A Question of Art, Aesthetic, and a Body of Work

From An Interview over at The Dharma of Don talking about writing, publishing, and everything in-between! (Check out his blog) 

Don: The Words of Traitors is published under Mythos Media which is your imprint, if I am not mistaken. What other houses have you published under, and have you succeeded with Mythos Media where you felt you struggled with branding under your own name?

.

The Olde Occult Daze

James: My first book was released through New Falcon Press, who published Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Aliester Crowley, Israel Regardi -- it was because of them I think that I got branded an "occult author" although that isn't really entirely accurate. I've worked on several books since then that have been released by Weaponized, which is a UK based imprint.

You will see most of those books also on the Mythos Media website. We are a brand but it isn't restrictive in the way a traditional publisher might be. For instance, several of the books with the Mythos Media imprint have other publishers, and the film we worked with was through another production house. Mythos Media at the moment is about 90% projects that I've been heavily involved in, but that isn't a rule either.

So there's essentially two things that help me decide what I want to bring in, aside from sheer circumstance. The first is the basic definition:

Mythos: (n) A story or set of stories relevant to or having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society, or other group
Media: (n) Tools used to store and deliver information.

That's probably the one thing we take literally. Mythos also originally meant "by mouth," it is that which is conveyed culturally, as opposed to logos. Any form of media, any story could theoretically come on our radar.

So then there's the 2nd question, which is whether it fits in with the others as sort of counter-culture media. In other words, would they make more sense being listed with a major publisher, or is it a story that would likely show up on prime-time TV? If so, then it's probably not Mythos Media material. There's a bit more about the history of the project on the About page. ( http://www.mythosmedia.net/p/rather-than-avoiding-unsettling-unusual.html )

Band Photo for "EgoWhore"

Don: Can you tell us about your publishing process and how you made decisions on The Words of Traitors? I'm particularly interested in why you chose the size you did, the paper quality, and the type of cover.

James: The print size was a very conscious decision, based on the standard for art books -- though it's within several millimeters of standard magazine size as well. It's funny to me that the standard for our supposedly least and most disposable print media are almost the same, but most standards are historically arbitrary, anyway.

That decision was arrived at as a result of the nature of the art. A lot of it includes dioramas that quite frankly are only fully revealed in their detail at poster size -- I've been running an art show for Words of Traitors that includes canvas prints at 16" x 20" and 20" x 24" size, as well as some of the originals, some of which were larger than that.

A GONZOMENTARY?!

There's no way that it would work at standard paperback size. If it could've made any sense I would've liked it to be even larger than A4, but 11" x 17" is really only feasible if it's hardbound.

What else was intentional... Well, I wanted to make a book that was more about the book itself rather than just the text -- in other words, a book that wouldn't translate well into Kindle format. It's kind of a reaction against the trend, in that way. Not all of my books are like that, certainly, but it was what made sense to me for this one.

I was actually pretty happy with the interior print quality, and that was something of a surprise. I was afraid it was going to be too glossy. It was printed by Amazon directly, and that was the part of the process I had no say in if I wanted to get it out. Paper stock and print process isn't a choice, and full color is so incredibly expensive that at $29.99 our cut is a smaller % than any of our other books. That's how it had to be -- our Indiegogo campaign raised about 1/3 of the goal, so we had to cut back -- a lot of people might have just pocketed the money and said "We'll put it out later," but that's just not how I do things. It did mean that we had to consolidate as much as possible, and it did restrict the scope of what was initially planned.

The full process involved in the book, though. That would take a lot more time and space than the average reader would probably want to take. A single piece of art in the book might have gone back and forth between myself and the artist many times before it was finished. For other pieces, I took art that was sent to me, printed it out myself, and worked it into collages or dioramas that included art I'd made, lit and photographed that, brought it into Photoshop, did a lot of digital painting with the Wacom tablet, and then maybe I'd blend it with one of the textures I'd made.

But I will say that like several Mythos Media projects before, it began with an open call to the internet, as well as to those I've worked with before, in terms of you know, here's a new project we're working on, here is the concept, do you want to collaborate? So there's always an opportunity for new blood. And it starts there...

Amanda Palmer: Recipe for Success

By James Curcio
(First run on Alterati, 2007).

Conversation With Amanda Palmer 
James Curcio

My first experience with the Dresden Dolls was live. I saw a show several years back, I think it was in Poughkeepsie NY- somewhere in the Hudson valley. When I went in there I was kind of dragged there by some friends. They said “you have to see these guys play!” I was dubious, simply because my understanding was that it was a piano player and a drummer… and how the hell would that be engaging live?

What I got was one of the most intense live shows I’ve seen. It was a perfect mixture of emotion, theater, and musical skill. Everyone worked up a sweat, and I don’t think there was a head in the house that left without a mild buzz.

James Curcio: How did the songwriting and your live show develop? Was it an organic serendipitous process?

Amanda Palmer: My songwriting actually developed in a vacuum. I started writing songs when I was 12 but they were barely heard by anybody until I was in my mid-twenties. On the contrary, Brian started playing in clubs when he was 16. We had very different musical upbringings. The live show was something that just happened, it was never planned. We’re both born performers, and we egg each other on. All of our heroes are passionate live performers. It’s just in the blood to want to bleed on stage, I guess.

David Metcalfe Interview

David Metcalfe Interview by Rev.R4D4

David B. Metcalfe of ModernMythology.Net discusses DARPA's metaphor program, Napoleon Hill's occult background, the band Killing Joke & much more. All music tracks on David's soundcloud: davidbmetcalfe.

[Check out some of the books, albums, and soon movies produced by Mythos Media and our various media partners.]

Conversation with Raymond Salvatore Harmon: Bomb

Born in the middle of nowhere Raymond Salvatore Harmon has wandered the earth, building things out of nothing, constructing realities from vague indifference and cultivating a prolonged distaste for both academia and any kind of manual labor.

RSH: "At all levels, ultimately graffiti is an act of cultural insurgency. It is a rebellion; against the norm, against society at large, against corporations, against the city or "government." Graffiti is the act of changing the visual environment in the public space. It doesn't matter if its a quickly scrawled tag or a well developed painting, it shouldn't be there and it is."

James Curcio: To begin with, I'd like to hear what you think the function of graffiti art is. Maybe it has a purpose, maybe it doesn't, but even if you don't intend a purpose, a social action like that has a reaction, it serves a function. They don't necessarily all need to have the same function but I imagine when you really cut down to it there is a fairly small range of possibilities there. What do you think?

Raymond Salvatore Harmon: Modern urban visual environments are controlled by corporations and city governments (which are in fact almost always corporations themselves). They decide where a road goes, how big signs can be, when a billboard can go up, etc. This is all dictated by financial gain. Advertising revenue plays a huge part in city planning.

When someone alters this visual landscape without permission they are fucking with the economic value of that environment. In doing so they are counteracting the attempt that the city government makes to control that environment. While the content and message can vary greatly within graffiti, the act is very clear. Graffiti is doing this act in violation of the law.

Increasingly we are seeing the growth of something that appears to be "graffiti", in that it has co-opted graffiti's common visual aesthetics and techniques, but it is done with permission. "Street art" is graffiti without the teeth. When it's being done with permission it's just the same as the advertising billboards. It's part of the plan, and in being so it's devoid of the same level of depth found in an act of true vandalism.

Bomb

JC: There is a certain "pay to play" element to what is considered a legal display of imagery and what is illegal. And of course, images are a form of communication. Only some ideas get broadcast, and those ideas have money behind them. Pay $10,000 for a billboard, it's legal. This reminds me a little of the "illegal" guerrilla gardens springing up in the US, where groups are taking unused plots of lands in areas where people have little option but processed awful pseudo-foods, and growing food and using it and giving away the excess for free, in accordance with the basic "rules" of permaculture. And a lot of these operations are being shut down. There's such a point of absurdity here, and none of the arguments leveled against these groups hold much water.

However, and this is a big however, the benefit of healthy food is quite obvious. The benefit provided by some art should also be just as obvious to most people, although it often is not. But much tagging and what I guess I'd have to call crappy graffiti doesn't fall into the same boat. It's not all social activism. I mean, I don't think it is. What do you think? Is there a line to be drawn here?

RSH: The food analogy is good because it underlines the basic situation with both of these concepts, that doing something that avoids the typical capitalist infrastructure is frowned upon by the capitalist government and the corporations that own it.

RSH - Art has a Disease (MBW Attack - London) from Raymond Salvatore Harmon on Vimeo.

The quality of a piece of art doesn't make it "not art." Any form of creative expression is ultimately art. So a "crappy tag" is just as valid an expression as a well painted piece. The irony is that you are seeing cities all over the world start to protect pieces that are by famous artists that have "financial value" all the while still harassing anyone who does graffiti that isn't famous. Its not about the quality, its about the financial value.

In a society where corporations control the visual environment of the public urban space the only form of expression that makes change is one in which we attack that control variable. Are some taggers/painters/writers better than others? Sure. But does it matter who is better or worse? Not really.

JC: Hm. I think there's something interesting going on here. I agree that there is no way to arbitrate what constitutes good art or bad art. Whenever someone creates rules, someone goes and breaks them and in so doing, blows the doors open on our concepts of the nature of art. And eventually that radical approach becomes part of the establishment, and represents a new building that must be destroyed, or painted over. Banksy for instance, now his work is entering a Warhol-esque dimension of fame whereas originally it had been just illegal.

But there are two things I'd like to highlight, and I'd be interested in hearing your take on it.

First, though there's no way of arbitrating this, I think there is "good" art and "bad" art. Just not universally. We won't agree on what it is, and that's exactly the point, I think. By exposing our own aesthetics, we can find the Others that see the world in a vaguely similar way- or we can encounter people that shatter our way of seeing the world, and we can see it a new way. So I think it does matter that some are better than others, but probably not in the way a lot of people would think it does.

And second- as you said, graffiti is not the same as a mural. The difference is not so much that you're getting paid, rather it is what that represents. I believe what you're saying is that it is inherent to the nature of graffiti art that it be illegal. It seems to me that aside from defying the "pay to play" nature of the commons that corporations and politicians assume, it is inherently transgressive. I mean, the moment it becomes condoned across the board it becomes something else. It can hang in the gallery alongside Duchamp's Fountain.

I think there is also a line between transgression and vandalism, which is one of the reasons I think it matters if a graffiti artist is coming at it with an awareness of these things, or they're just tagging because they think it's cool. Do you agree?

What is the point in transgressing in that way?

RSH: Duchamp is a great example of someone whose work was transgressive and attempting to exist outside of the context of the art world but who was appropriated immediately by the art world he was trying to resist. Banksy is just the latest version of that same thing, Banksy's greatest creation is Banksy the artist, and now Banksy the brand.

The concepts of good and bad are directly related to personal experience, they have no validity outside of how an individual may experience the art. You may look at a well painted mural and think "Wow that's amazing!" and someone else is going to say "Meh, its looks like a Nike ad" and then again they may look at a sloppy tag smeared on the front of a retail shop and say "Now that's brilliant!" but to you its just a clumsy splash of paint with no context. What matters is not "good or bad" but reaction or no reaction. If you have a reaction to it then its doing its job. If you don't notice it then its not.

The fact is that real graffiti will never be condoned. That's what is so good about it. The visual aesthetics may be appropriated by the marketing world, millions of prints and t-shirts may be sold, but in no way will spraying paint over someone's building without permission be made legal.

JC: I think you're probably right about that. But that still doesn't answer the question- what is the point in doing it? Is there one, or does there need to be one? Of course I imagine each artist is likely to answer that in a different way- but I'm curious to know your answer.

RSH: Are you asking "What is the point of graffiti?" which I see much the same way I would see the question "What is the point of painting?" and I would give much the same answer to both questions - compulsion. You do it because you don't have any choice but to do it. Between the variables of who you are and how your environment affects you there is an internal drive that compels an artist to create, to express, and graffiti - even the seemingly talentless/pure vandalism type - is no different. Each person may have their own "reasons" for doing it, but in the end its all about not being able to not do it. Its an act of self expression, no different than playing a guitar or painting a painting.

What separates it from these other kinds of creative expression is the aggressive form that it takes. Its not being done quietly at home where no one can see or hear it. Its happening out in the world regardless of if people like it, which gives it an incredible ability, the power to communicate to the public without any intermediary involved.

JC: I think it's interesting that you came to the same general conclusion on this that I have. When I was a little younger I had a lot more I guess you could say idealism about the intention behind my work, but when you reach a certain point- when you've gone well past the bounds of practicality or even sanity to pursue your work - you have to recognize that at bottom it's a compulsion. Habits can be good or bad of course. Yoga is an example of a method of trying to reprogram physical habits of alignment and breathing. It's not all like putting a needle in your arm. But a lot of art might be a bit more like the needle than yoga. It's hard to say.

That said, there can still be an intention behind it. So I was just rooting around there for yours.

What projects are you working on now? Are you looking to go somewhere with it or is it really "chasing the dragon"?

RSH: In my life there have been two currents that have run in parallel for a long time that have just started to converge (unfortunately). On the one had I am an unrealist as an artist. Aesthetics doesn't need to have an explicit message in a semantic sense. Language often simplifies something that can be more complex than any set of verbal descriptions. Burroughs said that language is a virus and I would have to agree with that.

So creatively, as a painter, I have sought out form and colour as a way of expressing myself without the need for some kind of philosophic message. I see all art as simply experience and nothing more. First there is the experience of the artist in creating the work. The process, the interaction with the medium as a form of expression, the dance. Secondly art is the experience of perceiving it. Of looking at at, hearing it, touching, even tasting in the moment of the audience/viewers perceptual awareness. Besides this two sided coin of experience there is nothing.

Alongside of this current of creative expression has always been a very distinct outlook on the world's socio-political stage. Call it an interest in contemporary urban anthropology (which is my education background) I have always had strong opinions on what I call the "disconnect" that most people live in, a kind of strangely exclusive filter bubble that lets people get on with living without acknowledging that totally corrupt and insanely designed socio-cultural box we are told we have to live in. It started in my teens, I was really into social anarchism and the writings of Giovanni Baldelli at age 15, around the time the Tienanmen Square events occurred and it shaped my outlook on the media and the governments of the world.

So now I find these two currents spilling over into each other despite many years of keeping them separate. But in general I see all of my interests starting to converge as we move into the future. The media work, the painting, the writing (which is my least favorite thing to do) are all coming together. There may be another book at some point, but really I guess I am just chasing the dragon.


On November 11th (11.11.11) RSH is launching a new project, NO CTRL, which he describes as "Casting a doubtful eye upon consensual reality. A look at the world from outside the filter bubble." more info at: noctrl.org


[Check out some of the books, albums, and soon movies produced by Mythos Media and our various media partners.]

CONSUME! A Discussion With Bradley the Buyer

Spoony Boomer interviews Bradley the Buyer on consumerism, wanton teenage destruction, the patriot act, Orwellian society, industrial music, the occult, culture jamming, music theory, and society.

Bradley is only half drunk and particularly lucid in this interview and answers every question you never particularly wanted to know. All music by Bradley the Buyer.

http://bradleythebuyer.bandcamp.com
http://www.bradleythebuyer.com

TOPI Talks: An Interview by Members of The One True TOPI Tribe compilation

Here is an interview between two highly active members of the One True TOPI Tribe access-point/ning, focused on actively building physical coum-unities and humanE support networks for creative individuals and (decentralized) collectives. Two artist conversing on what TOPI means to them, and the state of the world today. The background music in the interview is a cutup mix of the first 14 tracks from the TOPI compilation. These 14 tracks are known as the Outer Album.

The second album, the "bonus" material, as well as everything else, will be release on 23 August, 2011. Downloads will limited (200 copies) but the album grows from there, see the compilation for more information.

Jason and Aglaeca give what we think is an honest interview, a relic ov time with exemplary standing, (along with the One True TOPI compilation), of what can be done when thee come together to move beyond. The One True TOPI Tribe Compilation is an international accomplishment of the tribe, and it is this unity (the Third Mind) that this interview aims to promote, while as acting as a small window into two tribe members relationship with life and art. The One True TOPI Tribe compilation is the work of over thirty individuals, and we thank them all. The One True TOPI Tribe was create by occultural engineer/artist/musician/actor, etc. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. We of the tribe dedicate this work toward the greater realization of coum-Unity.

"Go grow your wings, and fly" --Jason P. Doherty 

          

          credits:

(for official realization/release date: 23 August 2011, propaganda date 17 August, 2011) Jason P. Doherty, Rachel Doherty, & Thee Uncondemning Monk (Aglaeca, as al-Jakeha).

(The below is a promotional on an up-and-coming textual work, not directly related to any of the above, and yet Hoodoo Engine will appear on the not yet realease 2nd Inner Section of the One True TOPI Tribe Compilation.)

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Sacred Economics With Charles Eisenstein

I was introduced to Charles Eisenstein through Daniel Pinchbeck, to talk about his book Sacred Economics which is published by Evolver Editions. I suggest you check it out.


As we talked, it became apparent to me that we’ve both worked on projects with many similar intentions, and so there seems to be an element of serendipity involved here. I offered the opportunity to post here on Modern Mythology, so you will likely be hearing more from him in the future. 


I hope you enjoy the conversation we had about myth, post-economics, and the apocalyptic, evolutionary challenges facing our species. 

James Curcio: It seems to me that you're taking a lot of the issues now facing us as a species – economically and environmentally – and posing them as challenges.

It has long seemed to me that there is a sort of “evolve or die” challenge posed to us as a direct result of our own actions, and it's best to face those challenges with optimism rather than pessimism. Much of that challenge arises from the myth of the individual and our unwillingness to bring that back to actions for the greater collective good. It can be hard to remain optimistic in light of that.

Charles Eisenstein: It isn't so much that I see the crises we face as challenges, but as the drivers of a transformational process. I guess you could call them challenges – but only in the sense that they challenge the basic mythology of our civilization. They are not bumps in the road that we can overcome and continue our trajectory. As you mention, one of the primary, defining myths of our civilization is the “myth of the individual,” or what I would call our “story of self” – that we are discrete, separate beings living in an objective universe, bubbles of psychology isolated in genetically-determined flesh robots, seeking to maximize self-interest. I think that the crises converging upon us are making this story of self untenable, as we become most painfully aware that what we do unto the other, we do unto ourselves.

solipsistic NATION: Tim Skold Ogre and Hoodoo Engine

From Solipsistic Nation:

In the last couple of weeks I learned that Karsh Kale, Tim Sköld, Nivek Ogre and HoodooEngine had released or were about to release new albums. I dig them all so I do what I do sent out the emails and made the phone calls. There were other musicians, labels and festivals I wanted to feature on the show as well but they didn’t happen due to availability and time constraints and before I knew it, this week’s show had been distilled into a gem of greatness.
I discovered Karsh Kale right about the same time I discovered the Asian Massive (or Asian Underground) scene. Over the years I watched the careers of Karsh Kale, Asian Dub Foundation and others grow over the years and it’s a wonder that I haven’t had someone like Karsh on the show earlier. Karsh has released six albums and recorded and performed with everyone from Zakir Hussain to Yoko Ono. Karsh’s latest album,Cinema, is his most ambitious album to date. It’s big, bold and melodramatic, and Karsh’s experience scoring films has had an impact on the scope of Cinema.
Tim Sköld was another surprise! Before I knew it, one night after work I found myself in front of a microphone talking to Tim about his long career, from his rock roots in bands like Kingpin and Shotgun Messiah and then later playing with the likes of KMFDM and Marilyn Manson. Tim also released a solo album back in 1996 and 15 years later he’s followed it up with Anomie, due out May 10th. Tim was great to talk with and I found that he’s as much an agent provocateur in person as he is in his music. I also had some great questions to ask him from folks like Jeremy and Royb0t from Twitter and Facebook.
Ogre’s is set to release a second album with ohGr called unDeveloped that also due to be released May 10th. Ogre and Skinny Puppy have scored the post apocalyptic soundtrack to our lives for nearly 30 years. While Skinny Puppy was my introduction into industrial music, there’s industrial music and then there’s Skinny Puppy. They’re in their own category and to call them industrial is kind of limiting. I was curious to see what directions Ogre would explore through ohGr and to be honest, I didn’t like unDeveloped at first. As Ogre mentions during our chat, people rarely give music full attention because they’re usually multitasking while they’re listening to music. I was doing the same thing with unDeveloped but one night while I was going out for a run I listened to unDeveloped and without being aware of it I found myself lost in the album and now I think it’s one of my favorite album of 2011.
Once I finally realized that Tim and Ogre were going to be guests on this week’s show I knew I had to include Hoodoo Engine. I’ve wanted to play tracks from their EgoWhore album since it was released in 2010 but it was just one of those scheduling things. Hoodoo Engine would be perfect for today’s show and to top it off, they’re gearing up to release their new album, Murder the World, and it’s more wretched and evil than EgoWhore, if such a thing is even possible. The core of Hoodoo Engine is Marz233, James Curcio and Johann Ess. Just to be above board, both James and I are on the Alterati Network, but I’ve known James long before Alterati when I interviewed him about his book, Join My Cult. While you anxiously wait for the release of Murder the World you can watch Clark, a gonzo mockumentary reality show art film surrounding the struggles of an independent artist in a capitalist world. 

Hoodoo Engine Primary Members
(Not pictured: Iron Will, Scott Landes, & The Illuminist)

Oh, special thanks to tricil for providing the incidental music during my interviews with Tim and Hoodoo Engine. While I was putting together today’s show I realized that I didn’t have any instrumental music from either of them and went on Twitter and asked if anyone had some tracks I could use for music beds. tricil stepped responded in minutes and generously let me use his tracks “rcc3″ and “conserve destroy.” There are links to download those two tracks below.

Listen to the Interview now!

(Direct download) 

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Contending With The Myth of "Art For Art's Sake" (Interview)

James Curcio: ....Some people get the sense - like it seems you did - that I'm about “art for arts sake” or that I need to grow up or get more hard-minded about business. The truth is, I've written plenty of proposals and business plans in my day, I’ve been involved in quite a few media businesses, and profit is a worthwhile means to certain ends. But those ends are an increased sense of play and creative exploration - and struggle - rather than more profit. Drucker's maxim holds true: “profit is a means, not a motive.” Many people in this world have lost sight of that and it's plain disastrous. I don’t mean figuratively. I mean it’s destroying the planet, or at least, our place in it. 

Elizabeth Craig: I did get that impression about you. That's because you're a serious artist and I was making an assumption - the writers I tend to meet who consider themselves Artists (usually writing in the lit fic vein) give genre writers flack about commercial fiction. That's merely an observation, since it doesn't bother me...to me, writing is about serving readers and literary fiction and genre fiction both serve an important purpose.

JC: That's a fair assumption to make, about literary fiction and genre fiction. And you were probably reacting to a rant I put out about genres - but my gripe isn't so much the usual resentment I think some “literary” authors feel because genre fiction often outsells them and it's “crap” - it's with the idea that genres and the categories that we apply to things actually have any kind of reality.

Don't get me wrong, genres and categories serve a purpose. They can serve an absolutely necessary purpose. But they're still invented. It's the same thing you get where a discipline will take an issue and consider it “off limits,” as if it somehow doesn't apply to them because “that's a matter for anthropology, not psychology!”

I've been wrestling with the genre issue a little with my most recent novel, Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End, which I'm now looking to shop to agents and publishers. It falls somewhere between “dystopian near future sci fi” and “urban fantasy.” I wonder at what point these labels just become so absurd that we can let up with it already.

I know when I start talking like that some people think it must be because I'm unfamiliar with marketing or business, but quite the contrary, I've spent altogether too much time reading marketing reports and niggling about demographics. I think it is a potentially dangerous thing because as you said it's about serving readers, and there's a point at which publishers may think they know what people want more than they actually do when they're overlapping these genre ideas over what is actually motivating people.

At the same time, I know not to write any of this as the lede in my query letter. And if past experience is any indicator, it won't ultimately be a query letter that gets me talking to the right person at the right time. It'll be a random conversation at a party or even an interview. I've never had much luck painting by the numbers, though for some odd reason I find myself trying from time to time when things get rough, as if that approach is suddenly going to yield new results.

Let me give an example, to really reply to what you said. I agree that one of the primary purposes of writing is about serving readers. But you can't undervalue the value of writing itself, in terms of self discovery, in terms of its therapeutic benefits. What's interesting to me is that many authors say that if you're just writing for yourself, that's fine, but don't publish.

However, the times where I've tried to write for an audience and focus on that, a lot of people tell me that it doesn't ring as true to them as some of my other stuff, which I may have produced with no intent of making it public at all. It's a very odd thing, to me. In fact, I try to keep up with agent and publisher and writer blogs as much as possible but I'm finding that I really can't intentionally follow any of their advice, or if I do, I do so at great peril to my own work. Because people can tell. It sounds cliche, but it shows. Yet again the most important thing ultimately is to be true to yourself, whatever the hell that means.

Yet, at the same time, audiences want something that's familiar enough that they don't feel like they're being taken too far out of their comfort zone all at once. It's a very odd dance, and I will say that if I'm going to err on one side or the other I'd much prefer to err on the side that leaves them feeling uncomfortable rather than bored.

(READ the full interview on Mystery Writing Is Murder.)

 Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

A Talk With Clark About Tantra, India, Hinduism, and Cannibalism

Many months ago, when The Immanence of Myth was still begin written (now it is in copy editing), I recoded a series of conversations with my friend and roommate William Clark. 
Since then, of course, some of you may know we've shot the Gonzomentary series Clark with Daniel Warwick of Exodus Films, and some of his hand-drumming appear on HoodooEngine work, which was also mostly recorded in this apartment. 
We will be cutting Clark into a movie-length version sometime this summer or into the coming fall. I wanted to share this interview with you again, because the many conversations that William and I have had here in this apartment, at all hours of the day and night, have helped me gather some of the thoughts that you will find in the book (IoM), which will be released in July. William talked about writing a piece on Kali, and though I mention him in the book in a few places, he never did get around to writing that piece. However, like many of of my other friends, his influence still exists within the work, and certainly every project I've released has the fingerprints of friends and contributors all over it. 

At the end of May, Jazmin and I will be moving out of here - we're not sure exactly where to, yet - and William will shortly thereafter be returning to India. So, I guess you could say this is the end of an "era" and the beginning of a new one for all of us, though none of us know what the new one will be yet. 
It seemed a timely thing to share this conversation with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed these conversations... of course, the bulk of which were between us and not recorded. But you can imagine that conversations like this have happened, between him and I and many other people, almost every day over the past crazy year or so that we've called this weird basement hideout our home. It has been at times chaotic - crazy parties, mood-swings amongst all of us moody artists, an incredibly difficult and exciting and tedious and mind-opening and altering time. I'm quite sure that in years to come I'll come to look back on it as a time of great gestation, hopefully for all of us. I hope you have some more incredible experiences while you're there, William. 
Download the mp3 directly or listen to the podcast on Alterati.com 
An addendum to this podcast: the release is through Weaponized, not Hukilau. Please pre-order below or sign up to be notified on Amazon, especially if you're in the states and don't want to pay for UK shipping! 
Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011.

Silver Era Tarot: Interview With Aunia Kahn

Aunia Kahn's work combines many disciplines, wrapping them into a hybrid art form melding photography, painting and collage. She invariably designs, builds, and executes characters, non-existent places, dreams, illusions, fears and fables into creation, which meld elements of classical, and contemporary art. Each work makes use of her own likeness in movie-like stills, dealing in varied taboo and often controversial subject matter to challenge the viewer, their understanding and preconceived notions; yet she connects through honest feeling and emotions. Aunia’s work has constantly evolved, earlier works dealt more with her past, while her more recent creations delve into present emotional conflicts and inspirations.

JC: I tend to look at Tarot more as a collection of archetypes, an arrangement that can be used to create some pretty primal narratives. I'm curious to know what your perspective on it is.

How did you put together the symbolism for the deck?

AK: The deck was based on the original symbolism of the Ryder Waite deck. The symbolism from such an influential deck in the tarot community is something that you either embrace or stray away from. If you stay away from traditional symbolism with your deck, it can be considered a non-usable “art deck”, rather than a fully functioning deck.

It’s like Monopoly. If you create boards with different themes or designs, but stick to the traditional ideas of the game and how it’s played - then it works, yet if you changed everything and made it your own thing, it would become a new game all together. The symbolism of the Ryder Waite was the basis of where we started the foundation of our works and then I created artwork telling the same tale but in my own style and followed the journey of the deck while doing so.

Modern Myths Interview with James Curcio on Occult Sentinel

This is a live interview that ran about a month ago on Occult Sentinel, which I realized I didn't pass along here, as I was so focused on working on Clark at the time. (Play through that link or download directly here.) 
In it we talk about The Immanence of Myth, the Gonzomentary Clark, the novel Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End, and HoodooEngine's first album Egowhore. I feel that, my stammering aside, it was a pretty good coverage of that moment in time in terms of what I was working on and kind of usual "work load" I'm trying to get out the door at any given time. 
I hope you enjoy, if you haven't listened already. I also hope to see as many of the contributors here on the site engaged in so many projects so we can get that stuff up here and out to all of you, and I hope you support it. I recently added Rudy Rauben's Medicine Show to the store here on the site, and expect to see many more projects come together over this year.
However: I see the traffic growing and all but the only thing that is going to keep this kind of work going long, bottom line, is your financial support. Please don't forget this. 
A few little updates on those projects: 

• The Immanence of Myth is getting ready to be proofed and should be on track to be released as hardcopy and ebook by Weaponized in July. Pre-orders are already available. Pick one up. 
• I am shopping Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End to a number of publishers. I plan on recording an audiobook and have plans for it to become a full transmedia series, but part of that involves partnering with a publisher with the pull and assets to help make that a reality. A version of the book is available right now through Lulu, which I plan to pull when a publisher locks in a 'real' deal with me. I've done this because I know finding the right publisher could take years and I'd like to have the book available to you in the meantime. 
• Clark is in partial hiatus, as we slowly work on our interview pieces and some B roll material to cut together a film-length version. There have been technical difficulties keeping me from properly post-producing and mastering the sound. Don't get me started. But we'll figure it out. Meantime, enjoy the show! We almost literally killed ourselves for your enjoyment. 
• HoodooEngine has finally gotten to the point where we are full out mixing many of the tracks for our second album. It is, as I said, heavier, more progressive, and darker in many ways than the first. Johan Ess is taking the helm with the mixing now, as we've been having some hardware issues with our other setups and he did such a banging job with mastering EgoWhore. I'm sure I'll be pestering him throughout the post- process, however.

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011.

Occult Sentinel Episode 34 - James Curcio

James is a musician, author, artist, podcaster, and theorist. He joins me on the show to discuss his soon to be released book Immanence of Myth and recently released novel Fallen Nation. He is also the co-creator of and actor in the new Gonzomentary style video series Clark.

Listen to the interview.
Download mp3.

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011.

Archetypal Emergence & Liquid Dreams

With all this talk of vampires it seems fitting to present an interview I did with a behavioral hypnotist I know who also happens to be a noted vampirologist. In 1977 Martin Riccardo founded the Vampire Studies Society in Chicago, and began publishing The Journal of Vampirism, one of the first journals to focus specifically on the archetype of the vampire.

Through correspondence with various scholars, aficionados, and practicing vampires, Martin amassed an unwieldy amount of materials on vampirism. After conducting a five-year survey of people's dreams and fantasies about vampires Martin wrote Liquid Dreams of Vampires, detailing the mythology of the vampire, and the emergence of this archetype in the collective unconsciousness.


In Liquid Dreams of Vampires you investigate dreams that people experience that involve vampires, how often did this archetype emerge in people that wouldn't normally be thinking about vampires?

In the 1990s, a woman wrote me a letter that contained the following passage:

"I know there is a fascination lately about vampires, a lot of people have it. But I've been having these dreams, dreams of myself killing like a vampire, dreams of vampires coming to me and giving me their Dark Gift. Now, I know I'm not the only one who has has these before, but you have to understand that I'm not that kind of person, never before have I had these visions of killing, or I should say drinking blood. It's honestly been driving me crazy lately, I don't want these feelings."

I have found that vampires appear in dreams of people who do and people who do not have an interest in them. This comes as no surprise since the vampire is a blatent archetype of the dark repressed urges in humanity.

In many ways the vampire image is an expression of violence, sexuality, death, and many dark passions. It is in dreams that the primal and primitive human drives of the Jungian Shadow or the Freudian Id can find an outlet in the form of the vampire. While the conscious self often chooses not to acknowledge the inner darker aspects of one's own human nature, they become unleashed as vampires in the subconscious playground of dreams.

Was there a common significance that you found when someone was dreaming of vampires? An event or emotion that preceded the dream?

While there is no specific circumstances that always trigger a vampire dream, my research has indicated that they often occur after a person has had a strong reaction to a movie, novel, or something similar. This effect is common to all types of dreams, not just vampire dreams. The emotional connection that people feel to certain characters or situations in film or fiction then carries over into their dream life. It can relate to the fear they experienced, the anger they felt, the attraction they felt toward a character, or many other feelings.

At any particular period in time, many vampire dreams will be an offshoot of the most popular novels, movies, or television shows of that time. However, I have found that one particular film has had a strong effect through several generations. Many people have told me that the 1931 movie Dracula, featuring Bela Lugosi as the Count, had a powerful effect on them when they watched it, and they often had vampire dreams afterwards. While the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker received some acclaim, it was actually this 1931 Universal film that made the vampire into a worldwide sensation. Lugosi's commanding and otherworldly presence in the film seems to evoke a response in people to this day.

Were those who identify as vampires more likely to have dreams about vampires?

Certainly. I believe that some dreams are an outlet for wish fulfillment. The same would apply to those who identify with astronauts, cowboys, or rock stars. Those who told me that they felt they were vampiric in some way usually had vampire dreams of some kind.

How has working so closely with the vampire archetype affected your life?

While I have enjoyed my activities of writing, researching, collecting, and lecturing, I can't say that vampires have had a huge effect on my actual lifestyle. It's always nice to share information with those who are interested in the subject, and I can't say that I've have any major unpleasant experience with the public at large.

However, I do suspect there are those who feel the subject is unwholesome. I often get calls from libraries about the possibility of doing a lecture. Libraries are a perfect place for this since vampires are quite significant in folklore, literature, and popular culture. Occasionally the librarian who called me will call back saying that their superior would not approve the lecture. While I don't get the reasons directly, I sometimes learn from indirect sources that the authority feels the subject of vampires might have a bad effect on a library audience. I not sure exactly what they feel might happen. Perhaps the forces of darkness might possess some of those listening. Perhaps some would choose to convert to the vampire lifestyle. Others might simply go stark raving mad as they heard me talking. For some libraries, it just isn't worth taking the risk.

What do you think of the comparison of unethical corporations to vampires? Insulting to vampires?

In the 1990s my friend Gordon Melton got a poster of President Bill Clinton as a vampire biting into the neck of the Statue of Liberty. Years later he picked up a tee shirt with Presdent Bush as a vampire biting the Statue of Liberty. Just recently I saw a cartoon image on the Internet of guess who? It was President Obama as a vampire biting the Statue of Liberty. Demonizing someone you don't like as a vampire is almost as common as painting on a Hitler mustache, and it shows the same lack of creativity.

It's like the joke--Why won't a vampire bite a lawyer? Professional courtesy.

Do you have any thoughts on the recent resurgence of popularity in the vampire myth? What social factors do you think are at play?

There are a variety of reasons that vampires have surged in popularity. One reason is that since the 1970s there has been a deliberate attempt to focus on the sensual and romantic appeal of the vampire. Another factor is that while novels in general have become more and more sexually explicit, many vampire novels, including the Anne Rice and Twilight novels, have been distinctly nonsexual. The intimacy of blood has replaced sexual intimacy, and this has touched a chord for millions of readers who find this more appealing.

What is different with today's positive portrayal of the vampire in books/movies like Twilight different from the more anti-heroic elements found in prior depictions?

For centuries, the vampire of folklore and literature was always pure evil. By the twentieth century, some vampires, such as Barnabas in the Dark Shadows television series, developed some sympathetic qualities, making them a kind of antihero. It was the comic book character Vampirella, who first appeared in 1969, that may have been the first true vampire hero or heroine in fiction. The kind of handsome, conflicted, and brooding male vampire that we find in Twilight and Vampire Diaries has now become the standard for the good vampire who is focused on protecting his mortal female love interest.

Are there any historical antecedents to the "good" vampire?

Not that I can think of.

What is guided visualization?

Guided visualization is simply the process of directing someone into a mental fantasy as you are talking to them, and it usually includes some relaxation techniques. I have used this in some of my workshops to allow people to experience what it might be like to encounter a vampire or to be a vampire.

Do you think that your guided visualization techniques could be used to help people experience other archetypal forms?

This is commonly done in guided visualizations by some people. It is considered a way to get in touch with various aspects of yourself and the universe, especially higher levels.

***

David Metcalfe is an independent researcher and artist focusing on the interstices of art, culture, and consciousness. He is author of “Of Dice and Divinity – Some Thoughts on Gambling and the Western Tradition,” forthcoming in The Immanence of Myth. Writing and scrawling regularly for The Eyeless Owl, his illustrations were brought to life in the animated collaborative grotesquery A Serious Enquiry Into the Vulgar Notion of Nature featured at select venues in downtown Chicago during the Spring and Fall of 2010. The Long Now Foundation has made the unlikely decision to include one of his illustrations in their 10,000 year library vault. He also co-hosts The Art of Transformations study group with support from the International Alchemy Guild.

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011.

Bradley The Buyer

"If Andy Warhol is a genius, then what am I? A speck of lint on the penis of an alien...buried in gelatin."
--Robert Fripp.

Bradley The Buyer giving the
"Secret Sign only known by Initiates."

I managed to track Bradley The Buyer down in his "home studio," which is frankly little more than a dingy basement full of pro audio gear that I can only imagine he foisted from the back of a truck somewhere. I've worked with him on past projects before - or at least, I had vague memories of doing so - but he looked different somehow. Unhinged. Then I heard what he'd been working on. He was onto something. Or we had all become tragically, unimaginably decoupled from the consumer nightmare that has overtaken all other acceptable myths and meta-narratives of reality. We are some of the few remaining who lurk on the periphery, not a part of this strange cult of flashing signs, but aware of it, and driven by a deep desire to use its black magic to assist us in the procurement of those base needs which all creatures must satisfy, unless if they want to take to wearing strange hats, getting fellated by young boys. Nobody wants that. Certainly not me. 

Who am I talking about? Bradley The Buyer, of course. Here is a bit of our discussion. 

James Curcio: Alright. Where did this tragic mess all begin?

Bradley The Buyer: Imagine you are in late middle school or early high school and Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral" drops. This is your gateway into what is, at the time, being referred to generically as Industrial music. I will go on record by saying that two of the records that influenced me the most at the time that were said by many to be "Industrial" were "The Downward Spiral" and "Antichrist Superstar".

J.C. Fuck. Me too. I know all of my credibility in terms of past and present project (like HoodooEngine) just fell through the floor. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. Also I like that it seems both of our first albums ("EgoWhore," for us), are at once homages to some past  influences but also throwing middle fingers both to those forms of music and many of the people who listen to it. That's going to really ensure a huge market share for us.

BTB: Yeah. This is going to make me very unpopular, in that I have referred to either of those works as being industrial... Because you know, purists abound.

J.C. We've already alienated about 90% of the usual fanbase for this kind of music. Don't worry. It's too late for both of us. By the way, are you going to take that last pill or can I?

"Think For Yourself. Question Authority."

BTB: Go ahead. What I am saying is that to an immature, selfish and emotionally unstable teenage-type, songs about fucking and hurting yourself to take revenge on other humans seemed pretty chique. And that is definitely not what I am listening to now, but it set the stage for what I had to say later, which I think in a sense is pretty reactive towards that type of thinking. The type of thought that got me interested in content like that when I was younger. Thinking that pain is, by definition, artistic endeavor... It is not... I would much rather feel pleasure than pain anymore.

J.C. No, it is not. But it’s a myth that helps keep us “in our place.” And it also keeps us at the grindstone when there are no fiscal results of our efforts. When you say what you're doing is reactive, what do you mean? Most people would have a negative response to that word.

BTB: Yeah, and they'd be doing that reactively. Well, this is not for them then. We call it "satire". It’s a new concept to some people.

J.C. I guess they missed Jonathan Swift in High School.

BTB: They can continue to wear black eyeliner and take themselves "sthuper cereal.” There is no such thing as shock anymore. I believe someone before me said that...? When I was about 12 or 13 I ran into a record called "We're Only In It For The Money" by Frank Zappa and the Mothers that changed my life. The story goes that Zappa's first record, "Freak Out" was what influenced the Beatles to make "Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Heart's Club Band". So to repay that homage, Zappa and the boys wrote "We're Only In It For the Money" which at the time Rolling stone called "perhaps the most mercilessly derisive raspberry ever flung at the rock scene by an actual participant therein." So as far as the writing content for this record goes? Don't think about traditional subjects explored in goth or industrial subculture music, think of it being more like my interpretation of Zappa's attitude towards rock and roll in general.

J.C. Yeah. Since we’re talking about early influences, Mike Patton was one for me and I understand for you as well, and I feel a bit like there is something Zappa-esque about his attitude too, even more than the music itself. Though I’ve seen tracks like Bungle’s Goodbye Sober Day get mistaken for Zappa by people who don’t really know his music that well. Anyway, go on...

BTB: Incidentally, I remembered listening to that record more than a few time on massive amounts of entheogens and it really did change my life. It taught me the most important lesson of all: Human beings, if they are truly human and not robots, should be capable of being able to laugh at themselves.

J.C. On some of your liner notes you've mentioned publicly so far, you've dedicate your work on the record to "Agent 156" for handing out razor blades at goth and industrial night clubs, and telling the recipients "You know what to do with it." I’ll ask if you think that’s a bit extreme - but I did know Agent 156 back in the day - before he disappeared - so I can’t say I’m exactly surprised.

BTB: Let me answer that question with another question. Do you think many of those kids would've actually had the balls to do anything with the razors? I know the type of person who often talks of killing themselves, and they are typically not the ones who will actually do it, particularly if some random stranger is trying to provoke them into doing it. It's a bit of reverse psychology, don't you think? "Hey, this asshole is trying to get me to kill myself! I'll show him!"

J.C. It could be seen as a way of saying “go ahead and pull the trigger or sit down already.”

BTB: I doubt that very many of them were going to use them in any capacity, other than perhaps to chop up their shitty drugs before they insufflated them. I think another point you can draw from a stunt like that, for me at least, is to shake people up and startle them into the realization of how little freedom we possess on a daily basis and how much dull tyranny we presently endure. "Your TV tells you what you ought to be" ad infinitum. Yeah, read the lyrics. I'm definitely not advocating death, it'll happen soon enough anyway. I just would like for people to start waking up and quit behaving like robots at times.

J.C. As far as industrial music, which you yourself have categorized your work as, what all do you find yourself listening to?

BTB: Industrial music is a fraction of what I listen to. I listen to a lot of jazz, a lot of progressive rock, a lot of trip hop and trance, glitch hop and IDM and DNB. Dubstep is fascinating to me as well. David Bowie is still my altime favorite artist. He was light-years ahead of his time in predicting the schizophrenic tendencies of life in the Western world. But I love Aphex Twin, Square Pusher, Venetian Snares, DJ Shadow, Coil, Meat Beat Manifesto, and as far as industrial, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Einstuerzende Neuabuaten, some Psychic TV. And really in terms of learning production through listening to music, being a big fan of Nine Inch Nails as a young teenager definitely had an influence on how I approach making different sounds. I don't always appreciate Trent's lyrical content, but that's neither here nor there. Love him or hate him he's made a measurable mark on the industry and did some really innovative things in terms of developing studio tricks that have inspired me since I was about 13. I do have to confess that I have been listening to the film score for "The Social Network" quite a bit lately for inspiration. His instrumental stuff, the minimalist and yet layered approach has always impressed me. My music though... It's definitely not straightforward industrial, and I hope the fact that I've labeled it as such offends at least a few people who take their scene way too fucking seriously. There is typically more musicality, organic instruments, elements of pop, jazz, IDM, DNM, and Breakcore in what I do. It's just a mix. I try to place a pretty heavy emphasis on melody and harmonic progression, maybe that is just me being brainwashed after years of university level music theory.

J.C. For those unfamiliar with Burroughs, why is the project called Bradley the Buyer?

BTB: Well, as I recall there was a segment from Naked Lunch which I read when I was a young teenager and first beginning to experiment with drugs. The concept was about a narcotics agent called Bradley the Buyer who soon discovered that he became addicted to being in close proximity with junkies. His work begins to suffer, and he eventually has to resort to bribing turnkeys to let him into holding cells with young junkies to rub up against them. He grows more and more dependent upon the contact high of seeing other people in misery. His teeth falls out. He begins sucking on Baby Ruth candy bars constantly. After he is fired, he crawls back to the DA telling him he will do ANYTHING to get back on the beat. He grovels at the DA's feet. After this doesn't work, Bradley transforms himself into a gigantic black centipede and he has to be exterminated by men with flame throwers. How that relates to the overall concept of my record to be, "Figurative and Literal Opiates," I don't want to entirely spell out.

J.C. Yeah, there are rabbit-holes throughout any project, I think. And people will dive in or they won't. Plus myths spring out of anything. I mean, I don’t know if that’s what Clark was referring to when he yelled “I’m representing centipides, bitch!” but now I’m going to run with that myth. So thanks for the tidbit. And people can attribute meaning to anything. What does this project “mean”?

BTB: Let's just say, as the description at the bandcamp page now says: "'Figurative and Literal Opiates'" is a record about the ways in which we deceive ourselves and others. It is a record about the ways in which we allow our identities to be generated by others, hero worship, and consumer culture. You will probably never hear it." In addition to this, I can say the album relates to concepts such as compulsion, addiction, objectification of human beings and what I perceive to be generally unhealthy patterns in the majority of humanity.

J.C. And this is a project still in progress, right?

BTB: Yes. Didn’t you read the notes I sent you?

J.C. I have people that read things for me these days, Bradley. I am a busy man. I’ve got better things to do. Speaking of, it’s time for my 7am blowjob.

Bradley the Buyer is currently unemployed, malnourished and addicted to benzodiazepines. He spends long hours obsessively staring into computer screens. He is expecting the release of his first full length LP, "Figurative and Literal Opiates" to be released within the coming year. For now, you can keep up to speed with his mixing process by demoing the tracks at http://bradleythebuyer.bandcamp.com. Or check out the finished Bradley albums on Mythos Media.

HoodooEngine interview with Dark Entries mag

Check out the 'english language version' of the interview HoodooEngine just completed with Dark Entries. It's "extreme like Neil Patrick Harris."

Laurie Lipton Interview for Immanence of Myth

I am pleased to share an interview I did with Laurie Lipton for the Immanence of Myth anthology. This is one of the many discussions I had with artists for this book. Her work seemed especially appropriate in regard to many of the themes that run throughout, and it was a good conversation I think. Enjoy, and please subscribe to this blog and look for further publication notes about IoM in 2011!

James Curcio: Do you see exploring these images as a way of actively engaging with the issues behind them? Do you think that process is the same for someone looking at your work in a gallery?

Laurie Lipton: I have been drawing since the age of four. It served as my main means of communicating, so my work has more facets to it than a mere engagement with an “issue.” When I sit down to draw a whole life time of experience comes into play. How do other people engage with my work? Everyone is different. I can only tell you how I personally respond to a work of art. When I see a painting, read a book, or listen to music it is a deeply subjective experience. If the work connects to me it hits me on a number of levels; intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, but not necessarily all three. It speaks to me about the "story" of my life and tells me something about who or where I am. It gives me another piece of myself and or clarifies something I've felt to be true. I feel a sense of self recognition in a good work of art, a “yes! that's it!” moment. I hope to do this for the viewers of my work. Whether I succeed or not is debatable and changes in degree from individual to individual. 

JC: It's amazing how different reactions can be when you put something out into the world. In a way I think it's like having a child. You give it your genes, and have some influence certainly, but as they become a part of the world, I imagine you come to realize that they were never “yours.” I'm imagining based on my friend's experience. Thusfar, my work has been my child... Well, and my cats. Was there a sudden point when you realized “I'm an artist,” or has that always been with you?

LL: I've always drawn and created art, but an Artist seemed like a rarefied Being. I felt it would be too grandiose to crown myself with that title. I traveled a lot between Europe and the USA and you need to fill out a Landing Card every time you pass between countries. I finally wrote in the Occupation section, “Self-Employed Artist,” when I was 26. I remember it distictly. It hit me: “I am an artist!” 

JC: Is there a narrative running behind your work? Do you think it's important for that to explicitly carry through to the audience, or just remain a part of the creation process?

LL: The “story” that ties my work together is from my conscious and unconscious self. My imagery is the result of many associations, thoughts, feelings... I think in images. They come to me easily. I have never experienced an artistic block in my life and always have too many drawings lined up in my head and not enough time to do them. I try to remain “true” to my self, not a slave to fashion or influenced by what I believe people would buy. I am trying to be unutterably subjective so that I can come close to a kind of Objective Reality. The creation process is the effort to communicate... not only to an "audience" but to myself. It serves an inner need. If I weren't allowed to create, I believe I would become psychologically, perhaps even physically, ill. 

JC: A couple things that you said just now are interesting to me. First off, you said you are embracing the subjective so as to reach the objective. These two things are often shown as diametrical opposites, certainly the myth of objectivity is most commonly related to science and mathematics. Can you expand a bit on what you mean by that?

LL: Why do myths and legends, written thousands of years ago, still affect us today? How can a work of art by a dead Italian Catholic man in Renaissance Europe speak to a live Jewish girl in 21st century New York? What makes certain things reach beyond their time and culture? I believe it is because the artist somehow hit a core subjective truth within himself. All of humanity, from the beginning of history, has experienced certain fears, yearnings, questions. Look at The Epic of Gilgamesh: thousands of years ago mankind was asking “why am I here, what is the meaning of all this?” just as we are today. So the personal becomes the Universal, the subjective becomes Objective… to a degree. 

JC: And we define ourselves by how we answer that question, yes. That's one of the reasons I decided to organize this anthology. With as much has been said about myth and the arts, it oftentimes gets framed as separate from daily life. When a person or place gets mythologized, it takes on an element of being “other,” or leaves this world altogether. But ground zero for myth is our daily lives. It's very interesting to me that you can go so far into the “inside” as an artist you can wind up communicating to thousands or millions from your hermit cave. These are difficult things to talk about sensibly. Are there any processes that you use to try to access what you call your unconscious self? It's very mysterious how art seems to constantly shore up material from those liminal states, between waking and sleep, living and dying, and so on. Also, these seem to be themes that come up quite frequently in your work...
  

LL: I live a very simple, solitary life. Monks and mystics usually had direct access to their God because there were no distractions. I find that I need to be alone to be able to "sink" into my work. If I know that I will be going out in the evening or that someone is stopping by sometime during the day, I can't really let go and draw. It's a very strange, sometimes hard, existence. Most times it is sheer bliss. I am cut off from reality in order to get at Reality. Being on my own is the only way I can let rip and expose my underbelly Self. This way of life would drive most people insane but as I am already off my proverbial trolley, I'm perfectly safe. 

JC: That's true of many artists. On the more technical end, I'm curious about the process you use to get such detail.
  
LL: Simple: I sit for hours and work my butt off.

JC: I don't doubt that a bit. When composing a piece, do you envision the image ahead of time- like that idea of sculpture existing somehow "inside" unhewn stone, or is it more of an exploratory process?
  
LL: I keep small sketch books around or near me and either write out images in words as they appear in my head, or do a tiny, quick sketch. Then I let them simmer. I play with the composition for a while. When I feel fired enough to actually put an image down on a large piece of paper, the basics are there. For example: a woman standing in a living room. The details are not yet formed (i.e. the woman's face, her clothing, the furniture). I suppose it is similar to a writer composing a story: he sees the characters and the situations, but then has to dive in to get at the core, the meat of it all. Forgive the metaphor mix. Once I surround myself with the drawing, it becomes clearer to me bit by bit. It reveals itself to me slowly and I have to be patient. If I hurry or force anything, I cut off the life-flow and it dies. So to answer your question: it is both. 

Laurie Lipton was born in New York and began drawing at the age of four. She was the first person to graduate from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania with a Fine Arts Degree in Drawing (with honours). She has lived in Holland, Belgium, Germany and France and has made her home in London since 1986. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the USA.
    Lipton was inspired by the religious paintings of the Flemish School. She tried to teach herself how to paint in the style of the 17th century Dutch Masters and failed. When traveling around Europe as a student, she began developing her very own peculiar drawing technique building up tone with thousands of fine cross-hatching lines like an egg tempera painting. “It's an insane way to draw,” she says, “but the resulting detail and luminosity is worth the amount of effort.”

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