When I am painting I am recollecting the moments that made my heart shine and my soul sing.
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‘237’ with soundscape ‘thinking of you’ featuring some gathered footage from a year of road trips and adventure, and finding the the voice so as to channel through the paint. The painting slomo is my WIP ‘SLO’ which is a working title and the animation is called ‘hug ad infinitum ‘
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Lately I have also been making a go at baking, taking the time to learn new things and growing as a human being. I picked the apples from a neighbours tree in BC, collected spring water, and used only the best ingredients I could find, it worked out and now I can add a new hat to my wrack, as I predict there will be more of this to come as winter sets in. Pie and painting, a very good combination indeed.
When the road bends why go straight? -Gypsy proverb
and lastly a hybrid art piece combing two paints, my WIP ‘SLO’ and a ‘pirate’s oasis’ Flashback
This is a bus I painted back in 2011, it is the largest solo project to date and one that I questioned heavily for years whether it was worth the blood, sweat and tears. It did change my life in many ways, and has been the catalyst for many paintings and commissioned projects. I think I will find some time this winter to sit and write about my story now that I feel I am able to do so.
I walk this earth alone, yet I am not alone, there is 7.4 billion and rising humans here with me. I have often felt a connection to the wolf, in fact there was a time I visited an old shaman who pointed out that my spirit animal is a wolf, a lone wolf. When he told me this my whole life flashed before my eyes, and everything made sense to me. I am hälts, a painter who spends most of his time alone, making paintings that recollect things that I have experienced in my travels, mostly alone. Even when I was with someone I felt alone. This has been my curse and blessing, because on one hand I am human and as a human affection to another is something desirable, on the other hand the world is so complex that the notion that one will fall in love with one person and will live happily ever after seems but a dream. For now I will continue making marks, building character, and painting. I am hälts, I am nobody, unknown, alone, right next to you.
fotoMahaloness
I’ve been working on multiple paintings lately, I am very much a slow painter, and this series collectively is called ‘SLO’.
‘SLO’ this work started out as a live painting which a I am now finishing up in the studio
‘forest wolf’ WIP stars out as a live painting I have continued to work on this darling in the studio.
and now a new special minimotion
‘when I’m there’ 📽new minimotion in studio sesshin special edition with soundscape ‘I think of you’ featuring some recent art explorations in SLO mo, some cloud timelapse, paper shadow art, and a bus ride ride, from Bowness to the Pacific Ocean, these are the places I revisit when I am sitting and painting in my studio.
a minimotion which captures at least partially what goes into a brush stroke, with soundscape ‘more than just paint goes through this brush’, the minimotion features a bunch of timelapse that I have been collecting, some roadtrip action, an eagle in a tree that I like to visit whenever possible, also a helmet airbrush project and some of the stages that I did for Canadian Olympic skeleton athlete Mirela ‘Mimi’ Rahneva here is a link to a great article featuring Mimi, Mimi’s story check that out, at any rate that’s what’s goes into a brush stroke, life, nature, people, this is what inspires me to do what I do, hope you enjoy this piece.
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Thank you to everyone who made this possible, so many to thank ❤️ Mahalo and Aloha
Some paintings morph for quite a while, this one is no exception, been working on it for the last several months, you could say it’s a paintamentary, it embodies life experience, romance, heart break, joy, sorrow, travel, nature, city, and human nature. It was painted in public settings and also in my studio. There is a social cultural anthropologist side to me, for as long as I can remember, observing people in this theatre we call life and documenting the experience. There is also a monk side to me, hours spent in relative silence devout to painting, thinking, concentrating, and being in each moment as it unfolds, mark by mark, layer by layer. It will be interesting to see this one through, I am making no predictions, just continue to build the layers, and do the work until it’s on the brink of exhausted. That might end up being the title, although that’s a little too predictable.
hälts minimotion
‘hälts presents SLO’ ⚡️a new minimotion paintamentary rough cut special edition with soundscape ‘I I’ and featuring some Sky timelapse from the summer months, my painting WIP ‘SLO’ (working title) morphing before your very eyes, in flux, closing with some water rippling in slomo, and the beat goes on…(part 1)
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And a moment of silence for Tom Petty and Gord Downing, we lost some good ones, there songs will carry on.
I was listening to a podcast called ‘the wounded healer’ on headphone commute and decided to make a watercolour painting which you shall see below. It’s been a little crazy lately between working in film sets, finishing projects and continuously work on paintings that are stacking up like Waimea Bay on a good swell. As leaves fall and winter approaches it looks like I’ll have plenty to work to keep me warm and busy, and will begin planning a trip that will be dedicated to making travel art, surfing and reclaiming my spirit.
fotoMahaloness
‘starting new’ 🖌 a new minimotion with soundscape ‘super duper job’ featuring a bike ride, a very simple paper stop animation, a couple fresh watercolour sesshins in its very early stages, a beach on the Olympic peninsula in Washington St. that I camped on during the summer, and closing with the soothing sounds of lady Pacifica
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‘fire in the sky’ a new watercolour WIP following some time spent in BC Canada this summer and fall
‘the wounded healer’ a watercolour painting I just finished up, it’s hard to open your heart up in this world of drama, the work must continue and I plan to continue the good work because the world is in need of it.
‘crossroads’ my hybrid art, reimagining my painting through digital media
‘animal’ a hybrid piece which uses my painting WIP ‘SLO’ reimagined digitally.
As crazy, confusing and weird as life may be, it is also something wonderful and I wouldn’t change one bit of it, even if that was an option, this includes ‘mistakes’ because these are golden opportunities to learn about ourselves, they are there to teach us in order to grow, and to build upon, there’s no point in being hard on yourself because it is self defeating, get up, get going, there’s more work to be done.
Been in a little window of reflection, looking inwards, to find some peace of mind and let this beautiful land sink deep into the psyche. Life’s been busy, so I will take this time to appreciate the fact I am here to appreciate it. I also wanted to say thank you to all the folks who have supported my art over the years, it’s been a journey. Here’s to brighter days.
📽 new minimotion ‘SLO mo’ with soundscape ‘you’re awesome’ featuring footage from a recent paint sesh, a little window into my world, I always feel like time dissolves when I am in the creative zone, the helmet at the beginning is a project I just completed, a skeleton helmet airbrush art for an Olympic hopeful, more on that soon.
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chasing eagles, touching earth to mend heart
in reflection, Lake Windermere, BC
This is a beautiful place I like to come think and dream up new ideas
giants amongst us
📽 new minimotion mini nature doc called ‘hiatus’ with soundscape ‘sans Daivd Attenborough’ featuring footage documented during late summer and fall around Lake Windermere, and a simple animation of my painting WIP ‘SLO’
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a very special project under wraps, I will be sharing this with you very soon
Flashback 2014 and a good friend, Gord, dropped off his old rig helmet and asked me to give it a punk rock dog, in memory of his buddhy ‘snorkel’ who he brought up to Canada from Belize, I had a lot of fun with it, including incorporating the helmet shapes into the the art, this was my first helmet project and would not be the last……
I will admit my studio sometimes looks chaotic, I try to keep it neat and tidy, that lasts about a minute, once creative impulse kicks in there’s no such thing as neat and tidy. I have been working on this painting below for several months, I started it in a friends store, I worked near a window that in most days bathed me in sun light and was the best light I have ever worked with, expect sometimes it got a little too hot, which can make it difficult to work with acrylics, it gets sticky and can be tricky to move in the surface. While I painted friends would come hang out, and talk about life, school, and all sorts of interesting. I found the experience to be fun and also challenging, my comfort zone is a studio, being in public was a completely different experience to the cave art, cave art because I work in a basement, which is also my home, that has great light and I can see my garden through my studio window and the neighbourhood resident rabbit, Pedro. So eventually I did bring this painting back into the studio and have been working on it ever since, layer by layer, building, sculpting, weaving, and trying to see it through. I’ve been reading some Joseph Campbell recently, author of ‘Masks of the Gods’ and ‘Myths to Live By’ and I came by this passage which I think captures a little bit of what my painting called ‘SLO’ is about, of course I leave it open to your interpretation, and would not suggest that this is exactly my sentiments, however I also find it does resonate with me quite a bit.
One has to appear in some mask or other if one is to function socially at all; and even those who choose to reject such masks can only put on others, representing rejection, “Hell no!” or something of the sort. Many of the masks are playful, opportunistic, superficial; others, however, go deep, very deep, much deeper than we know…It is silly therefore to say, for example, “Let’s take off our masks and be natural!” And yet- there are masks and masks. There are masks of youth, the masks of age, the masks of various social roles, and the masks also that we project upon others spontaneously, which obscure them, and to which we then react.
Anyway I think it somewhat describes this painting, when I can think of something smart to say I will, I just have somewhat always felt this way about roles, and playig the parts in this theatre that is life.
a new minimotion called ‘the badlands’ with soundscape ‘sometimes’ featuring footage from a recent work trip, I occasionally work in the film industry as a grip, this footage was taken while in the badlands of Alberta, a place where giants once thrived, and now film crews roam. This place is like turning the clock back except for the delapitated grain building, who was also once was a giant.
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Part 2 ‘good ol days’ with soundscape ‘a moment of silence’
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‘inside the studio’ a minimotion documenting the process while working on a very special project, a skeleton helmet airbrush WIP for a Canadian Winter Olympic hopeful with soundscape ‘waiting on clear coat’
‘dodo dood’ recent ink doodle made while on a sojourn to Edmonton from my white lodge book
a 2nd bird doodle made in Edmonton for my good friend Gord who offered up his couch and roof, always nice to stay with a friend when your on the road.
from an earlier sesshin working on my WIP ‘SLO’
‘Sitting quietly’ an not so old watercolour made around 2014 when I decided to give watercolour a whirl, I like the medium been experimenting with some side projects, which I will share in future posts
Mahaloness 