CHANGE

Change To alter; to make different; to cause to pass from one state to another; as, to change the position, character, or appearance of a thing; to change the countenance.

There is one definite constant in life and that is the unending cycle of change as part of the human condition and experience.

As an example, a river’s health is caculated in terms of it flow and thus a flowing river is for the most part cleaner and inhabited by more species of life, a stream that loses it flow and cycle of fresh water becomes stagnant, unclean and unable to hold or maintan life and so it also unable to give that all inportant ingredient to animals and people that so depend on water…… Life!

A life with out change, reflection, anaylsis and decision is like a stagnant river, going no where and unable to support the life that is needed to progress to new areas of thought, being and accomplishment!

I have spoken of change many times in the past, however mostly in context of the hope that each new year would bring with it new possibilities and a new perspective, this doesn’t always work though, resolutions can be so contrived and pinned on flaky non-active kinds of hope, rather then mental or phsycial decisive actions  and so for me i have decided to take time out to actually reassess, recharge and eventually re-engage in what art means to me, what i want from it and as to what i what to give back!

I am rather an opinionated person and i mostly have an opinion on 98% of stuff out there, but opinons are worthless, because they are usually given for free, ill concieved and based on some form of belief rather then knowledge, where as the two need to walk hand in hand! Advice is often the same and at the moment i want to give neither and as much as in this blog posting i am anaylsising and just speaking out loud with no scrip or edit button in positon, i am trying to be truthful, honest….. with myself, this is for me, i want to do art for me, so that it is meaningful again and not enslaved to various motivations that serve to be counter productive to true expression, art is about communication, expression, function, spirituality, the self, culture and what i truly believe, art is the pinicle of skillful pursuits, i seek to become skillful, skill takes time to acquire and time is something we do not use wisely, youth is wastedon the youth and only the old man knows what it is best used for, so i seek to use hat youth i have left and create in a manner that i have never before!

I am closing down my website, my REDBUBBLE site will remian open along with my FLICKR pages and this BLOG will be a constant window to the world aswell. I do not know when my website will be back up if ever, i have no timetable for it, i percieve one day at a time from now on and choose to focus solely on my family and art, i moved ever so strong to strip back my life and enter a simple life, a life with out distraction, of deep contemplation and action, of selflessness whilst diging deep into mt artist passion, finding a balance between the two!

I will look into the nature of my relationships as a foundation to my art, namingly my wife, our connection, between earth, water, sky and GOD.

I will always come here periodically, though not out of some obligation to maintain it, more so when i am moved to do so…..

Thanx for reading,

Mike

In the tongue of my fore fathers

Nì òigear leisg bodach brisg.
A lazy youth will make an active old man.

Hey peoples, in a couple of days i am leaving the shores of Australia and entering a metal bird and crossing the ditch by air. Yes i am going to New Zealand! So anyone wanting work done by me over the following weeks will have to wait patiently, as i hit the road and travel the country side of Aotearoa meeting great people and seeing beautiful places!

For those people living in New Zealand…… keep an eye out for a long haired fellow driving a graffiti covered van through the hills of Aotearoa…. that’ll be me, make sure you wave & say g’day!

Hopefully i will have periodic access to the internet and put up activities here on your computer screen?

Otherwise be patient and i will be back doing artworks for my clients in mid May?

Catch ya soon!

Mike

Every year new year, things abound with the prospect of newness and change, whilst the familiar insists on repeating its regularity with out so much of a whisper of change, the two live in symbiosis it would seem? Though i have come to realise that change is not a matter of chance, but tightly wrapped up within the human ability to choose and make change happen, because we become that change. If we are to wait for change chances are we will only see things change around us, in such a state things grow stagnant and thus stop growing altogether, all the time we sit hoping for that change to come our way?

In these moments of introspection we take stock, this is very much a spiritual process as much as it is a matter in doing things that practical!

Sunset Studio must always change and since Sunset Studio is me, it is I that must change! Change is our only certainty in life, besides paying taxes and dying, though those latter two i am not speaking of here………… change is go(o)d.

So with this blog change is first happening here, a new style website is under construction also.

Hang onto your seats, 2009 is a year of change, of good and bad change of uncertainty for many, though as long as you are the one changing and changing for the better, the better placed you are to weather what may come and except that which you can not change… for as we atempt to master life, we find it is indeed master of us………………. taking stock is necessary and change a prerequisite for living, living more abundantly!

Changes coming real soon to SUNSET STUDIO !

I received an email today, unlike all those other annoying emails, enlarge this, manhood that, enter this contest and win$$$, questionaires etc etc etc, delte, delete, delete!

I thought it incredibly worthy of sharing here !

Please take the time to read and click on the links………………………………. we dam well haven’t learnt a thing!

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Dear Michael, My name is Sep Galeva. I’m from a forest community in Lake Murray, in the Paradise Forests of Papua New Guinea. My family has lived here for around six generations. Our survival relies entirely on the forest. This short video tells you more about our forest home. Illegal logging has been destroying our forest heritage, our ancestors’ sacred sites and important wildlife habitat. The rate of destruction in our forests is higher than anywhere in the world and since 2002, I have been dedicated to stopping this. With the help of Greenpeace and other local non-profit organisations, we launched a successful campaign to stop illegal logging in my home Lake Murray. For this I received death threats but I am determined to keep fighting. Now, I am working with other communities to stop the destruction.  One of the ways we’re doing this is by providing communities with real alternatives. Can you help by making a contribution to our work?  Your donation will help communities to stand up to the loggers and preserve the forests for future generations. We have a long fight ahead of us and I really hope you can help. Please click here to make a contribution. Thank you for your support. Kind regards, Sep ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE THING I HATE MOST ABOUT ADVERTISING IS THAT IT ATTRACTS ALL THE BRIGHT, CREATIVE AND AMBITIOUS YOUNG PEOPLE, LEAVING US MAINLY WITH THE SLOW AND SELF-OBSESSED TO BECOME OUR ARTISTS. MODERN ART IS A DISASTER AREA. NEVER IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN HISTORY HAS SO MUCH BEEN USED BY SO MANY TO SAY SO LITTLE.

BANKSY.

By now you would of realised that i kind of dig collage, heaps!
Well thee are many folk out there that love working in paper in its various forms.
One such person is GreenBeanbaby…… one cool chick, mum (or MOM) and wife, who occasionally goes by the name of Ellia Hill. Some of her work or as she terms it “cut paper love” is whimsical, inviting and fun.. colourful to say the least!

Naked Fairy By GreenBeanBaby

Some time ago she interveiwed me and did a posting of little ole’ me and my work on her groovey blog!
An interveiw as MikeyFreedom……. yes, one of my lesser known incarnations….. well my flickr disguise anywayz?

So go on over to her blog, check out the interveiw and stroll about her blog!
She is in the throws of creating a childrens book amid many other things, so check it out peoples!

GREENBEANBABY

This short clip may be a bout Molokai today, though, for those of us that have lived for atleast more then 10yrs, i am sure we could easily relate it and see the changes in our own lives and environments?

Stop thinking ME and begin with We!

Last night i watched the third installment in a 7 part series, of what i think is one of the most riveting documentaries i have watched to date. Emotional, epic and filled with tragedy, glimmers of hope line the edges, though a documentary that all in Australia, if not the world should watch!

A documentary that should be shown in all schools, formatted into books and resting on the shelves of each house hold!

But before i mention the documentary series, i want to talk on something i observed??

While America and Australia debate over the sliding ratings of the doomed US version of “Kath & Kim” and Channel 7’s dancing with the stars does Battle against Channel 9’s sixty minutes, the Aria’s held centre stage last night it appears!

Through out the malaise of simpleton disposed tv veiwing, i fearfully make note that a great travesty has taken place, a national shame, even stating that last nights ratings reflect the conscience and  cares of modern Australia!

We all should of been transfixed and sobered, our collars and tissues rung wet with tears droping from our cheeks, to look upon, to learn and understand with such clarity, the nature of Australian history, the people, the places and the events that have shaped this country over the past 200 yrs.

On SBS, a daring an awesome task of chronicling Aboriginal history in the wake of European contact has been attempted and the results are impacting and beyond any passing ratings or pop driven show last night!!!

While the likes of Australia idol, dancing with the stars etc will last for but a few years, the first Australians are a work of art that will echo in times yet to come. The travesty here is that it did not rate a mention in the ratings, in all that i have seen and read of so far mentions naught of it? That Australia was to willing to be entertained, rather then be challenged and informed, that Australian/European attitudes in most minds, remain unenlightened and unchanged toward Aboriginal Australians, that perhaps last nights viewings indicate that we as a nation who has a long way to go toward acting, thinking and doing what is right toward Aboriginal people, that we have been found wanting and have failed in the face of such overwhelming evidence to acknowledge and make a true recompense.

That our comfortable and Anglo centric society, in its insulated suburbs, far from the historical plight of Aboriginals and their modern struggles in this multi-racial populated land, has largely remained unchanged. Last night i wept in view of Melbourne’s Aboriginal History, over the story of Coranderrk, the failed stewardship of the then Victorian Aboriginal protection board and the sad, but noble lives of  Wurundjeri clan leader Simon Wonga and his people. Even now, as i type my eyes are filled with tears to this knowledge….

If you have not seen any episodes as of yet, then you are able to view them here.

It is my hope that such documentaries as “The first Australians” have the platform and voice it deserves and that all AUSTRALIANS not be seduced by frivolous entertainment and give “the first Australians” attain  the ratings it deserves!!

Well done SBS for instigating such a series and Rachel Perkins the Director/Writer/Producer.

First Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world’s greatest empire.

Over seven episodes, The First Australians depicts the true stories of individuals – both black and white – caught in an epic drama of friendship, revenge, loss and victory in Australia’s most transformative period of history.

The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the friendship between an Englishmen (Governor Phillip) and a warrior (Bennelong) and ends in 1993 with Koiki Mabo’s legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. First Australians chronicles the collision of two worlds and the genesis of a new nation.

SBS on their website put forward the question, “How do you promote something that should be mandatory viewing for every Australian?” ……….. how do we indeed?

PULE FAKAMOTU

In celebration of Niues Constitution Day, Artstation will be exhibiting ‘Pule fakamotu’ from October 8th-25th 2008. A group exhibition co-curatored by contemporary Niuean artists Cerisse Palalagi and Zora Feilo. ‘Pule fakamotu’ which means to lead and take charge of your own affairs, brings togeather Auckland based Niuean artists who will explore the theme of Niuean self-governance, with printmaking, painting, photography, multi media and weaving.

Artists include:

Samantha Atasani
Craig Fasi
Nick Kaio
Janet Lilo
Zora Feilo
Troy Jackson
Cerisse Palalagi
Molly Pihigia and the Otahuhu Niuean Weavers
Matafetu Smith
Lange Taufelila
Glenda Vilisoni
Maree Webster

Dates: 8 to 25 October

Opening: 5 to 7pm Tuesday, 7 October

For further information, please contact:
Kathryn Tsui, Artstation gallery coordinator
ph (09) ph 09 376 3221
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/whatson/arts/artstation/exhibitions.asp

If you have been to Hawaii and during your stay there went beyond Waikiki and ventured deeper then “The Polynesian Cultural Centre”…… looking to more then a Honolulu afternoon Hula Show, then perhaps you noticed something?

Hawaii is a holiday destination in the hearts and minds of people the world over, before it is even considered to be native land, with a history that beckons to be told and injustices that scream in silence to be heard! The story of Hawaii is an epic tale, but it is a modern American/global predicament!

Hawaiians are Hawaiian and they do not wish to be perceived in any other way, Polynesian stewards of a chain of islands that were settled some C.1600 hundred years ago. Far from being the 50th state of America, they, the Hawaiian people wish, but further more demand, that they be a people of their own land, a people of self determination, a Hawaiian nation with Hawaiian law and Hawaiian sovereignty!

As put forward in the “Akaka Bill” ; something that is posing problems within its self! “

the Native Hawaiian people wish to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations of Native Hawaiians their lands and Native Hawaiian political and cultural identity in accordance with their traditions, beliefs, customs and practices, language, and social and political institutions, to control and manage their own lands, including ceded lands, and to achieve greater self-determination over their own affairs” Life is in the land and by controlling land, you effectively control the people who live upon the land. Ownership  and entitlements of land are synonymous with independence and freedom, the ability to make long lasting decisions for ones own life or the lives of their people.

Hawaiian and American political activities are mounting and the political and cultural landscape of Hawaii’s future for Hawaiians remains uncertain for the most part, what is required is eternal vigilance as the intentions of Washington remain stagnant toward Hawaiian people and their claims!

I do not like to speak pessimistically, though i do not wish to have my head in the sand either, the realities that beset Hawaiian people (like other indigenous groups with in their own lands, the world over) are huge and their struggle will have to be taken up by the generations of Hawaiians yet born and therefore it is a long term engagement of passion against arrogance, economics and a facade, a facade that has been sold to the world for over a hundred years, one that parodies Hawaiians and makes belittling connections to pineapple pizza toppings and docile ukulele playing islanders in a Polynesian pantomime.

We who are not Hawaiian or respectfully, what ever indigenous people we find ourselves within? Need to be mindful and sensitive to the ever growing realities that confront these peoples and the histories they still inhabit!

For it seems today, with the bombardment of the individual through consumer advertising and marketing strategists directing their manipulative intents at the individual, that the self is thought of first before the individual even considers their neighbour(s). Self is elevated and the pursuit of gratification becomes paramount, albeit temporal, it is still pursued as if life it’s self. Within this modern illusion we can not see beyond immediate desire and cannot even recognize the harm it brings to our society and the control it exacts on our own lives! Albert Einstein was quoted as saying “Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” For if we truly did see with our own eyes and feel with our own hearts we would would look beyond ourselves and whilst on Holiday in Hawaii see beyond the cocktails, stage shows and Waikiki sunsets to a Hawaiian reality, a reality that begs to not go unnoticed!

VOICE OF HAWAII

FREE HAWAII BLOG SPOT

FREE HAWAII STICKERS

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AN UPDATE : 14th October 2008.
from www.freehawaii.info

ALOHA MAI KAKOU! WELCOME IF YOU’RE VISITING FREEHAWAII.INFO FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Free Hawai`i means returning the Hawaiian Islands back to an independent nation status, as it was before it was illegally overthrown by US marines and rich sugar barons in 1893.

In 1993, President Clinton formally apologized for that act and publicly acknowledged the illegality of the overthrow.

DID YOU KNOW -
98% of all Hawaiians living at the time opposed the illegal overthrow!

Today, less than 20% of all land in Hawai`i is in Hawaiian hands.

Over 60% today is in non-Hawaiian hands!

A few individuals, who are non-Hawaiian, lease an amount of land in Hawai`i that is greater than all land leased to all Native Hawaiians!

Currently, only 72 landowners control 95% of all land in Hawai`i.

Native Hawaiians make up the largest percentage of homeless in Hawai`i today.

Native Hawaiians have the worst social, educational and economic indicators compared to any ethnic group in the US.

Native Hawaiians currently have the worst health profile compared to any ethnic group in the US.

Descendants of the Hawaiian Nation want their country and land back so they can grow their own foods, become healthy once again, and control their own destiny.

Hawai`i Was A Free Nation – But Never Free For The Taking!