Pan Art Labs

Moments before midnight. Sweet gentle coastal rain begins to fall on the garden outside my wide open window. Shushing sound like a loving mother calming an agitated child. First of the summer, only minutes long, quiet. Moving forward, today I worked on my workbench. Slow, methodical, meditative, creative, art. Working on my workbench has been one of my greatest joys over the years. Every surge forward in carving or smithing ability has been proceeded and accompanied by some breakthrough or perceived breakthrough in the evolution of my workbench. Art for me has always been about a journey, discovery, visiting other worlds and finding myself in the process. My workbench is my mode of transportation. I can journey 80,000 leagues under the sea and visit an octopuses garden or travel through space and time. Memories, fantasies and visions write stories in stone there while I watch mesmerized and unable and unwilling to walk away. My workbench has become family, it lives and it gives me life and purpose, comfort and quizzes that challenge me to grow and gives me the nourishment to succeed. When I realized this I started to dress my bench, to adorn it with the regalia of mysticism. It recieves gifts. Imagine if you will steampunk technology crossed with old forest magic and an organic living organism. I have dreams of an entire rebuild and taking it to the extreme, but for now it is still pre molt. My workbench has been a revolution of endless ideas, discoveries and inventions. Just looking at it gives me comfort. When I can’t sleep sometimes I visit it and just look at it, or sit with it. I hope my arm is well enough to carve soon but in this forced down time I can do various improvements. Today I created the absolute best pressurized air/water mister I have ever made, by far. Perfect atomization, perfect spray pattern and perfect adjustability of air or water. Working under magnification I find running water or water droplets absolutely and completely distorts my ability to perceive the truth in my fine detail. Pressurized atomization of air and water creates and spray that works to cool and lubricate the burs and restricts dust expulsion but it also provides the best optical aid without distortion. Dry carving is horrid, dust, dust caked on the surface, burs ruined faster than imagineable and an oddly distorted surface. I have a collection of many of the various incarnations of misters I have made. Some have names based upon the look. Colibri, kingfisher and ibis are a few. Flawed, all flawed. From poor mixture control to excessive droplets, poor spray pattern and so on. Today’s however, gives me excitement. I can’t wait to try it. This one is actually one of the simplest, easiest and most accessible. It does not fit onto a hand piece, it is fixed in place. I cleaned, I decorated, I adorned and I adored. Art has given me freedom in life to discover. It is my science and my religion, my therapy, my friend and my constant challenge. I was never given the choice to be an artist. It was my only real option, I just don’t fit in anywhere else except my workbench. Past midnight now, rain long gone, I will dream of the next journey of discovery that I will have the honor to take with my workbench. Do you have a special creative space?

Lee Scratch Perry created the song “people funny boy” in 1968 as a protest when he finally couldn’t take the music producer he was working, Joe Gibbs, getting all the credit for the endlessly creative work he was doing. That song broke the charts and many say created the new sound called reggae as well as one of the first uses of sound sampling. He started his own record company called “Upset Records.” Perry was a genius and an artist. Everything he said always had multiple meanings, including naming his company Upset Records. Yes, he was upset and it did mean that. What it also meant was his company was going to upset the “big shots” in the industry. Upset in this case means to turn over as in to upset a boat or to upset the tables of the money changers. Righteous indignation is a powerful motivator. A voice unheard triggers the speaker to raise their voice until it gets heard. Many stand by and criticize the speaker for shouting, “oh what a bad attitude” they say. Of course those scoffers have probably never had anything worth saying and have never had their voices suppressed. Usually when we have reached the point where in desperation we raise our voices much of our eloquence has left the room and so we can become easy targets for our detractors. Life is, difficult. There is a rawness and truth though that many do hear and more importantly feel when exasperation, desperation and indignation stir the hearts of people to raise their voices beyond polite levels. For some reason I have never identified with great wealth. Perhaps growing up in poverty affected me in this way, I have been very hungry as a child and have never wanted to take anyone else’s food. A few years back while dealing with the most difficult things I had ever encountered I got upset. A brutal reality sets in when you face insurmountable odds dealing with life’s greatest struggles and the system of human greed tries to parasitize your last breath and then sends you the bill. Nina Simone was indignant, exasperated and desperate to tell the truth, to give voice to those no one would listen to. She however had true mastery over her voice, her personal sound that wrenched emotions out of a vast community of folks from all walks of life. Many hated her for it. Mississippi God Damn was not polite. Mississippi God Damn was deserved. My brother played me a recording of a song he had taped from a late night “world beat music” program local public broadcasting radio station hosted when I was probably 12? It was “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” by the great Fela Kuti. It changed my life, it spoke to my very soul. The word teacher is a respectful word, it implies a place of honor for one who guides you. This song asks with deference that the teacher also respect the student. Fela was from Nigeria and was singing in protest against the endless political corruption that had tainted everything. He became a target and so did his family. They killed his mother, beat him and broke his bones and locked him in prison. Of course this only made him more vocal. He became the most well known African musician and created a new style of music in the process. These are some of my greatest inspirations and every time I feel indignant, exasperated and desperate something in me decides to fight the good fight by improving my own work, radically. Many of my biggest leaps as an artist have come from this place where I had to just let my creations scream for me. Greed sees you as a product, not as a human. It wants to own and categorize you, carry you in as a monetizable item that uplifts itself, not you. You may rise up a notch but the greed always rises above exponentially off of your merit. No one is free of the taint because our perceptions of need change when we think of dollars and not dinner, properties and not home, cars and not transportation. I am pretty upset right now and have been busily working on my personal ladder so I can scream a little louder from a little higher up. I hope to God I can carve soon because I have a lot I want to say. Random photos below.

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