Art for the betterment of humankind /  by Mirena Rhee

Art is really difficult to make. Especially making difficult art. I see a lot of people around me making very pretty doodles, so I've taken it upon myself to make not doodles but things that can't be easily reproduced. Because I will live long after I die I feel responsibility to take it upon myself to do what no one else will do, to take on certain tasks and projects.

The truth is I don't want to Doodle myself into tiny tiny Doodles, I don't want to box myself into icosahedrons, I don't want to sell coloring books of intersecting lines that doesn't speak to any purpose.

I see art as elevating human kind from the everyday purpose, so I take it upon myself to create art that just appears suddenly and crosses your path.

I read somewhere that the cost of anything is its cost between now and eternity, when I think about my art projects and just art in general and the kind of things I'd like to create these would be things that project ideas into the future.

And Memory Replacement New York City will be a project that projects into the future.


9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park - Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - photographs by Larry Cross /  by Mirena Rhee

9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park with photographs by Larry Cross.

I named the piece Strawberry Fields Flower Forever, and the hands stand in for oversized flowers.

Especially knowing that John Lennon was also a victim of hate. We have to take care of hate, I recently watched a very old video of John and Yoko and in it they were terrorized by mass opinion.

We have to make sure that our civilization doesn't oppress in the name of any purpose. No purpose justifies oppression and terror. Peace forever.

Mirena Rhee with her 9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park - Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - photograph by Larry Cross

9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park - Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - photograph by Larry Cross

9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park - Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - photograph by Larry Cross

9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park - Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - photograph by Larry Cross

9/11 installation in Strawberry Fields in Central Park - Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - photograph by Larry Cross

500 Million Dollars /  by Mirena Rhee

It has come to my attention that billions of dollars are being tossed around and passed around also.

I should tell you a secret.

I can change the world for 300 bucks.
I can make a work of art that you will never forget. It is simply because I pay attention, I can put together something very simple with the only expense being paper, paint, and my own labor.

I can surprise you in a space that you had never suspected to see art, I can draw something and make a world for literally 50 bucks.

The materials that Leonardo used in his notebooks cost 10 bucks. It is the cost of his imagination that is high.

So be mindful and be aware of the cost of things. 500 billion is nothing, it will be soon forgotten. A five bucks worth of drawing could live for 500 years and never be forgotten.

Be mindful of 500 million, it literally means nothing. The only thing that survives the millennia is the creation of man and not the numbers of man.

Be really really vigilant when you throw numbers especially at artists.

Do you know why the Medici supported art? Because it is the Divine touch. Art comes from the place where the universe comes from. You can't replicate it, you can't make a Bernini marble, you can't make a Michelangelo fresco even if you throw like 100 million or a thousand million or billion at it.

The key is that the genius of man can't be bought, it can only be created.

Remember that 30 bucks worth of paint made a 50 million painting of Van Gogh.

Beware that your money is worth nothing in the universe where dark matter is probably the real matter.

But the genius of man, that is definitely worth the price, you should know that all along God created man for the genius of man.

No matter the billions of the billions of the billions you throw at a canvas you won't be able to make a Salvador Dali painting or Van Gogh painting because it is the human spirit that makes art not the hand or the molecules of the body.

It is a proven scientific truth that what artists created could never ever be repeated again. And that is why copies are never as valuable as the original. Artists are just magicians that could create value out of thin air. They can pull the strings of their soul, and be the Mozarts of paint.

I believe the spirit of man and woman comes from a different universe, it comes from the universe that created this universe.

Hands Tower. Also, towering hands. /  by Mirena Rhee

hands alert to the facebook and google shopping networks - buy extra hands here, limited availability. Get them while supplies last. I have been alerted that some other artists do feet so for feet - contact a feet artist

Hands Tower - I am currently billing per hand. You will be issued a towering bill. No singles at the moment.

Strawberry Fields Flower Forever - Dedicated to the Victims of 9/11 /  by Mirena Rhee

Today i was at Strawberry Fields again and created small hieroglyphic work with hands in the same space I worked several times before.

This work is dedicated to the Memory and Victims of 9/11. We don’t and never forget.

Peace. Love. We draw brushes and our holsters hold paint.

Later as I was folding the hands a guy who was stumbling around saw me folding the hands and saw two giant yellow hands to the side and decided to go right between them stumbling between one and the other and peed right between them.

I can't really blame people for having the hands guiding them. After all we are all pee, and the hands are an excrement of the mind.

There were also rats but let's not cancel rats okay creatures have been around for millions of years we just got here. I don't like them, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve to live.

The thing is we are all pee, I too will be it eventually mixed up with a little dirt. I can be pee, I just don't want to be the idiot that thinks I'm not it.

Minimalism - a Framework

As I have been taking a break from doing the installation I started thinking about new minimalism, I have been writing the road to new minimalism like a book but it's actually a framework.

Building a framework of how to live in the future.

New minimalism is a new way of thinking it's not not shopping it's not no buying. For the first time in history everybody can think for themselves, we all have a chance to look at the world with true eyes.

Happy Labor Day and Shanah Tovah. Strawberry Fields Once Again /  by Mirena Rhee

Strawberry Fields Once Again

Installation with Giant Hands in Central Park, September 4, 2021

As many people drove their bicycles through my art and the hands blended more and more with the environment - I realized that the hands are just that, dirt. Without me to lift them up and juggle - they are limp objects.

This is entirely sustainable art, no emissions other than my own labor and the exhale of my lungs, and the subway transportation. It is minimal in its impact on the environment, it becomes temporarily part of it and almost permanently as dirt and grime accumulate on the hands, and they become almost earthy objects.

Happy Labor Day with Salvador Dali on Mars /  by Mirena Rhee

Salvador Dali on Mars

A small painting acrylic on canvas, 23 1/4 x 19 inches, 2021.

Celebrating Mars exploration and the labors of a great artist - Salvador Dali, who would have been totally stocked about Mars rovers, the landscapes and colors of Mars.

This painting is inspired by Martian landscapes and rocks in pictures taken by Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Of course also by the work of the great artist Salvador Dali.

Salvador Dali on Mars

23 1/4 x 19 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2021

Salvador Dali on Mars, deatil

23 1/4 x 19 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2021

Ode to public space /  by Mirena Rhee

I was super excited to visit the new New York Public Library building on 5th avenue near Bryant Park. My first impression of it is of a beautiful temple full of all the magical things absolutely free for everyone to learn.

And I immediately thought what Aristotle would say if they were suddenly transported to a palace like this in the future and told that anyone from the lowest to the richest kings on Earth could come here and learn about anything they want freely at zero cost.

What is even more fascinating to me is the miracle that produces this public space at the heart of the most commercially intense place on Earth which is New York City. It's kind of a conundrum to think that commercial activity of I'd say a pretty unpleasant kind produces this marvel of public space.

I think of all the marvels of modern civilization and of the miracles it has produced - the public spaces like this new New York Public Library space are the pinnacle of public ambition.

The main reasons I had stayed in New York - even though some of the education, technology, work culture, and social paradigms of New York City are really behind California probably about 50 years - the main reasons I remain in New York is the public space, dense culture money can't buy, and the possibility of endless encounters with diverse people.

New York City is very dense with culture. Very dense with cultural experiences, very dense in terms of encounters, fairly dense in terms of social experiences. And also very dense in terms of public space.

The development of the public space and the public spaces of New York City I think is one of the super genius talents of New York City.

I truly missed the public spaces of New York City during the pandemic.

I have always been fascinated with the public space, the public space has long held significance in the public life of a great city. Since ancient Greece, many vital events have been decided on the public square and many truths spoken in the public space.

I've always been fascinated with and loved operating within the public space of New York City. It appears New York City inspires many people to operate for the public good.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library is a public miracle.

I really like the idea of working on my next public work within this space. It looks incredible and feels incredible on so many levels. I especially like the metaphor of using learning to see the bigger picture of the world just like sitting on the rooftop garden allows you to see an urban landscape that you won't be able to see from street level.


My favorite channel on youtube on Cities - a course from Harvard University -- CitiesX

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcywB2dtNXGxWtExGIEMJkg

Videos I shot on Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library Rooftop

Handswords Works, Installation in Central Park, August 2021 /  by Mirena Rhee

Installation in Central Park created August 16, 2021 by NYC based artist Mirena Rhee

Forest Path - Installation in Central Park created August 15, 2021 by NYC based artist Mirena Rhee /  by Mirena Rhee

I consider myself pretty bad artist compare to Nature, I am not sure why forest paths put up with my invasions. I heard no trees and dirts complaining so I went on.

Albrecht Durer - What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things. /  by Mirena Rhee

What I dreamed of reading Arthur C Clarke and Asimov growing up. These Raptor engines in the Elon Musk video are one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen and I don't know why. I am an artist so light years from any plumbing... But the plumbing has integral beauty to it I can't pinpoint.

Inherent beauty.

My parents were engineers with three Master's degrees among them, and my dad was a manufacturing engineer and the CTO of a large company. One of my grandfathers was an inventor with a silver medal from the London exhibition from 1907 and a street named after him, my other grandfather - Marin, who I was named after - was an architect, a painter, draftsman, a businessman, and a genius in my opinion. 

I've always had great respect for math, technology and engineering although I was not a good mathematician. I went to mathematical high School but math just wasn't my thing, but drawing was.

I went to architectural School where I constantly annoyed my professors with insane sculptures that were supposed to be buildings.

In my book Art Life and Video Games I have a chapter that speaks to the fact that every great artist in history has been a great engineer of their work as well. Every artist that has had an impact has paid great attention to all the technical aspects of the execution.

But I still can't figure out in what way these raptor engines are beautiful. I have a very very old drawing that really reminds me of these engines and I must dig it up from someplace.

It really is a great and very nice conundrum to think about, is there inherent beauty or is it all in the eye of the beholder? Would, say, Michelangelo be as fascinated? I'm sure Leonardo would be stoked.

Entropy

Recently I was reading an article or more like listening to an article about quantum phenomena and time and the physicist was saying that time really is only either increasing or decreasing of entropy.

So I think that entropy and the control of entropy and whipping entropy into some sort of anti-enthropic construct has something to do with beauty.

Because we could almost instantaneously tell order from disorder. We could instantly tell if something is orderly versus something is messy. There are orders of magnitude to the control of entropy.

The lower order of control of entropy would be simple order, like stacking boxes, the higher order of control of entropy would be engineering, and the ultimate balance of, and the tip of the blade of entropy control, would be art.

Artist and Quantum Physicist talk, on reality, shadows and rebellion /  by Mirena Rhee


Things are not what they are.
All we see is shadows.
Our job (as artists) (and not just artists) is to learn how to see and peel more layers of reality.

I have always said that art is about truth, you will need to share the most truthful thing you currently have in your possession. You have to face the world in a very radical way to make any headway in art, I don't know about other areas of work but I do know that all the Mavericks of technology did face reality in a radical way by employing first principles, asking radical questions and dismantling the old ways.

And I think this is what this talk is about, I'm not saying we should renounce reality but I'm saying that if we are not informed, if we're not well informed, then we're really behind instead of being at the forefront.

To be a creator is the greatest power in the world /  by Mirena Rhee

I am watching the Olympics and remember my visits to Japan. My last visit to Japan changed my life forever. This image of Mona Lisa forking a strawberry I took in Odaiba. I don’t know why it took Japan to give me a direction in life but thinking about it over many years – Japan has influenced the life stories of many artists. Its aesthetics and very strong vision on things from tea to video games. Japan also has very strong values, many of which I don’t agree with but I do respect.

To be a creator is the greatest power in the world.

Don’t be worried about anything else.

I have always appreciated the sense of humor of the people in Japan. This photograph of the Mona Lisa I took on my first trip to Tokyo. She is eating a strawberry with a fork.

The model in this picture has been dead for over 500 years. Why do people still care?

This one hit me like a brick on the head when I visited, three times, a once in a lifetime exhibition of Michelangelo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was the Met’s gift for us for the Holidays.

There is no greater power in the world than that of being a creator. When you are a creator you are in control. Everything else is an agenda fed by someone else.

We are constantly told by media, papers, whatever visual and auditory space available, that we should be eating, drinking, remodeling kitchens, buying and saving money, I think that one last thing has in such a great way deformed our consciousness that there is this anxiety that we have to be constantly on the intake. We walk around with this anxiety for the next intake, I am astonished by the amount of time and energy spent discussing, cataloging, and planning past and future meals, and the acquisition of objects.

Yet, there in the dim light of the Met were these really faint (by modern standards) marks on paper that produced in me such great pleasure to observe and contemplate them, and I bet in others too, judging by the crowds. Really, nothing of substance at first glance, certainly nothing to be chewed on. Just marks going here and there, up and down and in circles. These markings, however faint, produced great emotions and appreciation. Pretty wondrous effect given that the author has not been around for the last 500 years and hardly ever comes up in conversations and on television.

The greatest power in the world is the power to create, we have hardly control over the first 20 years of our lives, we are placed and educated somewhat unwillingly and the only thing we can truly will is something of our own, something no one has ever produced before us and no one ever will after.

Kids directly engage the world, they immediately embrace brushes and fun and engage the world through play. I always tell kids whenever I teach my technology stuff - technology is just a tool. Learn how to be a creator. The creator is in control and this is the only true power in the world. When you are a creator you are in control. You hold the magic cards. And the wand.

As a creator, you are in control, in the driver's seat.

As human beings we are more, we are more than the sum of our parts, our DNA, our muscles, and our urges. We can apply sustained effort to create, for creativity’s sake.

When I first saw Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel I was floored. What is in it that makes people 500 years later be astonished out of their minds, in silence.

Sistine Chapel is not a particularly large structure, St. Peter’s in Rome is much bigger and greater, yet, after sampling room after room after room of the great treasures at the Vatican, the Michelangelo frescoes completely overwhelm the mind. Why is it, what’s in there? I remember standing down there amongst equally astonished people from all over the world who braved the lines to come here and pay their respects to this great artwork, looking up and marveling at the power of this thing.

What is in there is the creative power of Michelangelo. Hundreds of other painters could have used the same exact paints, brushes, themes. But it is the power of his imagination and the dexterity of his control as a creator that really takes us.

And now that I have come to measure my levels of astonishment at various things, I have realized the greatest sustained power in the world is the power to create. The same power that made people line up around the block to see a movie with silly spaceships and whooshing and beeping. I mean, there’s a character in the movie that only spoke in beeping. This is the power of the creator to pull the curtain over our eyes and create magic.

So what is the point of having the keys to the magic kingdom - the point is to be empowered as a creator.

The most important job of the creator is to develop a taste. And then to use that taste to overcome the mundane. If you stay entirely with the mundane as a creator but without taste - you can end up making kitsch, or worse - Windows. Okay, just kidding.

It is important to often re-calibrate our consciousness because it is so overwhelmed by ordinary things. We end up using these literally magical devices to stare at cats.

There is an insight into the meaning of tools and technology in our lives from an Indian teacher. He says machines are Yantras, deities that enhance what we already are, we are enhanced beings.

So what is the problem with technology? People often complain and the media propagates this spiritless image of humans mindlessly staring down into phones and devices. We are bored already after a playlist or two and surely fatigued with pictures of french fries stacked against stadiums.

But can you imagine Steve Jobs (rip) or Elon Musk scratching themselves on the back of their heads with their phones, bored out of their minds?

This is what it means to be a creator, you use technology to be in control. You are only in the driver’s seat when you create, when you generate output. It is a one-way street, it is a drainpipe with a one-way flow - you are either on the intake or you produce.

I had the privilege of teaching very little and very bright kids recently, and when kids are super bright there’s no hiding, all is reduced to a string of truths. I tell them that no matter what software they learn or what sort of science they master - they need to be aware of the fact that the only true power in the world is the power to create. When you are a creator - you are in control.

When you are a mere consumer you are at the mercy of what has been generated for you. When you are the creator, whether you create objects of the mind or make cakes - you are in charge of the content and the process. You can use your faculties to get better at either. Software is just a tool, the computer is just a tool, once you have learned how to use a couple of different software products - you get clarity on the principle and you can quickly grasp any other.

To be a creator requires a lot of mental and physical energy, it is a lifestyle and it can’t be done just a little bit.

Be 100 percent in control 100 percent of the time of the most powerful intelligence on earth.