differences between everything that surrounds us. Likewise, there are distinguishable differences between each object’s generalized correlate, written and expressed as words. For example, our understanding of a tree is both an actual signified tree, and the simulacrum of the word “tree” synchronically.

The word “tree” has four letters of the English alphabet in it. Any one of the letters can be replaced with another letter. The “t” could be replaced with the letter “f”, thus spelling the word “free.” Or the two “ee”s at the end of the word tree could be replaced by the letters “a” and “p”, successively, therefore spelling the word “trap.” What this signifies is both presence and absence at the same time. The letters in tree are present while the letters “a” and “p” are absent in the written word “tree.” The way we recognize a certain word or letter, among many, is its present difference distinguished by the trace presence of all absent words and letters. This is a notion innovated in the formal system of differential elements by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.

Derrida uses Freud’s theory of repression to describe how anything that is written is necessarily a repression of the inverse of what is written, and everything else that is not written or written about. He iterates that everything written is a pharmakon, which is to say that no written thing is absolutely what it describes itself to be because of every other unwritten thing that is possible to write is suppressed. So what is written can only display a superficial expression of certainty. 


Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, social activist, and professor at MIT, outlined his theory that grammar is a faculty inherent in the human brain, which is therefore independent of language and its subsequent component of written text. I suggest that there must be some kind of unity between the metamorphosing grammatical structure inherent in the human brain and the evolving text which manifests itself through our native grammatical structure. Written or pictographed languages have come and gone throughout the various cultures and civilizations of human history, and, yet, our brain’s general physical structure has remained the same for the last 28,000 years according to scientists. This would tend to support Chomsky’s theory of grammar. It should be noted that we all pass through developmental stages as we mature, which allow for increasingly abstract levels of understanding and comprehension. Our brains are basically the most intimate tool we have to help us creatively utilize anything we can around us as external tools, which would include the development of some sort of written language. 

Taking another look at the symbol of Ying and Yang, I’d like to add a new feature to it. I already described how there is a small circle of black in the white side, and there is a small circle of white in the black side. I invite you to imagine for a moment that those small circles in each side as smaller versions of the Ying Yang symbol. So there is a Ying Yang symbol in the “eyes” of each side, and these smaller Ying Yang symbols have Ying Yang symbols in their eyes as well. This is as clear and simple as I can try to describe the fractal theory represented in the Ying Yang symbol. It’s similar to placing two mirrors so they are directly facing each other. Repeating reflections of the mirrors supposedly reflect on to infinity, or, at least, as fast as the speed of light will allow them to reflect. The idea of the Chinese box represents fractal theory as well. 

I believe that if I’m empathetic and sympathetic enough to you, and I know you well enough through shared thoughts and experiences together, then I can say with certain conviction that I have enough intuitive knowledge to communicate written messages to you in which I “know” will be received by you in a certain, individual way, particular only to you. As is generally understood, learning happens through repetition. This is where I find a connection between the mathematical theory of fractals and knowledge, experience and their correlating written descriptions.

What Derrida seems to want to illustrate is the alluding, as well as, the deluding nature of the written word as defined by the term pharmakon. While it seems as if one can never be absolutely certain about anything, one can, at least, found a certain kind of faith, belief and trust in the dominant, generally accepted and unquestioned form of contemporary written language. The uncertainty of the written language that our ancient Egyptian king Thamus, and later Socrates' discourse with Phaedrus, as well as our late contemporary philosopher Derrida all described as possessing is the side which enables us to have the opportunity to question the written language. This uncertainty or questioning does not necessarily have to be destructive as Derrida’s contemporaries claimed. 

While pharmakon can act as a destructive force, we have no choice but to use that force as a remedy. This requires us to exercise the inherent creative faculty of grammar we all possess to one degree or another. I believe there are inevitable destructive and thoughtless usages pharmakon which are intentional, as well as unintentional, yet we still have the opportunity to seek normalcy or stability. I believe most of us do seek stability, as can be verified by our tendency to resist change. Viewed in this way, pharmakon is an agent of evolution, whether if it has both forces of evolution and devolution simultaneously. I believe the pharmakon-ical element of written language ultimately induces us to reach some sort of stasis like the balance of Ying and Yang, and like the unfolding coherency of fractal structures. Our mind’s attempt to find meaningful patterns, and structures in nature and language is our creative heritage, and, therefore, evolution. 

Pharmakon acts like the chaos theory, but in written language. The uncertainty principle seems to induce a sense of chaos in the illusory nature of the everyday materials that surround us. The chaos theory––or butterfly effect––is described as any force which causes an unpredictable disturbance in another stabilized force expressed as a physical pattern. For example invisible forces such as ultra-violet radiation can induce retardation, or evolution in the cellular structures of all earthly biologies. 

I realize Jacques Derrida would probably disagree with my associating chaos with pharmakon, but it does tend to sound more chaotic than it does orderly. So I find it inescapable to accommodate for another binary structure to describe the chaos and the order surrounding us all. And, furthermore, the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was convinced that there was a certain kind of logic or order in psychologically unstable person’s speech, drawings and writings. 

At this point, I define fractal structure as being the ultimate order in everything, and pharmakon as being the ultimate disorder in everything, supported by the uncertainty principle. Pharmakon, the uncertainty principle, and chaos theory mutate everything like a two, three, and even four dimensional kaleidoscope. So there is chaos in order, and there is order in chaos, as symbolized in Ying and Yang. There is a fluctuating, as well as, uncertain balance and imbalance between these two polarities of existence as understood by humankind. And these polarities seem to be forever seeking new harmony and stasis, as well as new disharmony and instability...forever fracturing into ever differentiating, fractalizing and mutating structures. And, at the same time, forever mending into ever synchronizing, unifying gestalts. 

I plan on describing “mind” in a future blog, but ultimately, I believe a certain kind of wholeness or certainty can be attained by emptying one’s mind and letting go of mental and emotional attachments through meditation, yoga, exercise, sleeping a full eight hours of sleep a night, and eating a healthy diet. I suggest you to take upon these tasks after reading this. 

eVan––February 7th, 2011

Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) J series on Facebook at Art of eVan fan page

Link for new work in the "O" series for Wrecked Tangles (Encircled)

Link for new work in the "O" series for Wrecked Tangles (Encircled)

Link to "Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) I series" on Facebook

Link to "Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) I series" on Facebook

Dialogical Degree

Sometimes I use language

The same way

I use toilet paper.

Sometimes that's a necessity.

Other times I use language

The same way

I paint escapisms and fantasies,

Which is also holistic.

When a hinge theme is found

In this dialogical discourse,

The spirit of freedom rejoices,

And sings odes of joy.

Thus I elevate trash,

And beautify the worthless.

I turn dross into gold

In an alchemical process.

Revolutions can then occur

On spinning grind stones,

And flailing galaxies...

They can happen in coffee shops

Where intellectuals

Thrash their papers,

Like chickens in a chicken coop

Who excite a storm

Of dust and feathers

Because of an approaching stranger.

Could it be

The blissful ignorance

Of the average American?

Of whom the rest of the world

Wrestles to get the attention?

Or is it just

My philosophical arrogance

That assumes this,

And the rest of the world

Really could care less?

The grinding stone of life

Doesn't stop for just one mortal man.

Yet perhaps a course shift

Of one degree

For future generations

Will make all the difference.

eVan––January 15th, 2011

My Thoughts About "Knowledge"

I have been pondering, exploring and reading about the educational process. Authors such as John Taylor Gatto, Paulo Freire, Naomi Klein, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Paine and Robert Kiyosaki have definitely influenced my educational process. Since I am an artist, I'll add that the American philosopher John Dewey, who wrote Art as Experience, has influenced my current train of philosophical thought as well.

I'd like to address the Biblical origin of "knowledge." Most of us know that knowledge was attained by Adam eating the Fruit of Knowledge, or the Fruit of Good and Evil, after being tempted by Eve who was initially seduced by the serpent, or Satan. After Adam and Eve both ate the Fruit of Knowledge, they were banished from the Garden of Eden. They were "condemned" to live a life of mortality and shame.

Fast-forward to our present epoch of knowledge, understanding and education. Many of us have heard the popularized quote that "knowledge is power." How is knowledge power? If you can critically understand a subject or situation overall then you have a much better ability to affect yours and others' surrounding situation. This means you can use your attained knowledge for the benifit of all, or you can use it for the benefit of yourself without any thought of others outside of yourself or your circle of relationships.

Now comes the term "awareness." That, of course, means what you are aware of in your relationships with others and also in your current surroundings. It can also extend out to surroundings that are not in your immediate vicinity, but are physically adjacent to your immediate area. An example would be your next door neighbor. That would be what I would call a locational awareness. A dispositional awareness––as I define it for the time being––of your neighbor would be understanding or having knowledge of her or his current livelihood, such as his job and his relationship with his job.

There are some people who actively believe that "ignorance is bliss." This means that the less one knows the more happy one is. This is a philosophy, if you can call it that, which some people don't personally impose on themselves, but impose upon others. This would apply to people in influential positions of culture and society who have a critical impact upon physical surroundings, and, most importantly, other peoples' lives and livelihoods.

It is well known that our contemporary American culture of capitalism is hinged upon the famous biologist Charles Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest." This is intended to promote a healthy form of competition amongst people who own businesses or are involved with business in some way. Since most of us can't escape the reality that we live in a capitalist society, we have all adapted in some way to our living situations, our way of surviving, and the forces surrounding us. Education becomes a very critical deciding factor in how well we prosper or survive in these circumstances.

After reading a few books about education, money, capitalism, philosophy and government, I have settled upon a "satisfactory" theory. A book that introduced me in my current process of learning was written by an author named Robert Kiyosaki, called Rich Dad's Conspiracies of The Rich. What is so compelling about this book is the fact that Kiyosaki is a capitalist and he professes to educate people how money works in our contemporary capitalist society. He explains how very wealthy and powerful people have no interest in educating people about how money works because it would create a real problem of competition with them, their power, their influence, and their wealth. The connections should be apparent of how "ignorance is bliss" and "knowledge is power”; and how a "guiding hand" in the educational process for the general population would be highly important for the status quo to manage and control.

Kiyosaki suggests reading Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto who taught in the public school system in New York for thirty years. The research he compiled in his book is relevant, critical and historical in understanding how modern public schooling is designed for a highly conditioned ignorance amongst the general population, for the benefit of a smaller percentage of the wealthiest people in our society. One example, that both Robert Kiyosaki and John Taylor Gatto point out, is the fact that money is not even a basic subject taught in schools.

Going back to the original idea I started this blog off with about the Garden of Eden, and the Fruit of Good and Evil. I have had the personal experience or awareness that when I learn something new I feel obligated to tell others about my learning. It could also be a desire to share knowledge, for the benefit of all, for trust, for alliances, and, ultimately, survival. How can that be, when our genes are supposedly designed for "survival of the fittest"? Another thing I noticed is that the more critical to survival the knowledge I may have gained, the more "weight" or moral obligation I feel in relation to knowing about it. This is my current interpretation of the ideas presented in Genesis in the Bible.

I conclude that people with the most material power and influence see it as imperative that the majority of people remain ignorant about money, worldly affairs, their affairs, and economic affairs. Hence, a blissful ignorance is taught and promoted, and critical awareness and knowledge is branded as "off limits," secret, private, and is considered suspicious if someone has it.

eVan––January 9th, 2011

New Business Cards for Art of eVan 2011!

Here's two new business cards I made for 2011! They'll definitely get out there...in the physical realm, I mean. ;) What is your impression of them?

Brochures for Promotion, Virtually and Physically

Here is a front and back example of a brochure I recently updated for promotion. It shows three paintings from my California to Nebraska periods...

Link to "Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) G series"

A Ghost Haunted by The Flesh

Trophies in cases,

And double-doors leading.

Trophies in cases,

And double-doors leading.

Double-locked binds,

And found signs on the margin

Bound by a societal lick,

And an absolute belief

In the entity of consumption.

Strangely shaped warriors,

Mis-figured habits,

And fumbled hands tumbling

Over wooden fences

Of South Western ranches.

Easily,

Because of dust in the desert,

Allies and tumble-weeds

Rack the nerves

Of a blue-tailed lizard.

I broke words,

And switched letters.

I confused you,

And made sense to other folks.

They lined your subconscious

Like Ester eggs in an egg carton.

They hatched Eastern religions

Like squash bugs on zucchini.

More like baked ziti, though,

And the up-side-down crucifixion

Of the worthy St. Peter.

There is no betrayal on the left hand,

Especially when it shakes the right.

Especially when it shakes the right,

And lone bass guitars

Scathe the walls

Of a cavernous night-time canyon.

There is no betrayal

On left-hand thumbs,

In people who aren't numb,

And other marginalized bums.

There is none

Where none is.

And there is, no more,

A house that is haunted.

Yea! Even the haunt

Was abandoned,

And all that's left now

Is the ghost of a ghost

Who used to wail

And gnash her teeth

Through layers

Of bedroom cloth

And wedding vales.

Dresses hanging like

Trophies in cases

And double-doors leading...

Like trophies in cases

And double-doors leading

Past double-binds,

And soulless entities of mass production,

Munching on flesh,

And twentieth century

Reprocessed, and refined repast.

And, oh, the soul

Of her abandoned city!

The prince of trade,

And economic foul-play.

Where lost spirits

Twist like spiritual hurricanes,

And post-apocalyptic eddies...

Oh, their destroyed properties!

Their stake in the vision.

Their contribution

To a vampiric evolution.

Their lost genes of double-helix retribution.

All boiled down

To toxic geysers

Spewing Mother Earth's tears

On the remaining frame

Of another high-riser,

Rusting by a proud but battered fire hydrant,

Rusting by the cracks

In the pavement

Of a street who's signs no longer show.

---eVan, August 2010