The Return of the Artist

I am working hard to fundraise for my return to Paris and Italy. Above is one of the paintings that I am putting up for sale from my catalogue. 'Smithers Cows' - 24"x32". Acrylic on canvas

The 1Mandala relaunch has begun! One element of the foundation that our core team has concurred on is my role as the artist. Our team has now formally incorporated my journey around the world into the plan.

And so, I am relaunching too!

A year ago I was just this crazy artist with a bike and a dream. Now I am still a crazy artist with a bike and a shared dream. The dream, the intention is shared, and vastly open to being even more shared. Now it is a co-creative journey with a well laid out plan, team, objectives, budget and artist.

My role as the artist and the journey are thus now formal elements of our project budget and Intention Map. Our team is 100% behind me as I seek to raise the funds and sponsorship to return to my bike and the road. What a better way to create! What a great feeling!

Here in the mountains of the Philipines, I have come to the deep knowledge that this is important work we are doing and I must see it through sustainably and harmoniously.

And so, I ask for help.

To start my fund raising I am approaching the choir-- those who know my passion, dedication and the importance of this work.

To see the depth of intention and the transformative benefits of a planetary artistic co-creation, feel free to view the various documents we've co-created. The links are below.

Know also, that as I travel and meet some of the most humble folks and community's on the planet, I have a chance to use my funding to bring great blessing with only a few dollars here and there-- the funding of my project is for both the lofty Oneness ideas and the on the field real world Oneness opportunities I meet.

I have a collection of paintings of all shapes and sizes back in Canada. I am putting them up for sale specifically to fund-raise for the project. They range in price for a 200 to 2000$ as listed in my catalogue. Or let me know what you like and you can afford and we can connect the two.

According to my 1Mandala Co-Creative Journey Financing I aim to raise 1539$ this month to enable my return to my bike, which awaits me in Assisi Italy. From there I cycle from Italy, to Bulgaria, to Bucharest where we have events planned on 10/10/10 and 10/28/10 with HT Romania.

Ok... there it is.  Would you like a beautiful painting?  See the full catalogue

Artist Co-Creative Journey Links:

• The Artists Return Budget
• Artist Journey Blessing Opportunities in the Philippines
• Our Full Project Intention Map (see The Artists Section):
  
• The Power of Art for Co-Creative Transformation: The Value of the Project

The Lonely Road of the Artist

Me on top of the mountain for the sunrise this morning.  Not alone.

The artist way has always been a lonely path. There is this idea that you need to toil away in deep solitude to find the gems of insight that are then laboriously lugged to the surface. It is a very individualistic idea. It connects to the concept of steady linear development of the self or of a body of artistic work.

It is bull shit really. Look at the great Artists of this old way of doing art: Picasso, Van Goh, Degas and more. Picasso was a terrible guy. Most of the others go insane. Their art and lives are plagued by loneliness, ego and co-dependence..

Sure they made great paintings-- but at the vast neglect of the canvas of life.

Frankly, it's all a symptom of the over idealization of the masculine that I alluded to in my last post. This over indulgence of one type of masculine creativity over the feminine. Truly, a balanced life can't be created with an exclusively masculine system of power based on control, analysis and logical, linear thinking, nor can it be achieved or executed with a strategic plan. What about love, intimacy, connection, belonging, creativity, self-expression, aliveness, meaningful community, purpose within the collective, and belonging? These would be the principles of the long neglected and all but discarded feminine. Do any of those concepts connect to what you know about Picasso? Van Goh? Nope.



















There is a big shift going on in the way we do art. I see it in the work and new cooperation consciousness of my fellow artists. There are some amazingly exciting collaborative projects beginning out there. Art that inspires others to be artists, to create together, to use our differences to make beauty. Art that downplays the individual and puts everyone on equal creative footing. It is beautiful!

Yep. Toiling all alone as an illustrious artist it is silly. So much better to do things together. As a team, collective, community. To do things co-creatively. There this lots of place for being an individual, but you go about it knowing the depth of your interconnectedness, and that you cant do things on your own.

My artistic practice has been a reflection of this development of my own consciousness. All I can say is... Hurray! As my good friends know, I began trying to do it all alone. Then, I graduated to leading through employment. Then through charm and charisma. In all these modes, I was still really lone wolfing it. The ego-driven individualistic way was so deeply ingrained in me and western culture.

But now... The times are a changin'! As Sheryl Crow sings 'I am leaving Las Vegas!"

More on co-creation to follow...

Location:Sagada,Philippines

Thoughts on The Sexual Problems of our World

That title should get some attention! But, that is indeed the topic. This post was originally written as a letter to the 1Mandala team on a paragraph we are developing on 'What is Co-Creation?'. I've edited it to post on the general issue and experience.

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Two weeks ago, here in Sagada, I had the pleasure of entertaining two amazing women from Manila who both work with NGO's focued on women's rights. One has been representing women in court who have been abused. The other works at and lobbies for women's reproductive rights in the Philipines.


When I first met them, they had the tensest vibe going on. Me, all chill here in Sagada, almost elected not to hang with them.

But, I did... and I learned fast why they were so stressed-- they are doing incredibly important and difficult work with women and girls who have faced the worst types of abuse and injustice and the social systems that permit it.

They told the story of girls from a countryside province here in the Philipines who were tricked into prostitution in the city. Forced to swallow heroin capsules they were used to smuggle drugs across borders here, and used as sexual bribery for customs officials. Fucking terrible.

How can men do this to women? How can humans do this to humans? It's not just a few bad people, there are many people involved in such schemes. This was the worst example of a pattern of exploitation broadly endemic that to legally deal with all the cases is overwhelmingly impossible.

My other new friend works with women's and reproductive rights lobbying. Her organization pressures the government for change, publishes examples of abuse and brings attention to the issues in the media. She lamented that despite the importance of the ideas that she is working with, they are so abstract and lofty that they are inaccessible to the women and men in the villages that really need to hear them and understand them most. Most don't read that much and are busy just making ends meet-- they don't have much opportunity to explore abstracts like gender roles and equality. And yet, for all the legislation, the change has to happen here and in these people's hearts first.

And so, the patterns continue and horrendous situations like this continue to manifest. We talked that it's not just the Philipines, it is a dynamic around the world. Sex tourism is a major problem here too-- and this is Americans and Canadians who are the ones perpetuating it. Then there's the massive pornography industry. Then there's the women/human trafficking business that is now bigger than the arms trade. This exploitative dynamic goes deep worldwide.

Despite their important work representing and bringing these issues to the fore, they expressed a feeling of not being able to tackle the root. They were dealing with the symptoms on a the top, whereas the fundamental dis-ease, dis-harmony was not being addresses.

We agreed that it is something deep in the human collective unconscious that has caused a power imbalance of the masculine and feminine, in such a way that one has come to dominate the other.

And so what is the root? Where do these skewed values that enable the dominating and exploitation of the feminine come from? And how to heal it?

There is clearly a religious dimension to it. The religions if the world have a definitive over-valuation of the masculine over feminine. This imbalance that developed over the last mellenia has then effected Western philosophy-- almost all the major philosophers of the last five hundred years have been male. The ideas and energetic social contribution of females has been repressed, banned and outright demonized. And thus we find ourselves in an age where the values and contributions of the feminine principle are sorely lacking in our civilization, communities and ourselves.

I am still reflecting on this: where do you think the imbalance comes from?

I will follow up on this in a second post. I'd like to share what we are writing for the 1Mandala. Let me leave off with this quotation:

"The things we most yearn for can't be created with an exclusively masculine system of power based on control, analysis and logical, linear thinking, nor can they be executed with a strategic plan.

Feminine Power on the other hand, is a magnetic, co-creative power that gives us access to create those things we most deeply desire as humans--such as love, intimacy, connection, belonging, creativity, self-expression, aliveness, meaning, purpose, contribution and a brighter future for generations to come."

-- Katherine Zammit

Location:Sagada,Philippines

Indecision

Morning dawns in Sagada: should I leave today for Bontoc?

There were so many times on my bike journey that I would come to an intersection and just have no clue whether to go left or right. After many agonizing moments and forced decisions, I learned that indeed if things weren't clear, that it was the moment to just chill. Maybe to pump some air in my tires or something. That's when the local with helpful advice would walk by, I'd see a hidden sign post, or maybe a butterfly would just flutter off in a particular direction.

And then I'd continue. My tires a little fuller, my ride a little smoother, my smile... intact!

Location:Sagada,Philippines

Drinking Blood from a Dog with a Straw

So, I noticed yesterday that my blog about fresh peanuts got as much attention as some of my most profound existential posts. Maybe I ought to mix it up a little more often!

Well, do I ever have a lot more local stories to share as I weave through lands!

Take yesterday for example. I went up the mountain with two of my priest friends to visit the old parish Bishop. Over coffee we got talking about some of the indigenous foods and medicines.

They told me what they do with dogs. I almost fell out of my freaking chair!

You see, there are alot of dogs in the village. There always has been. And, when people get sick, or need an extra boost of health or energy, they take one of these dogs and bring it into the house.

Then, they tie them up, take a little knife and make an incision in it's jugular and insert a straw.

And then they sip!!!

I am totally serious here folks. These weren't some guys kidding around at the bar-- these were the local Anglican priests and Bishop-- some of the most well educated and cultured in the village. All three in fact have taken the drink. One of their priest colleagues is an avid... er... what shall we say... Dog Sipper, and proponent of the cure. I've checked around with other villagers, it is a rare but actual ongoing traditional practice in the village. They use it in cases of heavy fever or after transfusions.

The bishop explained that although he had given it a shot, er... sip, he hadn't been able to swallow. Apparenttly, the dog gets a little agitated and the pulsating flow and warmth of it through the straw all was too much to take.

I can't say I blame him!

Ok... Next I'll share what they do with live cobras.

Location:Sagada,Philippines

Unbeleivable Fresh Peanuts

I must have eaten millions of peanuts in my life. I love 'em. However, it was only in the last week that I tried my first fresh peanut. I discovered that they grow them here in Sagada and sell them in the market.

Unbeleivable. Really! Fresh peanuts are so amazingly tasty. So much so that the revelational experience warranted is own dedicated blog post.

You see, a fresh peanut is still wet and moist from coming out of the ground. The peanut inside the shell, likewise. The hard ones you buy at the store are dried out-- my misconception was that I thought that is how they grew! But fresh, they are a little mushy, purple in colour and FULL of flavor.

Unbelievable. You haven't lived until you have had a fresh peanut.

Location:Sagada,Philippines

Drawing Circles

Have you seen the movie '10,000 BC'? Many critics dismissed it as rather superficial. And maybe it was, but there were a few things about it I found deeply intriguing.

There was the reference to Atlantis and the Atlanteans that was so brief that I had to pause the movie and go frame by frame over a shot of a map in the movie. The movie dared not say it outright but it's historical background was in fact a post-Atlantis recreation decidedly based on the work of many non-traditional historians.

But that is not why I am blogging here. There was a line in the movie that totally caught me. Again, I paused and rewound the movie in order to write it out. Here it is:

"A good man draws a circle around himself and cares for those within-- his women, his children. Other men draw a larger circle and bring within their brothers and sisters. But some men have a great destiny. They must draw around themselves a circle that includes many many more. Your father was one of those men. You must decide for yourself if you are as well."