About Me

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Michael seeks to create works that reflect his struggles with the world he finds himself living in, and the commonalities that we all share in this. Desire, Defeat, Acceptance, Judgment, Love, Fear, Time, and Space. Michael's studio is downtown Los Angeles in the Spring Arts Tower. "Happiness is that funny little place halfway between fantasy and reality." -me

Monday, July 15, 2013

...and now we pause for Station Identification

Where are we anyway?
Last night I lay in the backyard, binoculars to eyes searching the heavens. I recently added this practice to my evening routine of sky-scanning before bed. It is quite peaceful. A beautiful way to finish my day, as it is perspective-facilitating. Not able to see many stars due to light pollution without this help, the binoculars bring forth many more lit objects. Opening up the skies to so much more. Satellites pass through the circular scope, making me seem enormous and the heavens singularly-celled-small, as it did when peering into a microscope in jr. high biology. This feeling of relationship-warping works for me, and reminds me of the deep connection to The All. I am made of the same stuff as I peek into, and am as deep and penetrable and full. Free of complete discovery, continually searching for more, looking out and looking within. And as satellites of my consciousness roam free within this: my infinite space, seeking refuge in hopes of communication back home, relaying data, I find my way slowly through the Field of Superconscious.
Some evenings I go up to the roof, above our patio. The musician Ben Lee (link) inspired me to create a mandala as he did, reaching out, searching to connect. And as we know this is really about reaching in. Sitting in the center of the mandala I am reminded of my place. Filled with love and hope, wonder and peace, I look out and in simultaneously.
My daughter and I laddered up to the roof last week. I made sure she sat back in the corner far from the edges, and from there she sang a song about spiders, making it up as she went along and watching as I worked out the shape using a measuring tape and the large plastic circular top from her turtle sandbox. Four hearts measure out the four directions edging the icon for the Earth, and icons for the other 8 planets (yes, I included Pluto) encompass this. The mandala is currently gestured quite simply in chalk, awaiting its acrylic finish. A symbol of infinity to the four directions sits in the center. It is a map, a road sign if you will of where we are in relationship to the whole for those visiting or just passing through.



Hello. 
Where am I?
Where are you?
I am looking for my way Home.
I am trying to find my way back Home.
And as I do I help others who may have lost their way.
Red Rover, Red Rover. Send all the Kids over.
We all get to go Home...we all get to go Home, one day.
Those who won, and those who lost...all go Home.