Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.

William Blake

The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

William Blake

The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel’d to heaven is no artist.

William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.
William Blake

The true method of knowledge is experiment.

William Blake

As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.
William Blake

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise.
William Blake

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

William Blake

Great things are done when men and mountains meet

William Blake

Prose by William Blake-1757-1827

All paintings by myself, many of these and many more will be displayed at my forthcoming exhibition 

I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:

London- William Blake

I’ve started some new canvases, based on some old ideas. Some of these are mutating and jumping off onto paper into graffiti outlines.

rant begins after the jump….

I’ve dug into some old writing of mine from way back, in which I touch on the basis of this concept, expanding on a line of enquiry put forward by, and quote from Aldous Huxley.

Nature in its savage state is bristling with…clues and cues to the eternal, even those which do not appear immediately do so when viewed either up close or from afar.

A Sung painting of faraway mountains, clouds and torrents is transporting; but so are the close ups of tropical leaves in Douanier Rousseau’s jungles, when I look at the Sung landscape I…(or one of my ‘not Is’ is reminded) of the crags, the boundless expanses of plain, the luminous skies and seas of the minds antipodes…in leaves with their architecture of veins, their stripes and mottlings permeate the depth of their interlacing greenery, and something in me is reminded of those living patterns of the Visionary world. Huxley, Aldous-Heaven and Hell  (1956)

Magnified or distant examples life forms, in fact close ups of any of natures building blocks, the systems, shapes and dimensions nature finds success in, are in fact exactly the same species of systems, shapes and dimensions that comprise the “flora and fauna” of the inner world.

For millennia these were described in many ways without the necessary technical nomenclature to denote what maybe more accurate comparisons with micro organisms, nebulae or microscopic worlds.

They used instead the only similes they knew, treasure from the deepest, darkest places under the ground the only objects whose properties mimicked transcendental perfection, those endless births and proliferations of geometric forms in their sparkle turning into ever more beautiful visions which transport the beholder beyond in an instant.

“The topaz and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle and gold.” Is the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel’s description of his vision of what he calls the “Garden of Eden”.

The Vedic Otherworld was Utterakuru and is

“…watered by lakes of golden lotuses. There are rivers by thousands full of leaves…of sapphire and lapis lazuli… the lakes resplendent like the morning sun are adorned by golden beds of red lotus”.Huxley, Aldous-Heaven and Hell  (1956)

The ancient Pagan Welsh ‘paradise’ was Ynisvitrin, the Celtic ‘Isle of Glass’. The Buddhists’ paradises comprise of stones of fire. These methods of description are the best physical phenomenon that people at this point in history could reference in an attempt to describe the visual ‘symptoms’ of an unrelatable ecstatic event.

The Hubble Telescope, fractal geometry and electron microscopes, are now showing for the first time physical manifestations of this universal energy which has been experienced internally and told of in legends since the dawn of man.

It seems astonishing, at first, that so little in the way of definite conclusion or correlation has been acknowledged, but with further thought the two worlds, those of subjective enlightenment, and that of objective technological observation are and will always be intrinsically divided, we can however glimpse a thread that leads toward a higher order.

Anyone who finds this interesting should read Huxley’s book which is the best I’ve read on the transcendental aesthetics which unconsciously influence our every waking moment and manifest throughout history in the art, myth and folklore of humankind.

2008 Mixed Media on Four Canvases 200mm x 200mm

From ‘The Holographic Universe’ by Michael Talbot

…there is compelling evidence that the only time quanta ever manifest as particles is when we are looking at them. For instance, when an electron isn’t being looked at, experimental findings suggest that it is always a wave….

Once again this seems more like magic than the kind of behavior we are accustomed to expect from the natural world. Imagine owning a bowling ball that was only a bowling ball when you looked at it. If you sprinkled talcum powder all over a bowling lane and rolled such a “quantum” bowling ball toward the pins, it would trace a single line through the talcum powder while you were watching it. But if you blinked while it was in transit, you would find that for the second or two you were not looking at it the bowling ball stopped tracing a line and instead left a broad wavy strip, like the undulating swath of a desert snake as it moves sideways over the sand….

Such a situation is comparable to the one quantum physicists encountered when they first uncovered evidence that quanta coalesce into particles only when they are being observed.

Physicist Nick Herbert, a supporter of this interpretation, says this has sometimes caused him to imagine that behind his back the world is always,

“a radically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup.”

But whenever he turns around and tries to see the soup, his glance instantly freezes it and turns it back into ordinary reality. He believes this makes us all a little like Midas, the legendary king who never knew the feel of silk or the caress of a human hand because everything he touched turned to gold.

“Likewise humans can never experience the true texture of quantum reality,” says Herbert, “because everything we touch turns to matter.”

…

Buy This Book it may change the way you look at things.

This painting will be shown at my forthcoming exhibition. Get the feed for all news here

   

In the time leading up to this work an unyielding ‘itch’ had gotten into my head, provoked by awareness of the instability, inefficiency and unaccountability of the systems which govern and power our planet. Every night I watched the news the ‘itch’ would increase, as report upon report drew my attention to the precarious threads which hold our precious reality together, and the self-serving and dangerous attitudes and actions of our so called leaders.

Whatever concrete ideas or concepts gave rise to this painting are open for interpretation, but it may bear familiarity to some, to me it reflects the chaotic and irresponsible systems in place in these times. On finishing it I felt an air of calm, but no less horrified acceptance of their state.

It finally found its’ form when I was at an illegal sound system gathering in an vast abandoned power station in east London in around 2004. In the half light afforded by the occasional flash of strobe and searing laser along metal pipes I could make out the shapes of the defunct generators and machinery as they threw disfigured shadows over the walls and floor, various small rooms and alcoves came to my attention ,wires hanging precariously like cobwebs, rust bleeding into the decrepit machinery, silhouettes swayed and jerked malevolently as the electronic heartbeat from the sound rig shook my bones with it’s discordant regularity.

Doom chimed its’ pulse that night and with the clang of the building it became one with the hypnotic kick-drum and impeccably syncopated jerking of bones that had broken out like a fever by the warm bass of the eight foot high speaker stacks, as I approached the banging shook my teeth in my head and adrenalin rushed as the ear-splitting bass vibrated my intestines in frequency and my clothes pressed against my body as if in a wind.

I walked around the towering speakers to the back of the rig and saw the huge illuminated amp stacks, red equaliser LEDs pulsed in time with the heartbeat of the gathering, an enclave of soul power and communion in a dark, abandoned industrial wasteland…I looked up from the black sweaty floor following  the snaking wires that were so precariously holding this magic together and saw my friend JP Malfaiteur sound system operator, backdrop customer and the ‘host’ of the night with a head mounted torch nonchalantly jamming enormous power flexes into an extremely dangerous and deep looking junction box in the wall of the building. Rust and condensation dripped down the walls and into puddles around him on the floor, his Rottweiler glowered menacingly at his feet, then came and licked my hand.

JP saw me, nodded and came across to say hi, something had clicked inside my head with a resounding ‘snap’ this image had transformed in a flash from an ‘itch’ to a skeleton of a concept, one that I knew I would enjoy bringing to life.

I felt that I’d made a great leap in that instant and went round to the front of the rig to enjoy the rest of the weekend in the distorted and funky style associated with his sound system.

On getting home and sleeping for a day or two I began sketching an outline, I concentrated on the ‘itch of doom’ again, considering the multiple analogies awoken by my epiphany.

I instantly built my square ‘mandala’ around JP’s junction box, the core of the ‘vehicle’ and began fleshing it out by drawing on the state of repair of our planet’s vital systems, echoed so well in the dilapidated power station. From this point auto-pilot kicked in and everything literally fell into place.

As I pondered the nature of civilization clinging on to light in an encroaching sea of space and searched for stylistic themes to impart this strange unease my sketches gave way to several impossible objects, constructions with angles which could never possibly exist in three dimensions, but which look as if they should, for an uneasy moment.

My sense of helplessness in the face of daily horror stories of unsustainability of our civilisation and corruption of our leaders and systems and the terrifying certainty of mankind’s doom became through this painting an exercise in analogy and a vent of my frustration, and hopefully a piece of art that will stand the test of any time we have left.

The sketch

The ‘lay-in’ begins, a sketch in paint on canvas

The structure firmly in place I begin to fill in the colour

The finished piece- spot the impossible objects…

You can buy a signed and numbered limited edition print of this painting in a Giclee edition of 100 on Hanenmuhle photo rag paper for £50 plus postage from jenny@jonhammer.com

 (the one in the snap is not signed or numbered but you get the idea!).

I was invited in to paint a small piece of this monster wall by Aks, graffiti artist and the events

co-ordinator. Situated between Shoreditch high street and Brick Lane and opposite the new Chrome and Black shop with the Rarekind Gallery downstairs, this is London’s graffiti central. In the next street is Sclater Street Hall of Fame.

This is now East London’s most visible and longest graffiti wall and is at the heart of the most graffitied area in the country. The wall is a youth project organised by Richmix for young people to learn graffiti with experts and professionals such as the legendary Prime, a face I Iast saw at the Covent Garden ‘writers bench’ in around ‘89.

To read rest of this post click Read More link below

‘Covent’ or ‘The Bench’ was the Saturday spot where graffiti writers and b-boys from all over came to hang out, plan missions, sign each others black books and show outlines and photos. I never painted with him before but from seeing his work I always regarded him very highly among the kings of piecing from the eighties and early nineties along with Fuel, Scam, Foam, Cazbee and Kast. To watch Prime paint today it confirms my suspicions, he’s sure as hell still got the magic, as you will see.

Prime and Aks both did huge walls along with Gee-U, Kade and Pie doing pieces and characters with help and input from the young people and other local writers. I did a small piece with a background and character around a character by Mark, one of the young people from the project.

First sunny graff of the year… ELATE!!!

This is the space I was given to work with.

Gee-U working up his outline in the green and my silhouette against pink is taking shape..

Andrew from Spain has another similar piece just off the Osborne Street end of Brick Lane, go and hunt…

“Imajin if Drawing Was Life” it says…

You have to have been into graffiti for a long time to appreciate who this guy is… PRIME from the Golden Age of UK Graffiti.

The master from the eighties shows the new school a future, when the fizz goes from the froth of the ‘urban/ street art’ scene there will still be our movement, always mutating and pushing the limits.

(Big hint- It’s all in the clouds)

ARKADE’s magical colour palate…

demonstrates a cut and fade contrast masterclass heralded by a tuff character by Zomby.

.

Aks pulling it all together with an outline…

Mark, a young person participating from the Richmix project outlines his character.

It just goes to show…

…the sky really is the limit.

Prime outline © PRIME 2009

No Adobe Illustrator or stencils here-  take note!!! Strictly blood, sweat and tears for years and years.

Space with Slash character by Vapor.

Richmix Unity.

My effort (as yet unfinished) from the bus stop opposite…

The Saturday was drizzling and a bit grey but it kept fairly dry enough so we could paint, Me Aks, Prime and his protege had just got started around noon when a small protest march against Police violence passed us. They were in particular calling for a full and independent enquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 and against the use of indiscriminate violence against civilians at peaceful protests.

The small band made their way past silently and peacefully (this is nearly all of them) the mood was very sombre, like a funeral with lots of people in black.

…consisting largely of students, families, the elderly…

What's all this then?

…as the cavalry and packed battle wagons bring up the rear an officer stops to check out what Prime is up to …

….and the packed wagons roll by and keep coming, and coming and coming, very intimidating given the circumstances, and I wasn’t even marching.

The march passed and we all carried on painting with the memory of Ian Tomlinson and other innocent victims of state violence in mind. Rest In Peace.

I started to add my ELATE above Mark’s character.

Prime started on the orange 3Ds and the purple-red outline.

Considering it was made up on the spot at short notice, with a hasty outline, made to squeeze between two characters, use up the leftover colours and fit in with the ‘inclusive’ theme of the project, I’m happy with it

Mark with his finished character.

Meanwhile the finishing touches start to go onto the main masterpiece …

Das owner of Shoreditch’s new Rarekind Gallery is using Belton’s amazing new Transparent Black to do the 3D modelling on some of Prime’s floating spraycans, it’s available at their shop opposite this wall as is pretty much anything else a graffiti writer might need.

Lastly Prime defines the peaks of a metropolis that emerge from the water, next to a character by Tizer.

Prime ‘09

Get down and see this while it lasts….

Yes these guys are actually varnishing Prime’s piece not buffing it!!!