The power to feel

Painting is an active language. Pollock once told De Kooning "You know more, but I feel more". To feel and to observe are the two most powerful weapons an artist uses.. on himself. When you are out in the world you really see, you dissect the world down to the particles and reverse back through to the whole to construct a mental image, however distorted. You later bring these images to the canvas. In front of the canvas, you feel. To observe and to feel are somehow in a quantum entanglement, the better you observe, the better your ability to feel. You see a brick for what it is and then you really see it for what it isn't, a sort of stereo vision which overcomes the senses. That's why if someone feels one, an artist feels ten. You need that feeling powers ten in order to get the feeling flick through the brush ( or whatever tool is there ) and via the paint - onto canvas and from there to the viewer. The feeling needs to have that power in order to travel.

The confusion is that art is about learning how to draw or paint, that ability to render some ( or even strange ) reality. I think art is about learning how to feel. To feel is a powerful narcotic and immensely seductive. It is the blue pill, and the red pill simultaneously.

I have always loved geometry and have a strange relationship with math, I like the latter when other people do it

I went to mathematical high school and participated in a few Mathematical Olympiads, although I am the worst student of math as I relied mostly on my pattern recognition ability rather than study. When I moved to the States I did some of the  comprehensive IQ tests and scored pretty high; but my pattern recognition was the highest at 147. I have my own definition of pattern recognition and it's the ability to predict an outcome based on two or three reference points. As in life and math, trouble is if you think you have two or three reference points but in fact only one is a solid ground and the rest.. simply conjectures.

I actually can't stand watching the Olympics because I've always believed that athletes are generally dumb, which is not a crime but it is a crime watching dumb people do things

Unless of course it's a final of some kind where the best of the best compete.

Effective altruism is like effective bullshit, it only advances the cause of the giver

It's called charity for a reason, it gives agency to the receiver.

Go fuck yourselves with all your AI, you're going to be dead for billions of years so you have a very narrow window to be a human being.

Things worth having - courage youth health love friendship

Things not worth having - couches, televisions, kitchen cabinets, bathroom renovations, diamonds, weddings.

A lot of people die on their kitchen counters, inside their kitchen cabinets and on their couches.

Happy birthday flowers from my brother

Email I wrote to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on June 29th. She thanked me also in an email

We need jobs. The US is the only developed country with 62% labor participation rate. All other developed countries have over 75%. Bring manufacturing back otherwise it's all lost. Without manufacturing base where young people learn how to apprentice in science and technology we are going to just have a country of homeless people, and service jobs. 

The other thing I want to say is that as an immigrant I came to this country with just two bags. And for 26 years I've never seen toothpaste being locked up behind glass until now. New York City has deteriorated to the point I have never seen in my life. I had never seen inflation like this in my life where prices go up every time I go to the store.

Criminals need to go behind bars otherwise this diverse country is going to fall apart.

And then I have a senile man as a president, I will never forgive you that you don't give me a choice other than a senile man vs.  Donald Trump.

Do your job.

The true philosopher spends half his time with books and the other half working in the soil

I hope this Chinese proverb applies to me since I'm dirtying my fingers with dirt pigments.

They want to train the computers to be better, we should train humans to be better

I believe in the ideas of humanism and the Renaissance, where each individual possesses and develops their talents in the arts, literature, poetry, math and sciences. We should strive to develop humanity into well-rounded and creative human beings, we should strive to root out violence. We should strive to do that instead of training computers.

Mars Panorama wip

It looks so much better in person, the pigments are glowing. Click the image for a better image.