We are all connected

I never looked at Ganesha as an actual deity. I may get some heat for this, but for me personally, I loved the idea of obstacles being trampled down like distant memories instantly forgotten. He was an extension of the fabric that connects us all. I am not any one religion, but I believe in kindness, compassion, love, and our own truth. Other people do not need to get it, I feel peaceful about it.

Painting Ganesh was the best way for me to concentrate on overcoming. It wasn’t any actual aspect of success, it was simply achieving the goals set before me. Sometimes larger, and almost insurmountable, such as the reason I spent so many years separated from everyone and I everything I loved. There were days I could only handle one moment at a time. I couldn’t see beyond that week, that day, or that year.

While I was gone, I kept going back to painting spiritual pieces including Ganesh to direct my focus to the walls being broken down, and allowing this time in my life to pass without too much trauma. I often felt like a complete outcast. It was difficult to relate to anyone else, and I didn’t trust people who claimed to be friends.

Ganesh represented crawling out from oppression and living life on my own terms. I would meditate and imagine him floating through my mind, and changing into the wisps of relaxing thought and relief. I painted with this as my visual mantra…, my constant repetition of “This will not last”. Walls crumbled in my mind, and all I thought about was freedom. I painted Ganesh, and with each painting I did I visualized healing, returning home, being loved by people without fear, and being restored.

I believe as long as we look outward, and upward to more than ourselves, our ego, and materialism we are improving our souls. He is a reminder of rising above it all. He is the reminder that I succeeded in changing my reality, that this was something I could do if I just stayed resolute and believe.

This 1/1 NFT is special, a visual meditation of what I would think in my darkest hours. I collaborated with the team from Libeskind Arts on this, with music, with gentle fades in and out. You will not see it on my Foundation.app main page, it is however listed if you click “Splits”. Winning bidder will receive an HD image of the original painting . The link to the page follows at the bottom of this post.

Libeskind Arts was created in 2021 by a diverse group of artists, animators, musicians and technologists from around the world, in order to explore the realm of digital art, and how the eternal secrets of Form can inspire new artistic processes and historical connections.

Ganesh | Foundation

Plugged In - 1/1 NFT on Foundation

There were times, over the years, that I felt trapped in a time loop. The same thoughts, the same environment, every day repeating again and again. It began to feel robotic. This gave me an idea to paint several pieces in a steampunk style. This piece deviates a bit from that concept by including a plug, but I loved the idea of gears and cogs, wheels and mechanical butterflies to convey being “plugged in” with a higher form of thinking.

While I was gone, I had my ability to create art, and my mind. No one could ever own those elements of who I was. I considered it a product of my soul.

While in prison, by a majority, this was referred to as denial or delusion.

For me, it was critical thinking.

I made a decision (not always successful) to embrace the good aspects of this experience; despite being separated from everything, and everyone I loved. I intended to absolutely know with certainty that this was an experience to help others if I knew where to look for it. Eventually, with the help of the ACLU, I found it through lobbying and suing the DOC in Arizona for improved health care for all inmates. I worked with others to help counsel, or comfort during times of despair. It was not always successful, but I continued to try.

In that dark place, light began to creep into my life.

This piece is about the power of our minds, and the incredible power of positive thinking. I look at this piece and realized my thinking caused me to reach out and change the narrative of what had happened. I was able to ask for it, see it, believe it, and bring it forward. It was the realization that we create our own reality. Good, bad, or in between - we invite more of what we think of.

I thought constantly of love, hope and freedom.

This NFT is a collaboration with a talented artist from Pakistan named Syed Mohammed Shahzaib. It comes with a NFT for a 5120x7500 still image from the original painting in HD.

Plugged In - 1/1 | Foundation