I have been on-again off-again studying Hebrew. I might have mentioned this before. I got interested in Kabbalah years ago, otherwise known as Jewish mysticism. But this tends to get confused with that shit that Madonna and Sandra Bernhard were doing at the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles. That was actually nothing more than a cult run by a guy named Phillip Berg, I kid you not. I don’t say stuff like that lightly. I know of what I speak. I actually will go so far to say that I’m rather the expert in the subject of mind control and cults. So there.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about art.

So, I’ve been most interested in the mysticism behind the Hebrew alphabet really. I got really into the aesthetics of their shape and form, and how they developed in history as hieroglyphs, etc. I started to read about their numeric values, their overall meaning in the Talmud because of their form, and all of this lead me to some interesting places in my art, and, quite frankly, in my spiritual growth.

Now, many years ago, I gave up on anything that remotely resembled the “spiritual.” In most ways, I am still a realist. I am not going to get into religion so much here, but just for the sake of relaxing and focus, all of this Hebrew letter shit got me to start meditating. But not like how you think! I wasn’t sitting cross-legged on a pillow chanting, “Om,” or levitating, or some such goofy thing like this, I was just not thinking upon the work I wanted to do.

I’m not sure if that makes any sense.

A few years back I was doing these paintings with garment patterns arranged as Hebrew letters set as the main compositions. This was back when I first got interested in this stuff.

I only did a few of these kinds of pieces before I could really dive into the whole process…

Then life happened. Or death rather. I got sidetracked. I’m not sure what happened, but I lost a lot of focus for a really long, long time. And it’s not like I didn’t paint. I did. I painted a lot. I was just busy, with Dan

(this Dan above is from my new, upcoming book by the way) and busy with gumballs and so forth:

Now, I’ve been feeling totally rejuvenated with the last few dozen paintings I’ve been doing, and I’m really focused – like so incredibly honed in – that I want to apply what I have been doing

into my original plan from yesteryear.

Next, if you’re not asleep yet, I’ll tell you all about how I plan to do that – out in the desert.