Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Sketches and Studies of Shrines and Temples


Several years ago, I was on a shrine kick.  I was inspired by the work and even just the name of the LA artist, Shrine, who led construction of the Trash Teahouse at Burning man 2007 and Basura Sagrada at Burning Man 2008.  I made several small cardboard shrine mock-ups, and a few shrines out of repurposed furniture for Burning Man, from 2008 to 2011.  Here are some of the sketches and studies I was doing around that time.














Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Sketchbook page 4: Terraced structure and vehicle

Recent drawing.



Terraced structure with stylistically-similar land vehicle

Laguna Beach Lifeguard Tower

 One of the most recognizable landmarks of my fair city of Laguna Beach, California, the Main Beach lifeguard tower, captured in art stix (top) and watercolor finger-painting (bottom)


Laguna Main Beach Lifeguard Tower
Art Stix

Laguna Main Beach Lifeguard Tower
watercolor finger-painting








Monday, January 28, 2013

The Wise Men Speak!


A tiny little 'zine I self-published in 2007. 


















































































  



























































































































































































































Back Cover
This contact info is old.
My number is 949 436 3689
My email is dookieholder@gmail.com














Sunday, January 27, 2013

Rebuttals to Common Prohibitionist Arguments 3

"If we legalize marijuana, then more people will use it, so therefore, we can't legalize it."

First of all, the degree to which use would increase with legalization is not well understood.  It is now widely acknowledged that the drug war fails to achieve its purported goal.  Most people are already doing what they are prone to doing: either using or not, whether or not it is legal.  Most people, when asked, say they will not change their habits as a result of legalization.  They just fear that everyone else will, but there is actually no real data that would support such a theory.  By comparison, the Netherlands has a liberalized cannabis policy, but has half the drug use we have in the States.

Many kids use cannabis as a way to rebel against society and to get their parents' attention.  Legalizing cannabis will eliminate that factor of it, and make it as uncool for kids as any other legal activity.  There may be a small percentage of people who don't use cannabis only because it is illegal, but it seems that the drug war is an awful lot of expense and lives wasted in order to affect only that small a percentage of people.

To the extent that legalizing may increase overall use, so much the better.  In states that have legalized medical cannabis, there has been a corresponding decrease in alcohol use and suicides.  There is still no fatal dose of cannabis.  Allowing people to use cannabis instead of having to turn to legal but potentially-lethal substitutes like Spice would save lives and improve public health.  Countless patients who currently take opiate painkillers could get equivalent pain relief from cannabis.  The number of conditions and illnesses which are helped by cannabis is vast, so, again, allowing such a valuable medicine to be accessed by all would certainly improve public health, and quality of life.

Of course, there's also the amazing potential benefit of hemp which, if used to its full potential, would completely replace our needs for oil, natural gas, wood, and cotton.  It would provide an abundant and rapidly-replenishing source of food which would effectively eliminate hunger in our country and potentially the world.  So, more people using "marijuana" (or its cousin, hemp) would indeed be a good thing.

6 Vision Paintings


These are images I see in my mind's eye spontaneously, sometimes during dreams, or on the edge of sleep, sometimes during psychedelic trips.  I try to portray them in art, in this case in watercolors.  Enjoy.

Blowing My Mind
I'm freakin' out!  Am I human or some kind of alien? What am I?  What is existence?  Where does my head stop and the world begin?  Or is this all in my head?

Screen Creature
This genetically-engineered creature displays obsolete extinct forms of domestic animals on the screen embedded in its belly, to the children in the household of tomorrow.

Singularity
All energies converge together to the single point of infinite light, infinite consciousness.

Cyan Grid

Amber Grid

 
Magenta Grid