Tiny Bubbles
Tiny Bubbles – 6″ x 9″ – Ink Drawing on Paper
I recently finished this intricately-detailed pen and ink drawing. The theme of this highly charged drawing is the mythic concept of existence and consciousness. An array of variously-sized bubbles floats across a black starry cosmos. Inside the bubbles are elaborately-detailed psychedelic eyes, each one bursting with a special uniqueness. The composition of this piece represents the interconnectedness of life amidst our apparent individualities. This drawing is incredibly detailed; you can see close-ups below.
Here is a close-up photo taken at an angle:
My wife Judy just showed me your delightful web page, and we’ve been marveling over your exquisit work. We grew up in San Francisco and in the mid Sixties were among the artists involved with the Haight. By the time the SUMMER OF LOVE evolved, I was 21 and graduated from University of California and was noted as Berkeley’s leading psycedelic artist, as it wasnt difficult to get posters , underground comics, record albums and covers in the alternative press published back then/
Unfortunately, nearly all the first psycedelic artists were guys, and women artists were not taken all that seriously in music or art. Thus I was in the first “Psycedelic Art Show”, though there was no work by women.
My use of celestial eyeballs in my work then, and illuminated spheres, represented UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS (the self aware quantum field). Thus it was thrilling to see your original use of eyes in celestial sphere, what you refered to as “bubbles.”
Throughout the history of spherical trigonometry, which led to Euler’s work then the Reiman Sphere (which inspired Einstein to conclude that energy was “spirit”, a Latin word for conscious) the celestial eye has served as a glyph for this observation.
On Judy’s site you can see her use of this motif in her paintings. If you google John Thompson Psycedelic Art you can see early work of mine from that era, and that of my late friend Rick Griffin who also used flying eye balls in his posters and comix.
“Delighful” and “Illuminating” “Lucid” and Transclucent” are all adjectives that describe your creativity. Rick and I were (and still are) Johanine Gnostics, and in that Fourth Gospel Christ ponted out “God is LIGHT…love…spirit…truth…not a judge” and this is what in Mahayana is called Buddha Nature” or in China “The Tao’. So your efforts appear in synch with that realization of a Conscious Universe.
JOHN & JUDY