Etch #1869

Art Is A Spell I have a firm belief in the power of creative practices to catalyze personal and collective transformations and to help us envision alternate histories and futures. At the age of fourteen, I had my first experience of entering into a trance state in front of Edward Kienholz’s Back Seat Dodge ‘38 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It was my first time ever seeing contemporary art and, although utterly disoriented, I was forever transformed. As soon as I got home, I begged my mother to take me to the Riverside Public Library in downtown Riverside so that I could understand what “art” was. Much to my surprise, the moment I walked into the library, I saw a monograph on Andy Warhol sitting suspiciously by itself on a table and next to it was a book on Marcel Duchamp and his connection to surrealism and the psychology movement. Whether these books were left by a library patron, an art enthusiast working at the library, or a careless patron, I will never know. But, what I do know is that this moment forever changed the trajectory of my life. It is now Christmas Day 2022. Many years have passed since this moment. I just graduated with my MFA in Art from the University of California, Berkeley, I have had my artwork exhibited internationally and am asked to visit classrooms, board rooms, and different communities to speak on my connections to art and magic. I am also preparing to move back down to Los Angeles after having lived in the Bay Area for two years. The first project I am going to work on after moving is the Mexicali Biennial. This feels like a pivotal moment in my career and is eerily a full circle moment as this exhibition is going to be taking place inside the very building where I first learned about art. The Riverside Public Library has now been converted into The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture, & Industry. This museum just opened this year and the Mexicali Biennial will be the first survey show of its caliber to be exhibited there. I can feel the universe winking at me with a joyous grin. Art is about making meaning, conjuring meaning, transmuting & transforming meaning. With art we set intentions, we cast spells, we open portals. For this reason, when I saw I PUT A SPELL ON YOU by the artist stulka, I KNEW I had to have it. Art has put a spell on me in the most profound ways. It has opened up possibilities for me beyond my wildest imagination. It has helped me create a life full of connection, curiosity, community, and care. It has helped me step deeper into my power than I ever thought possible. It has helped me become who I am today. Like moths to a flame we flock towards art. Many of us are told that art is not a viable option as a career, many of us are discouraged and even ridiculed for our visions and our dreams. Regardless, many of us continue, being drawn back into the sacred flames of art and helping us find our inner flame, our inner power. It is this power that transforms our lives and changes reality. Witches are born from these cauldrons, we emerge just like in this artwork, from the mirrors that reflect back at us the truths we hold firmly in our hearts. In the description of this artwork stulka writes: ”i've been i a looooooong art-block and this one kinda a manifestation of a spell that in casted to myself. i guess it worked.” To speak of inspiration and channeling and flow, to speak of the gifts we have to be able to move from a place of imagination and etheric transmission into the physical and embodied form is true magic. I am amazed to see the myriad of ways stulka steps into her power and the art that she is called to create. I deeply resonate with it and so do many others. One of the biggest blessings of being in the cryptoart community is the fact that I am able to appreciate, collect, trade, and share my art with people across the world. I have never been to Indonesia and before collecting stulka’s artwork, I couldn’t name a person that I knew living in this expansive and multicultural country. But, now, because of the magic of the blockchain and the communities we’ve built around it, I am connected to stulka and to several other incredible artists that live in Indonesia. What kind of spells are you casting with your art? How are these spells transforming your life?