Skrying The Threshold
“It always starts out as pure thought, sometimes single pointed,
but more often than not open and progressive, ideas strung together
in a chain, not unlike the mode of thinking used during waking life. As
the body relaxes, personal thoughts converge with the lunar stream
and the phosphorescent cartoons begin to appear as vortexes and
scrolling geometric patterns, moving in sync to electric bells chiming in
my ears. When married to thoughts tangible images are produced. If
these images crystallize far enough, they become fully developed
objects and environments. At this point my thoughts are now
completely audible and visual, my orientation becomes refracted into
the surrounding environment and I know I’ve entered into a full blown
dream.”
Skrying the Threshold
I’ve been interested in threshold consciousness and dreaming since
childhood. Familiarity with and control of the hypnagogic ,
hypnapompic , and dream states are among the greatest tools anyone
can possess if they are seeking to delve into the hidden processes of
the mind and examine how the individual uses these states to make
sense of recent experiences, solidify knowledge, and work out
solutions to problems. Most dreams are merely a dramatized version
of this abstract problem solving and information digestion. However,
alongside these practical aspects of threshold consciousness exist the
bizarre and fantastic world of hallucinatory and mystical imagery.
Awareness of beings and places that have an otherworldly
appearance, be it angelic, demonic, or extraterrestrial, is an
unavoidable aspect of this tier of reality.
My artwork is the visual aspect of an ongoing experiment in
studying these different phases of consciousness and what roles they
play in determining our experience of reality and how that experience
can be manipulated. The threshold states are the spring from which I
draw my artistic vision. It is a world of chaos funneled into living
geometries, of patterns merging into plastic forms and collapsing back
into nothing, a kind of living plasma where forms can be created,
molded, invoked and banished by the will and imagination of the
individual. When painting and drawing I am able to use concentration
to induce a skrying window into the hypnagogic realm which appears
both in the picture plane and in the references I sometimes assemble
which allows me to use my brushes and pencils to trap and crystallize
the phantasms that appear.
I believe that the same qualities that govern the threshold states
are also manifest on the physical plane but are more or less
unrecognized because our senses are narrowed by a set of complex
filters. When the parameters of our sensory impressions, intellectual
and emotional disposition, and imagination are adjusted, a new set of
filters can be created that introduce an alternative configuration of
reality that may diverge greatly from our common understanding and
show that what appears to our normal senses as being defined and
concrete may actually be completely open and malleable, leading to
the realization that the existence of anything is completely determined
by the observer. The physical plane and the interior worlds are not
separate at all, but are only experienced separately because we
usually lack the ability to be aware of the bridge between them.
I
but more often than not open and progressive, ideas strung together
in a chain, not unlike the mode of thinking used during waking life. As
the body relaxes, personal thoughts converge with the lunar stream
and the phosphorescent cartoons begin to appear as vortexes and
scrolling geometric patterns, moving in sync to electric bells chiming in
my ears. When married to thoughts tangible images are produced. If
these images crystallize far enough, they become fully developed
objects and environments. At this point my thoughts are now
completely audible and visual, my orientation becomes refracted into
the surrounding environment and I know I’ve entered into a full blown
dream.”
Skrying the Threshold
I’ve been interested in threshold consciousness and dreaming since
childhood. Familiarity with and control of the hypnagogic ,
hypnapompic , and dream states are among the greatest tools anyone
can possess if they are seeking to delve into the hidden processes of
the mind and examine how the individual uses these states to make
sense of recent experiences, solidify knowledge, and work out
solutions to problems. Most dreams are merely a dramatized version
of this abstract problem solving and information digestion. However,
alongside these practical aspects of threshold consciousness exist the
bizarre and fantastic world of hallucinatory and mystical imagery.
Awareness of beings and places that have an otherworldly
appearance, be it angelic, demonic, or extraterrestrial, is an
unavoidable aspect of this tier of reality.
My artwork is the visual aspect of an ongoing experiment in
studying these different phases of consciousness and what roles they
play in determining our experience of reality and how that experience
can be manipulated. The threshold states are the spring from which I
draw my artistic vision. It is a world of chaos funneled into living
geometries, of patterns merging into plastic forms and collapsing back
into nothing, a kind of living plasma where forms can be created,
molded, invoked and banished by the will and imagination of the
individual. When painting and drawing I am able to use concentration
to induce a skrying window into the hypnagogic realm which appears
both in the picture plane and in the references I sometimes assemble
which allows me to use my brushes and pencils to trap and crystallize
the phantasms that appear.
I believe that the same qualities that govern the threshold states
are also manifest on the physical plane but are more or less
unrecognized because our senses are narrowed by a set of complex
filters. When the parameters of our sensory impressions, intellectual
and emotional disposition, and imagination are adjusted, a new set of
filters can be created that introduce an alternative configuration of
reality that may diverge greatly from our common understanding and
show that what appears to our normal senses as being defined and
concrete may actually be completely open and malleable, leading to
the realization that the existence of anything is completely determined
by the observer. The physical plane and the interior worlds are not
separate at all, but are only experienced separately because we
usually lack the ability to be aware of the bridge between them.
I
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