Ajna

The 6th primary chakra

^*^

Pleasure & Pain

love

This piece is dedicated to M.E.V. The love of my life <3

Semantic Antics

It's been quite a voyage of discovery for me these last few years; artistically, philosophically and emotionally. When I first began toying with the the symbolic presence of words I didn't have a clear realization of where it would take me. My first thoughts were, "Wow, this is interesting! ..I wonder what would happen if I added this.. or tweaked that?" With further experiments, an unfolding array possibilities crept into my mind.

Through the transforming of type into multilayered mandalas and finding inspiration in the simple step of mirroring, these linguistic characters began to emerge. During my time at Pleasure and Pain Ink I was fortunate to also be taught the elements of script lettering. With the added flair of filigree these 'Word Players' started to take shape. Whereas my initial lettering was slightly block like with an accented curvature, this recent font adjustment suggests a more delicate and organic look. Depending on the word, some work better as faces, others as bodies and combining words allows for all sorts of word play (:

Many more in the works!

^ Peace, Harmony, Balance ^

Warrior Artist Shaman

A play on words which can be interpreted as a face, three faces or a complete figure. The top portion exhibits the mind of a Warrior, propelled into action with a cunning resolve and sense of honor.

Directly below are the eyes and heart of an Artist, patiently perceiving patterns and displaying circulated inspiration into a chosen artistic medium.

At the bottom rests the mouth and feet of a Shaman. A combination of Warrior and Artist, the Shaman expresses messages of wisdom and healing and traverses a path which requires integrity and courage. The Shaman is a master of performance and a dedicated guide.

:::A totem for leadership.

Mask

Designed from the word MASK. To read, tilt your head to the right {:

Just Laugh More

A phrase from a recorded lecture at Burning Man 2003 by Alex, Allyson and Zena Grey called Art, Love, Family and Psychedelics that I felt inspired by. Allyson offered advice in regards to helping maintain healthy relationships and how one can become a better parent, partner, artist and person. The advice was to "laugh more"

The treatment here is of the mirrored initials J.L.M.

Love Lot.Us

Lotus like formations made of the word LOVE.

Syntaxia

A continuation of my Body Language series. Redesigned the head with more humanlike features.

Sympathy For Our Devils

Excited to announce a spot in a group show at the Steam Whistle Brewery on July 6th 7-11pm to July 31.

Featuring fellow artists Erick Castaneda, Jaime Capell, Paolo Diaque, Jordan McKie, Daniel Martins and Tomas Zatrak in a theme about masks.

A taste:::

Used to assist in the telling of myth, masks have maintained a long preserved and widespread tradition throughout the history of Mankind. As such, they are closely entwined with language. The stories spoken verbally or enacted physically were all the more engaging with a mask to bring an added sense of mystery and symbolic presence. They are excellent aides in the personification of elemental forces and often provide a face for the faceless.

To wear a mask is to alter the perceptual exchange that takes place between the wearer and the audience. With tribal ceremony involving masked players there is great opportunity for expressive participation and community bonding.

With these aspects in mind, the majority of the 'masks' to be presented have been formed from mirrored word arrangements.

Head tilting may be required ^v^

^Sympathy For Our Devils^ ^Light, Shadow, Vision^

Happiness For All

^ Designed from the words above ^

Happy new year everybody!

Version 2.0Version 1.1:::variant version:::

⫷LOVE ❉ ABUNDANCE ❉ JOY⫸

Love Tunnel

❖♥❖ LOVE Mandala ❖♥❖

Version 2.0Version 1.0Shaped LOVE into the six petalled Seed of Life formation as seen in the center. Layered it up at different sizes and spun it out towards the edges.

Best blessings everyone :)

Flower of Virtues

Came across some thought provoking and uplifting information last year on a site called the Wingmakers.

Particularly inspired by what James, the site's anonymous host referred to as the 'six heart virtues' and adapted them into the Flower of Life template. At it's core is a six petalled formation, ideally suited for the words Admiration, Compassion, Understanding, Valor, Humility and Forgiveness .

~*~

::LOVE::UNITY::

First prototype color copies. Compared with the black & white versions below, these have a much greater depth to them. Further still, once I incorporate 3D sculpural elements and holography. Until then, I'm left experimenting with color gradients and layering to evoke more vibrancy.

On the computer screen and especially with my larger prints I've noticed the interesting feature of faces popping up in certain regions of the vortex depending on my proximity to it.

In other words, the human mind has a great ability for spotting patterns, such that these crisscrossing shapes at various fades will often reveal recognizable facial features. Some look happy, some look sad, some look altogether alien:::

I find it fascinating to ponder that perhaps these patterns personify entities residing in a World of Words. A world that we all seem to tap into so freely and draw meaning from. A world with a foundation in Symbol and built by Prose.

This is a Land of Language that exists at the edge of print, between the spaces and lines. It's a realm riding the defining curve of conceptual understanding. It flows through the cultural matrix of sounds, recognized and accepted as speech.

At a certain distance from the image these "faces" will be perceived. Upon closer inspection, they lose their distinct forms and the eye sees only shapes. In the case of these two, the shapes are those of LOVE and UNITY.

Health ~ Wealth ~ Happiness

Composed entirely of the words: (H)ealth (W)ealth (H)appiness. Mirrored and spun, this was quite fun :) I found it a very relaxing and a constantly surprising exercise to create this mandala. One of my first attempts with transparent gradients and am very pleased with the results. I purposefully molded the letters H W H to look similar to ripples and am currently exploring with motion graphics to further this concept.

It is impossible:::

:::to stop a man or woman who will not quit.

I LOVE AND FORGIVE MYSELF

Love Fractal

My attempt to create a fractal using only the word LOVE. Haven't figured out how to incorporate the Mandelbrot mathematics into the design as yet, but would like to animate it continuously zooming inwards, spirally shifting and morphing into different words and colors.

Nature takes form around the basis of fractals.  However, the smooth triangles, cones, cubes and spheres representative of Euclidean geometry, as archetypal as they are as symbols and commonly found in the world of manufacturing, they do not provide an accurate model the universe. Math for such requires a tad more 'roughness.'

Coined by Benoit Mandelbroit in 1975, the term fractal was derived from the Latin fractus meaning 'broken' or 'fractured.' The fundamental characteristic of fractals is that their structure repeats in a very self-similar fashion at any level of magnification.  This can be found in clouds, coastlines, mountain ranges and lightning bolts, as well as various vegetables and animal coloration patterns.

They are also found within our body as seen with the branching networks of our respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. From the cells and upward into a fully formed human, fractals may even extend unseen into the social framework of civilizations. They link the ancient mystical understanding "As above, so below" with many of today's mathematical and scientific models.

Further still, language itself could very well be considered a multidimensional fractal. After all, what is any alphabet (or font for that matter) but a set of self similar symbols, combined endlessly through writing or speech to evoke layer upon layer of meaning.

...

In the case of a Mandelbrot set, regardless of the extent to which one zooms in on its boundary there is always additional detail to see. During the twelve-second zoom in the animation linked here, the set becomes magnified eleven-million fold. Thus, assuming the first frame is life-size at 45 mm across, a carbon atom would comprise 36 pixels in the final frame.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Mandelbrot_color_zoom.gif

The Wikipedia page on the Mandelbrot set is densely packed with equations, but if you scroll down about halfway there's a beautiful 14 step slideshow of some high res fractal images.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
This one is the 8th in the series...Illustrated below are 10 simple fractal progressions:::

These and more found at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Fractal.html

And for some exquisitely rendered fractal designs check out the extensive galleries at...http://www.abstractdigitalartgallery.com/

Youtube has plenty of great fractal vids as well. Here's one that was made with After Effects...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34zPvmNXTYQ