And just when I was wondering what I was going to do for a arts calendar spotlight that week too!

Well these 'sculptures' look to me more like particularly beautiful works of nature, found, cleaned up and given 'suitable' names by Mickey. For me, giving such works of nature names based on they they look like to the 'artist' diminishes their spirit; best to leave them unnamed. Good luck to Mickey with the project. I am amazed at how he finds the time and energy for all the things he does, but in this case Joni's words keep popping up in my head 'You take all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum'.

Hey, cosmicbadger, don't you think when you criticize Mickey's art it's going to lower their value?

Eric Abrahamson
Yale University
Pierson '71
P.O. Box 1112
Berkeley, CA 94701
510-809-1369 x6149
ericabrahamson@aya.yale.edu
ericabrahamson2@horizon.csueastbay.edu
ericabrahamso@hotmail.com
http://www.EricAbrahamsonsBlog.BlogSpot.Com
http://www.h

(the photo shown above is Fierce Chinese Dragon)

Classic Mickey!

--
PREFACE

“IN THE BEGINNING WAS NOISE AND NOISE BEGAT RHYTHM, AND RHYTHM BEGAT EVERYTHING ELSE”

TAO OF WOOD

Redwood forests are magic. You enter and feel the soft forest floor beneath your feet, take in the sweet damp smells. You touch the trees, look up through the maze of branches, and then fall under their spell. For me, redwood forests are temples filled with transformative and mysterious wood energy….life in transition. These pieces are part of that cycle. I found them resting in the deep forests of Northern California. I removed the detritus, but have not altered the shape created by wind, rain, forest fires, falling trees, and of course, the greatest architects of all, the insects. These most common of all creatures inhabit these fallen giants for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. They chew on the branches, live in the trunk, and eventually consume them completely. These pieces represent a freeze-frame in that life cycle. We are born, we live, we die and eventually so do the trees, only to be replaced anew. Impermanence is the Tao of all living things.

DANCE OF THE DEAD

These images were inspired by Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts. They are shaman images, psychopomps, guides, escorts to the other side who can travel at will to the heavens or the underworld. They induce a trance for the journey. These guides are not alive nor dead; they live in both the earthly and spirit worlds. They give our souls their sound, and guide those who are prepared and some who are not…. They play till eternity, and beyond eternity. They are the gatekeepers to the sacred dimension. I have lived with these images for many years in my dreams. All have unique personalities and are very playful, once you get to know them.

THE TAO OF RHYTHM
“reports from the sacred dimension”

It’s about the rhythm in things, patterns moving through space; the flow, the pulse that is at the very heart of the universe. The sound of the drum creates a spiritual reverberation in me and brings meaning to life. These images can be looked at as fragments, artifacts from the drum dream that have passed through my consciousness; images created using the drum as conjuror. In the hands of shamans, the drum becomes the wand of god, sound becomes the vehicle of transcendence, and rhythm makes that sound spiritually powerful.

The imagery depicted in these paintings symbolizes our connectedness to the vibratory world all around us, things moving, coming and going. The forests, the deserts, the spinning earth, tides, heavens….us. Rhythm is the glue we use to keep track of time. Our world exists in time, layers and layers of time, cascading, flowing in and around each other.