The Newsroom

 

BLACKLIGHT GLOWART

March 2, 2021

 

 

 

 

Artist Blacklight Glowart created this painting in commemoration of Kenneth Anger's vision for his film Lucifer Rising in 2019.

 

 

MISS.FOXGLOVE: PAINTING-TO-KNITTING METAMORPHOSIS

December 9, 2020

 

I love it when one of my art pieces is reinterpreted by another artist or crafts person, giving it a new and interesting kind of life in the world. Such is the case with this beautiful dress created by knitting artist miss.foxglove, who models her creation in these photos. She chose to incorporate a knitted interpretation of one of my paintings, entitled UNI, as a pictorial element in her unique dress. It never occurred to me that it would even be possible to produce such a complex image in knitted yarn!

 

    

 

   

 

Recently, she asked me to explain the mystical symbolism that I put into the original painting. Here is what I wrote to her:

 

The title for UNI suggests the concept of "unique union". The two overlapping triangles form the Sri Yantra, representing divine truth at the center of a lotus flowers unfolding petals. In this case, the downward pointing red triangle is the feminine principle, the upward pointing blue triangle is the male aspect; the violet hues where they overlap suggest the ambiguous subtlety produced in the divine union, two out of one making the whole of infinite variety and shadings of meaning. Surrounding is Ouroboros, the serpent of the universe swallowing its own tail. A mix of mystical and cultural influences here.

 

You can see more of her extraordinary work here: @miss.foxglove

 

 

SETTING MY ART FREE

October 12, 2020

 

The economic downturn brought on by the viral pandemic has prompted most of us to shift our priorities. I used to make prints of my paintings available for sale here; now I don’t. The truth is, sharing my artistic works with people in the greater world community has always meant much more to me than any money I’ve made from selling it. My desire to continue sharing my work during a time when few people have disposable income for buying art has moved me to make alternative arrangements for how I go about sharing it.

 

Henceforth, and for the foreseeable future, the agencies that are under my immediate purview and influence will no longer be selling art prints of my paintings to the public. In place of offering art prints directly I have authorized that a high-resolution (300 dpi, at the size of the original art) image file of each of my paintings be made downloadable from this website, free of charge.

Below the expanded view of each painting in the Gallery you will find, below the title, a link that will guide you in downloading the image file of the painting.

 

 

You have my expressed permission to make (or have made) an art print of any of my paintings for personal, private display. Feel free to use the printing service of your choice. There are numerous print-on-demand services online fully capable of producing very high-quality prints from a digitized image for a reasonable charge, and on a variety of materials including premium papers, canvas, glass and metal.

 

Thank you for your interest in my creative work.

 

 

 

ALL MUSIC FOR FREE MUSIC FREE FOR ALL

July 29, 2020

 

 

     Unprecedented calamity calls for extraordinary gyrations.

 

     Back in March, when the spread of the coronavirus outbreak was picking up momentum in the US, and otherwise sane people were, for good reason, freaking out ... when we were all being put on lockdown status (welcome to my world!), with a great many people consequently losing their income, with the result that the world economy was beginning to slide into freefall ... while we all sat in our dwellings with our eyeballs glued to our screens, aghast and in simmering near-panic as what sometimes seems like doomsday unfolds before us ... with all of that, I for my part felt stricken by frustration.

 

     There are so many people I dearly love in this world. All I could do at first was pace to and fro in my cage wishing there were some way I could help, some meaningful way I could express solidarity with my fellow human beings during these troubled times.

 

     Then it occurred to me: I could make all of my recorded music and visual art available for free. It’s not that much, a tiny thing compared to caring for the sick and feeding the hungry, but something I can do under my present circumstances to say to those who enjoy and appreciate my work that I share your pain and concerns. A small gesture to offer my brothers and sisters some solace and support during this deeply stricken period.

 

     In the intervening months, with the invaluable help of my stalwart friend who administrates all online platforms that bear my personal stamp, the first phase of my new Free For All business model was put in motion, and is now complete. My entire catalog of original music, all 80+ unique tracks, has been lofted heavenward and now resides on the free streaming service, SoundCloud. In a similar fashion, all of my music tracks have been combined with a gallery of my visual art to my channel on another free streaming service, YouTube, where the music and images of my paintings have been combined with examples of my animation work and live performance videos.

 

     On the Music page of my website (www.BobbyBeauSoleil.com/music) you will find handy SoundCloud players for each of albums and song singles, with notes, as well as a player that will let you play all the tracks with a single click for hours and hours of continuous music with no repeats. Jump over to the Movies page on the website and you'll get access to the music, art, and videos on the YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/BobbyBeausoleilMusic). Or, if you're really lazy, tell your cell phone or smart speaker to "Play music by Bobby BeauSoleil on SoundCloud."

 

     Please stay safe and protect those around you.

 

Love,

 

Bobby

 

 

Mitin number 71, Russian magazine

May 12, 2020

 

 

Well, now, this seems to be a pretty significant development. To be considered notable enough to have my life and creative work be the subject of a feature article in a leading print magazine in Russia, a country halfway around the globe, is both delightful and humbling. What an honor!

 

Mitin magazine (as it is written in Americanese) began life as an underground literary magazine in 1984 Leningrad, during the last years of the Cold War USSR era. Since then Mitin has evolved into Russia's most influential magazine focusing on world culture.

 

The current issue of Mitin, number 71, is 350 pages, of which a whopping 45 pages are devoted to the article about me. Or rather, the story is related in the context of my 15-year friendship with Dima Mishenin, lead artist of the celebrated Russian artist collective known as Doping-Pong. The article includes excerpts from our correspondence, and a Q&A in which Dima questions me about various aspects of my life and work, and my views on topics of interest to him. The article includes numerous photos and images of work by Doping-Pong for some of my projects, including the cover art for the 40th Anniversary reissue of the Lucifer Rising soundtrack on vinyl LP. The logo on my website was also designed by Doping-Pong.

 

Issue number 71 also features writer William Burroughs and surrealist artist and author Brion Gysin. Good company to be in!

 

Mitin is published exclusively in Russian language text. If you are fluent in the language, or if you want to learn it and want some Russian text to cut your teeth on, here you go:

 

http://kolonna.mitin.com/index.php?page=books&id=295

 

~ Bobby

 

 

Elisabete Pires Monteiro

May 7, 2020

 

         

 

Three examples of art by Elisabete Pires Monteiro, who writes to me from Portugal. See her Portfolio here.

~ Bobby

 

 

Limited Deluxe Box - Limited Vinyl - CD

October 12, 2019

 

 

     

 

Preorder Now. November 15, 2019 Release

 

http://www.rustblade.com

 

WATCH THE VIDEO

 

New release on vinyl, the original soundtrack for the cult film, Lucifer Rising, by underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Composed by Bobby BeauSoleil who is joined in the performances by his prison band, The Freedom Orchestra, recorded 1975-1979 at Tracy Prison. The music of Lucifer Rising is closely linked with the occult elements with dark psychedelic mystical sounds.

 

Bobby composed electronic sounds interspersed with interesting slow trumpet fanfares, keyboard wizardry and fine guitar solos. For sure one of the most influential soundtracks ever and one of the most important psychedelic ambient album of music history. Magical & Essential. Artwork by Malleus.

 

 

Tyr and Garm: Battle at the Gates of Hel

September 15, 2019

 

 

My latest painting Tyr and Garm: Battle at the Gates of Hel is dedicated to my dear friend Jason. In his day job as a criminal defense attorney, Jason regularly does battle with the monsters of duplicity, inequity, and vagaries in criminal law. When not engaged in his legal practice, Jason enjoys pursuing other avocations, including a more than passing interest in the hero stories from Nordic mythology. He has a particular affinity for Tyr, alternately referred to as the sky god, the god of war, and the god of weapons.

 

Tyr also earned a well-deserved reputation as the one-handed warrior god. His fellow warrior gods ridiculed him for his folly after Loki's monstrous wolf Fenrir bit off his right hand the moment the unruly beast realized Tyr had tricked him into allowing himself to be bound by a magical chain. The laughter died away when Tyr demonstrated he could fight equally well with only his left hand gripping a weapon.

 

In approaching a depiction of Tyr in his element I chose one from among the many stories of Ragnarok, the preordained apocalyptic war that brought the glorious and fearsome age of the Aesir elder gods to a close. In this scene Tyr joins in battle with Garm, the watchdog who stood guard at the gates to the demesne of his mistress, Hel, the dark bitch goddess who held dominion in the land of the dead. Tyr defeated Garm, and slew the creature; afterward he would succumb to the wounds it had inflicted on him during their combat. The Aesir gods were divine but not immortal, yet they live forever in the legends of Norse mythology, which continues to spin off new variations to the stories in modern times.

 

Bobby BeauSoleil

Summer 2019

 

 

Exposé Reviews Voodoo Shivaya

May 11, 2019

 

© 2018 Photo by Nick Syracuse

 

Peter Thelen, editor of the online rock music magazine Exposé, has recently reviewed my album, Voodoo Shivaya.  You can read it here.

 

 

Voodoo Shivaya

June 21, 2018

 

 

Photo Credit © 2018 Nicholas Syracuse.

 

A deeply personal musical statement from Bobby BeauSoleil, a 2-disk concept album featuring a mix of vocal and instrumental tracks mapping the meandering path of his journey to spiritual understanding. The vocal tracks performed by BeauSoleil include both covers and original songs, with guest performances by Annabel Lee Moynihan, Michael Moynihan, Robert Ferbrache, and Mike Behrenhausen. A lavish triple gatefold cover integrates evocative photographs by Nicholas Syracuse with calligraphy by Timo Ketola. Jacket layout and design by Bobby BeauSoleil and Beth Hall. This album was recorded at Oregon State Penitentiary between 2008 and 2015.

 

Over the course of my long imprisonment, the opportunities to make personal music recordings have been few and far between. Such rare blessings are not to be taken for granted. When in 2008 such an opportunity presented itself I was determined to make the most of it. Serendipitously, I had just acquired a new electric guitar. My friends at Schecter Guitar Research performed some custom modifications I wanted made to the instrument prior to shipping it to me. With a modest recording setup and a small assortment of guitar pedals at my disposal, I began to explore the unique character of the guitar’s voice and soon found myself in a world of dark blues and haunted droning spaces. These inspired me to compose some song lyrics and to add my vocalizations into the mix for the first time on any of my recordings.

 

Perhaps drawing on my ancestral connections to New Orleans, the music began to take on a personal story aspect combined with the mystical dimensionality that informed much of my earlier work. I took to calling this gumbo ‘voodoo shivaya’, and the name stuck as the album gradually began to take shape. Not since the recordings on the Lucifer Rising soundtrack project four decades earlier had I produced such a collection of guitar-driven compositions, without relying on synthesizer electronics to generate complex timbres. Instead I relied mostly on prepared guitar processes and playing techniques to create timbral variation and an overall organic sound. Assisting me to achieve this result, on two of the tracks, are guest performances by members of the ethereal folk band Blood Axis, and, on one track, I was joined by two fellow prisoners at Oregon State Penitentiary, where the foundational tracks for the album were recorded. In 2015, seven years after I broke ground on the project, I had finished the nine long tracks that comprise Voodoo Shivaya. By this time I had entered an agreement with :AJNA: for release of the album to the public. It took an additional two years, with the help of some very talented artistic collaborators, to finalize the visual presentation and package for the album. Now, the only remaining element required to complete this endeavor is the listener, to whom I hereby submit this document of my efforts.

 

Bobby BeauSoleil

Summer Solstice, 2018

 

 

The Turbulent Fog of Profane History

May 11, 2018

 

 

Everyone once in awhile I make a foray into the abstract realm.  Here is a postcard from one such exploration.  It is entitled The Turbulent Fog of Profane History.

 

 

 

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