Kundalina with Sat Jivan Jamila

Fall in New Mexico is glorious. It begins with an Indian summer, but not the lingering kind; it’s a gentle, even progression into cooler weather, when the scent of burning leaves fills the air.

During the warmer part of fall, just before the trees began to color, Brett Adamek shot me in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains during a Kundalini Yoga-inspired meditation. If you are unfamiliar with Kundalini, you can learn more about it here. It is one of the most interesting types of yoga I have tried.

Despite the prickly cactus and evening gnats, this was the perfect location for channeling and raising one’s kundalini energy. The setting sun of Albuquerque has the spiritual quality of a Raphael painting. Its penetrating rays spiraling down to earth are god’s fingers, if such a thing exists.

Bodies, water, blood

Last spring I joined photographers Katie Chao & Ben Meussig of shooting brooklyn, Mike Genato (RVRS:PLAY) and musician Irene Merring for a photoshoot at Floyd Bennett Field, an abandoned airfield in Brooklyn. It was a raw day, perfect for capturing the night/day light effects that Katie & Ben created.

Irene was a sport, climbing into foliage and even splashing in presumably icy water in murky-looking conditions.

At one point, the only thing missing in my footage was yellow tape and a body bag.

But Irene is safe and definitely alive, though no longer in New York - perhaps this dreary day was nature foreshadowing her transformation into a west coast-based artist.*

Irene Merring’s official website: irenemerring.com

More from Katie Chao: katiechaophoto.com

More from shooting brooklyn: shootingbrooklyn.blogspot.com

*Interestingly, it was raining on the day I left New York for the west, just as it rained on the day I left New York for Europe, years ago. Hm…

With my children

This photo was taken in Brooklyn by Brett Adamek before I moved to New Mexico.

On the left: palimpsest (2010) 2 panels 10in x 30in each, fabric, acrylic on canvas. “A Tissue of Lies? Could there be a more persuasively apt title for a memoir? Particularly if the rememberer of his paste is referring not so much to his own lies but to those of others…. ‘Paper, parchment, etc., prepared for writing on and wiping out again, like a slate’ and ‘a parchment, etc., which has been written upon twice; the original writing having been rubbed out.’ This is pretty much what my kind of writer does anyway. Starts with life; makes a text; then a re-vision—literally, a second seeing, an afterthought, erasing some but not all of the original while writing something new over the first layer of text.” —Gore Vidal, Palimpsest: A Memoir

On the right: healing (2009) 5ft (60in) x 6ft (72in), fabric, oil, acrylic on canvas. This piece came with me across the country. I began work on it during a fast and had to pause creation until I was eating again; the amount of physical energy required to work on this piece - which is larger than me - was intense. This piece is part of the Awakenings series and was embedded with an intention - or prayer, if you will. Not long after I finished it, a miracle did indeed happen - for only a brief moment, and against all odds.

And on me: Perpetua (2010) 7in x 24in, acrylic, fabric on canvas. A married and nursing woman, Perpetua was martyred in the Roman province of Carthage, in Africa, along with her slave, Felicity, sometime in the 3rd century’s first decade. Perpetua kept a journal while imprisoned, recording several visions that she believed foreshadowed her death and ascent to heaven. It is considered to be one of the earliest surviving texts written by a Christian woman.

Behind The Scenes: The Asteroid Shop & The Ghost Wolves shoot with LightBright

The Asteroid Shop & The Ghost Wolves are Austin-based bands I had the pleasure of working with this past week while their tour stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We snapped some photos in front of these incredible murals downtown near Gold Street.

 
From left: Eric Brendo, Carley Carazy Wolf, Todd Pruner, Jonathan Konya

 
From left: Jonathan Konya, Carley Carazy Wolf, Todd Pruner, Lane Tarr, Eric Brendo

“The Asteroid Shop’s self titled debut is going to make a lot of people really happy,” raves MVRemix. “….Asteroid lays on the indie sound pretty thick, and tempers it expertly with clean electric guitars and Jonathan Koya’s crisp drumming approach…. It’s an album with staying power, if only enough people decide to get up and get on it.”

Music video blog LightBright filmed acoustic performances of both bands in the downtown area. I caught some footage of their process.

The Asteroid Shop performed “Destroyer” from their self-titled debut in the plaza near historic Route 66.

Guitar & Vocals: Eric Brendo, Guitar: Todd Pruner, Shakers: Jonathan Konya, Shakers & Vocals: Carley Carazy Wolf

After the sun set, everyone headed over to the Albuquerque train station to shoot The Ghost Wolves under the bridge.

“Their live show is a bit of a spectacle,” says the Austin Chronicle. “Musically, you’ll find hints of popular acts in the mainstream such as The White Stripes, but you can definitely feel a bit of Texas lurking…At times, Carley sounds a bit more ferocious than comparable groups, but that sort of passion only strengthens the band’s sound. We’re really excited about this group,” boasts Austin Town Hall.

The Ghost Wolves performed “Gonna Live” with some backup from The Asteroid Shop:

Guitar & Vocals: Carley Carazy Wolf, Drums & Vocals: Jonathan Konya, Backup Vocals: Todd Pruner, Eric Brendo & Lane Tarr

Learn more about these amazing bands:

facebook.com/theasteroidshop

facebook.com/TheGhostWolves 

Artist & Photographer: Neil Craver

As a youth in North Carolina; I begun my path as an abstract painter and figurative sculptor; my motivation grew from my interest of psychophysical effects of chroma. Photography holds all the intrinsic values of all the other arts; but it is the foundation of the origins of existence. My creations are the exploration of my inner facilities; in the pursuit of contemporary knowledge expressing “original thoughts”. “Nothing can exist without the photon, and every aspect is controlled by it’s usage.”

Statement: OmniPhantasmic*

*Omni-
1. A combining form denoting all, every, everywhere; as in omnipotent, all-powerful; omnipresent; omnivorous.

*Phantasmic-
1. Something apparently seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or an apparition. Also called phantasma.
2. An illusory mental image.
3. In Platonic philosophy, objective reality as perceived and distorted by the five senses.

This project is meant to be consumed with your emotions, and not simply perceived with your sense organs. I wanted a transcendental meaning behind them; not only with the use of chromatics and aesthetics. But with my intended focus be on the philosophical theories, I wanted a “subliminal composition” to create an under tow of messages to stress the strong influences of unconscious elements affecting and driving people’s lives. And with the creation of a strong undercurrent of incommunicable thoughts, would be the stage for illuminating the subconscious intellect into a perception; not deception.

The visual aesthetics are purely symbolic in their thought application and structure; with decomposing forests of broken memory connections, and tumbling of vertigo into the correct positions of phenomenal reality. The shallowness of the area above the horizon line indicates the division of the limited amount of information consciously perceivable (atmosphere-above) and the larger mass storage of all the sense information, rationalizations,and prejudices of the subconscious below (hydrosphere-below). The nexus of contingents between drowning and floating, falling and flying, dying and living are some of the main unphysical-intangible themes in this series.

A dominant temporal element of composition would be the use of the female form. I used the intrinsic values of this object to exploit and illustrate the submerged network of the unconscious condemnation and restriction of the nude form in popular society. With this formation of energies being repressed in the subconscious state, one’s behavior could start to dissolve the foundation of the self. With no outlets for expression, one could only predict the unconscious wishes could turn into anxiety and transform into synthetic states; such as phobias,aggression, and other maladjusted personality disorders.

What you can perceive and process is an extremely finite portion of what you receive from the physical environment. And to truly grasp the vexing questions of your inner facilities, you must open yourself to a flood of unrestricted information. So one must dive into the cloudy placid waters of the subconscious world to uncover a linkage between the conscious and the subconscious mind. Once the excavation is started; the illumination of the self imposed restrains of values, ideas, and moral codes will dissolve. When the subconscious floods pass society’s imprisonment; starting a process of uncontaminated awareness; a penetrating understanding will unfold!

WS: neilcraver.500px.com

View all work on this site by this artist »

A photoshoot on Wall St.

I joined Mikéal Beland for a photoshoot in the Financial District, making a brief appearance:

In-between making snarky faces, I managed to snap some photos myself (with my handy LG Voyager):