Category: Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Categories
Music & Songs Nashville Santa Fe Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Blessings from the Father

 

Ladies... this is a nude man. Naked man with black kidney.

 

I started painting nude women to please my husband, and then at some point I started painting nude men as a form of rebellion. It was very satisfying and I never went back. Even now when I see a “Cowboys in Shorts” calender it makes me feel giddy with feelings of freedom and power, like a bird flying out of its cage.

Not that by nature I like nude pictures of men anymore than the average person (who I know from experience is not fond of them!) But I do think that in a culture where women are frequently objectified (some call that a phallocracy), they are funny and refreshing.

Once I started hanging around my nude male paintings, however, they became a lot more than just refreshing. Once the shock value wore off, I started to find feelings of great comfort and safety in their presence. Nude men like these will never let anyone hurt you. And they are every bit as sensitive and caring as they are strong. They are true blue and have nothing to hide. They will be there for you forever and ever.

I guess through my own paintings I was able to envision men who were givers, not takers, and supportive rather than narcissistic. I don’t think this would have happened if I was painting men with clothes on.  It is through their musculature, organs, and the shape of their bodies that these men reveal their true natures. Sometimes a face can be a mask, but organs never lie.

Download MP3: Blessing from the Father

Categories
Music & Songs Nashville Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Pink & Yellow Sky

 

Another song about the “gold time.” When I think of the color gold, I think of wisdom, benevolence, and justice. When the gold time comes, people will be seen for who they really are, good deeds will finally be rewarded, and nice guys will (maybe) finish first.

But, unfortunately, gold is omega of colors, the most stable in value but the slowest to accrue, so it will probably be a while before the gold time gets here. In fact, the gold time will probably be the very last period of time to exist. It may be a little like the Last Judgement- a period where the wheat gets separated from the chaff in preparation for eternity.

But that doesn’t mean a person needs to wait till the end of time to receive their just rewards- mini-gold times happen much more frequently. These are the times when the faith, hard work, and persistence of years finally pay off. Even these mini-gold times can take a little longer to arrive than we wish they would, but still, if you hang on long enough, you can be sure one will roll around eventually. And, since gold is the color of lasting value, the golden harvest you reap will stay with you forever.

Oh Lonesome me. Little Bun cries by river with broken mirror before crossing to the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Pink & Yellow Sky

Categories
Los Angeles Music & Songs Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Collection of Spades

 

I wrote this after going to the library to check out some children’s book. Frequently, I think children’s books are the best books. They are simple and clear- pure content and vision, stripped of all complexity and intellectualism.

Great Works for Adults tend to be complicated and fibrous, and when you do go through the trouble of digesting them, they rarely have the calorie content of books written for children.
Painting of Baby, Prince Coin, wearing dragon outfit.

The Wind in the Willows vs. Crime and Punishment…

Mark Twain vs. Hemingway…

To me, there is no contest as to which books speak to us most deeply and directly.

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Collection of Spades

Categories
Music & Songs Nashville Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Make Love to Your Horse

 

I wrote this song in Nashville, during which time I came across this quote from Kahlil Gibran:

“When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ”

Painting of a soldier who dreams of making love to his horse.

 

I interpreted this to mean, quite simply, the worse a relationship is, the better it is.

The dangers of reading things that seem lofty and profound!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Make Love to Your Horse

Categories
Brooklyn Music & Songs Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

So Long

Painting of nude lady bleeding on battlefield with golden shields.

 

Just another song about the never ending quest to find a place where it is always sunny and warm, always afternoon, and I’m always sitting with a friend around a yellow checkered tablecloth as cakes and lemonade are just about to be set down on our table. All colors are essential to our survival, but how long will a person last without yellow and gold? At the time I wrote this song, I was living in New York, where I felt I was drowning in indigo, unable to function in all the mushy darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: So Long

Categories
Music & Songs Nashville Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Golden Afternoon

 

I wrote this song when someone I knew was dying. I was expecting death to be black and grim, like suffocation in a haunted house. Instead, it felt as though a hole in the air had been ripped open, flooding the room with golden sunlight. And this sunlight kept flooding into the man, absorbing him, even as he fought against it.

His will was like an anchor, holding him to this time and place, but his will began to break down beneath the bombardment of golden light, until his mind detached and was floating in the air, half of him in this world and half in another one.

On the other side of the rip in the air, it looked like outer space, except that the space was gold, not black, and all the stars were closer than moons, like gigantic golden orbs filling the sky.  And as it shone into the man’s room, the light surrounded ordinary objects with rings of gold, so they, too, began to seem vast and awe inspiring, the sight of a spoon suddenly causing your heart to catch in your throat.

 

Many fantasies were floating on that day... gingerbread woman floats in golden river

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Golden Afternoon

Categories
Music & Songs Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Looking for a King

 

Omega Saint with crosses and gold

I wrote this song while living in Los Angeles, in the tiniest apartment ever- just 100 square feet. The name of the apartment was Egg Nest, and I was very proud of it. It consisted of a little white day bed that had tiny flowers painted on its post, one wicker chest of drawers, an easel, a miniature guitar, a tiny refrigerator and a small plant hospital. On top of the wicker dresser I would keep my stereo, one scented candle, one pink Cosmo flower, and a few animal figurines. The walls were painted pink and adorned with pastel portraits of men, whom I viewed as my protectors.

The walls in my apartment were so thin that I couldn’t brush my hair without waking up my neighbor. This seemed like a metaphor for the minds of the people who lived in L.A. On the one hand, the thin membranes of their minds were what I loved the most- everyone was so open and so willing to consider and imagine anything. On the other hand, the city was filled with industries that preyed upon these vulnerable brains, mine included. Eventually, I had to upgrade my protective portraits to pictures of the most threatening men in existence- naked ones.

Download MP3: Looking for a King

Categories
Music & Songs The Savage Life Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Longfingers

 

Ecstatic King with egg scepter and mysterious writing on red

A song about a king with very long fingers… I wrote this during my Ron Paul phase, when I thought my goal in life was to be a Savage Granola, living off the grid in a geodesic dome. I tried to convince James to move to Oregon with me to live off the land and sell chicken eggs at the local farmers market, and he tried to convince me that I wouldn’t actually enjoy that sort of lifestyle. But in my imagination it was wonderful- we even had a pink horse & buggy & there were ribbons tied to just about everything. I would lean over my white picket fence to brag to my neighbor (who happened to be Archdruid John Michael Greer) that the only type of batteries I used were the ones I made from my own potatoes. I always wore handmade dresses covered with flowers and I was so happy it bordered on delirious.

But in the end, James was right. The closest I ever got to being a granola was making my own soap and trying to sell it to a health food store. When they turned me down (claiming that glitter soaps are not organic!) I knew it was time to find a new dream.

 

Download MP3: Longfingers

View previous Longfingers post.

Categories
Los Angeles Music & Songs Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Gold Time


Bolstered by flowers, Goethe follows the shadow of an egg.
I wrote this song while I was living in L.A…. What is the gold time? I guess it is a time of fulfillment and completion, when all the trials a person has been through begin to pay off and their meaning is revealed. It is the idea that everything, given enough time, eventually becomes something of great value. Gold is also the color of permanence… a person searches and searches, but when they finally find what they have been looking for, that is the gold time.
 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Gold Time

Categories
Kentucky Music & Songs Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

Longfingers

 

This is a song I wrote during my short-lived interest in politics.  A lot of what Ron Paul said really opened my eyes to new ways of seeing things, but ultimately I lost interest in the “liberty movement” when it became clear that the people wanting less government were just as interested in power as the people they were trying to depose.  I still like Ron Paul, though, and admire him for his willingness to stand up to at least one of the Longfingers in our world.

Download mp3: Longfingers

Julien Aklei and Ron Paul, 2012.