Why We Gotta Be Fightin?

michaelgarfield


Regular price $ 25.00
Why We Gotta Be Fightin?, art - Michael Garfield Visionary Art (michaelgarfieldart.com)

• Posters: signed print on 11"x17" glossy 100 lb. cardstock, shipped in a plastic bag with cardboard backing.

2012-04-12 The Parish (Austin, TX) for MiHKAL, Knowa Knowone, Soundshaman, 2012-04-13 Ruta Maya (Austin, TX) for ONE4ALL, Soundshaman, Matthew Ian Blagg, Miss Zap, and 2012-04-16 Ruta Maya (Austin, TX) for Esoteric Mondays.

This one was named inadvertently by my friend Chris Morphis, who came up to me at a show and captioned, "I thought we were dancin'; why we gotta be fightin'?"  That pretty much sums up the emotional energy behind this piece – the dyad, the dance, the lovers, tangled, polar, divided but united, evoking each other even when apart, the boundaries tidal, orbital, co-imbricated.

One of the most important things I learned in school for evolutionary biology is that what we call competition is equally true as cooperation from a different angle.  Predator and prey, host and parasite, victim and abuser, artist and audience – these are timeless pairings that require both partners as poles of a dynamic that transcends them.  You and I co-arise as opposite ends of the same event.  Even in our differences, we share the pearl of original awareness.  I am You.

Or, from Erik Davis's fantastic book, TechGnosis (Synchronicity alert: I read this while taking a break from typing):

"Alchemy places a tremendous emphasis on polarity, on the dynamic, erotic, and highly combustible interaction – or conjuctio – of contrary elements and states of being.  This propulsive ambiguity is also reflected in the question all alchemical scholars must confront as they investigate the history of the art:  What were these fellows actually doing?  Was the Great Work physical or spiritual, sexual or imaginal, grubby or contemplative?"

The complete answer is, as it frequently is, "both."

Browse my art on leggings, iPhone cases, pillows, mugs, and many other items:
https://society6.com/michaelgarfield/