Fire and Ice

I began making the video with the following picture. From that starting point I applied Paint.net to the original image and came out with something quite a bit different from what I began with.

I began doing this kind of art with an idea drawn from the Taoist tradition.  I thought of the empty bowl.  A discussion of the idea which inspired and informed me can be read at the Personal Tao.

The idea I begin with is that there is virtually unlimited potential in anything. This virtue is present and observed in the operating principles of the natural world. I think of it as an analog of the E= MC2  principle applied to consciousness.

I never cease to surprise myself when I see what I end up with.  In this instance I began with the photograph of a bud encased in ice. It held the potential to produce something completely unexpected.

I added some of my standard "Fire People" characters as I saw how the original was morphing.

Art by David H. Roche

(C) 2014

Book of Dreams: Art from the Month of May

Reflections In The 7th Hour

I chose the title "Reflections In The 7th Hour" based on experiences with LSD.  In the 7th hour of an LSD trip all the chaos resulting from finding your understanding of the world and yourself turned inside out is gone and the world which was taken apart is being put back together again. This time it is put together in a way that corresponds to reality. It is an incredibly peaceful, blissful state of mind.  Perhaps it is like looking in the mirror and seeing the earth, sun and sky instead of your face.

LSD was introduced to the American public by CIA experiments.  "Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD and the Sixties Rebellion" is a book which reveals the psychedelic history of the U.S.  Written by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shalin it is an intriguing account of a misunderstood topic and period in social and cultural history.  The entire book is available to be read here courtesy of erowid.org 

LSD was used as a cure for alcoholism and an aid in psychotherapy.  The drug was more effective in reversing alcoholism than any other known substance. Despite this, in 1966 the United States made it illegal for anyone to do research with or prescribe LSD or any other psychedelic substance as a medicine. Hope for alcoholics was taken from the hopeless.  

Today there is renewed interest and talk about the beneficial effects of psychedelic substances. Research at a few major universities on the psychedelic substances has been grudgingly allowed by the U.S. Government.  

One of the most fascinating substances being studied today is DMT.  Dr. Rick Strassman has pioneered this research and produced some startling conclusions.  

I haven't taken LSD for decades, but my experiences with it have been positive and life changing.  I count the experiences I had to be among the most valued experiences of my entire life. It is illegal so it is inappropriate to recommend using it today unless you are fortunate enough to be involved with official approved research.

POST SCRIPT:

I enjoy watching ripples and reflections on the duck pond across the street. On a sunny afternoon I took a few photographs. After working on the photographs I put them together into the video below.

Photographs and video (C) 2014 by David H. Roche

Chemosynthesis: two new videos and some new art.

Chemo-synthesis is analogous to photo-synthesis.  I found an informative discussion of the two processes. It may be read here.

Each process is engaged in the exchange of energy. Some scientists describe the origin of life as resulting from chemo-synthesis . 

I began with a photograph of raindrops on a windshield. Pretty soon it was designing itself.  That's what usually happens.

Traffic Jam Daydream:

The Laughing God says...

Enjoy

art by David H. Roche 

Meditation On Creation

I made the video below from photography and art while meditating on the theme in the creation account in Genesis 1.  

I'm fascinated by the juxtaposition of light and darkness, evening and morning and unlimited form from the formless void.

What are these opposites saying? 

Below are independent observers at the end of the present paradigm.

(C) 2014 David H. Roche

The Reality Associated With Pipelines

There is a move under way to put a Liquefied Natural Gas Pipeline terminal in town on the side of the Columbia River. The facility is planned to be a few miles from where the river opens up to the Ocean and a few miles from where I live.

From 1986 to 2013 over 7000 Pipeline failures have occurred in the U.S. killing over 500 people. Over 2000 people have been injured and nearly 7 billion dollars of property damage have resulted from pipeline failures.

Like many people across the nation our lives and health are imperiled by projects like these associated with energy extraction and delivery activities. You can get an idea how safe these pipelines are at this website.  Recently a jury awarded nearly 3 million dollars against one corporate polluter in Texas.

The video inside the link is a short animation of a map of the U.S. Beginning in 1986. A dot is placed in every location where there was a pipeline failure. Along the bottom a script of the dirty details of spills, deaths, injuries and property damage appear.

If you are not appalled at the number of dots on the map at the end you are probably in favor of the program of the carbon mongers.

It is not only if and when a pipeline breaks that ecological damage and death result. Far more are killed by the successful delivery of the product by means of air pollution the product causes. One in eight deaths are associated with air pollution.

The carbon mongers have the money needed to get politicians to make the laws they like. The politicians make those laws for them setting the stage for scenarios like this to become future problems.

In 1970 congress was in favor of fresh air and water and an unpolluted environment.  1970 was the year of the first Earth Day.  A history of the modern ecological movement is available here.  It was popular to want to protect the earth from unscrupulous 

corporate polluters.  

Today those notions do not come easily from the lips of elected representatives.  Today carbon is the savior they look to for economic restoration. Restoring the environment and protecting the environment is not the priority it was in 1970. Today the Congressperson’s concern for the viability of the environment is moderated by the prospect of industrial expansion, jobs and profit.

The local paper covered a small protest of the planned LNG terminal. Read it here. The scarcity of employment in the area and the hope of future jobs make some willing to accept the risk.   The carbon mongers certainly hope the people are hungry enough to exchange the possibility of losing fresh air and water for jobs. The people here have their backs against the wall as do many communities across the nation.

A previous LNG terminal proposal was turned down by the people last year after a struggle lasting years. But this year the carbon mongers are back with the same old catastrophe to sell to a desperate economically challenged community where 7.2 percent of the people cannot find a job. It appears likely the LNG advocates will not stop until they get what they want.

This product will be sold overseas to people who will burn it adding to global air pollution.  As has been shown they will send the dirty products of combustion back across the ocean on air currents to rest here in the nearby mountain ranges polluting the land and air the product came from.

While thinking about this catastrophe waiting in the wings I made a little video from pictures of the locality and artwork. In the opening sequences is the beautiful blue Youngs Bay and on the left toward the top is the approximate location of the proposed terminal.  The video transitions to the seashore with people playing, and to hillside trails overlooking the sky blue Pacific; then it abruptly changes from serene natural beauty to a projection of what the scenery may be like when an industrial complex is located on the shoreline. If you like it, pass it on. Silence is assent.

Photography and Art by David H. Roche (C) 2014

Announcing The Publication Of My Art

I would like to share this news with all of you reading my blog.  Some of my art was published today in “aaduna.”  aaduna is an online magazine dedicated to 

bringing the work of artists to the public.  I was pleased to have my art on the cover of their first issue and am more than pleased now to have this selection published. 

The art presented in this issue is built around the “Fire People” characters I have developed over the last few years.  You will notice “Jack” and “Qkjea” in many of them.

Click here  to open the current issue.  When looking for my work click on the section titled “Gallery” (or just click here) and then click on the old blue Ford truck to see the work I have contributed.  Below is the old Ford truck.  Clicking on it will not take you to the rest of my work, you have to do that at aaduna. 

The entire magazine is richly apportioned and each artist has something worthwhile to say. I feel very good having my work associated with theirs. I hope they feel the same. aaduna has attracted a bunch of very good artists,writers and poets.  Check out the entire magazine, you’ll be glad you did. Many of the contributors have degrees in art.  I have none. Being included is an honor. 

Thank you Bill and Lisa for all the work you have done getting this issue off the ground. It looks good to my eye.

Shaman's Path a new video and more

I made a video titled “Shaman’s Path”.  The shamanic 

intention of being in harmony with the environment is 

a refreshing departure from the idea of being “at war” 

with nature.  Being “at war” with nature is the mindset 

of contemporary society.  Yes we can kill the earth, 

we can poison the water, the air and the soil but will 

we be winners if we succeed?

The war against nature at its heart is a spiritual battle 

and an outright blasphemy. If one conceives of a 

Creator, the greatest disrespect to the Creator is to fail 

to nurture what has been created.  The two sides 

could not be more clearly delineated.

Politicians are deciding at present whether or not to 

kill the planet off by their devotion to carbon based 

energy interests. Fresh air and water along with fertile 

land may or may not fall prey to economic 

adversaries.  Let’s hope they make the right decision.

We're talking about the world the next generation will 

live in. This and the last several generations have 

really screwed the planet over.  Will this generation 

begin an attempt to make amends, or nonchalantly 

carry on with business as usual?  

We’ll have to wait and see.

Below is a photograph I took on my first day living in 

Oregon. It was taken in the morning in the Columbia 

River Gorge by the Bonneville dam. Long gone are 

the almost unlimited populations of beaver. The 

salmon, whose numbers were described with almost 

disbelief in the journals of the Lewis and Clark 

expedition are now considered to be endangered.

Our way of life is snuffing theirs out. How many of 

our fellow creatures can we kill before we have signed 

our own death warrant?

Escape From The Carbon Fiend

I received this video today on the topic of fracking.  It is in harmony with the rest of this post so I am including it.  Pray for these people, they are facing a grave threat to their well being.

Destruction of the ability of the earth to support life is something many are opposed to.  However there is a small percentage of those among us who do not seem to care all that much one way or another. While not admitting it outright, their decision making and their lack of corrective action speak with an earsplitting volume.  

1 in 8 people will die as a result of air pollution.  In fact three times as many will die from air pollution than will die from automobile accidents.  A report by the World Health Organization gives the down and dirty on the subject. In the WHO report this alarming conclusion is made:  

"This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk."

The report went on to cite the various diseases resulting from both outdoor and indoor air pollution.

Outdoor air pollution-caused deaths – breakdown by disease:

40% – ischaemic heart disease;

40% – stroke;

11% – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD);

6% - lung cancer; and

3% – acute lower respiratory infections in

children.

Indoor air pollution-caused deaths – breakdown by disease:

34% - stroke;

26% - ischaemic heart disease;

22% - COPD;

12% - acute lower respiratory infections in children; and

6% - lung cancer.

What is responsible for air pollution and the resulting death toll?  The agents of death and disease by air pollution are listed at the National Park Service website.

The categories are as follows:  1. Gaseous Pollutants. 2. Particulates. 3. Toxic air pollutants.  4. Primary and secondary pollutants.

There are four categories listed as sources of this malady of death and disease.  Three of them are man made.

1.  Stationary and area sources.  2.  Mobile sources.  3.  Agricultural sources.  4. The fourth category is different from the preceding categories in that the pollution results from natural causes such as volcanoes, dust storms and wildfires, events which, for the most part, human activity does not create. All the rest are produced by human decision making and human activity.  It is recommended that you read the information at the links provided to be more fully informed about the threat produced by air pollution to your health, your life and that of your children and loved ones. 

After becoming informed you may be moved to see to it that the madness of polluting the environment is stopped. Much of the man made pollution has its origins in the way carbon is used. 

With that in mind I made the video below and titled it "Escape From The Carbon Fiend". Seeing the havoc air pollution causes the use of the word "Fiend" is a correct designation. As 8 million people a year are put in the grave by this activity, "Fiend" does seem to fit. The video is illustrated with photography and art of my own.

a Clear Running Water state of mind  

Lets Talk About Carbon

I read the news today, oh boy. I knew it intuitively already and science has now shown my gut feelings to be correct.  The use of carbon based fuel is contributing to severe weather and climate change over the length and breadth of the planet.

I have been making environmental art depicting the results of society’s love affair with carbon based energy.  A while back I made a little video of my art on the topic of “King Carbon”.  It appears at this moment U.S.  Politicians have the desire to crucify the electorate on a cross of carbon as they fight feverishly to be sure big carbon interests construct the Keystone Pipeline across the belly of the nation’s bread basket.  They undertake this initiative despite the dismal track record of pipeline failures. The number is growing rapidly but the sheer number of pipeline failures which have occurred in the last 14 years is staggering.  We’ve been addicted to carbon for a long time.  We are now in the terminal stages of that addiction. What will we do?  Will we simply overdose and vanish from the planet?

Focusing on the Peoples Republic of China as the prime culprit in this matter of assault on the environment a team of scientists from Texas, California and Washington State published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which I found in AlterNet today. It is not a comforting picture which you will see if you read the article.

I live on the west coast of the United States and for years it has been known that China is dumping their smokestack particulates in the nearby mountain ranges along the coast using Mother Nature as the delivery mechanism.  While using air currents to deliver their pollution to U.S. soil they make Mother Nature into an unwitting accomplice. 

The article in AlterNet says in part: “China’s air pollution could be intensifying storms over the Pacific Ocean and altering weather patterns in North America.”  Read the entire article at the AlterNet link above. It is a devastating expose of the malicious activity of carbon devotees.

The mountains of Oregon and Washington are not the only areas under attack from the continuous industrial barrage of Chinese smokestacks.  In an article at the website energybiz  it is revealed that as far back as “… 2001 dust carried from a storm in China that dropped on the US led to health advisories as far east as Atlanta Georgia.” How much is too much?  How is this substantially different from an adversary dispensing a disease causing virus in our cities? Why is it not considered state sponsored terrorism?

A short time ago I made a little video with art titled “Carbon, Climate Change and Cyclones.”   My gut feelings have been proved correct by these revelations in the news.  Why this activity by China is not considered an act of terrorism perpetrated on the population of the United States is a question American citizens need to ask their elected representatives repeatedly until they get a satisfactory answer.  This is indeed a public health issue.  You’re supposed to be vaccinated for measles to avoid epidemics.  But China, a foreign nation, is allowed to drop its poison from the skies across our land regardless of the health and social calamities which ensue.  Has China assumed the role of a 21^st century Typhoid Mary? Is it going to go on from place to place doing business and destroying the rest of the world while it prospers? 

And of course it is not only China.  China has enablers in the legislative halls of the U.S. in the ‘person’ of U.S. coal, oil and gas developers who give money to lawmakers in exchange for legislation favoring them. All of these ‘persons’ should also be held accountable for the disease and havoc their actions create. 

This article in the Sightline Daily demonstrates what I have said:   “Big Coal and Big Oil know that, in their business, political friends are worth their weight in gold. An academic study of one case of corporate lobbying estimated the return on investment at 22,000 percent: a dollar spent earned $220. Jack Abramoff, the convicted, influence-peddling super-lobbyist, pegged the return on investment of one project at 100,000 percent: $4 million dollars in lobbying cash purchased a $4 billion tax break for Tyco International.” Read more at the link.

It should be clear that if carbon use is not curtailed the next generation of humanity and the rest of life on the planet is in for hard times. 

With that in mind I made the little video titled “Carbon, Climate Change and Cyclones” . I was just moved to make it because it’s all I can do to make my voice heard and feel as if I didn’t give up without a fight. These bastards are killing us.

Autumn Leaves: poetry and photography

I wrote the poem decades ago and it has undergone several changes in that time and will probably undergo more as time goes on.  The photographs, most of them, were taken on the porch of a place I once lived. 

Rainy days with breakthrough sunlight provide striking effects.

Summer has come and gone and from the looks of it will continue to do so.

The photographs were taken in Fleming New York by myself.  I made the video below including a spoken poem titled "Autumn Leaves".

All work (C) 2014 by David H. Roche

Dreamlandia: New video and art

"Dreamlandia" is a visit to a frequency where non-ordinary occurrences are to be expected.

Dreamlandia is like the trash bin where important information is rediscovered just before the janitor comes to empty it.

Art (C) 2014 By David H. Roche

Dancing With The Tao

I snapped a picture out the window while crossing the bay.  The light was dramatic.  The picture came out different from what my eyes saw.  The ambiance in the picture is darker but it was brighter with more blue to my eye.  

I liked the contrast and starkness in the colors in this photo so I decided to combine it with a favorite picture which I use over and over again for the effects it possesses.

The photo below was made from a photo of a sunset at Crater Lake in Oregon. I combined it with the previous photo and some other photos of sky and clouds and worked on them. The result is in the video below.

I had a hard time naming it and settled on Dancing With The Tao. The idea just kept developing.

Photography and art by David H. Roche

(C) 2014

Drink Your Spirits: a collection of artwork from February and March 2014

Drink your spirits is a collection of things I made in March and February.  The content is varied from surreal to dreamlike to almost realistic.  I have utilized my "Fire People" characters in many of the pictures.

I think my favorite sequences are Sunny Days and Sunset.  Sunny days on the North Coast can turn to rain squalls in a few moments. Sometimes it rains for days on end.

When it is not raining the sunsets are often gorgeous.

All work Copyright 2014 by David H. Roche

a Clear Running Water state of mind

Recurring Dreams: three videos with original art

Edit 3/26 2013

Below are three videos and some artwork on environmental and spiritual themes I made recently while thinking about what is happening to the earth.

The unabated use of carbon to fill our unabated desire for novelties is creating a climactic surprise for the next generation. 

The U.S. Government has published this informative piece on the topic of climate change. You can be sure climate change ain't going to be fun. The quality of air is imperiled to the extent one out of 8 deaths is attributable to air quality problems.  Click here.  

Water quality is also imperiled.  From North Carolina to China and I suspect an area near you has endangered water supplies.

Clean water and clean air have become negotiable in today's way of conducting business. This article (I just found this today and added it) explaining a NASA report on the future of civilization places a sobering vision awaiting the decision makers response.  Whether there will appear someone who is willing to research alternatives instead of pursuing business as usual remains to be seen.  So far the decision makers have left us with little more than promises, filthy air and water. 

NASA denies responsibility for the conclusion researchers reached saying:  "A soon-to-be published research paper 'Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies' by University of Maryland researchers Safa Motesharrei and Eugenia Kalnay, and University of Minnesota’s Jorge Rivas was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA. It is an independent study by the university researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity.

"As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions."

This official response by NASA shows the institutionalized hesitancy to man up to the ecological debacle which is upon us. In the past we've trusted experts who told us DDT was safe to use in the kitchen. It might be time to trust your own judgment in this most important of matters!  We're where we are now facing the consequences we're facing because of experts who are in the employ of those responsible for the life threatening ecological problems we're facing giving 'expert advice'. 

Is it time to step out of line and think, really think, for yourself? 

Recurring Dreams is the video below.

Carnival of the Gods.  I had a difficult time editing this until I came up with the title.  Once I had the title I finished it up quickly.

Post Fukushima Meltdown Stomp

Time to party...keep smiling.

I try and imagine what on earth people are thinking when they deliberately adopt goals which result in an ultimate harm to, if not themselves, to future generations. 

This is the path our civilization and society has taken.  It seems sometimes that the greatest of all world wars is the war against nature.

This behavior baffles me.  Is it possible the problem is a spiritual one? I ask because this is done by conscious decision making processes. Is mankind's disregard for the welfare of the earth a telltale signal of a significant spiritual disenfranchisement?  If this were to be true it would be an indication of the ultimate alienation of the human species. 

Whatever the reason is it is clear the planet and those on it are on a precipice. It's not too late to stop the war on nature.  However, it's unlikely such an idea will be suggested as a remedy.  It used to be a hell of a nice planet.

Have a nice day and keep the water and air clean.

All video and visual images created by David H. Roche. 

 (C) 2014 

a Clear Running Water state of mind