#marlo johnson
Enigma 002.
A simple vibrational study.
I’ve been wanting to post an update but things keep happening so fast and I never quite know what to say.
I’ve been mostly focused on learning about the world of crypto and cryptoart. It’s a very misunderstood and fascinating realm!
I’ve been selling animations on Foundation. 4 have sold, plus one that’s on auction today! My goal was to sell one a week, and I’ve more than met that goal.
I’ve connected with so many incredible people through this project. The vibe is something else!
If you want to follow the cryptoart stuff it’s on instagram at ps.marloormarloljohnson on twitter!
I’ve also been trying to get more sun and enjoy the spring weather. I’m excited for all the exploring we’ll do this year. We haven’t yet seen much of our new part of the world.
I hope you’re doing well, too!
New self-portraits.
About a month ago @jameswyper and I decided that it was time for a radical change. It’s often tempting to keep doing the things that were successful in the past, but we are not great at that. We want expansion and adventure, even if it’s all only occurring within or at home.
One thing led to another, and with a new laptop in hand, I felt inspired to see how my paintings would translate into digital form. Then I thought maybe I’d try animating them. I got a bit carried away, and I am completely obsessed!! I may end up selling some, but right now I’m focused on the work, and seeing where it wants to go. Some of it is based on old paintings, and some is completely new—things I would have liked to achieve with paint, but couldn’t. At least not yet. I think this digital work will definitely feed back into the physical work wherever it can, allowing me to push both mediums further and further.
This piece is a simple reimagining of my physical painting, The Nature of Compassion. It is a loop that is meant to be meditated with. Relax your mind, breathe, and see how it makes you feel in your body.
Alt Text: an animated square-shaped pastel-toned colour field painting, with a large circle at the top centre of the frame. The circle is an unchanging creamy white, while the background is a gradient that transitions from peachy yellow to a soft violet pink.
It’s a great time to reflect on whether you are living in a wee little box (any box smaller than the whole entire universe is too small for you), or as your true fucking feral self.
Let go of any reservedness, pretence, arrogance, fear, and inhibition. Be wild and free. You have more power than you understand, but you must liberate yourself to remember it.
Just know this: if it is not guided from within, by love, it is not free. If it is rebellious, if it fights against what is, it is not free. If it is dictated by your ego, it is not free.
Simply live in the highest truth you can find and let it be loud.
You may have seen on my IG or Twitter, but I’ve been working on a new beaded painting. This one is 8x8 inches and will likely take well over 100 hours to finish.
This work is a heart meditation. I hope you can feel the love that I’m putting into it.
I was making striped paintings for awhile in my 20s, but stopped after I found the work of Agnes Martin. I felt like she had already achieved what I was looking for, and I felt content with that.
Several years later I revisited stripes because they were the most accurate way to communicate my intentions at the time. These new intentions for the work created the layered process you can see above—and, consequently, an interesting aesthetic that felt unique enough to be worth exploring.
Later, I was finally able to see some of Agnes’ work in person. Despite their similarities from afar, our paintings are quite different up close. While the screenprints that reignited her art practice—On a Clear Day, 1973—are almost unbelievably perfect, her paintings later could be considered quite flawed—full of flecks of dried gesso, misaligned pencil marks, and other imperfections. But that was an integral part of her message. The work wasn’t perfect in the worldly sense, but was about the choice to create a perfect state of being regardless—while both creating or observing art, or anything else.
I see this as a form of great compassion, of enlightened being, and a very beautiful thing to express.
Pictured above is my painting, Alignment, from 2017. It has three violet stripes on a gold background, covered in many layers of translucent white paint, creating a soft and ethereal quality that is impossible to capture. It speaks to my experience of the same inner perfection Agnes Martin painted and spoke of. It is about the idea of creating and observing from this perfection rather than from a perspective informed by the physical world. This is why you are seeing the painting through a veil of white paint, rather than directly onto the brightly-coloured surface below.
Hi All,
I’m a Canadian artist, author, and creativity consultant. I’ve been called an “artist whisperer” but my work is more about life than art, and I can work with anyone.
My philosophy is about building holistic abundance outside of “the system” through compassion-based creativity, for the purpose of maximum joy and freedom for all. I believe that creativity is our natural state, and it should be used for all aspects of life, all jobs, all educational systems, all businesses, everything. We are not meant to conform. We are not meant to work ourselves into illness or depression just to keep the old economic and power structures going.
I always knew I was an artist, but spent too much of my life overwhelmed by negativity and trauma to access the inspiration or confidence needed. I operated on anxiety, just trying to survive.
It was my very cliché journey out of that dark place that informs my work now. I have an intimate understanding of the intense pain and depression of disconnectedness, but also of the fact that there are ways out into a life of profound inspiration and bliss. I also know how impossible and trite that can sound.
I learned my biggest lessons the hard way after a very severe health crash in my 20s that still affects me now. I was forced to give up my work and money-focused lifestyle, and I eventually surrendered to my real loves: deeper truth, higher creativity, and inspired service.
I rested and learned to prioritize my needs and inspiration, and that led to accidentally writing my first book (my second book was on purpose). These books are powerful, but they ask a lot. A complete creative awakening can mean disrupting your whole life.
My partner @jameswyper is a full-time working artist, who supported me through all my health flareups solely with his art, even while living on a small island in a big, dreamy oceanfront house, which also probably sounds impossible to some. We are just stubborn and use an effective philosophy.
My health is now quite a bit better, we love our lives and our work more than ever, and we recently bought a new home in the mountains, where we live with our dog (who is the best).
I always so badly want to give the relief and joy I find to everyone else who needs it too, but I know it doesn’t really work like that. I had to hit rock bottom to change direction, and I know most others do as well. I hope I can at least help a few people to find their bounce.
If you have any questions feel free to ask below!
We are settled enough into our new place that I’ve been thinking about starting another beaded painting soon. This prototype is only 6x6” yet took over 100 hrs, so it’s a bit of a commitment. I love spending that much time with a work of art though, slowly watching the vision come alive. When it’s done that experience is over.
Plus I do find the effect of several thousand beads pretty astounding. Each one of these was individually hand-stitched and meticulously adjusted so the thread isn’t visible. I did buy a luneville hook, which could speed things up, but I don’t yet know how to use it. I also love how the stitches on the back of the prototype look, so I’m not totally sure I even want to change techniques.
Untitled Prototype. 2019. Hand-stitched glass beads on oil on canvas. 6x6 inches.
It’s a great time to have a flexible and self-generated source of cash and other resources. If you’re curious about how we’re able to live rich lives and do what we love for a living it’s all in this book. You can use it for anything creative, whether that’s art or any other kind of business you’d like to build in an inspired, holistic, and innovative way. I’ve seen people design all kinds of business plans using these steps, from designers and writers to tech entrepreneurs.
The big key that some people don’t like to face is inspiration. This isn’t a “work harder” type model. This is about tuning into your intuition and passion and following just the steps that are exciting and effective for you—not designing your path based on someone else’s. That doesn’t work and it’s not fun.
You really have to step up and empower yourself to rely on your own creative solutions, but when you do it works so well it feels like pure magic. When you build your career like this from the start, the steps you need to grow your business become the steps you are actually most excited about doing! Motivation is no longer an issue.
Plus, this system is universal and will work whether you live in a utopian dreamworld, an apocalyptic dystopia, or anything in between. It can help you through whatever is next, no matter what’s coming. This philosophy is not about buying into the game that everyone else is playing, it’s about designing your own and flying high enough that what everyone else is doing doesn’t matter. This is prosperity through self-liberation.
What if we all stopped giving our power away? What if we stopped buying things because we felt insecure or depressed or incomplete? What if we stopped letting the news make us feel afraid? What if we stopped going to shitty jobs that only serve our rich bosses? What if we stopped letting people make us feel bad? What if we stopped thinking our worth or our happiness or our power comes from anywhere outside of our own being?
What if we stopped trying to get ahead of other people? What if we worked for each other? What if we shared? What if we lifted each other up? What if we stood together? What if millions of people all did it at the same time?
We could have anything we want. The world is ours.
