The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch

An incredible painting which I remember just dying to see ..I saw it over Christmas sometime in a not so distant past, it was raining in Madrid. it is all now available to see online in the greatest detail, the kind of detail you won't be able to see in person. I spent hours with this painting over several days, while also seeing Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, as well as the Royal palace.

One of the things I noticed about artists is that they rarely talk about art or are rarely interested in art and I will try to start a conversation about an important artwork or just simply about art and people are just not interested you know, people like to make things. People like to make tchotchkies because tchotchkies require no thinking and no ideas of your own. To think is difficult, to think up something new is difficult.

How can you make art unless you know what is the best there is in art that has ever been created, whether in the past or in the present, the purpose of creating stuff is to measure up to the best there is. what other purpose could there be for art other than to measure up or surpass whatever has been done in the past in some manner. 

I don't want to personally be buried in historical detail I don't really care about the past but I care about what has been done which is absolutely the best there is, that is important, it is really important to know and measure up to the most significant artworks that have ever been created.

#art #artist #oldmasters #painting #prado @museoprado #madrid

this is the link to the painting online https://tuinderlusten-jheronimusbosch.ntr.nl/en#

My favorite thing to do is to daydream

One of the most important faculties we humans have at our disposal is our ability to generate ideas, to think and dream up things. In my work i do use my ideas and my dreams and use my knowledge of old masters and the history of art, as well as my experience in artistic process from the Silicon Valley, to give the work depth and then shape.

I think ideas and ideals are our most important asset. I personally promise to hang onto every idea and whim that crosses my mind. To indulge in frivolous speculation and to use words from different languages in one sentence. I am interested in answers not much contrived, genuine things and fools persistent in their folly.

Teachers are important and Sadhguru is one of my current teachers. I am not a buddhist of any kind, not into the guru scene or into purchasing bliss in the form of programs and seminars. But I like to keep an open mind and to look for other people's insights and judge whether they may be helpful in my life. Every person is ultimately the teacher of the their own self.. and the only agent of life that matters. I am the only person I'd trust with insights into my own life, my wellbeing and my life path. This has often created rifts and caused aggravation in my relationships with other people.

But even for the most reckless things I have done in my life I had the utmost self-belief that I was on the right path... even when i sold and gave away all my possessions, gave up my 6 figure job and beautiful apartment.. and moved to a small room in New York. The drama this created around me and within the circle of people that were closest to me.. was much bigger than all the discomfort and inconveniences I may have experienced.

At one point my feeling was that all the possessions and items in my closets were becoming a huge burden, all the fancy dresses, various items in my cupboards, all the travel... they all wanted a piece of me or my time. time that I could have used to ponder over or create things.

Mars sings in rumbles

Ain’t this the most awesome thing, makes me dream of what awaits humanity in the future as a space faring civilization

Vader Tesseract

Vader Tesseract is a 3d sculpture I made in Zbrush based on my an encounter with three NYPD detectives who decided to visit one morning and encountered my Vader drawings on the wall, and almost decided to buy one on the spot. The thing is my former landlord was a public defender and was an activist for prisoners’ rights.. so I never really did anything to piss the detectives off because in any other circumstances i would have been in the precinct and would have turned it on my head.

I decided to make this sculpture instead to remind me that police officers in New York like art too, even when on the job.

I am also glad I moved :)

Roadside Attraction

Roadside Attraction is an installation I thought of several years ago as an all American, amusement park type of work, a show on the side of the road or a trailer that could be part of a country art fair. Could be even setup on a remote country road, away from traffic or even in a field. Without and far removed from formal art experiences but using the materials and methods that belong in an artist's studio, and, of course, the provocation. Roadside Attraction was conceived as a spectacle at a truck stop. I have always been fascinated by American truckers, hauling large trailers on American highways. Last year I drove solo 3000 miles from Florida's Space Coast to the Silicon Valley in California where I spent a large portion of my life in a not so distant past. While on the road I had plenty of time to think, especially driving through West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. I am convinced that at that moment I had the tiniest car in all of Texas, In one small dusty town I  suddenly feared that cowboys, who were prowling the nearby hills hunting boar, may actually decide to shoot my tires for fun.

So Roadside Attraction has probably lingered on the back of my head ever since I started moving across the Untied States - I once crossed the States along highway 80 ( Kansas, Colorado, etc) and once along 10 ( Mississippi, Texas, etc ), of course not counting flying. Mississippi had absolutely the worst roads I had ever come across as far as Federal Highways go. I thought I had broken an axel - my little Hyundai was shaking so bad and I was in the middle of nowhere in the deep south with a tiny car full of stuff.

Minds over Matter, Wits over Bums

We are products of our desires, or what Joseph Campbell calls the

" the zeal of the organs for each other"

I was lucky enough to spend 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area and consider it one of the most progressive areas in the world today.  It is absolutely no coincidence that apple, google were formed there.

Our identity, and sexual identity in particular, is central to our being and how we operate in the world. We embark on many quests and gender is one such a quest.

But it should remain a personal pursuit and should not be a corporation's or our government's business who we go to bed with.

If a corporation  or the government requires you to specify your gender identity this is the vulgar equivalent of it pulling your pants down to check on the shape and form of your genitalia.

Remember the Giant Hands in Beacon project - one of my favorite projects to do and with great and gentle results

Month-long, site-specific installation in Beacon, NY, created illegally inside Dennings Point Ruins. Due to the fact that it was created in a State Park - I had to setup from scratch every morning and fold everything every evening, leaving no trace. Hence its ephemeral, and inherently mobile and shifting nature. I apologize to the state of New York for not applying for the permit they would have never given me anyway. That's why I didn't ask. ..................

While hiking in the area I found the most beautiful space - abandoned brick factory which has been taken over by nature.

While passing by I only saw a brick wall, partially collapsed and had no idea the area just around the corner held this amazing environment.

I walked by, the place called me and I answered. It's my magical forest sans the mushrooms. I was in love and spent much time here.

They call the place Dennings Point ruins, I found them much improved though, and much more beautiful. imagine the sheer mundanity of a brick factory building with all the brick making stuff in it. Now it has been beautifully rearranged by nature and you have the most lively soundscape too.

It was made so much more beautiful. …

Art is about a punch to the stomach. I figured what the difference is between art and art, art gives you a punch so when the art is absent and the artist is absent you still hold the image in your head. You say ah!

If there’s no ah it is just making stuff, or being creative which is of course absolutely valid too it just isn’t all that interesting.

I loved being in this place, in the company of bushes, crickets, birds, wind, greenery, ruins, graffiti, and random humans.

To create a brand new visual experience, and fleeting.

I loved the sounds of the space as well, it's like nature was pushing its way into the building but couldn't take over and get all in.

Plus I had the local bullies come in and complain about the yuppies coming to their town, and to be honest I was scared but not terrified but my friend freaked out so i had to start folding. I will make sure to come alone next time because I do not care to "burn with my art" - this was the only time I have been threatened to be burned with something I created so I feel it was quite special.

And then the cops showed up, they were really nice.

On the other hand the local shuttle driver for the college took us to the bar up the hill completely free and out of the goodness of their heart which was great, and the bar was great too - I loved the food and the ambiance because there was nothing pretentious about it, and with great tasting beer.

Not affiliated by any stretch - but would love to be - Meyer's Olde Dutch Food & Such.

Hands tree in Red

.Hands tree in Red - pen and ink drawing work in progress .

This contact binary potato named #UltimaThule

I imagine they will laugh in a hundred or so years at our pitiful excitement about a contact binary potato that we saw on our way out of the solar system but hey we are on a good vector and trajectory is more important than place.    

Happy New Year from Memory Replacement - what an amazing day and we will multiply this one x200 in the new year

Here you can see the dress from Memory Replacement - an amazing result from an incredible New York experience. Memory Replacement world trade center performance with public participation - dress by Mirena Rhee

Happy New Year from my fire escape - a beautiful day in New York, open and sunny skies - much sun to you tooo!!!!!

Happy New Year, drinking my first coffee of the year on my fire escape, barefoot ! #happynewyear #happynewyear2019 #firstdayoftheyear #sun

#coffee #mirenarhee #breakfast #InstagramNYC #newyorkcity #newyork #artnyc #art

#drinkingcoffee #morning

#performanceartist

#artlife

#discovernyc #newyork_instagram

#newyorkcitylife #artlife

#myart #newyorknewyork #newyorkcitylife

#beautiful #nyc mirenarhee#fireescape #goodmorning

mirenarhee#2019

Happy Dancing in the New Year

The best of 2018

And Happy New Year from Memory Replacement !! Happy New year, thanks to ever amazing adventures and most of all people who helped me create - hope to be ever more unknowledgeable, ignorant and unsuspecting of things in 2019

#happynewyear #happynewyear2019 #bestof2018 #performanceart

#memoryreplacement #mirenarhee

#installation #InstagramNYC #newyorkcity #newyork #artnyc #art

#fineart #exhibition

#performanceartist

#paintwithyourheart #oculusnyc #oculus

#artlife

#discovernyc #newyork_instagram

#newyorkcitylife #artlife

#worldtradecenter

#worldtradecentermemorial

#myart #newyorknewyork #newyorkcitylife

The most beautiful thing - a radiant earth seen during spacewalk

This is how I see the world - a radiant ball of consciousness, it is the ultimate artwork of the cosmos to create a blue and highly spirited planet.

Merry Christmas

Bulgarian style Christmas Eve in New York, 27 dishes my new home has a wonderful tree so I decided to dress the table

#home is where I am

Hands of God - acrylic on canvas, 96 x 96 inches

Mirena Rhee, Hands of God - acrylic on canvas, 96 x 96 inches A Giant Hands of God painting, It's a kind of a puzzle actually, a hand conversation.

I took a rhizomatic view of Michelangelo's hand of God, almost a Tesseract.

In other words nothing here is an accident and there are no 2 gestures the same color.

We hold the world in our hands, we can create we can destroy, it is only about the other side of the hand, the mind. The mind can gesture things into Oblivion or conjure miracles, especially today with the press of a button.

[video width="1080" height="1080" mp4="http://www.mirenarhee.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MVI_7096.mp4"][/video]

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Hope you appreciate yellow paint #drawing #painting #hands #hand #paint #yellow #exhibition #nycart #art #artgallery #artist #artnews #artshow #artwork #fineart #myart #newyork #nyc #newyorkcity #InstagramNYC #work #studio #artlife #gianthands #gianthandsinmanhattan #mirenarhee

A post shared by Mirena Rhee (@mirenarhee) on Dec 11, 2018 at 5:56pm PST

Pushing paint around, it gives me the kind of adrenaline rush which is inexplicable. it's a natural high, a byproduct of producing single wavelength of color with your fingertips. I think Dali talked about this in the past that the high of making artwork is so intense that really can't be matched but taking any drugs - not that I've ever taken drugs it's just I feel intensity about anything in the world without any external means

A pick me up - flying penguins, normal penguins, and George Carlin

Blue Planet 2, the out of this world documentary voiced by our favorite David Attenborough... which is surprisingly a show about our own world, can be had for ten bucks on youtube and honestly this is the best thing since they discovered that penguins can fly: .

Blue Planet can be watched here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmsaqQmH6Sw&list=ELDiEnf4inTk2z-c3sGkD6vw

Penguins can’t fly. But they can get airborne. The secret technique that penguins use involves wrapping their bodies in a cloak of air bubbles – and it turns out to be the same technique that engineers use to speed the movement of ships and torpedoes through water from r/Awwducational

and george - I am usually wary when anyone is negative of America but you know what - sometimes a laugh is worth it.