The healing powers of my friend “Golden Flux” (a.k.a. Michael Saporita): Meditation/Intention Paintings Session 32 : 12/16/09

Over the past 10 months, I have completed 32 meditation/intention painting sessions, where the idea is to sit for a while and listen to myself, and give myself an opportunity to become aware distraction or possible pain or tension.  When I first began these sessions, I would paint with the idea of releasing this tension, or visualizing the pain or distraction and painting imagery that represented it.  Now, after 32 sessions, the focus has become more on giving myself a time to completely focus on making art free of expectation.  To not just jump in and begin painting, distracted and unfocused.  Not to say that meditating for a moment prevents me from being distracted or unfocused, but I’m attempting to at least center my energies and relax the idea that I have to be somewhere else, or need to be accomplishing something else other then allowing myself to create art for an amount of time.  And over these 10 months, I have increasingly enjoyed the process of establishing a new behavior of allowing the art to be created without the idea of expectation, and allowing myself to simply enjoy the process.  Though I notice I still have moments where I wonder, “where are these heading…….am I going to like these when I’m done?”.  And that’s alright, after at least a decade of constantly thinking the paintings I’m working on aren’t going to come around and develop into something I’m going to appreciate in the end, simply trying to open up my process into a more enjoyable one, and allowing myself to become immersed in painting, rather than thinking of the end result, is a welcomed change in my usual art making process.  I’ve made great strides in changing my enjoyment of art making in these last 10 months, and that’s the important thing, to enjoy the process.

These sessions began when I started going to Golden Flux, a.k.a. Michael Saporita.  I first met Michael when my girlfriend Marisa and I went to the Berkeley Sauna last December right before we both went home for Christmas.  We went in for a little treat of a massage and hot tub soaking.  This massage was like no other I had before.  I learned later that any massage I had before was a Swedish style massage, where they dowse you with oil and your naked.  It feels great, but after working with Michael over the past year, I’ve realized the power of Asian bodywork.  He does Tui Na, Acupressure, and many other styles of healing.  When I went to him at the Berkeley Sauna, I didn’t think much of it.  I had had a handful of massages before, and knew I was in for a treat.  But about halfway through the session, I realized something was quite different with this person.  I was feeling for the first time in my life that I was experiencing the power of a true healer.  At the end of the session, I was truly blown away.  I felt truly altered.  Way different than any other massage session I had before.

A few weeks after that, I was talking with Marisa, and I really wanted to figure out why I have been struggling with being overweight.  And what to do about this massive tension in the left, upper-side of my back.  Just having this general sense that I had a lot of stuck energy, and wanting to get to the bottom of it.  So I called Michael up, and asked if I could start doing some sessions with him as part of his private practice.

I believe on our third session, after finding out we were both artists, we began our first meditation/intention painting session.  He had been wanting to start developing a process that combined bodywork, meditation, and the creative process.  So these sessions started to become quite long.  He didn’t charge me more than his normal session for bodywork, because he too was at the same time developing this process and learning from my interaction with it.  So what started out with the two of us, has now become my main process for working on my art.  Not that I have a bodywork session before I start painting, but the idea of focusing my energy so that I am channeling into my art, and beginning to feel less scattered.  If you go through the past 70 posts on my Artblog here, you will see that we’ve had several sessions with the two of us painting together, and also several group painting sessions that have been quite remarkable to be a part of.

Michael recently started his Master’s Degree in Chinese Medicine this fall, so our bodywork/painting sessions have been put on hold for the most part.  But I’m really happy that I’ve met him and that along with doing this work with my body and working on healing, we’ve developed a friendship that I am grateful for.  It’s a wonderful thing to have a friend who is a true healer, and spiritual comrade.  I highly recommend him for bodywork if you are in need of having someone help you.  If you’re interested you can email him at: bodymindwork@hotmail.com, or call at 267-679-6047.

So, the other day Michael called and offered a free bodywork session for Christmas and I felt that in the spirit of our work together and our friendship, I would also offer a gift and make a painting for him.  So I worked on three in the same session and gave him one of the three, “New Growth/New Ideas”.

All three paintings are available in various printed formats on My RedBubble Site.

And also, two of the original paintings are available for sale on My Etsy Site.

New Growth/New Ideas

Settling Down

In This Together

“When The Falcon Sings” available on Amazon.com

To go along with the post below about the second installment of the The Boxer series, you can now go to Amazon.com to buy the “lovely” theme song to the short movie.  There’s a good chance that like me and several of my friends, you will end up singing this song to yourself for days and days.  Enjoy.

The Boxer and The Falcon

A couple weeks ago my friend Shumit and I decided it was time to film the second installment of our “The Boxer” series.  We quickly came up with a rough idea of the plot and began filming.  Below is the results of that weekend.  I had an amazingly fun time writing and recording the theme song for the movie, “When The Falcon Sings” which plays in it’s entirety at the end of the movie.  I think I’ve found my true voice.  You can view the first movie here.

In this latest installment, The Boxer follows his intuition when he hears a disturbing sound coming through the air. He acts on his clairvoyant instinct and searches to end this uncomfortable feeling he has about the near future. Meanwhile, an unsuspecting musician decides he’d like to go play his music in the park. Unbeknownst to him, not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for his music.

Meditation/Intention Painting Session #31: 11/23/09

I’ve been wanting to make some paintings where the main imagery is black, with bright colors underneath. I wanted to take the type of imagery I make when I doodle and keep that simplicity of form in a painting. So these are my first attempt at that style.  I like the immediacy of making a simple image when I spend 10 minutes drawing a doodle.  I’m attempting to blend the doodling with my meditation/intention painting process to further develop the idea of creating art (and music for that matter) in a way where I’m not getting caught up in thinking, I’m just doing.  I spend enough time thinking and stressing about such random things in my daily life, that I’m trying to take that element out of my creative endeavors.

Below each painting is a brief description of the thoughts that come when I look at each image.  If you are interested in purchasing these images as prints, on greeting cards, or as posters, please go to my RedBubble site.  If you are interested in purchasing the original paintings, please go to my Etsy Shop.  Thanks for your interest and finding my ArtBlog.

Spirit Fire

“Spirit Fire” is the energy I feel when I connect with my spirit. I’d like to say this is a continual sensation, but I feel I’m always cultivating a better relationship with my spirit. When I was a child I felt more continually connected to my spirit. When I let my mind calm down I can connect with my spirit. Most times when I make music or art, I connect with my spirit. The “Spirit Fire” is that feeling that comes over me when I know I am connected to my spirit and am able to see clearly my path.

Cyclical Strength

“Cyclical Strength” refers to the strength from experience. From learning lessons and repeating processes and actions. The strength that comes from living both the ups and downs of this life. And to know that we are meant to accept suffering as well as embrace joy. And to keep in mind that all things are cyclical, and when I feel unstable or confused at a point in my life or day, that all things come around and at that moment I may be confused or unfocused, but soon things will circle around and those feelings will soon pass.

A Part of Everything

“A Part of Everything” is a reminder that we are both individual and also a part of the whole. Today it means to me that in the bigger picture, my life is a wonderful contribution to the whole. That whatever woes I have today are very tiny in the bigger picture.

My artwork on Korean Television…….for 10 seconds.

Thought I would share this little clip of my friend Jennifer Phang on Korean TV.  She was director and writer of “Half-Life”.  To learn more about the film, check out it’s Wikipedia Page, here’s an excerpt – “The film premiered in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and has since been touring the American and international film festivals circuits. It premiered internationally in the Tokyo International Film Festival in competition, and then in Europe at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival, also in competition. “Half-Life” was the opening night film for the International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul, Korea. The film will make a theatrical debut in December 1 2009 in selected cities.”

While in Seoul, Jen took part in a television interview, here’s the beginning clip of the interview.  My artwork can be seen between minute 1:06 – 1:16.  A whopping 10 seconds on Korean TV:

My father would be proud……ha.  Also in addition to being able to see the film in select theatres in December, you can also get the film through NetFlix.

I got to see the film when it showed at The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, as part of the 27th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.  I had seen parts of the film before it was finished when I was working on the artwork, but it was so cool to be in a movie theatre and see my art projected up on the big screen.  In total, including the opening credits, my art is up there for about 2 minutes.  It was a cool experience to be a part of.  You can view some the artwork used in the film here.  I still need to upload the second round of paintings onto the site, but you can see the first round.

Experimenting with ways to get exposure to my artwork….

Hello my massive amount of people who read this blog…….Ok, I think the most readers I’ve had on one day is about 21.  So since you’re reading this you should feel special.  You are one of the chosen few who found an interest in my artwork.   Ahem, alright back to the subject of the post.  I decided to give submitting to an Etsy Showcase another shot.  I’m experimenting with different ways to get people exposed to my artwork, and thought I’d pay the fee to get included in today’s “Art:Painting Showcase” on Etsy.com.

I’m really trying to figure out how I can sell my artwork online.  I recently listened to an interview between Ramit Sethi and J.D.Roth who are both people who write about personal finance.  They were talking about how they started off their sites and how long it took them to develop an audience.  They also talked about when they started to monetize their sites and how.  They both agreed on the importance of writing good content, which will then attract traffic.

So I started thinking to myself about what this blog is to me and what it is I’m trying to do with it.  It started out as a way for me to document a new painting style I began to develop, which I started calling “Meditation Paintings”.  And along the way over the past 10 months or so, I’ve included other elements of several creative endeavors.  This blog is both for me as a place of reference, and also a way for me to share my creative life with others.  Right now there are links on the right-hand side that direct you to places to buy prints and original works of art, and also a link to some of my music.  But so far, the traffic has been very low.  Which in one hand is fine, I didn’t go into expecting to draw a large audience.  Though, now I’m wanting to share my creative projects with more people.  I want this blog to help me get more recognition in the art world.  In my “Time-Lapse Painting Videos“, I put a advertisement for my blog and sites that sell my art in at the end of each video.  And I try and hand out business cards that have the blog’s address on them.  And there are a few people who have found me from searching WordPress.  In keeping with the idea that we can’t control the outcome of our actions, I can find peace with the fact that I put in a lot of time posting work on different sites, and trying to get my name out.  This past year alone has seen me create and share more artwork than possibly any year of my life.

I’m just trying to reach out and say, “hello, how does one get their art recognized online?”

Coming back to mentioning the personal finance gurus, I brought it up because they were writing about, well, personal finance, which all of us are interested in to some degree and need information on it to help us better understand our situations.  So if I were to want to find out about personal finance, I would come to find their blogs.  So how do I shape my blog so that people find it.  Not that I’m going to stop documenting my creative endeavors, but I think I need to start writing about my personal journey on becoming a professional artist.  And the questions that come up on a daily basis.  So this showcase I put my art in today cost me a whopping $7.  It’s the second time I’ve put my stuff in there.  So far it’s created a bit more traffic, but still no purchases.  Too high a price, not the right format (meaning, should I just be selling prints on Etsy?).  Anywho, that’s my post today.  Hope your day is going well.  Now back to that illustration I’m working on of a guy in a canoe going down a blueberry river…….

So, take a look around and let me know what you think.  Here’s a link to : my Etsy shop.

13 years later…………..one of my prints finds resurrection

So a few months ago my life-long friend John Norman asks me if I have any extra prints of the image below, “New Birth New Family”.  I wasn’t sure what he needed it for, considering I was fairly certain he already had a print of it at his home.  I didn’t think a whole lot about it.  I figured one of his kids had maybe damaged it, or maybe he was going to do something with it.  Since he lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan at Ripley-Grier Studios, a place frequented by “celebrities”, I thought maybe he’s selling it to someone, or submitting it into some art show he saw.  At the same time, I thought, why is he asking for something I made back in 1996 during my senior year at The College for the Creative Studies?  Why not ask for something I’ve done recently?  So I packed up the print he asked for which was in a frame and I sent it to him.  I kept asking over the next couple months what he was doing with it and he kept telling me I had to wait and see.  I didn’t think much about it, but remained curious.

Then my friend Mike Glendinning asked if I’d design his new CD packaging.  We went over ideas, and he wanted to see a variety of artwork I had made in the past.  So I sent him to some examples of my artwork and of all the pieces he saw there and on a couple other sites, he picked the same piece my friend John had asked for.  This was so odd, that in this short time period, two people were interested in the same print that I made 13 years ago.  So as I finished designing Mike’s CD packaging, my friend John finally announced what he had done with my print.  He got it tattooed full size on his arm!  Amazing…….

Yet another example that you can’t control the outcome of your actions.  You can only put forth the effort and have an idea of the intention.  Below is the original print, then the tattoo photos, and finally the CD packaging.

 

Make a painting, sell it a few days later…….I like that

So, I created the painting “Completing Circles” on a Tuesday and sold it on a Friday.  That is a first.  The painting is posted below as a photo, and also as a time-lapse video, but here is a tiny photo in case you’re coming across this post as a single post.

Completing Circles : (Time-Lapse Painting Video #8) : 9/8/09

Here it is….enjoy.

Too see more of my “Time-Lapse Painting Videos” go to : www.youtube.com/user/joncooneymusic

“Completing Circles” : Meditation/Intention Painting Session #30 : 9/8/09

My idea when I started this painting was how I’m trying to complete the circles I start in my life. Everything from calling someone I need to call, getting my artwork in different galleries, spiritual & psychological changes/cycles, achieving goals, and many other projects that get started and not completed. So I was making this as a call to myself to try and complete the circles in my life I’m still aware of.

Like most of my paintings I’ve put up here so far, it was done with a meditation/intention process I’ve been cultivating with my friend and bodyworker. It started as a way to approach loosening up my artmaking process. Our idea has been to simply to have the intention of making art, the “doing”, and to try and let go of the pressure to create something of importance and to forget about the outcome and enjoy the process of creation.

If you’re interested in purchasing any of my original paintings or prints of my artwork, pleas check out : www.JonCooneyArts.etsy.com, or www.redbubble.com/people/joncooney

And don’t forget to check out the “Time-Lapse Painting Video” I made while painting this piece which is posted right above this posting.