this is life.. not just a photograph
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| me as MeMe the Mime |
Showing posts with label holy grail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holy grail. Show all posts
August 07, 2011
www.asraiya.com
I originally wrote this in my personal blog published on 7/21/11 but I realized it should be reprinted here since he adequately states what this project means to me...
Life is ridiculous! I'm currently stressing out of my mind trying to put together the most inspiring, believable, responsible, and effective application for the funding of an art project while the US government is approximately 2 weeks away from being completely broke... In the meantime I myself, who is also generally broke, am ignoring that fact to the extent of blowing off the few rare opportunities that actually have presented themselves this week to make enough money to comfortably live through this process (beer, cigarettes, food etc.. what? I'm an artist and I'm stressed!).. Why? Because it's a calling! Because I'm a fatalist.. Because it's not about me! Apparently I want to save the world more than I want to live on it.. Why? Because it's not worth living on if none are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their fellow man. That is the calling! That is why this art project to me has precedence over everything.. Because I believe it has the power to effect changes so great that it will stir awake a dormant level of the collective consciousness causing an evolutionary leap in the social art experiment, bridging the aspects of ourselves that tend to have a magnetic force field pushing against them. I know this project will make me whole. I know that if I lead a whole life by example others will follow suite. Why? Because I have a dream.. and in a world like this one sometimes a dream is the only thing you have that makes a single lick of sense therefore it is the most sensible gift to give no matter how unrealistic it appears against the background of everything else. Dreams happen for a reason and mine most often really do come true but not from wishing upon a star, but by being one! Every man and woman is a star forever blazing a path to eternity.. even when a brick fucking wall has been built in the center of it, just got lay it down. When there's nothing left at hand, still got to lay it down. Will you then get the funding for your art project? I don't know, I think I need to lay down and nap... but I'm not tired! I'm not dead yet! The time is at hand!
July 25, 2011
Next 50 apps for funding..
"CityArtists awarded $200,000 to 44 individual artists working in the performing arts. Seventeen of the 44 funded artists were first-time recipients."
Seriously.. That's it? So at least 62% were likely rewarded based on their achievements, like having already received a grant.. Now that's encouraging!
Woosh ~ The application for the Next 50 was SO hard to do!! Way more time consuming than I ever imagined it could be. For an example, the artist statement had a 1000 character limit which seems like cake until you realize that it also has to be bold & profound since it's the only chance that you have to give them a feel for who you are as an artist and what makes you tick.. Plus it needs to tie in your work samples (past) to the work you're proposing to do to an assimilated grand scheme, hopefully.. I actually finally got a fabulous way to explain the dark, dismal world of AE and how it relates to the fairy tale as the polar opposite or better option for the world we're living in today BUT it was 116 characters over a thousand so I started chopping away at it looking at only 3 words at a time like:
"We are standing on the precipice of the fate of man.."
became: "We stand on a precipice of fate"
Which could mean something not as nearly as poetic or profound making it end up sounding like a crack raving schizophrenic reciting dada haiku! All of a sudden each sentence seem to be a completely new and totally random/independent thought without any cohesion or complexity! Mania... But I have a good feeling about it anyway BECAUSE IT IS MY DESTINY! It just is.. can't explain it but I'm really meant to do this thing or at least die trying (not gonna happen, yet)
I would share my application on here but this was just the preliminary screening and it's pretty damn competitive out there, really! So I'm gonna keep it to myself until the final d-day... Wish me luck, love, and will!!
peace
Seriously.. That's it? So at least 62% were likely rewarded based on their achievements, like having already received a grant.. Now that's encouraging!
Woosh ~ The application for the Next 50 was SO hard to do!! Way more time consuming than I ever imagined it could be. For an example, the artist statement had a 1000 character limit which seems like cake until you realize that it also has to be bold & profound since it's the only chance that you have to give them a feel for who you are as an artist and what makes you tick.. Plus it needs to tie in your work samples (past) to the work you're proposing to do to an assimilated grand scheme, hopefully.. I actually finally got a fabulous way to explain the dark, dismal world of AE and how it relates to the fairy tale as the polar opposite or better option for the world we're living in today BUT it was 116 characters over a thousand so I started chopping away at it looking at only 3 words at a time like:
"We are standing on the precipice of the fate of man.."
became: "We stand on a precipice of fate"
Which could mean something not as nearly as poetic or profound making it end up sounding like a crack raving schizophrenic reciting dada haiku! All of a sudden each sentence seem to be a completely new and totally random/independent thought without any cohesion or complexity! Mania... But I have a good feeling about it anyway BECAUSE IT IS MY DESTINY! It just is.. can't explain it but I'm really meant to do this thing or at least die trying (not gonna happen, yet)
I would share my application on here but this was just the preliminary screening and it's pretty damn competitive out there, really! So I'm gonna keep it to myself until the final d-day... Wish me luck, love, and will!!
peace
July 19, 2011
Holy of Holies
So far so good on making headway with my application for funding & support to present "The Fairy Tale of a Green Serpent and the Most Beautiful Lily" (new title maybe? experimenting..) at the World's Fair Next 50 conference/celebration. Just need to somehow write a one page maximum letter of intention which seems practically impossible since it is my Will.. and then perhaps maybe draft a bit more talent (procure some good resumes) to officially add to my team since I feel more than slightly inadequate (in technical appearances/merit) to be taking on such an ambitious endeavor as staging this thing that's so much bigger than me or any one single person, place, or thing.. in fact as large as us all might encompass it. That makes me feel ever smaller still if only it weren't for this one thing ~ The time is now!
I am awarded by the profundity of one simple thing ~ the beauty of this alchemy called out To me! I am here to do great work as the outer is a reflection of the inner I will believe in me.. "Anyone who is capable of understanding the Fairy Tale knows that Goethe was a Theosophist and a mystic."
He alone understands freedom who has set his own nature free
I am awarded by the profundity of one simple thing ~ the beauty of this alchemy called out To me! I am here to do great work as the outer is a reflection of the inner I will believe in me.. "Anyone who is capable of understanding the Fairy Tale knows that Goethe was a Theosophist and a mystic."
He alone understands freedom who has set his own nature free
All things transitory
But as symbols sent,
Earth's insufficiency
Here grows to event.
The indescribable, here it is done.
The Woman Soul leads us upward, and on.
Earth's insufficiency
Here grows to event.
The indescribable, here it is done.
The Woman Soul leads us upward, and on.
May 02, 2011
Cerebral
I offered a link to this blog on one of the grant applications I submitted suggesting the judges panel could monitor my progress working on this project and then have posted nothing on it since. Sigh.. so much of the work is simply cerebral. I rely heavily on the process of creative envisioning! That's not a cop out but a fact. I'd say close to 90% of every artistic endeavor I take on I do in silence and in solitude, the other 10% in active collaboration. This project is going to require a lot more action but with a date set of Summer 2012 I'm still in the process of visualizing how the whole thing will go down. It's going to demand the assimilation of every single idea and experience I've ever accomplished and encountered my whole life long! For 2 years now I've been deeply contemplating this story and how to ambitiously bring it to life. The set design alone is FAR from a simple matter to take on.
Recently my partner and I went to see a production of Camelot put on by a local operatic community theater. The performance was adequate, I'm not a fan of this particular rendition of the story that focuses mainly on the love affair of G & L.. but the costumes and set was donated by a professional production company which awarded me several aha moments in how to stage the raising of the underground Temple to the surface at the end of GSBL. That was something I was so far sweating quite a bit. I also talked to my friend Michael Folger who plays the Green General in Aeterno Elementum and he agreed to play the role of the Gold King for GSBL. So the scene of the Temple has begun to crystallize and take form in both my mind and manifestation!
Also Jeremy Veleber from Arakus and I were talking about L-wire possibilities the week before last at band practice. He's a software engineer and he believes he can reprogram the controllers to offer more options than the standard solid on, marquee, & strobe and agreed to assist with the Will-O-the-Wisps costumes which I'm super excited about! The next major challenge is determining whether the Green Snake will be performed by some sort of aerialist/acrobat or a giant puppet? As well as should the Giant be a laser projection like I saw in the Broadway touring production of Spamalot (the cow trebuchet) which is how I originally imagined it.. or have my friend Just Sage play it on stilts? That one entirely depends on what kind of budget we have to work with...
The script will be shared as soon as I've completed it! Trucking along bit by bit.. Stay tuned! So say we all.
Recently my partner and I went to see a production of Camelot put on by a local operatic community theater. The performance was adequate, I'm not a fan of this particular rendition of the story that focuses mainly on the love affair of G & L.. but the costumes and set was donated by a professional production company which awarded me several aha moments in how to stage the raising of the underground Temple to the surface at the end of GSBL. That was something I was so far sweating quite a bit. I also talked to my friend Michael Folger who plays the Green General in Aeterno Elementum and he agreed to play the role of the Gold King for GSBL. So the scene of the Temple has begun to crystallize and take form in both my mind and manifestation!
me w/Michael in AE
Also Jeremy Veleber from Arakus and I were talking about L-wire possibilities the week before last at band practice. He's a software engineer and he believes he can reprogram the controllers to offer more options than the standard solid on, marquee, & strobe and agreed to assist with the Will-O-the-Wisps costumes which I'm super excited about! The next major challenge is determining whether the Green Snake will be performed by some sort of aerialist/acrobat or a giant puppet? As well as should the Giant be a laser projection like I saw in the Broadway touring production of Spamalot (the cow trebuchet) which is how I originally imagined it.. or have my friend Just Sage play it on stilts? That one entirely depends on what kind of budget we have to work with...
The script will be shared as soon as I've completed it! Trucking along bit by bit.. Stay tuned! So say we all.
March 02, 2011
transformational theater
"Transformational theater has as its goal the metamorphosis of the human soul, the reintegration of that part of us which is separated from the divine. In his great play Faust, Goethe alludes to the mystery of metamorphosis as having to do with Divine Love and the Eternal Feminine - the latter considered as an active Power of Celestial Redemption. Moreover, the ancient mystery schools chose mystery drama as a path of initiation for those who earnestly strove for higher knowledge and divine redemption.
The theater was and may again become a place of moral inspiration, a sacred temple, a source for personal transformation where the Power of Celestial Redemption transforms souls. Through transformational theater one may experience a flash of clairvoyance, an awakening of conscience, an arising of an innate sense of truth and justice. Engaged in a drama of spiritual awakening, the actor/actress may become a priest/priestess, a vessel for sacred magic through the power of the Word, and may penetrate through the veil of illusion to perceive the archetype of the human being in metamorphosis, thus experiencing the cosmic drama of humanity in evolution."
February 28, 2011
Artist Statement for Fell Grant
Oh, my ~ life is such a journey! I have no doubt that I have not yet gone astray.. as the powers that be have led me here to state for you a mystery of what is art to me. To the alchemist there is a substance known as V.I.T.R.I.O.L. It stands for "Visita Interiora Terra Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem" or ‘Visit the interior of the Earth, by rectifying what you find there you will discover the philosophers stone.’ The quintessence of alchemy is knowing the right order of things. In order to be able to put things into their right order, we need to know all their constituent parts. In order to know what these parts are, we have to be able to break the whole down into its basic elements. Spiritually and psychologically, it is facing one's emotions and letting feelings flow, so that innocence and purity can be restored. In essence it is to look through the glass at oneself to find what is hidden and by doing so invent or restore your true self by finding your purpose here in this world.
I was a rather precocious child who lived in her own little world along with fairies and the sound of locust late in the summer that lures me even now into a feeling of predestination. I was always obsessed with finding secret talent. I began dance classes very young age finding some success in that I learned quickly. I was skilled at replicating any movement done before me. Dancing is my bliss, most certainly. However the body I was born with did not come completely equipped for the life of a ballerina. Somehow my knees calcified in a way that forbids me to straighten my legs all the way with feet in the first and fifth positions.(?) Although I was good at faking it.. I still knew I would never make it a formidable career of the art. Thus the ascent of dissolution had begun.
Onward to the horrors of adolescence.. to even mention it is sulfuric! Sulfuric acid is a powerful corrosive that eats away everything that is flesh. It reacts with every single elemental metal except for gold. We are tempered in the furnace of experience, of trial and error. I tried cheerleading for a stint, did not like the social requirements of it.. so I quit and auditioned for my first play in theater and was granted a part in it but the name of it we'll not mention as it was Shakespeare's most notorious. When it comes to theater I am a purist ~ I insist that I am an actor and not an actress as I have no limits. Like the salt of the Earth, I am an artist! My drama teacher in high school sang to me many praises of encouragement. I decided these were ingredients for me to pursue further on into college.
After studying theater in college I became bored with the restrictive structure of it and longed for something that would allow me more input into the creative process. In 1997 I ran away and joined 'The Ever-Changing Festival of Now' choosing to explore the alternative spectacle and interactive entertainment world of a genre known as none other than the circus. Developing skills in clowning, mime, stilt-walking, and fire dancing, I went on to join many other companies and troupes the past 14 years experiencing the hurt, harm, heartbreak, and sense of loss inherent with separation when still none held rainbow's pot of gold. With each new project I put my whole heart into it, committing to the success of it with every part of my being. However some conflicting idea or another about creative direction or perhaps the vision, or code of conduct consideration, or maybe someone's expectation couldn't be met, it simply would fail to ferment.. and yet spirit is the active presence in all of us that strives toward perfection.
I have begun to understand where my true will lies. It's distilled in what I call passionately mytho-poetic, as well as sensually neo-ritualistic, and revels in the depths of vulnerability while empowering the inner essence of all who witness. My sole motivation in life is to inspire the human race to see a little beyond the standard perception by fully embracing freedom, exhibiting a conscience understanding of the universal consistency of the human condition, all as expressions of peace, love, and the will to follow a dream. And so at this stage of my life I have come to recognize that I've been tempered to finally take creative lead on a project. I'm in the process of adapting a fairy tale by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called ‘The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’ into a stage script that I will be producing and directing sometime over the next year or so. I believe there's a truth hidden in this story that I must see to it that it's imparted to the consciousness of mankind for the greater good of all who lives. I also began teaching just this past year and look forward to rolling away the stone or to solve et coagulate, like I said before I can only state a mystery. My life is a journey and it's not over, few more twists and turns will lead to golden.
I was a rather precocious child who lived in her own little world along with fairies and the sound of locust late in the summer that lures me even now into a feeling of predestination. I was always obsessed with finding secret talent. I began dance classes very young age finding some success in that I learned quickly. I was skilled at replicating any movement done before me. Dancing is my bliss, most certainly. However the body I was born with did not come completely equipped for the life of a ballerina. Somehow my knees calcified in a way that forbids me to straighten my legs all the way with feet in the first and fifth positions.(?) Although I was good at faking it.. I still knew I would never make it a formidable career of the art. Thus the ascent of dissolution had begun.
Onward to the horrors of adolescence.. to even mention it is sulfuric! Sulfuric acid is a powerful corrosive that eats away everything that is flesh. It reacts with every single elemental metal except for gold. We are tempered in the furnace of experience, of trial and error. I tried cheerleading for a stint, did not like the social requirements of it.. so I quit and auditioned for my first play in theater and was granted a part in it but the name of it we'll not mention as it was Shakespeare's most notorious. When it comes to theater I am a purist ~ I insist that I am an actor and not an actress as I have no limits. Like the salt of the Earth, I am an artist! My drama teacher in high school sang to me many praises of encouragement. I decided these were ingredients for me to pursue further on into college.
After studying theater in college I became bored with the restrictive structure of it and longed for something that would allow me more input into the creative process. In 1997 I ran away and joined 'The Ever-Changing Festival of Now' choosing to explore the alternative spectacle and interactive entertainment world of a genre known as none other than the circus. Developing skills in clowning, mime, stilt-walking, and fire dancing, I went on to join many other companies and troupes the past 14 years experiencing the hurt, harm, heartbreak, and sense of loss inherent with separation when still none held rainbow's pot of gold. With each new project I put my whole heart into it, committing to the success of it with every part of my being. However some conflicting idea or another about creative direction or perhaps the vision, or code of conduct consideration, or maybe someone's expectation couldn't be met, it simply would fail to ferment.. and yet spirit is the active presence in all of us that strives toward perfection.
I have begun to understand where my true will lies. It's distilled in what I call passionately mytho-poetic, as well as sensually neo-ritualistic, and revels in the depths of vulnerability while empowering the inner essence of all who witness. My sole motivation in life is to inspire the human race to see a little beyond the standard perception by fully embracing freedom, exhibiting a conscience understanding of the universal consistency of the human condition, all as expressions of peace, love, and the will to follow a dream. And so at this stage of my life I have come to recognize that I've been tempered to finally take creative lead on a project. I'm in the process of adapting a fairy tale by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called ‘The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’ into a stage script that I will be producing and directing sometime over the next year or so. I believe there's a truth hidden in this story that I must see to it that it's imparted to the consciousness of mankind for the greater good of all who lives. I also began teaching just this past year and look forward to rolling away the stone or to solve et coagulate, like I said before I can only state a mystery. My life is a journey and it's not over, few more twists and turns will lead to golden.
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