I want to make a real shout out to LA and all of its amazing people, places, and things that have been so supportive and crucial in my time down here. I felt alone and sort of lost for a moment there the first week, but have been thrust into a world of real goodness down here. And some of the most delicious tacos of my life XP. Hopefully I will be getting out to some galleries this weekend and seeing some good art and meeting some new folks. But for now I am volunteering at the JACCC in Little Tokyo and really enjoying becoming a part of a thriving community. Good things are here now and good things are coming.
Japan 2016
A visual narrative of my trip to Japan... Osaka to Kyoto to Tokyo, May 2016. Thanks to Juso Paint Dojo, Keiko Hakozaki, and the city of Tokyo.
Japan Travels and Art Adventures, 2016 Osaka to Kyoto to Tokyo
Well, LA is awesome!
I made it down here five days ago to start working on my upcoming show with Andrew Kline, titled Language of Memory. I am astounded at how awesome this place is. I have been wanting to spend some time here for a while and now I actually get to do it before heading back to the NC in couple months for a residency with Spectre Arts Gallery in Durham. Onward... There was also a killer trip to Prague and Budapest and Croatia recently.. more of that to come as well.
Language of Memory
Time has been flying by. I have some major announcements to make. First off, Andrew Kline and I have been working on a massive new show to debut at Superchief Gallery LA on November 12th, 2016. We have been working hard to bring you an immersive art, sound, and installation experience taking you through a future world where samples and visual reference from today have become the foundation of a society in the world of Unstoppable Tomorrow. It is also a conceptual exploration of shared reference creating a unifying but also very singular experience.
here are some works
Goddess 12"x12" House Paint, Oil Pastel, Pencil, Acrylic Lacquer on Wood Panel
Split Tales, 2'x4' House Paint, Acrylic Lacquer, Acrylic Paint, Soft Pastel, Oil Pastel, Pencil on Wood Panel
Time Signature 12"x12" House Paint, Spray Paint, Acrylic Lacquer, pencil on Wood Panel
Story of Life 24"x27" Spray Paint, House Paint, Acrylic Paint, Soft Pastel, Oil Pastel, Tempera, Pencil, Acrylic Lacquer on Wood Panel
I will be in LA living at Superchief for two months working on the installations leading up to the show. Get ready for some awesome documentation.
In other news, this website hosted by Bits & Bristles will unfortunately be coming down in October. I am working to get a new site up by then so please bare with me in the interim as I will be transferring the name over to a temporary blog style site due to time constraints.
Thank you for all your support. If you would like a preview of the show works and are interested in purchasing send me a comment or email to felixthethird@gmail.com and I will connect you with the good people at Superchief as well as supply you with any info you need from my end.
Much Love and thank you to all for your support!
-Felix
Japan Quick Catch Up
I have been in Japan for the last ten days, and it has been a whirlwind! I have learned so much about a city that is somewhat new to me, Osaka, and about painting huge pieces as well. It has been a beautiful, sometimes chaotic and tough learning curve, but now (that also my wifi card on my computer started magically working again) it is just moving forward with an amazing positive force and I am able to look at the whole last two weeks as a real journey of growth and newness and change. Yeahhhhhhh.
So finally I can share some photos of my adventures with you. I have only edited a few so far so the majority will continue to come. Enjoy
Getting Ready For Japan
I will be going to Japan in a few days, another trip to one of the most amazing places on earth. I am so excited to be painting with Koutaro Ooyama again, this time in Osaka. I will be updating as regularly as possible while I am working with him on a massive painting. Feeling good to be feeling connected and getting ready to be on the other side of the world for a while.
And Here We Are...
And here we are, standing in the soup of air, the humid entrance to a changing weather front, the thunder rumbling in translucent sound deep in the distance. The hum of crickets and the trickle of raindrops fill open ears. The glow of a Waffle House sign and the blinding nature of gas station LED lights offsetting it in a strange dichotomy of dimensional travel, of transparency between times. The loving lurch forward, the hating speed up to slow down, the laws swirl through air made of judgmental and righteous feelings. The mosquitos interface with gods original bizzaro land, one where the logic of the universe and all that occurs become a mesh of communication, a confusion of steadfast eyes and closed ears and open mouths screaming for the inevitable to halt and let their hearts congeal into stopping position before they change. Yet the change is the only constant no matter how hard they fight.
A young man asks me "Is that a Nikon or a Cannon?" with a limber slight drawl, or rather an airy relaxed almost classy slowed down accent, in no rush to then tell me how he has a Cannon rebel. He likes the Nikon's sensor and the overall image size, but he still loves the Cannon and the action and the way she moves. Then he says my waitress will be right with me and I proceed to say thank you and order a meal of proportions fit for Thor and Odin and all the warriors at the God's temple of Waffle House. North Carolina you are a strange mistress, an old soul full of sickness and beauty. You will forever be captivating to me in your slow yet unrelenting humid gusts of evolution. I'll enjoy this coffee, and then go outside in the the hot tub that is the spring night.
Another Photo of the Day
Photo of the Day
South Of The Border, 2014
Currently on View at Stephanie Chefas Projects.
Alignment, 16x20, Mixed Media on Wood assemblage Panel, 2016
Upcoming Experiences!
Excited to announce that I am going to have a piece in the upcoming Stephanie Chefas Projects Group Show entitled "Selfie". I will be dropping a new piece entitled "Alignment" next week on social media which will be represented in the show. I wrote an insightful, albeit thorough (as fuck haha) paragraph about the context for the piece and for where I seem to have found myself these days. 'In the last year of self discovery many moments have seemed to engulf me in their fullness and seeming unending intensity. The truth is that feelings, thoughts, states of being whether it be fear, joy, uplifting momentum, painful drowning, relief, darkness, amazement all are simply temporary moments within our humanity and our connection with the universal and one another. No state of being is a forever moment, I feel that even death in the end is simply a doorway to another dimension or state of our energies path through time and space. I have ebbed and flowed through some very intense pockets of being that at times felt permanent, or unending in the last year. I have worked through ghosts and the effects of my own past that finally were meant to be unwoven and dissected and confronted. And always with every stage and step a larger feeling of connection and a vision of the balance of the spiritual center amidst all things, one entity yet part of all entities is what I can see and feel. This piece is truly a self portrait of being and perception at the convergence of so many different elements of existence. It encompasses a visualization of the unseeable as well as tangible aspects of being, not consumed by any one feeling or way or thought. Just a moment amidst the intersecting energies and landscapes of the soul and psyche to see the beauty of it all in alignment, of it all just as it is meant to be at this certain moment. A freeze frame of all that makes up the passing of time and my place in the forever undulating universal architecture of energy. Even Tetsuo's rebirth was not a place of permanent pain, but a doorway to let his unending explosion of energy become right sized and fluid in a new state of existence, in the next dimension and stage of his alignment.' -JFA III
Also I will be having a yet another new piece showing with the wild animals of Good Mother Gallery in Oakland.
Photo of the Day 04/01/2016
On the Topic of Reference.
I have been using direct references from comics, manga, anime, books, folklore, Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, Kirby, Buscema, and many many more for a long time now. I find that the use of these references generally stem from a familiarity found during my life span, and I attach certain memories, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and the passing of time and all that comes with it to these iconic references. The ability to craft a narrative that speaks of our story due to the use of sampled elements that come from our world, or our specific moments in time that show a relationship of experience, is something that I began learning from great producers like DJ Premier, Pete Rock, The Rza, Dilla, even Kanye. There is something so sacred, so universal, and so personal yet communal about being able to utilize an image (or sound) that already exists in a certain context in history and was created with a certain purpose in mind, but due to the immersion into the tableau of our own personal histories these images take on new definitions and representations for all of us as individuals. I may not have created the image but I am using it just as a writer uses a word or a composer a note to begin to share my experience with my materials and surface and then ultimately to you. I feel everything that I have learned from these images and their makers coupled with all of my feelings, memories, thoughts, ideas, and experiences that I associate them with throughout every part of my life that I invoked their energy so to speak, and the result of re-purposing them creates something that I find to be beyond powerful, nurturing, cathartic, challenging and aids in a deep sense of growth and connection.
I have recently found my way back into the use of comic book references. After some continued digging and self reflection and self work I have found my way back to a period of my life where I began growing and forming ideas, and emotions, and modes that continued to move forward. A lot of these moments had been forgotten for a long time and I find myself re-experiencing some of this time internally as I come to realizations about how it informs who I am now. A certain attachment and learning came in the form of specifically Wolverine from Marvel comics for instance. It is almost as if I am having conversations as an adult reflecting on my inner child from then and now with Wolverine. I also am revisiting how I connected myself to Wolverine's adventures and pain and good times and battles and loves and loss and intense personal narrative. I am finding how so many of these references from John Buscema and Mark Texiera and Barry Windsor Smith really helped to teach me so much of morals, and ways, and approaches, wrong things, influences and ethics, good and bad habits as well that I embraced and helped me to grow. I find that reformulating these relationships in adulthood helps me to accept, love, cultivate and define my experiences and my narrative from this time period and how it continues to help me evolve today as I have re-embraced it while moving through present life and learning to accept more of who I am day by day.
I plan to continue writing more about this concept of sampling as a mode for deep, personal story telling by reintroducing iconic references in a new way. About how it is truly a tool that can bridge my experience with others and do more to welcome viewers and patrons into the work I create as they find their own story and also wonder how our stories are similar and unified as well as contrasting and individual. I feel like I have found a powerful tool to speak with in turn with my abstract painting and wood work and loose contour drawing and more. The root of much of my childhood growth and positive relationships with art (comic and abstract) are today more and more becoming the tools I use to truly explore and visualize my experience of those things unseen and intangible. I am happy to be doing what I am doing.
Moving Forward!
Into awesome new things... More posts to come over the next two weeks, including an Oakland walk around, new paintings, and some Photos from Ireland I shot this past November... Good things come to, well, you without a whole lot of waiting... thanks for checking in.
Studio Time.
I have been working in the studio a bit more lately, finding some regular time as I get some perspective on what I am will be making for some upcoming adventures later in the year. I have discovered some new mixtures of solvents and paints and such and really have been diving into process. My train of thought and ability to really dig into the core of my subject matter inside and let the work become an internal dialogue of a kind of narrative expressionism has me elated and nervous and confident and anxious and calm and grateful all at the same time. Here is a work in progress looking back at new ways to use iconic references from my childhood into my teenage years.
Art on Paper March 4th-6th
Great news. I will be represented by Joseph Gross Gallery at the Art On Paper Art Fair this coming March 4th-6th. A very cool new fair to check out in New York City. More info to come.
Back in the Studio
A new wave of thoughts and inspiration hit me recently. Contemplating a lot things having to do with a certain level of self acceptance and worth after a lot of hard work last year I have finally found myself re-discovering subject matter and ways of working and thinking and seeing that I find a lot of comfort and joy in. And at the same time these child like or comforting tropes find there way into this new language, a re-investigation of aspects of my life and influences I love. Digging into the ideas of armor, of attaching meaning to old icons like Gundam and trans formers, Wolverine and Psylocke, Hokusai and Matisse. Drawing as if in a notebook, exploring eighties manga lettering again, happy to re-discover these things that have always made me , well, happy, and to just immerse my adult self after a lot of hard growth back into a world where they are constant reminders of my own mythology and positive references that I can latch onto in a healthy way. These sorts of things help, much like Unstoppable Tomorrow, to continue to look at those things that cause me tension as I work through them as well in my art. Current status, feeling pretty good.
Current Status...
...at SFO on my way home for my birthday. Something about where I am from, Durham NC is calling me... it may be family it may be Bullocks BBQ it may be both and more... I am going to be meeting with some folks from the Golden Belt studio's while I am home and I am excited to talk about possibilities for making some work with them in the future... Bojangles, you need to also watch out because I am coming for you...
2015 Into 2016, a Romance Story.
The new year has been born. The gregorian calendar new year that is. As many of you know I generally write a post at the end of the year summarizing the past events of the year and leading into the new. I have chosen to wait this time until the new year has dawned because, simply put, this year was fucking hard. To sum up 2015, utterly painfully gut wrenching, challenging, ego destroying, beautifully enlightening, intense, and full of awakening and coming to a place and feeling of real self worth like I have never known before.
2015 began with a move back to the East Coast, one that I publicized greatly, that I seemed to make a huge deal about and sort of base my entire being upon. It saw the supposed "end of an era" of living in California and a move into the resurrection of a nostalgic existence redefined by a very arrogant view of "inevitable success" that would become my reality left up to the wind as if I could do no wrong. It saw six months leading up to my huge move without much recovery, without much perspective, without much work inward, with really no moments of selflessness, and without much thought for what could happen.
Essentially blinded by my own sudden uphill climb into a life gaining attention and momentum in certain aspects, I began coasting and I ran headlong into the darkest moment I have ever had since before getting sober. I ran blindly with almost no real defense into what truly was the end of an era, and not at all the one I had planned on. Suffice to say, I was brought to my knees by my own fears, insecurities, unresolved issues, and arrogance and began the insanely hard process of addressing aspects of myself that were not working anymore, that simply put were cancerous which I had used as fuel to move forward for so long. The engines I thought that were "me" ceased to work so that a healthier "self" could be finally nudged to the surface, sometimes yanked, and replace them. While I now know this is what was happening, at the time I simply had no earthly idea as to why after this grand exit from California I was suddenly in the darkest place internally I had been stuck in for the past 5 years. I honestly thought I was losing my mind and that I was either going to drink or somehow go off the deep end.
The pain became so unbearable inside, while in Brooklyn on the 5th floor of an apartment building in Flatbush as an intense blizzard hit and acute bronchitis set in with my dear friend Katie who was also going through her own intense shit, and the darkest thoughts one can imagine cycled through my mind like a hamster wheel 24/7 leaving me sleepless and afraid to my core. I was truly lost and feeling my soul being ripped apart by the lack of work I had done on myself before leaving to embark on this geographical and spiritual journey. But it had to happen this way I now see. In what felt like an eternity (but was only a matter of weeks) the beauty of acceptance set in as I finally, in the most liberating and successful way (next to getting sober), "gave up".
I will never forget the clod of slushy ice that fell from an awning and hit me in the head on a rainy 33 degree day walking to the train feverish and coughing as I went to a job interview in none other than time square. I will never forget that moment where the powers that be, the voice of the universe simply allowed me to let go. And it all made sense, the test made sense. I had work to do, different work than I had thought. I had so much more inward training and work to do spiritually and psychologically. I needed to address my intentions, my motives, my goals, my outcomes, my needs, the needs of others, my place in things. So I packed it all up quickly and it was back to California. I simply knew with no fear and no fight and no more pain that I needed to be there, to dig deep and get right truly and fundamentally before forging out into a new geographical reality. I let the spirit in and suddenly my actions became sound and I was no longer fighting the tide, the tide was loving and liberating, and just a little bit, day by day, the edge began to wear down.
Now this is not to say that the pain just was gone. My insides still felt as if I had a war of angels and devils being fought inside, but it did not feel as if the darkside was winning any longer. It felt as if I knew finally that everything was going to be fine, I just had to hunker down and do the work and dig inside and truly unearth who the fuck I am and work to be of service and toward a life not ruled by negative ego to see that bright sun rise again over the ocean's waves. I felt as if I had been destroyed, ripped apart, left as a husk of a person, and still the bits that remained were being razed and chewed up and ground down and I realized I had to go with it. I got to work, quickly yet lived slowly, with an open eye for the things that brought healthy change in the state of hyper sensitivity that I awoke too and carried with me daily.
Life is one huge series of lessons, and I have to say at this point, humility truly is the best teacher sometimes. Humbled to the point of which I was willing to actually give up making art entirely simply to be sane and happy I began working hard in my recovery again, harder than I ever had to that point. I did as I was told, I took advice, I began working with others, I accepted my place in things, I accepted that this was reality and it is simply not about "me" and what I want, but about what I am here to do, how I can be useful beyond simply survival, how I can help others and live by principles and be of service to my surroundings and those who are going through life's torrent. I let go further and further and got back into a very healthy routine with a very different set of priorities than when I had moved at the end of 2014.
The art started coming by itself, or rather through me in a way it had not in some time. I was once again a conduit to express the unseen intangible aspects of growth and change and realization and fear and working through pain (as an indicator for change) that we all go through. I became incapable of deciding what I was going to make, what image I was going to craft, what technic I was going to use as my hands literally made work before my eyes from the most intuitive and deeply, honestly, communicative place I have experienced in years. I tried to force myself to revisit conventions and found them being ripped apart in a liberating performance of discovery and being in the present as I could feel myself becoming this new person. I simply became a channel for what needed to be said and shared. It became the most healing and cathartic work and experience I have ever had. I finally began to be freed of so many limitations of "self" and "ego" that I had placed upon myself so that I could be destroyed in order to be reborn. I mean this with all my heart, this experience took me to my limit and then allowed me to break through to an existence and level of gratitude I have never quite known before.
This was not just a sudden moment though where the year became easy by any stretch of the imagination. This was just the catalyst to begin letting the path of growth and change move forward, to let go of myself in order to let my energy develop. And thus the year took shape. A new apartment, a new studio, and a long hard road of work and acceptance to walk through. Interestingly enough, the highs of this year have been as intense in good ways as the lows were in hard ways. Part of it is that I feel I was reduced to this simple foundation again much like when I got sober, but in a deeper way. In a way where the devices that still ran me from the "old me" when I got sober finally ceased to work. In the way in which we find ourselves forced to change when we actually get what we want and it is killing us and we need to make a shift in understanding our path, that was and is my journey.
I succeeded in making two wonderful bodies of work that were a process of paring down, saying more with less. They challenged and overcame a sense of what I thought I needed to do to make art. This action showed me a new foundation to build from, deep in process and in the practice of "losing the image" in order to truly see what is beyond what our eyes and surface thoughts tell us and make us judge and want. I met amazing new people, including someone who has grabbed my heart and nurtured it as I have nurtured theirs and we find new things out about ourselves through one another in a dance of beautiful truth and eroticism and humor and deep honesty and growth as we grow together and bring others into our energy. This wouldn't have been possible without the intense and painful reality of what I went through in the beginning of the year and I know that. My armor and my sense of direction have been stripped down and I realized that I am just the person I am and that is beautiful and that is okay. This in turn allows me to truly see my friends and lovers and my art making with honest open eyes and love who they are at their raw core of being. Suddenly my inner strength and real love and acceptance of self worth and search for purpose beyond this abstract world humans have built has put me in places and moments that have become so incredibly powerful.
I had a solo show in Chelsea, NYC with long time friend and brother Joseph Gross. While in New York I spent an entire day and night with someone so close to my heart talking sharing about our growth, about the world, about intimacy and perversion, about psychic voyages, about love, and of course about food while eating at Yakitori Taisho. I did those exact things another night with another friend very near to my heart at Oh Taisho. I walked with an old flame and long time friend on the high line and across the city. At the opening to "From Here" at Joseph Gross Gallery I was so fortunate to have people I have known since the age of 17 to those I just met this year come and have deep discussions and loud laughs and hugs and all be so stoked to be able to come together again and be growing and finding our ways. I walked the city with a very dear friend as well the next day and got to the spend days with my brother Pete catching up and meeting our brother Charlie's newborn little Roscoe.
I even went to Dublin, Ireland to see my partner, this person I have found this wild cosmic and intensely bright connection with. I experienced a whole new culture and sense of time and explored ancient aspects of civilization. We laughed we loved we walked we explored minds, hearts, and flesh, we rolled around we kissed we ate delicious things we held each other closely, we absolutely made the most out of every second we had together.
I reconnected with my cousin, whom I had not seen for 24 years. who is a brilliant writer while on my first trip ever to Denver, CO for a solo show with Black Book Gallery. We went to Casa Bonita (see South Park). And on the same trip saw my newborn nephew and my sister and brother in law and my father even showed up. I traveled to LA and back a couple times. I went to shows, I went on dates, I explored a bit more kink in my life, I went swimming, I ate all sorts of foods, I let go of my conception of myself and also moved with a bit more caution yet also with a bit more hunger for experiencing more than just career advances and notches in my belt of life. I got to know Oakland and SF a bit more as well. I went to Harbin one last time with my partner before it burned down. I finally found a studio in a place with many other artists rather than in my own little world as I have been for years.
I have finally become more in tune with the idea of a life meant to be explored rather than a line of events that lead to a known result and a selfish as well as small view of what success means. It is as if life has opened up into the realization that no one thing makes or breaks a person, no one moment in life defines us for all of it, there is nothing that we do, no level we get to that suddenly we can say "I did it, boom thats it it's all gravy from here". That does not exist. Living in that concept drove me as far as it could, and while I am grateful that it did get me to a certain checkpoint in life, it is also a figment of my alcoholic mind. Life is four dimensional, maybe more dimensional. It is as tangible and firm as it is elusive and unexplainable.
Life is about loving others, about doing the best we can every day, even if somedays that means doing very little and resting and healing making sure we are healthy within so that we can once again go forth and truly be a part of the world and let our vision explode and become a part of the fabric of time. I took more time to tell people I love them this year, I made myself slow down so that I did not fall flat, I have begun to learn what it means to move forward into something sustainable rather than explosively into the ether without caring how I affect myself and others. I began to learn to love myself as well.
There were beach adventures, there were AA meetings, there were great meals with great minds with incredible conversations. My super close friend and art ally Terry Addison moved back to the bay. A lot of my friends had babies and tied the knot and families were created and bonds strengthened. Some people died as well and others were lost in the fabric of time. Cities changed, people changed, and the world continues to spin. I learned this year that I truly can feel deeply, that my life is going to go amazing places as long as I let it and stay in a forward state of being, and it may not be within the architecture that I thought that had to be. 2015 has been one of the hardest years of my life, and equally the most enlightening and filled with a sense of awakening like I have never known.
Last night, New Years Eve, saw a free ticket to see The Flaming Lips. Amazing! I was able to share New Years in Ireland via the internet with the person I am so deeply connected to on her time. I was able to eat a delicious meal with someone I have become quite honestly very good friends with due to the realities of this being the hard year that is has been, and after were able to go our friends' new home and see others that we are connected to. I was able to see the new year change with my best friend and his amazing wife (also a dear friend) and I was able to take a deep breath as the balloons dropped and the lights exploded and the youngsters enjoyed their drugs and detaching from reality as I used to when I was their age and I just got be so incredibly happy to be alive.
This year brought a constant ebb and flow of hardship and awakening. It was a none stop hold on tight journey through the extremely raw experience of having to let go of what we think we know and are and let who we really are come to light as we try to hold on to certain aspects until they are too painful and destructive and inevitably find pure energy and happiness in the lessons life teaches us and the realizations we exist in as new and old faces and feelings become the present. When I breathed in the first breath of 2016 I finally, finally felt balanced.
2016 has already started off in a way that makes me feel that this past year was one of the most important foundation laying experiences of my life. That shit had to happen that way and no other. My mind is much more clear, yet much less fixated on specific results. I have a vision of where I want to go, I have some projects in the works, some projects in the planning stages, some recent successes under my belt and a firm and true belief that I am worth working hard toward my visions of what I hope life to become. And that is to say, I feel that I finally do love myself more than I have ever really known in the past, in a real way, not in a way based on my perception of what others think about me or want from me. A real true belief that I am worth loving and that I am still here for a reason. It has taken a lot to get here, and I have to say 2016 seems like it is going to unfold beautifully, no doubt with hardships and victories as it should, but I feel like some of the greatest actions I will have ever taken or begun are starting here. Without having had this year throw me off of the course I had really tried to force myself into and be in turn forced to let the universe channel through me into my work find myself on the path I am meant to be on the work that will be coming out in 2016 simply will not have been possible. I mean this to say that I am insanely grateful because I am in tune with my voice in a way I never fathomed I would be. It is one of the hugest blessings all said and done that I have ever been granted. The rawest most honest art and lives come from intense pain and change and the new found awakenings that they become, and I feel that the catalyst has occurred and the foundation laid. I guess one could say lift off, but I feel more like it is a consistent stride toward positive and amazing things. Thank you for being part of it all.
-John Felix Arnold III 01/01/2016
Holiday Nostalgia
2015 is coming to a close. I am not going to do my year end post just yet, but I will say this has been an important albeit rough year with some amazingness that has appeared throughout. Rather than just write a long philosophical diatribe about the year and how we learn lessons and how love prevails and how life is never what it may seem to be for better and worse and how the world just keeps spinning and perspective and positivity can always be found, I am going to hit you with a reel of photos from this year and years past that make me smile and think and feel and hopefully make you do the same.