This is how everything starts. A scribble that only makes sense to me.

After a fair amount of internal debate and prodding by close friends and family, I have decided to talk about the thought process that ultimately becomes the work itself.

My newest piece which you can see the beginnings of below has to do with lack and limitation and my belief that they are only illusions of the mind that the individual “buys” into.

To better understand this thought process I will need to give you some side info. An open mind will be needed for this. I will try my best to keep it quick.

Quantum Physics is the mathematical study of sub atomic particles, it has already proven to us that beneath protons, neutrons, and electrons you get one giant energy field that produces vibrations. That’s it; all of reality is one giant energy field. There is no difference from inside my skin to the air between us to the space inside your skin, it is all one giant energy field. Everything is one.

We also know that human thought waves can be measured. Furthermore, human thought waves do not dissipate. This means every human thought that has ever been thought is still out there just as strong as the moment it was conceived. The real kicker is, that it is the sum of individual’s thoughts that becomes the architecture of their existence.

Your conscious choices/decisions dictate your subconscious beliefs/expectations and in turn, the subconscious will dictate your reality. You follow?

Already, one can see that looking at their surroundings for a basis for what “is” will only lead to a redundancy of action, because you will be given more of what “is.” Sound familiar. It is the act of imagination, consciously leading you to a different tomorrow. Take a moment to think about the ones we as a culture consider to be great. They all had a dream or a vision. They all were able to make something out of nothing, because they were consciously projecting a new future instead of basing their reality off of what already “was.”

Your reality will meet you at the level of your beliefs and expectations.

Okay, back to the piece.

Here’s the concept, I believe we are unknowingly buying into (with the currency of belief and expectation) lack and limitation through cultural, social, and racial codes. We know that the great ism’s of the world are not universal, and if they are not universal, they don’t have to happen to you. Not every African American has been the victim of racism, not every woman has been the victim of sexism, and individuals from both groups have attained the highest levels that our society has to offer. CEO’s of fortune 500 companies, leaders of countries, UN leaders, etc, I guess that the glass ceiling must not be universal, too. Just because a certain illness runs in your family doesn’t mean you will die from it. I am not denying their existence I am only stating that lack and limitation only affect those who believe into their experience.

We have been handed down ways of thought that are nothing more than lack and limitation in disguise. Don’t even bother getting angry at your parents or anyone else for that matter because almost everyone has been handed the same crap, and it’s been handed out for quite a awhile. Furthermore, you are just going to waste your time and energy being angry over this when you could be diving inside your consciousness looking for and dissolving these limiting thoughts. Thus moving on with whatever you want out of life.

Thoughts like “ anything that can go wrong will go wrong,” and “hope for the best and plan for the worst,” are examples of these limiting thoughts. Beliefs in social and racial stereotypes, class systems, certain procedures of action, and most of all the “white picket fence” way of life all are examples of thoughts that hold you down and keep you in your cultural jail cell. If you believe that that is the only way it can be, then that’s how it will be, but if you believe that there are limitless ways of attaining your goal. Then you will be provided accordingly. What happens when, your “jail cell” starts to become translucent and you start to see life as limitless potential? What happens when you start to believe in your potential as your reality and you start to live it? What happens then?

So, this is the thought thread I had developed and I was very happy with this being the basis of the piece. I was ready to move on to the next step. Until I was out riding my fixie around and this line of thought zipped right into my head.

“What about the concept good and bad? Or even the concept of evil? Aren’t they just points of view? One can create an angry god for this experience and suffer the appropriate consequences and the others will not. And who gets to choose who is right anyways?” Morality under whose codes of conduct, and just because you have chosen those codes and taken them upon yourself, why must they be projected to all the others.

Is it possible for the moral majority to be wrong?

Yeah… and ultimately everything is just an energy field with no points of reference. The concept of space and time start to become far less concrete and more “modes of thought” as Einstein put it.

Son of a Bitch!…how far down the rabbit hole would you like to go, Alice.

Here’s the progression of my newest piece. I am really happy with the way it is coming together. Life is wonderful here in Tucson. The University is out for the summer and the monsoon’s just arrived. My daily routine creating the next piece, yoga, riding my fixed gear, and spending time with loved ones is in full effect.

If you scroll down a bit you will be able to see the skeleton rendering for this piece.

One of the unique signs of summer here in Tucson is the palo verde beetle. Usually we don’t see these huge boogers until monsoon season. When they start flying around looking for a mate. I have seen my share of young women headed towards Fourth ave, all dolled up, instantly take off running and screaming and best of all slapping themselves because one of these beetles buzzed their head. It’s classic. They won’t hurt you, they just want to get busy and die. It works for them.

To be fair, I’ve run from my fair share of these guys. What can I say, when one of these buzzes your head, you do what every one else does. Run away screaming and slapping everything in your way.

I found this while cleaning out my digital camera. This is the final step in my process, staining and sealing the frame. This time I opted for epoxy resin, two birds one stone.

click on image to see larger image

Every situation, under all circumstances, brings with it a unique series of choices in need of answers. These answers will create the hoops we all jump through in life. When I was a valet, or when I made pizza the day-to-day hoops I had to jump through were far different from the ones I currently jump through as an artist. Similarly, the choices I was faced with while making tattoo needles are nothing like those I must make now. The only difference between the Hunter that existed then and the one that exists today is that I consciously choose to make different decisions from those I made in the past. To break this concept down even further, our current state is the culmination of all of the decisions that we have ever made. Within every moment that passes (whether it’s conscious or sub conscious) our mind is making a multitude of decisions. This includes everything from the regulation of our heart rate to what words we use to communicate effectively. From the moment we are born and our mind decides to take that first breath, until our current state…everything is choice. As you start to reflect upon your own life, you will quickly start to see the choices that brought you happiness and the ones that did not. Only you will be able to determine which is which. Eventually, you will be able to see that the choices you have made in the past have led you directly to where you are standing at this moment.

So, to apply this concept to the so-called “real” world. You don’t have to look very hard to find people who are unhappy with their lot in life. Instead of making different choices and creating new hoops that become more pleasant (or god forbid enjoyable), most people rail against the undesirable hoops with all of their anger and emotion only to create more of the exact same situation. I spent eight years working as many as three day jobs at once while painting at night, murderously hating every hoop that was not to my liking. It was not until I understood that it was me and only me who had created each and every dispised hoop. I had discovered that I have the power to create new, more enjoyable hoops, through consciously being aware of the choices I am making right now and how they will affect my future. Without exception, all of the hoops we jump through in life we have already created, but you can create any hoop you desire

I will have this ready for prints a soon as I can.

here is the skeleton for my next piece. I should have the final pics and toughts of my owl piece up by wednesday.

I wanted to show you the behind the scenes of my work.

Another beautiful panel made for me at Deadwood Framing here in Tucson. Their craftmanship is unbelieveable. I am very thankful to work with them.

After the rendering process is done I cut everything out.

For many reasons, I make a tent to do all of the pouring in. Since I live and work in the same space you can see it takes a bit of ingenuity to make it all work smoothly. Well, it’s been a lot of trial and error. Luckily I am to the point now where error is minimal and someday it will be nonexsistent.

With each layer I glue and paint whatever is needed. The dog is my new 7 month old puppy named Maxwell.

Slowly, layer by layer the piece comes together. I am not kidding about the space, this is the extent of my living room, I was trying to finish the layer then do some yoga. I am very proud that I have been able to make this art thing work dispite not always having what is preferred, because the desire to make things work coupled with the creativity to make things work has opened so many doors for me. I have truly reached a point that I believe anything is possible. It’s the potental that excites me.

My birthday was last Friday. Aimee gave me this “árbol de vida” or “tree of life.” I love it.

As the weather heats up here in Tucson and I go to the faucet four or five times a day to fill up the Brita. I continue to think about two things. First, a sense of gratitude for the simple fact that I have a seemingly unlimited amount of clean drinking water that flows from my faucet whenever I desire. Secondly, there are entire groups of people out in the world who currently do not have this luxury. With this simple fact in mind I have decided to donate to Play Pumps International again this month.

For more info please go to www.playpumps.org