Household Apocalypse album

Some of you may not know that I also make sound compositions, under the artist name of "Altocumulus." This is in the realm of what the Europeans used to call "musique concrete" or "found sound music." I record sounds in the environment or sounds made by striking, dropping, or scraping household objects like pot lids and glass jars. I also use sounds recorded through my windows or on my terrace as background. Then I add more sounds from my software synthesizer, the excellent Macintosh "GarageBand." Smoosh 'em all together and you've got sound pictures, some noisy and some quieter.

Today, December 7, is the release day for my first album of new musique concrete. I was active as an electronic music maker 40 years ago, and now after all those years I'm back at it with a modern digital microphone and software synthesizers. "Household Apocalypse" is eight pieces of sound-collage. I hope that each one evokes a mood and a non-verbal story, whether apocalyptic or scary or eerie or even humorous, or a combination of all of it.

The picture here is the "cover" of the album. It's a photo of a jumble of my kitchen things, many of which I used as sources for the sounds in the pieces.

"Household Apocalypse" is FREE to download on the "Just Not Normal" Net-label, based in the Netherlands and presided over by the excellent Mark "Mystahr" Stolk. Many thanks to Mark and to my friends at Stillstream.com who encouraged me to make noise again after so many years.

Geburah, King of Mars

During my esoteric studies in the mid-80s I came across a book, "The Book of Celestial Images," by A.C. Highfield, which was filled with colorful and highly imaginative descriptions of esoteric entities. There were angels and archangels, embodiments of Kabbalistic Hebrew letters, visualization keys, and characters both good and evil. Each sephirah, or station, on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life had a guardian character who could be visualized by the imagination of the esoteric worker. This image here is the one for "Geburah," the fifth of the Sephiroth and the one standing for Mars and martial power. This mythical concept has a long history in Western culture and has many correspondences, such as the planet Mars, iron, weapons, pentacles, and in general the color red, which comes from iron's rust.

Highfield's book was the source of many of my illustrations of that period. I did them in a kind of "storybook" style, influenced by late 19th century Russian illustration. I loved this sort of Western Esoteric practice because there were so many pictures to imagine. I'm not good at a spirituality which doesn't have a lot of images. I painted three of Highfield's Kabbalistic figures but for some reason never painted the other seven, though he describes them in the book. I've still got the book, so you never know when I might get Kabbalistic again.

"Geburah" is ink and watercolor on Fabriano paper, 5" x 9", January 1985. Click on the picture for a larger image.

Wine Violet Hills of Virginia

My Saturday wine destination this week was Delaplane Cellars in Delaplane, Virginia. This is in the Piedmont, the foothills of the Shenandoah Appalachians. The winery is on a hill and is situated for the best view. People like the same view that grapes do. Their lovely wine tasting building is only a year old, and young vines adorn the hill, reflecting the rapid increase in Virginia wine development. Their "Cinq" five-variety red blend is particularly nice. These colored pencil and ink sketches were done in the wine hall in the early evening, while sipping Cinq and eating rustic home-baked bread.

Angry Little Red Square

This is the way I feel about my art right now, I want to make lavish Photoshop scenes with barely clad Amazon warrioresses and glitzy spaceships, but all I come up with when I say "Speedpaint!" is this, which is considered "Self-Expression." If I can't draw figures, well, I'll make them out of geometric shapes. I sort of like this little guy anyway. Some folks say he reminds them of a cinnamon Chiclet but we haven't had those confections in many many years. Angry Little Red Square needs motivation and self-management skills. Eventually he'll get up and trundle away. Brought to you by Photoshop.

Constructing Figures

Here's yet another page of my perpetual efforts to draw human figures. These don't look so bad, but before you congratulate me for my improvement (not) I must admit that these drawings are copied out of my Chris Hart book, complete with the construction shapes that Hart uses to make bodies, such as little circles for the joints and a bent oval for the torso. I'm copying most of the drawings in the book. It's a way to learn, though not as good as drawing live models, because the Artists say that nothing is as good as drawing live models. These are idealized commercial-style drawings anyway, note the high heels on the lady figures. I've drawn a lot of live models in my time, and not a single one of them ever wore high heels while posing.

In my few moments in art school back in the 70s, that kind of thing would be despised. Anything that even hinted at "commercial" was rejected, and anything from POP CULTURE was totally out of the Artistic sphere. Whenever I hear of someone learning comic book art or fashion drawing or illustration or animation at some non-art-school university, I do this double take, and I think, When did THAT happen? Isn't my art supposed to be devoid of anything but classical realism and lofty abstractions? But I think that about a lot of things, like the cellphones that everyone, yes, everyone but me, has with them every moment of their lives. When did THAT happen? It's my fault for living so long.

Old School Santa Klaus

At Trader Joe's this year, our sign team has done masonite cut-out figures of Santa, elves, snowmen, Christmas trees, reindeer, sleigh, and piles of gifts. This is my latest effort in that regard, an "old-school" European style "Father Christmas" elf. He's holding a Covered Dish which contains stew made from Trader Joe's ingredients. It's for a Church Potluck Supper in the Elven Midwest.

Acrylic markers on Masonite, about 3 feet tall.

Gaia the Earth Goddess

During the late 80s I hung out with a community of esotericists, pagans, and Grateful Dead fans. It sounds more hip than it was, since all of these people were also either graduate students or workers in high tech or other upper-echelon jobs, and they lived in suburbs or cities, not in hippie communes. These folks inspired a lot of art from me, some of which was good and some of which was not. This is one of the better ones, though the photo isn't very clear. It's based on a real person, who I used as a model many times. She had the face of a Renaissance Italian Madonna, and golden fluffy hair. She also had a big blue dress which was just right for many Goddess or Marian concepts. I took many photographs of her in that dress, storing up image stock for whatever Virgin Mary or Earth Goddess I would do in the future.

This is one of the paintings which came of that photo session. In this, she is Gaia the Earth Mother, taking care of planets and an idyllic Earth. The child and the cat in this image didn't exist. I put them there to suggest a family which she might have in years to come. After exhibiting the picture, I gave it to her and her husband. I suppose they still have it. I lost contact with all of these folk over the years, though I know that my model went on to have two children, who looked nothing like the child in this picture. They still live near me in Northern Virginia, but I haven't seen them in more than fifteen years.

"Gaia, the Earth Goddess" is gouache on Strathmore bristol board, 13" x 15", January 1988.