The Universal Operating System

When I made this drawing for Enlightenmeant Cartoons in mid-September, I had no idea what changes were upon me.  At the time I saw it as a commentary on our daily dependency upon devices which seem to rule our world rather than serve it. Little did I know that in a split moment I would be unwillingly and unwittingly introduced to the ways in which I myself acted as such a device, forgetting my true purpose and the greater system to which I am connected. 

Ever since I became aware of this particular situation I have been trying to deal with it, struggling to bring things under control. Those words: trying, struggling, and control all indicate that I am going against the stream of energy that is natural, Life itself.  It's as if instead of sitting beside the stream to admire the flow of life as the leaves fall and flutter off the trees without worry or concern, the woman in the cartoon decides she should run around and try to tape all the leaves to the branches, and stop the stream from flowing. That would be impossible.  

I am reminded of a simple song I sang to a group of wise men and women when I first presented my views on Creative Being.  The struggling self would see a return to an earlier time as a setback. Therein would be the error of the ways that separate us from the flow of life.  There are no setbacks, there is nowhere to progress.  Make that: There is Now/Here to progress.  

There is only to Be in the moment without history or herstory as the case may be, and let the flow of life through rather than block and damn it in (literally and verbally). In this way, like changing seasons and currents, we move effortlessly through a beautifully simple and constant system of operating...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

If you're making it hard, turn around and go with the flow.

Namaste',

Pic;)

I am thinking of hosting a wisdom group for those who want to share and discuss running the Universal OS and witnessing change and life from a natural perspective. Check it out on fb

Less is More

I liked rendering this month's Enlightenmeant cartoon in pencil instead of pixels.  I usually draw the original cartoon then snap a photo, email it to myself and digitally embellish it with shading as I pop it into it's box to send off to the publisher.  This month however I needed to take my time and feel the graphite as it scraped the surface of the paper.  As a rule, my drawings and paintings are meant to change meaning with the viewer, but for me this one is so metaphorical I thought I'd share what I had in mind when I drew it up. 

The traffic-filled nature of this scene is indicative of just how packed in things can get when we start thinking too much.  It's easy to get stuck in the traffic of our thoughts.  Thankfully, my little Yogi dude showed up and reminded me to let go and free myself of the sheer weight of thought upon thought upon thought.  Less thought makes space for a little peace, a sly smile, a bit of wisdom to come on through.
Next time you're driving through your thoughts like its the five o'clock rush hour, turn down the noise and take a deep breath and repeat the mantra: less is more, less is more.  Peacefully yours, Pic;)

Embracing Uncertainty

I like the gooey textures in this image.  They are like a mix between melted chocolate and a black hole, strewn with copper and gold icing.  It's part of some experiments I've been running with textures.  This one came from crumpled giftwrap worked through a liquify tool on Photoshop Elements.  It seems what went into it, and how it turned out, exemplify the reasons why embracing uncertainty is so important in fully living this life/being creative. 

Nineteen Out of One Hundred

I don't have the time to draw it right now, but I'm imagining this cartoon where a confused character is scratching his head whilst looking at a picture of President Obama and muttering, "But I thought Jimmy Carter was president."  What's behind this cartoon?

Thirty six years ago things were so much like they are today (with the exception of who was president) that one of the most often quoted lines in movie history (ranking 19 out of 100) was first heard in the 1976 film Network.  In it, news anchor Howard Beale states:

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! We know things are bad - worse than bad, They're crazy!" 

At the end of his tirade, Beale tells his television viewing audience he isn't going to recommend they riot, or call their congressman, and he admits he doesn't know how to fix any of the problems.  Instead, he tells them they have to value their life and get mad as hell.  He tells them to get up out of their chairs, go to their windows, open them and shout: 

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"   

Believe it or not, that's not what started the idea for the cartoon, but it works. The point is nothing ever changes except us.  In truth, nothing really exists except the ability to perceive.  How we look at things determines if the world is hopelessly dismal or as Howard Beale offers the only hope we have to effect real change in the world.

In addition to the presidential primaries and race this year, there are plenty of ways our attention may be hooked out of the power of the present moment, and diverted to fuel the planetary dream of loss, lack and limitation.

Like the vote, it may seem like a right or a responsibility to get hooked up in the world.  There are many who would say it's as "mad as hell" (read: insane) to consider doing otherwise, but that's what I'm suggesting based on my own long, long history of not being able to make anything better by focusing on how bad it is.

Lets all get mad as hell: smile inside, keep our outlook open, and to all that is dark and negative, happily shout out, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"  Forget what 'everybody knows', let's choose instead to create heaven in as many moments as we can.

links:   A great clip from the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew  full text at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Network_(film) (Two good reasons SOPA shouldn't go through as written.)

With gratitude to mom and dad for helping me see what's really important. 

A Shift in Consciousness

 

Just when I thought  (that's always the first sign of trouble).  Just when I thought I was getting used to this ever-so-often and strangely changing world, it changed in a way I wasn't expecting it to change. Google sent me a message about how I had missed my chance to renew the domain name for this blog.  When I clicked the link to make the transaction I found out I couldn't do it until I sent pictures of my driver's license and paperwork including a copy of this year's tax return (really?)!  Happily I saw the expectations and mounting frustration before they fully crossed the threshold of my mind.  When they knocked, I chose to let them go before they pulled up a chair and stayed too long.  That wasn't so hard because that meant I wouldn't have to pay godaddy a whopping fee to rescue my old domain name, AND I could have fun securing a new name!  I love shopping domain names!  

EnlightenmeantCartoons.com will soon be the new name for my blog.  I like drawing these cartoons which are so very different from my fine art.  Actually, what's in my cartoons is in my fine art, it just looks different.  Out of respect to the humongous disasters that make my little life challenges look like a day at the mall, I defer to Google and introduce my new blogspot aptly named Enlightenmeant Cartoons & Miscellaneous Musings.  I suppose this would be one of those miscellaneous musings.  

New Work! Not so miscellaneous, are the other changes that I have begun settling into.  I've been really busy teaching for more than a year and have been making a lot of choices about how I wish to spend my creative energy. My fine art has been given priority even as I have to wiggle it into my schedule.  Right now I'm eating, sleeping and dreaming new works. Paperworks, are sculpted paper canvases which you can see at cpicmichel.com.  The work in progress is titled Tsunami and I should be finishing it up in the next couple weeks.  It measures 7 feet by 30 inches by roughly 6 inches deep here and there.  It has been a consuming bit of work and I know this is the direction I will be travelling for awhile.  It feels so good, takes so long, and pleases me so much.  

There's a whole lotta' changes going on in the world these days.  Better to work with them than against them.

The Mastery of Chaos

Chaos is at the core of every creative endeavor including those that may not seem so creative such as taking a breath. There are few who are willing to take on the mastery of chaos, though everyone is capable, having their roots in chaos. The process of conception, gestation and birth is quite chaotic, cells splitting, transforming, appendages growing, the potential for a good life developing. Few would leave such important work to a still developing child, and yet, that is what chaos is all about.  Chaos is a state of not knowing, nothing being in place, the good and bad of it as yet undefined, a lack of safety and stability.  For the most part, the world isn't set up to deal with chaos, though the world wouldn't exist without it. Life is too often concerned with avoiding chaos, and how good one's life is, is often determined by one's ability to put out fires.  Yet, chaos is invited in every time we start something, from the first idea throughout the process.  One can't create stability without sorting through chaos. Throughout the creative process, one's work can look chaotic, ugly, even unrecognizable at times, on the way to completion.  Instead of finding chaos unacceptable, artists learn to appreciate chaos on canvas and in life.  The mastery of chaos makes room in our lives for more than we know, a new place beyond good and bad.  From personal to professional life, learning to balance and benefit from chaos creates the ultimate peace of mind.  Practice makes mastery.  Get the gifts of chaos at the Heart Studio.


image: courtesy of erix!'s Photostream at flickr.com