Category: Art

The Contemplative Photographic Art™ of Roger Allen Baut, M.A.

by Administrator, posted in Art

Many cultures, since ancient times, have used images to help them in their meditative and/or spiritual endeavors. One especially good example of this is the yantra. Yantra is a Sanskrit word which may be translated to mean “instrument” and as such, it may stand for symbols, or anything that is organized and structured. In the west we can see these symbols as geometric designs or patterns, such as those devised by Native Americans. In Eastern mysticism yantras are used to balance, or focus the mind on spiritual concepts. By wearing, focusing or meditating upon a yantra it is believed that one will derive spiritual benefits. It was from these meditative instruments that Roger’s concept of Contemplative Photographic Art™ evolved.

Skunk Cabbage in Bloom

As a life-long student of Metaphysics, and its affiliated subjects, he became aware of the meditative, and/or contemplative quality of art; especially photographs. As he delved more deeply into the contemplative aspect of photographic images, he saw how some of his images possessed this contemplative quality. Ever the researcher, Roger discussed this with other individuals he knew and they, too, concurred with his premise. In fact, individuals he wasn’t well acquainted with told him they were able to work with some of his photos and gain a peaceful contemplative state from viewing them.

The Pillars

He also views his images a bit differently than most photographers as he says, “I really don’t see myself as a ‘photographer,’ per se, as my work is more a gift from the universe than anything else. Sort of like the archer, in ‘Zen and the Art of Archery,’ whereby the archer and arrow become ‘one’ just as the arrow is released, so the arrow will reach the target. I really am ‘guided’ to, or intuit, a potential photo. I don’t do set-ups or take hours waiting in a spot for something to happen. They either occur, or they don’t, and I’m happy if I only get one good photo when I’m out on a photo-shoot/hike. One other really important aspect of my work is that none of my images are photo-shopped, altered, or enhanced in any way, they’re simply raw photos. The only thing I may do, depending on the photo, is crop/trim them if needed, but that doesn’t happen a lot.”

Roger defines “Contemplative Photographic Art™” or “Contemplative Photo/Art™” as certain photographs which may lead the viewer into a calm, thoughtful, peaceful, and/or lightly meditative state.

In this contemplative state an image may rekindle memories from bygone days, lead one to experience a period of relaxation, guide one to a personal insight, or provide an experience whereby the viewer comes into resonance with his or her own inner being, and from this connection, gain insights that may benefit one on their life journey. This is his intent for the relatively new concept of Contemplative Photo/Art™.

Roger’s background also includes years of study and research in the areas of metaphysics, numerology and bio-field energy work. Academically he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies (Psychology and History major with a Poli Sci minor/Secondary Education) graduating Cum Laudi with departmental honors, and a Master of Arts. Roger’s Contemplative Photographic Art™ may be found at http://chasingtao.zenfolio.com as well as his blog, which contains articles on earth changes, metaphysics, numerology and more http://chasingtao.blogspot.com

The 2010 Oneonta Spiritual Arts Fair

by Administrator, posted in Art, Events, Geek Stuff

This past Sunday my husband and I hit the road to attend the 6th Annual Oneonta Spiritual Arts Fair! For those of you who remember me writing about the event last year, I want to let you know right off the bat that we did not lock ourselves out of our car as we had the previous year. We brought an extra key for the car just to be on the safe side.

This year’s fair had twenty different workshops, seven psychic or intuitive readers, nine energy healers, and so many vendors selling a variety of goods that they needed more than one building to hold them all! When I attended in 2009, besides dealing with some car drama, I packed the day with attending an almost nonstop schedule of workshops. This year I wanted a more leisurely experience. I wanted to take time to really talk to some of the vendors, to not feel rushed while looking over dozens of tables loaded with everything from books to clothes to jewelry to soap, and so much more! Besides, I had a lunch date I didn’t want to miss.

The one thing aside from lunch that I knew I wanted to do at the fair was get another henna tattoo from Jessica Halter, aka “The Henna Lady”. I loved the one I got last year and was looking forward to getting a new one. I was pleased to be her first customer of the day and spent time catching up with her on everything that had been going on since we last saw each other in 2009. A few people stood by to watch the process and I enjoyed the opportunity to tell them about my wonderful experience with my previous henna tattoo. In fact, an hour later I had people coming up to me to excitedly sharing their tattoos with me. One woman is considering having a “girls night” where she and her friends will get together and drink some wine and get henna tattoos. Sounds like a great night to me! Last year I let Jessica do whatever design she wanted, and I was bummed I hadn’t ended up with a good photo of it to share. This year I again let her do what she felt like (always let the artist work) and my husband made sure to take lots of pictures!

Jessica Halter at work

You may remember last year I got an aura reading from Barbara Ellen, the lady behind AURA’bout You. She was there again this year, but I passed on a new photo. However, she’s such a nice lady that I wanted to be sure to mention her again and publish a link. Here it is!

One of the other booths that I spent some serious time at was for the artist Maryann Stow. She is a regional artist with roots in Oneonta, NY and in her bio she states, “I have had some formal training, but most of my skill as a watercolorist has come from ‘The School of 1000 Bad Paintings’, as I like to call it.” I love art. Much like wine, I don’t know a lot about it, but I know when I like it. The work she had displayed made use of vibrant colors, a thing I like. There was one piece in particular that I loved, it was titled “New Growth”. Of course with so many bookshelves lining our walls, and years of collecting works by NeNe Thomas, there is very little open wall space anymore. Luckily she had a small card featuring “New Growth” so I got a mini art piece to bring home.

New Growth by Maryann Stow

I easily filled two hours with just walking the vendor rooms, so seriously folks, it’s worth it to go just for the shopping. Two hours put me at lunch time, so it’s time to talk about my lunch date.

You may remember that last year my primary reason for going was to get to meet author Deborah Blake in person. This year not only was I going to get to see her again, but I was also going to get to meet another author, Gail Wood! Yes, I was a happy camper. Happier still when lunch time rolled around. Both Deborah and Gail had a busy morning of doing mini tarot readings and discussing their books with the people filing through the vendor room so I really appreciated that they carved out a little time in their schedules to have some lunch. Since Deborah’s birthday was just a few days before the event I brought her some chocolate rum balls for her to enjoy and share. However, if people thought I was a super fan for making the trip and bringing her chocolate, you would be sorely mistaken. Another woman who is a big fan of Deborah’s work brought essentially an entire picnic worth of lunch as a surprise for Deborah! Soon Gail and Deborah’s table was piled high with food!

Both Gail and Deborah are just wonderful ladies. They both really love what they do, and it shows. I learned a lot from those two this past weekend. The primary thing being that Gail Wood is the most photogenic of our trio.

(left to right) Me, Deborah Blake, and Gail Wood

As we were getting ready to leave Oneonta there was one more place to visit. You may remember that before the fair I mentioned that there was a comic/game store right across the street from the event. Well, it was still there. It’s a pretty nice little comic/rpg storefront called Bearded Dragon Games and Comics. Normally I wouldn’t bother mentioning our little side shopping trip. I didn’t last year. But this time I stumbled across something too fun not to share.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with a card game called “Fluxx“. For those of you who aren’t, it’s a fun little game based on one simple rule at the start, draw one card, play one card. As the game progresses it gets crazy because each card played changes the rules! It’s really a fun game that is frighteningly easy to teach to others. Attention gamers, this is a great “gateway” game to get your non-gamer friends and family into games. As an aside, another excellent “gateway” game is “Lunch Money“, but I’ll talk about that some other day.

As Jim was waiting to get rung out I stood by the door looking at card games on a spinning display and that’s when I saw these rare gems: “Jewish Fluxx” and “Christian Fluxx”. Being a fan of “Fluxx” and religious doodads, these packs hit a total geek sweet spot with me. I’m bummed that Judaism and Christianity are the only religions to have gotten a “Fluxx” treatment. I would love to see other religions get their “Fluxx” on! Come on Looney Labs, if draw one card play one card isn’t Zen I don’t what is!

With that, we headed home. Another great time at the Oneonta Spiritual Arts Fair. I hope to see everyone again next year!

It’s Again Time to “Think Before You Pink”

by Administrator, posted in Art, Events, Organizations

October is here. It’s once again Breast Cancer Awareness Month, or some such title. There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s dive right in.

Last October I introduced you to Breast Cancer Action, and more specifically their “Think Before You Pink Campaign”. Click here to get reacquainted. Now that you remember the basics of the campaign, I’m here to tell you they are taking on some big game this season, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Here’s the one minute sum up:

Milking Cancer from Breast Cancer Action on Vimeo.

To learn more about Breast Cancer Action and their “Think Before You Pink” campaign, visit their website.

Also, for my San Francisco, CA area readers, might I suggest taking a trip to ArtHaus on 411 Brannan Street? This October, ArtHaus gallerists James Bacchi and Annette Schutz invite you to “Think Before You Pink.” It’s an invitational exhibition exposing the breast cancer “pink industry.” 20% of all exhibition sales will benefit Breast Cancer Action during the month of October.

Want to support art and Breast Cancer Action but can’t get to San Francisco? You can purchase the limited edition poster “This Elixir – It Won’t Fix Her” for $50 plus shipping and handling, by contacting Breast Cancer Action at 415-243-9301 ext. 22. All proceeds from the poster benefit Breast Cancer Action.

The Halo – That Glow!

by Administrator, posted in Art, Religion, Symbols

by Rebecca
illustrated by Will Hobbs

What is a halo? Well, according to my sources (known as Wikipedia.org), “A halo is an optical phenomenon that appears near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high in the upper troposphere. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colors because of dispersion, similarly to the rainbow.” Let’s face it, although cool, that’s not what any of us think of when we’re asked “What is a halo?”

It’s that gold circle that floats above an angel’s head, duh. However, let’s take a little time to explore how it got there.

If you take a little time to think about it, you’ll realize you’ve seen haloes other places besides atop an angel’s head. Haloes were originally depicted as flat discs behind an individuals head, not floating above like these days. A flat golden disc is a sun, right? You got it, the Egyptian sun god Ra and Mithras, an ancient pre-Christianity sun god, both are depicted with haloes. So here you have a bunch of pre-Christianity/pagan deities running around with haloes, what’s an emerging religion to do?

That’s right, get themselves some haloes. Pagans, including Buddhists and Hindus, worship deities with haloes, so haloes must be part of their divinity. Once determined that a halo symbolizes sanctity, divinity, and light, all kinds of folks were getting them: Jesus, Mary, saints, popes, emperors, anyone who needs to be shown with the glow of the divine, including angels.

That, combined with a trend towards more realistic details in art, created the floating rings of light above the head.

By the way, when the whole body is surrounded in a glowing aura, for example as Jesus is often depicted, that’s not a halo, it’s a mandorla. Many people associate this full body halo as an indication of power, divine or otherwise. Like this, for example…..

See, he’s got the “glow”. Perhaps he’s got his chi working. Although technically that wasn’t a true mandorla. Mandorlas are almond shaped. But I think you’ll agree that was more fun!

If you have a little time, the Wikipedia entry about haloes is an interesting look at religion influencing art influencing religion. Here’s the link.

And for those of you who suddenly find yourself thinking, I should totally watch the movie “The Last Dragon” (where the clip above came from), let me remind you why that’s not really necessary.

Too cheesy…..
Must navigate away from page…..

I Couldn’t Resist Sharing

by Administrator, posted in Art, Messages from Rebecca

Several years ago for my birthday my husband bought me an antique witch’s costume. As in, a Halloween costume from the late 1800s/early 1900s. It was in pretty rough shape, but still beautiful, and I loved it. I had always planned on giving it a proper display treatment, but to my great shame for years it was displayed by having it hang on a wire coat hanger attached to a tack in the wall.

Recently, prompted by a 60% off all framing sale at our local Michael’s, my long standing shame has been transformed into beaming pride.

Behold!

Buddhafuls: Buddhafy Your World

by Administrator, posted in Art, Products

Yes, the name is too cute. I hear ya’. But this website has some awesome stuff!

(from their website)
Meditation on sacred images has long since been used in Buddhism, and other spiritual practices, to increase health, inner peace and bring one closer to enlightenment. Buddhafuls provides unique and beautiful sacred fine art prints and gifts, from Buddhist and other traditions, intended to not only beautify your space, but create a space that serves to enlighten the soul.

Everyone visit the Buddhaful website! Feel free to purchase any of the following things for me! I thank you in advance for your generous gifts!











Where Art Meets the Occult: Sacred Art Tarot

by Administrator, posted in Art, Magic/Occult, Products, Reviews

For not actually being a tarot reader, I love tarot decks. Perhaps it’s because tarot decks are generally where quality artwork meets the occult, two things that I can appreciate. Although finding most decks pleasing to the eye and a thing to make my inner occult geek go, oh yeah, I rarely feel inspired by them. You know, like maybe I should turn off “The Big Bang Theory”, get my ever widening butt up off the sofa, and learn me some tarot. The “Rider-Waite Tarot” gets me every time, and now I can add the “Sacred Art Tarot” to the list.

The images used on the cards are great classic works of art primarily of a Christian orientation. Yet the way those images are used invoke a very Western esoteric tradition that I find compelling. The creator of the deck, Andre St. Dryden, does say that the meanings are based on the teachings of Qabalists and occultists with a mixture of the creator’s own beliefs and esoteric decks such as the “Golden Dawn Tarot” and Aleister Crowley’s “Thoth Tarot Deck”.

The “Sacred Art Tarot” is a 78 card deck that comes with an instruction booklet and a custom spread sheet. If your tarot tastes run more towards the occult I highly recommend checking this deck out.

Sketch Please!

by Administrator, posted in Art

Under the category of just delightfully clever, I want to just tell all you guys about this awesome website called Sketch Please.

Just what is Sketch Please? Take two artists (John Conger and Jason Adam) looking for a way to motivate and challenge each other, then add in allowing everyone in cyberspace to look in on the experiment and you have the origins of Sketch Please. From their site, “Sketch Please started in 2005 as a bet between two artists and friends as a way to help motivate each other to continue drawing — no matter what. Do one drawing per week on a specific theme, or forfeit one of your comics. You have until Sunday at midnight to email out your sketch or else you fail.”

Their rooster has now grown to a core group of four: John Conger, Jason Adam, Lizzy Lane, and Will Hobbs (you know, the guy who creates almost every lick of art for The Magical Buffet, including the awesome banner). Things may be getting more crowded as the site looks towards making it open to the public.

I love the creativity and challenge of the site. Every week a new topic, every week new art. And it’s out there, on the internet, to be viewed and commented on. I would not have the guts to do that!

I think it’s an intriguing format. I’m trying to convince my husband to start a site called “Campaign Please” with a similar concept except replace original art with original seed stories for roleplaying campaigns (although I refuse to have anyone lose comic books…those are marital property now!). Maybe with a theme each week, maybe not. You heard about it here first! As did my husband.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a website like nothing else you’ve seen before, head on over to Sketch Please.

The Resurrection of “My Sweet Jesus”

by Administrator, posted in Art, Christianity/Catholicism, First Amendment, Religion

It’s going to be tough to have this discussion without potentially offending someone, but oh well, the giant chocolate Jesus is back and I’m psyched!  For those of you who may have missed it, last spring artist Cosimo Cavallaro created an anatomically accurate statue of Jesus out of 200 pounds of chocolate.  The piece, titled “My Sweet Lord”, was going to be displayed on the ground floor of The Roger Smith Hotel in midtown New York City starting April 1 (Palm Sunday) and run through Easter Sunday.
 
That poor hotel.  They had protests, boycotts, petitions, and even death threats.  Why?  Was it because it was made out of a rich, dark, chocolate instead of white chocolate?  (I always chuckle when I think of this option.  Have you ever watched the animated series “The Boondocks”?  In the first episode Huey explains that he never saw “Passion of the Christ” because it had a white Jesus.  The black verses white Jesus debate is also brought up in the beginning of the awesome movie “Saved”.)  Did it have to do with Jesus’ exposed Hostess Ho Ho (if you get my meaning)?  Was it the invitation for spectators to eat a piece of the sculpture, which was a truly inspired way for the viewer to allow Jesus to become a part of them?  Was it the Palm Sunday opening, an appropriate time to encourage people to consider the life of Jesus?  The world will never truly know if it was one of those things or many, since in the world of religious over sensitives no real reason needs to be given to justify death threats on poor bell hops who don’t give two craps about a giant hunk of chocolate.  Don’t even get me started on the ramifications of threatening artists over their subject matter!  It makes my First Amendment emergency lights start flashing.
 
All of that is in the past because chocolate Jesus is back, and he’s brought some saints with him!  The Proposition Gallery will be featuring an exhibition of Cavallaro’s work called “Chocolate Saints…Sweet Jesus”.  All the biggest and brightest of the Catholic world will be there in their finest life-like chocolate rendering; Saint Francis, Saint Jude, the Virgin Mary, and more.  And of course, “My Sweet Lord”, a recasting of the giant chocolate Jesus that caused so much trouble, despite being beautifully crafted and totally delicious in appearance!
 
The exhibition will run from October 27 to November 24, 2007 (to coincide with All Saints Day).  Hey, it opens this Friday!  Where is all the drama?  Well, all of us chocolate Jesus fans can relax.  On October 16 The Catholic League, the fun loving bunch that brought you chocolate Jesus protests and editing Kathy Griffin, issued the most subtle and not so subtle statement saying that essentially, The Proposition gallery isn’t very visible, that the idea of crafting an image of Jesus is appropriate for Halloween, and that All Saint’s Day just isn’t as important to them as Palm Sunday.  Of course maybe that’s just my sarcastic and biased interpretation.  What do you think?
 
“’My Sweet Jesus,’ another life-sized chocolate sculpture of a naked crucified Jesus by artist Cosimo Cavallaro, will be displayed in a New York gallery on West 22nd Street from October 27 through November 24. Unlike last spring, when we launched a boycott against Manhattan’s posh Roger Smith Hotel (the boycott was dropped when the hotel cancelled the exhibition of an identical Cavallaro statue, “My Sweet Lord”), the Catholic League will not protest this showing.
 
When the Roger Smith Hotel originally planned to host ‘My Sweet Lord,’ the work was set to be unveiled on April 1, Palm Sunday, and run through Easter Sunday. In addition, the midtown hotel’s gallery is located on street level, easily visible through windows to the public. Any child strolling with his parents through the popular area could have been subjected to the piece. And comments by the artist certainly didn’t help matters—he previously invited the public to come inside and take a bite of Jesus.
 
Since ‘My Sweet Jesus’ isn’t going to be displayed on the ground floor of an established hotel in midtown, and since Halloween is more appropriate for Cavallaro’s crafts than Easter, our central objections are not applicable this time around. The Catholic League doesn’t approve of the piece, but this upcoming display won’t be as public, nor will it be an ostentatious assault on Christian sensibilities during Holy Week.”
 
Although, none of this matters.  Not the Catholic League, not my snarky comments about the Catholic League.  What matters is that although struck down by nonbelievers, “My Sweet Jesus” is back…and more chocolately than ever.

Osama bin Laden+Jesus=Art?

by Administrator, posted in Art, Christianity/Catholicism, Islam, Politics, Religion

On August 29, 2007 the winner of the 2007 Blake Prize was announced.  According to the Blake Prize website, “The Blake Prize for Religious Art is one of the more prestigious art prizes in Australia. For 55 years it has been awarding a prize for works of art that explore the subject of religious awareness and spirituality.”  This year’s winner was Shirley Purdie and her piece “Stations of the Cross”.  However, the winning piece isn’t what people are talking about.

“The Fourth Secret of Fatima” by Luke Sullivan and “Bearded Orientals: Making the Empire Cross” by Priscilla Bracks are all anyone wants to discuss.  “The Fourth Secret of Fatima” is a statue of Mary wearing a burqa and “Bearded Orientals” pairs a portrait of Christ with one of terrorist Osama bin Laden looking like Jesus.  The inclusion of these two pieces are causing quite a stir in Australia.  To see these pieces click here. 

Australian Prime Minister John Howard was quoted in “The Daily Telegraph” saying, “The choice of such artwork is gratuitously offensive to the religious beliefs of many Australians.”  Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, has been quite vocal with his displeasure, “Some contemporary art is tedious and trivial.  These couple of works demonstrate this.  Regrettably, attempts to insult Jesus and Mary have become common in recent years, even predictable.  Too often it seems that the only quality which makes something ‘art’ is the adolescent desire to shock.  If this is the best the Blake Prize can do, it has probably outlived its usefulness.”  (I have to point out here, that obviously these two pieces weren’t “the best the Blake Prize can do” since a totally different piece won the $15,000 prize.)
 
Enough about the Catholics, what do Australian Muslims have to say about all this hooplah?  Ikebal Patel, the President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils offers some unique perspectives.  He is quoted in the “Sydney Morning Herald” saying, “So [Mary wearing a burqa is] no different to how our mothers and sisters are expected to be modest in their dressing.”  He explains that the statue is not at all offensive because both the Virgin Mary and Jesus are revered figures in Islam.  However, Patel was offended in many different ways by “Bearded Orientals”.  “You have a revered prophet of Islam (that would be Jesus) being equated to somebody like Osama bin Laden.  Also in Islam, we don’t have any paintings or drawings depicting any of our prophets, so I find it quite offensive,” he states.
 
Look at all this debate!  The Anglican Bishop of south Sydney, Robert Forsyth, is quoted saying, “Is the one of Mary having a go at religions for oppressing women?”  (My new friends at Roman Catholic Womenpriests, probably have something to say to that!)  According to the “Washington Post”, Bracks (the artist who did “Bearded Orientals” told Australian radio, “I’m interested in having a discussion, and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept, and what we don’t accept.”  Reverend Pattenden, Blake Society Chairman, says neither of the two artists had set out to offend anyone, and he was not personally affronted, “They are both works which made me stop and think.”
 
Now I ask you this, isn’t that what art is all about?