ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS

It had been awhile since my last ART ATTACK.

Then suddenly the muse took hold and the ink started to flow.

Watchful faces. Mystical visitors. Some wary, others simply being.

Stuttering God Faces emanating from the void. Africanoid Spirits; leering yet gleeful.

I'm so thankful to have found the pathway of visual expression. Art is an upliftment to the spirit and a blessing to the senses. In art (music, drawing, photography, cooking, baking, gardening) I find the truer aspects of life. It puts the REAL in real life. And along with love it's the only thing that matters.

Fall Light Magick in the Womb of the Pacific

The Fall is a special time in California. You can have soaking rains that last for days and suddenly there'll be a scorching Santa Ana wind bearing down on you. We enter our time of serious fire danger and yet the chaparral in our local mountains is bursting with luscious, rusty color. One constant of the Fall though is the long, golden light of the sun. The cliffs glow with burnt orange intensity. Shadows stretch out forever and the very air is infused with a soft gold. The ocean is particularly lovely. Beaches are uncrowded. The water is just warm enough to still get in with a light wetsuit and in its texture, color and feel, is the essence of Magick...

Last of The Red Hot Muertos!

One of the blessings of living in San Diego is the close proximity to Mexico.

Despite the recent years of drug cartel strife, Mexico remains a vibrant, vital and soulful place.

Art, music, cuisine, writing...Mexico is a hotbed for all of it.

Our co-mingled histories are fraught with miscues and misunderstandings. I guess any meeting place of culture and identity will always be a combination of potential and danger. Maybe the best path is to celebrate the differences and enjoy. There is so much to gain and nothing to lose.

Deliriously Solemn

Those that have departed return every year to remind us of

their love.

And only LOVE can save us.

What is death? It is the glass of life broken into a

thousand pieces, where the spirit disperses like

perfume from a flask, into the silence of the eternal

night.

Dias de Los Muertos is good for you!

October In The Railroad Earth

It was a lovely day in San Diego
The early morning showers left everything clean and new
In the evening the sky blessed our eyes with bruised plum purple and Halloween orange

The Great Open-Mind Pacific Ocean pulled these colors to itself and made them dance

Sidewalk Mysticism

"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls...and tenement halls"

Small and often overlooked fragments

Signs, Symbols, Signals

Messages hidden in plain view from the universe to

YOU

CALAVERAS!

I love the Mexican celebration, Dias de Los Muertos!

The colors, the marigolds, the washing of graves and picnics next to family mausoleums.

But most of all the highly decorated sugar skulls or Calaveras.

This joyful remembrance of those we love who have passed on strikes me as a healthy relationship with death. Altars strewn with things the person enjoyed during their life time (books, music, cigars, foods, booze...everything qualifies). A joyous party like atmosphere and a coming together to show unity and love. Maybe the highlight being when you get to eat a sugary skull with your name written across the forehead. It's a pretty powerful gesture, eating sweet death, don't you think?