I Observe These Sacred Rites is coming

I've been making one of a kind books for the last year or so.  Currently I'm working on a book that's titled I Observe These Sacred Rites.  This project is being created for a group exhibition to be held at 23 Sandy, a wonderful gallery located here in Portland.

23 Sandy is an art gallery that sells books and related objects.  Each year 23 Sandy does several themed group exhibitions.  Things sacred and profane is the theme for the gallery's next group show, which will be held in November.

Following is a description of the book that will be included in 23 Sandy's November show:

I Observe These Sacred Rites is an existential celebration of the truly amazing thought processes, which make human consciousness possible.  Using the observance of sacred rites as a metaphor for our ability to experience thinking abilities that result in our awareness of the World, this book is a meditation on the nature of consciousness.

Written in a style reminiscent of Nikos Kazantzakis’s The Saviors of God, I Observe These Sacred Rites is a series of short, illustrated poems describing mental abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret, understand and respond to the World.  The text’s sacred tone is juxtaposed with very approachable, naive imagery in an attempt to communicate a sense of Wonder and Delight, attitudes I believe are essential to any philosophy of substance.

This book features colorful paintings of people, animals and objects that appear alongside large diagrams and hand written text.  Also featured is my use of Change Notation, a system I have developed for contemplating the events that make up our experience of the World.  An appendix outlining the basics of Change Notation is found at the end of the book. 

Everything Smiling Back At You

Beginning life as we do, the world is just colors moving, tastings, soundings, touchings and smellings.  Every moment an experiencing, but an experiencing without words to describe it or even thoughts to think about it.  Hard to imagine?  Just about impossible I think!

Your brain developed over time.  Learning happened; undifferentiated experience shattered like glass into the distinct forms of things; your sense of self emerged as a new thing; and relationships between the thing that was yourself and the uncountable things that were not yourself, become complex and varied.

And over time, you may have noticed that all of the things, which were not yourself; the numberless forms of things, the shards of experience moving in and out of your awareness...everything seemed to be smiling back at you.

Dogs are creatures with four legs, two ears and eyes, a nose, paws, padded feet and tails.  Dogs are social animals and are often called "man's best friend."

 There are very many dogs in the world.  There are many kinds of dogs as well as many examples of dogs walking around.  There are friendly dogs, and mean dogs, cuddly dogs, dogs that drool, dogs with spots, black dogs, brown dogs, white dogs, dogs that do tricks, dogs that eat all the chocolate in your easter basket when you are 9 years old, hungry dogs, dogs that run fast, dogs that chase cars, guard dogs, junkyard dogs, seeing-eye dogs, toy dogs, blind dogs, dogs that are dying, mother dogs, father dogs, dogs with fewer than four legs and dogs that love to be scratched.

Although some people say that their dogs "think they are people," it seems more likely a case of dogs thinking people are dogs.

A Wondrous Contraption

The human brain is a wondrous contraption.  It sparkles with electro-chemical signals that flow along a million (or so), pathways.  Flexible and ever-changing; unpredictable, spectacularly varied. 

 People might say: “His/her brain is a diseased organ” or that “… his/her thoughts are impure.”   One might be said to have sinful or dark thoughts.  One may be accused of thinking evil thoughts.  There are depraved fancies and fantasies better left undescribed.  Yet, no matter how distasteful the expression of it may seem, how can we not admit to the amazing phenomena that consciousness is?

Where...Where...Where?

Where do I come from?  Who am I?  Where am I going?  These appear to be questions people use to distract themselves from living.

Every Thing Has a Personality

Every thing has a personality, because every thing exhibits multiple qualities or characteristics. 

We understand a thing by grouping its individual characteristics into a unified body of meaning. Within the moment, people simply don't have the ability to consider all of the separate characteristics they observe a thing possessing.  Instead, people experience the thing's many characteristics as a single body of meaning.  People experience the depth and complexity of a thing's body of meaning as expressing a vague sense of character or personality.

Totemism is a wonderful example of a culture's collective experience of personality expressing itself through the living and non-living things, which compose its environment.  Naming one's automobile and being afraid of the dark are two other examples of this amazing phenomena.

From Book Seven: On The Nature Of People, Reasons Why People Get Married

Money, looks, loneliness, status, having children, fun, sex, the company (reducing loneliness), spite, low self-esteem, control, maid service,  a sense of simpatico, to be taken care of, lower cost health insurance, convenience, to escape someone (usually only on tv), to save someone (usually only on tv), for information, because they are drunk, because your parents desire it, love, because it’s what people do.