tshirts, drawings, and comics

Systems within Systems: How it all began...

Systems within Systems: How it all began...: "So I’m in the kitchen chopping vegetables for dinner, trying to find the best words to convey my “oh-so-brilliant-plan-at-the-time” idea to ..."

ART is a waste of time

As i sit in this closet of a room in bedstuy, my new indefinite "home" slash studio, i keep thinking about my upcoming art projects. i have a number of blank canvases and several large pads of heavy paper, a lighting fixture with two harshnesses of lightbulbs that last for seven years, and a minifridge of beer. the way i get ideas for what to make next on my 2d surfaces is this: i stare at a blank object and i get these flashes of figures and colors, of symbols and a sleuth of other things ive seen over the years all jumbled into some flash of coherent order. i get excited and think more about how this painting will look.

And then i remember that i have bills and i need to check my youtube subscription updates, and my facebook updates, and my gmail, and my droid. and then i usually put on a movie on netflix instantwatch and burn 2 or 3 hours feeling depressed that i didnt take that moment with the flash and the excitement and just start working.

This happens a lot and i wish it wouldnt. and it probably happens because at that moment of excitement i remember all the other times i do work hard and create something cool, some detailed drawing with a strong presence, or that colorful painting of the psychadelic influence, or that mysterious thing im not sure how i arrived at but it gives me pleasure to know it now exists in the world; even if it is filling up a spare room in my parents' house, or in a pile under the couch collecting dust, or in a sketchbook rarely noticed and never opened on the bookshelf.

What im trying to get at is that, like so many of my fellow creative acquaintances who have not gotten a break or plugged into some market and are forced to find some other means of just barely scraping bye in an overpriced city (because you need to be in the city to make it, even if you cant afford it), i put so much work into this, and get nothing tangible back. it is soo frustrating to put in so much effort and time and money, and get minimal enjoyment from the process, but wish only to be rewarded by the world enough to live a modest means. nobody cares. a handfull of teenager comments (which i must be terribly thankful for) on my archive website jamespost.net (which has over 2 dozen pages of art going back to middleschool) ... and i hear this all the time from others, that we put in so much time and effort and money and get back nothing. absolutely nothing. and in the back of my mind i am hoping that although these were made years ago and i have kept them, they may be sold off in the future, that i keep my art hoping that one day it will pay off so i can live a modest way, and have a venue or purpose with it so that at least the world will tell me that it wasnt a waste of time, all those hours and evenings and sacrifice. because im introverted and have to make an effort to show and discuss my work and hit the social night scene and talk myself up, and hit the bar and try to meet new people and network, and get them interested in what im doing. and create events surrounding my work and use facebook and other social networks to create buzz and interest and hope that all this effort wasnt a waste of time and that i will get something back. and i will be able to make a career on it and be able to support my family, and get my wife to accept me again, and to be happy.

years ago i presented an even less clear case of this to an old artist who was supposed to be teaching me something, who i was racking up tens of thousands of dollars in debt with 6 consecutive years of art school, who told me once that it never ends, and the day never comes, and even when something tangible does come back and something affectionate comes back to you, there is still nothing and it is still a waste of time and we as artists are never allowed, never given permission to stop hurling all our love out to the world, yelling IM HERE!, yelling to nobody and hearing no response. and yet, as i live on this bed now in a new chapter of my minuscule art-making career, i look at the blank canvas. and i get excited.

youthfist

yang tai chi 1st chapter

Shaolin 5 Animal Form

Hung Gar (Second Form) from Donglai Gong on Vimeo.

Hung Gar (Form) from Donglai Gong on Vimeo.

Hung Gar (Form Part 2) from Donglai Gong on Vimeo.

The Human Temple

"Human Temple"

Transcribed by James Post

The Original Video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG22t7ksI0o

Kalev: So saying what you’re saying about being a part of the collective unconscious of creation, do you feel that the individual ego gets in the way of that?

Sifu Hill: You know, you look at Shaolin, and the idea of evolution as a human being, people really have a misconception of what it’s representing. True Shaolin is lost. Even the temples fell because of politics and people attaching to things. I think now we have an opportunity because the world has become so small. Through the internet, through being able to communicate, we have an opportunity now to really blossom and grow, to really experience what we can be. As an organization we can just evolve from that. But first, true Shaolin is really stripping away the ego. You know, it’s almost like getting naked in front of your partner.

When you think about sex on a different term, the vulnerability in sexual acts is amazing, because it’s two people at the most vulnerable point of their lives just coming together as a team. So if you’re not looking at it as a matter of lust or pleasure, the vulnerability of two people just showing themselves to one another in their most vulnerable part of their lives is amazing. Just stripping everything down and just being there takes on a different meaning. When you look at ego the same way, put it in its place, and just strip it down first confronting all the things that make you uncomfortable.

When you’re standing in front of a person you’re challenging or moving against, true sparring is not about beating the person. It’s about becoming the person. And that way you learn about wood element, you learn about earth element, you learn about fire element metaphorically speaking, you know, what they represent, and what they represent to you. That brings you into all the elements, which brings you into void and into endless creation. Because we are always recreating ourselves and that’s the goal. If you become happy in the sense of where you are, that’s a nice thing. That would be great, I would love that, you know, but it’s always about a journey. It’s always about recreating the self. Really understanding the self.

So yeah, I think ego, whatever that may be, has to be something that you confront and deal with. The human race is great because we’ve survived up to this point because of that. But now we’re at a point where we really need to break down those egos and move beyond the brain stem. And get more into the material and what the mind is and what it represents. To me we’re still in our survival mode and we have all this grey matter that we’re just not using. The brain is just this massive computer, and we have the ability to keep evolving energetically with that. If you look at the universe as a body, and we’re just an organism within the body of self discovery, then you don’t look at the universe as being something that’s just there, you look at everything as being alive. How you move through it and what level you come into understanding, it’s all part of the journey.

Even in the end, if it just ends, then who cares because it doesn’t even matter any more at that point. But it just doesn’t feel right. I don’t think that the universe is that poorly designed. Everything has a level and an awakening of understanding. To me we’re walking in this universe. You have the sun, the most powerful thing that we know. The sun goes, we go. Right? The sun doesn’t know it’s going to go. It doesn’t have a brain and know ok, I’m going to blow up now and kill everything, you know? The cool thing is that you know you’re going to go. As small and as insignificant as you are to that Sun, you have conscious awareness that I’m going to die. That’s cool. To have that level of understanding shows that your energy is alive; it’s a part of something. Everything, I believe, energetically and invisibly, is chi—is interconnected. It’s what you do with that is what allows you to explore that interconnectedness on all the different levels of understanding.

James: There’s a great metaphor of the human vessel being the center of an hourglass where you have all the time of the future in the weight of the sand above, but it’s all passing through you. So really in time aspects, it’s all future, present, and then whatever the mound at the bottom has. But also if you look at it as you’re the macro and microcosm of the universe, where the universe in all of its infinite expansion exists, but really it’s only you experiencing it. And then everything inside you, down to strings or whatever, is a fractal.

Sifu Hill: So why did the universe create you? Because you’re here to experience it. It’s here to experience itself. That to me is what god is. You coexist and are moving with it. You are learning about the god that’s within you. I don’t know because we’re limited with our knowledge to who and what we are and who we are within our society, within our realm. What we think possibly may be after existence. But I don’t have an opinion. Maybe death is nothing more than a perception of where you are and who you are at that time. And that coexistence may be. I don’t know. But I do celebrate that I don’t know. And I like that I don’t know. And therefore, it allows me to know. Because I know that I don’t know nothing. (laughs)

Kalev: and perception can always change.

Sifu Hill: Yeah. Perceptional reality. You’re always growing. Always experiencing, always moving. And that’s what I believe. You know, with the kung fu and the Shaolin and all this—it allows you to challenge it in a way, because there are no absolutes. There are no definites. Only challenge. And when you can really confront, build up enough character and personality to be able to challenge it and face the ramifications of your challenge, and not lie to yourself, then you’re also able to take another step beyond that one. You can’t just say oh, this is it, this is terrible, this sucks and that’s the end of it. No. That’s where you are now in your state of consciousness and your state of being. Now the challenge is moving through it. Some people come to a wall and they hit that wall and they sit down and that’s as far as they go. Some people see that wall and they climb over the wall. I don’t see a wall. All I see is something really little to step over. And when I reach it, it’s just a matter of going *takes tiny step over* and to me, death is the same representation. It’s not a wall. It’s just this little divider that you need to step over. ▪

chi drawings

my framed labor hugs the unpainted stippled walls
with wretched Bodhisattva warrior monks

poised in stone-like contortionist postures
that would break a normal hero

i blow liquid energy over shiny pages
tempting faint, for chaotic ink

then gust scriptorium worthy fu;
a fortnight that would shame an outsider

sam adams

when courting with a slender sam
drink deeply to forget-me-nots
for budding up with friends or fam
needs frosty pints said sam a lots

san mai three the power to be
kydex and paracord robe the sword
grommet and pommel humble when held
wrapped and sheathed, my side in accord

fingering the spine and nail on the grind
thumb locked on jimping, palm around tang
parry, thrust, slash, pierce, gouge, block, slice, cut
seven hours I train, with unsheathed steel fang

the tipsy kitten cowers reflexively
behind the oversized astronomy books

daniel day lewis eats your mustache
while reciting a 5 point buck stomach contents

Bodhisattva warriors overfill the broken elevator
packing in wolvish appetites of chocolate pretzels

basel spires flick crumpled rejects
onto the freshly roombad floor

sam adams winks at you suggestively through
the polished safire crystal of your breitling

the first of many adventures in the mind of natasha! test for a graphic novel..

So this is a first attempt at comic type artwork, not the right layout or inking obviously. however, if you pick up you copy of Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson and turn to the bottom of page 47, you will see that these drawings illustrate it quite well. Basically the Anglo Saxon's dropped a coin with the first written English on it. The coin was found in the '80. Stay tuned for finalized layout and inked, with possible color!

Interview with WHOHUB

Here is my art-related interview with whohub

http://www.whohub.com/postjam#continue

Interview with Interactive Blend

Here is an interview with artist James Post and Interactive Blend.. professing advice to upcoming designers. enjoy.

Tunnel Mantis

praying mantis shaolin kung fu

Chinatown