Michael Garfield's Love Without End Tour Newsletter: New Paintings & Videos From The Papadosio Tour (And Advice For An Aspiring Live Painter)

17 March 2010

New Paintings & Videos From The Papadosio Tour (And Advice For An Aspiring Live Painter)

Oh, irony! The website hosting my old visionary music blog has been swallowed by a multinational yoga corporation and will soon be no more, so I've been porting old essays over to this blog for safekeeping. One of those essays, my ode to irony (ironically, a critique), apparently squeaked past my filters last night and made it to everyone's inbox. (My mailing list client publishes new blogs and I forgot to use the original date from 2008.) ...not my usual offering, and I hope it didn't bother anyone but the five people who unsubscribed (deconstructionists have no sense of humor).

(In related news, check the blog's archives for a growing refugee library of older writing, on topics from tantric listening to the ethics of funeral playlists, from engineering consciousness with sound to creating an enlightened music industry.)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it; moving on!


I just spent three days roaming about the ski towns of Colorado with Athens, Ohio supergroup (oh they are, you just don't know it yet) Papadosio and producer/drummer/VJ Anthony Fugate (he does all three at the same time...for real). Not only excellent musicians, but excellent people. And I think you can tell I was in good company by the work that came through me:

Tactile
2010 03 04 & 03 06 Ghost Ranch Saloon & Ullr's Tavern
(Papadosio, Octopus Nebula, AFugate)
18"x36" - opaque pens on masonite

Got tired of merely updating old paintings, as well as working on surfaces with the same 3:2 ratio, so I shook things up a little (a very little) for this one. Someone said it looks like Alex Grey does The Grinch. Well, shucks - now I can't get that out of my head. Click on it for a better look.

Not really sure which way the hands are facing, here. This one goes out to the band, Papadosio...I'll be working with them a lot more for sure. Wonderful. And this one was sold the night of the show, but that guy disappeared (as is unfortunately often the case) so it's available again, if you're wondering.

Before

After
Harmonic Decomposition of a Square
2010 03 05 & 2009 06 05 Finnegan's Wake & Wakarusa
(Papadosio, AFugate & The Egg, Telepath,
Heavy Pets, Heavyweight Dub Champion)
24"x24" - opaque pens on masonite

Just cuz I once called it complete doesn't mean I can't change my mind; what is this, Deism? It needed some more of the feminine in there, it being a matrix and all. Plus, it was nice to have something I could more or less mindlessly just go hyper-intricate with. Not sure how appropriate it all was in the Irish pub, but that was a strange night all around.

This one goes out to Jess Van Antwerp for taking good care of my car while I'm out of town, and for having such hospitable friends and family (not to mention for being so passionate about building community around the arts).


The acoustic guitar tapping chronicled in video below is from my opening set for Papadosio at Ullr's Tavern in Winter Park, Colorado. Before recording my new studio album, I wanted to capture solid performances of all the old songs that never got a decent live recording (a kind of karmic reckoning or closure), so here are the fruits...





These videos are dedicated to Chris Romain, my buddy from the dorms, who by strange chance was able to catch my show that night.

(I'm no longer in the habit of sharing the painfully new with absolutely everyone, but if you're curious I have recordings from that night of unreleased tracks from the upcoming album, which you can hear in their early, messy state if you email me and ask.)

> Writing

"Advice To An Aspiring Live Artist" (d/visible magazine) is a direct response to my friend Liz Rathbone's question about the various factors that helped and hindered me when I got my start as a live painter, and how to navigate them. I get this question frequently enough that I decided to publish my first crack at "sage advice" somewhere everyone could find it...including myself, a few years down the road, when I'm ready for a good laugh. This article is dedicated to Liz and anyone else who finds it useful.

> Tour

Know anybody in Northern California? I'm booking private concerts, and just generally happy to meet people, during my trip out to the Bay Area in mid-April to perform and vend at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies' Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century Conference. Not only do I have the humbling good fortune to contribute my music to this landmark event, but I'll be designing special event posters that will be sold in a very limited series...but I also want to spend a few days following synchronistic leads around the Bay, so I'm all ears to recommendations!

Here are just a few events from this year's swiftly growing schedule, including a few exciting gigs around Louisiana with local electronic jam juggernaut Gravity A:

Mar 19 2010 -
9:00P
live painting for Lazer Sword & Mux Mool @ The Maison
New Orleans, Louisiana

Mar 26 2010 -
9:00P
live painting & cyberguitar with Gravity A @ Luna Bar & Grill
Lake Charles, Louisiana (facebook event page here)

Mar 27 2010 - 9:00P
live painting & cyberguitar with Gravity A @ Artmosphere
Lafayette, Louisiana (facebook event page here)

Apr 2 2010 -
9:00P
cyberacoustic guitar @ HiPac w/ DVS & Jeff The Box
Denver, Colorado (facebook event page here)

Apr 3 2010 -
8:00P
guitar & art display at CaSH & Check (private event; email me for details)
Boulder, Colorado

Apr 15 - 19 2010
between-lecture music @ MAPS.org’s Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century Conference
San Jose, California (facebook event page here)

> Retroactive Blessings

Last newsletter I lapsed on my 2010 New Year's Resolution to dedicate every creative act to someone or something. Retroactive blessings go out to:

"Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom" is dedicated to Jeff The Box, whom I can't be more excited about working with...we're about to break the "gangster beauty sauce" all over 'em, Jeff.

"Molten Crystal Eggs" goes to Sage Persephone for her hard work putting together the Pathways Art show.

"Contemplating The Gem" goes to my friends at ActionPacker Pro for all their hard work, putting on consistently excellent shows in places that would never otherwise have them.

And my version of Peter Gabriel's "Washing of the Water" is dedicated to my mom.