MONIKA DANNEMANN:
Artist of the Inner Light

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I first encountered Monika Dannemann’s artwork in 1996; ironically, the same year she passed away. I was browsing through the bookstore at a local mall when a friend of mine placed a book into my arms. I looked down to find myself holding an oversized paperback entitled "The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix." I think I leafed through it and read only one or two paragraphs before I decided I had to take this book home with me. I bought it with my last $20 bill. I felt I could not afford to leave it there. It took only a glance to realize that this book contained not only the most amazing and mystical pictures of Jimi that I had ever seen, but also that the text contained the spiritual legacy of a great musician.

The book became a bible to me. I did not read it straight through but let myself wander through it at will, stopping where my heart so led. It was like water to a parched soul. The true greatness of Jimi Hendrix as a soul shown brilliantly through each page. And the book seemed almost alive as I would often find paintings in there that I had never seen before.

One such occasion was soon after the events of September 11, 2001. I felt drawn to check in with Jimi and Monika after that day. It just seemed they might offer some wisdom and comfort. I was totally amazed to find in there a painting with Jimi standing over the site of the World Trade Center in New York, a fist full of lightning bolts poised over his head. It seemed at some level Monika knew that these things might happen and painted in a timeless fashion. And it was almost as if the painting had dropped into the book overnight... a gift from the other side.

This particular painting gained even more significance to me this summer after hearing on a BBC news broadcast that a White Buffalo Calf had been born the first weekend of June 2005. The legend of the Sacred White Buffalo is something Jimi would have been aware of with his Cherokee roots. The birth of such a calf was prophesied by elders of the Plains Indians, and would indicate to the world that we had not been forgotten, that peace would come. I was drawn back to the painting because of this particular little calf’s ancestry.

Apparently, the calf’s grandfather was an award winning bull named Chief Joseph. This is significant all by itself as Chief Joseph was a great Native American leader who vowed at his capture that he would "fight no more forever." Not only that, but on the day the twin towers fell, this great bison bull was struck by lightning in a freak storm. He died two weeks later. The lightning is a prominent feature in Monika’s painting. From this tragedy one generation passed, then into the world, from the line of this great bull, comes a tiny symbol of hope. A Sacred White Buffalo Calf, born near Shelbyville, KY; coincidentally, between the villages of Bagdad and Old Christianburg.

She is a beauty. I feel certain that at some level, this painting foretold the events of 9/11 and the hope that would be born from it. It became even more certain for me when I learned of the name given to this Sacred White promise. Her name is Lightning!!!

photo by Greg S. Redhawk
(many thanks, Greg)

BENEATH THE SURFACE
Clear Spirit: The Art of Suzy Druley

To sleep is to die to a world that seemed so important. To die is to be born to who we really are. Beneath the surface, we are real. Beneath the surface, we are free. Sometimes we get lucky and can drag impressions of our true selves back with us. I always liked this painting by artist Suzy Druley. I am a dreamer. I do some of my best work when I am asleep. I suppose you'd have to dream with me to really know who I am. I come from a long line of dreamers. My great grandmother was Cherokee, one of the Dream People. Joseph was one of my favorite Old Testament characters. I was always amazed at how he was able to do so much just by falling asleep! Dreaming was one of the first things that I took back at my soul's awakening...something that coincided with my first awareness of this artist. I guess that's why this particular work has special meaning to me.

I first encountered Suzy's paintings at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA in 1996. She is what I think of as a Spirit Artist. I've heard that before she can even begin a painting, her whole being goes through a purging process. She becomes an open channel for whoever or whatever wants to come through her. They say that each painting Suzy does is created for a specific person, and speaks to a specific situation or aspect of that person's life. Though she may not know who, and though it may take years for that person to wander into the store and find it, there is a definite connection that takes place. There is something on the canvas, and in the titles also, that the buyer recognizes. They KNOW, it is their painting. I've had it happen a couple of times. And when I see the sacred dreamer in the painting above, I know there is something in it for me.

Check out Suzy's gallery and see what you find. Maybe she's put you down on canvas, too. Enjoy!

THE ART OF SUZY GIBSON DRULEY

OWLS IN OBSIDIAN
by Todd Tamanend Clark

I did not know when I started this blog that I would be reviewing music, but this one just HAD be presented. I took a bit of a journey last week. Had about an hour and half in the car from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie. Before I left I looked around for something I could stick into the CD player on the way up. Todd Clark gave me a copy of his OWLS CD many moons ago. I had heard bits and pieces of it, but never the whole thing. What the heck. I grabbed it and off I went.

[NOTE: For the record and in the opinion of many who know him, Todd Clark was Trent Reznor before Trent Reznor was Trent Reznor. Trent grew up 15 miles northwest of where I am writing this. Todd Clark lived not too far south of here. From what I understand, Todd sold Trent his first keyboard. If you listen to Todd's early stuff, you can see that there might not have been a Nine Inch Nails without him. Trent HAD to have been taking it all in. But that's just a FWIW from based on what I know. A lot of great ideas are born of one, but developed and capitalized on by another. Check out Todd's early stuff and tell me what you think (that is if you can get your hands on them. The records are rare and quite valuable.)]

I had no idea what I was in for and THAT is what made this experience so magical. OWLS IN OBSIDIAN, according to Todd's webpage at CDBaby.com, is "dark electronic avant-garde instrumental industrial jazz based on Native American owl legends." He further explains that this disc is a "thirteen song cycle based on various autochthonal spiritual concepts from the North American continent. These compositions combine to form a sixty-six minute dark symphony for futuristic electronic orchestra."

But what you really have here in these 66 minutes, is not a symphony, so much as it is an experience, an adventure, or a transportation, if you will. I was pleasantly surprised...and delighted by this...along with half of the bird kingdom that saluted me as I drove by. I've tried to pinpoint what I heard. Maybe Pink Floyd meets the ThunderGods. Or maybe the Smithsonian on acid. It can't really be done. In fact what I really want to say about this album lies more within the realm of 'impression' than review.

OWLS IN OBSIDIAN is an exhibition of the grandest kind. Not a painting in sight. Yet the disc contains a whole gallery of holographic images complete with color, light, textures, and even a hint of wood smoke. "If you could see what I hear." Deep reds and blue-blacks, the moon, the cool dampness of midnight air, night sounds and the crackling of evening fires in another century, myths and sorcerers, flutes and drums…intense and haunting. And, of course, owls. It is all there. Each movement, each turn in the road bringing the listener face to face with the forgotten and the unexpected, but oh so well-placed. Call it an initiation. Listen with your heart and you will remember.

I don’t know how else to explain. To do so might make it all disappear. There are no words. This is not only electronic/techno/world at it’s best. It is far beyond all of that. This is art, this is beauty, this is a portal to places that live...and live vibrantly, and Todd has laid it all out for us to see. Like any true masterpiece, one does not see the paint or the canvas. All one sees is the image, or in this case, all one senses is the wonder of walking into another time, another dimension, with Brother Owl moving ever so silently through the branches overhead.

OWLS IN OBSIDIAN is a celebration of Wisdom and Knowing. I have never ‘seen’ music the way I did that afternoon. Nor shared it as I did, escorted by Winged Ones showing respect and gratitude for this honoring of their fellow bird, Owl. By Hawks perched and nodded their heads as I drove by. By Eagles at play overhead. By Ravens in fly-by formation. They knew. And I knew that they knew. We all could feel it and it was truly exhilarating.

YOU are worth every moment you will spend to DO this album. Or should I say, to have this album DONE to you.I recommend you take the journey…