39th entry - the 'Past Life Series of 2013' a beginning

Time,what a strange and wonderful thing,
omnipresent and given to us all freely

"The Past Lives of Roland Arfly" 2012

and still simultaneously so very precious

The way people speak about their bodies and time has always fascinated me. Because they address it as if they are a body that has a soul, and really this made very little sense to me at all even at a younger age. That would to me be like a horse having a wagon in a way. The mass majority of who we are is intangible, what makes us 'us' is so much more than the composition of arms and legs and teeth and hair, we are so much more and without it we are simply bio electrical machines.  Wouldnt it make more sense then, to accept that we are souls that in the grand scheme of all that is, was, and will be only for the moment have a body? Intelligent dynamic indestructible energy encapsulated within the most delicate of ways, a work of art in and of itself.

I myself believe in a soul, but really we simply just do not know and can only speculate. Are ghosts real or something we psychically manifest, Avalon, Heaven, Hell, Valhalla, Mother Ships, Karonhià:ke and the such in every language, God theories, demons, angels, karma, destiny and the divine: for every personal experience there is toward a specific clarity on the subject there is another toward contradicting it but faith and what seems to make sense are both very real and have tangible measurable results.

"The Past Lives of Lethe Kines" 2012

Time and the Soul
Now thats interesting to me, because we all know what happens to a body over time, any body be it a ship or car or tree or cat, the barber the baker and candlestick maker they get older but the experiences a soul accumulates over time and its growth or for lack of a better word 'aging' process isnt something we can really linearly wrap our heads around completely, not really. Its like water in a glass, a child might be able to understand this maybe more than an adult because kids generally don't over complicate things like us grown ups. A kid would see that once the water is removed from the glass it doesn't stop being water, that would be silly. How then can we say for sure that this one body we inhabit is the only 'cup' we get ever and forever and for all time and once its gone . . . . nothing, in the simplest of ways this doesn't make sense (sorry Mr Hawkins). Bottom line, we just don't know, anything is possible and one body then ppffffft just doesn't make sense.

The soul transforms over time, Ive personally seen souls change with exchanges from others and situations, experiences and so many other variables. This has been studied over and over again, 'future selves' and 'time preferences' and 'temporal position', I wont re-examine what those far better studied have already so eloquently iterated. I will say though to anyone who thinks people 'dont change' that although that is possible, there are changes within a person occurring every second, some automatically and unconsciously which would limit its probability.

"The Past Lives of Ginny Caring" 2012

I feel that a soul within a person is a succession of overlapping 'selves' related to varying degrees by physical continuity, experiences and those memories, spice that with similarities of character, preferences, curiosities and interests and tada time's effect on the soul, results vary infinitely.Can a person still be curious about something they already know? Ask someone truly in love haha. Getting back into that train of thought soul within a person being a series of overlapping 'selves' each with its own essence, its own flavor and color and vibe at that moment. The life of a soul within form, like  a reel to reel movie. Each frame being of its own individual composition, its own 'body' and the 'soul' being the film itself. One doesn't need to drop dead or die in order to re-incarnate, in order to transform and be completely different no more than a movie has to be burned before a scenery change, with enough inspired will or circumstance (or both) it can happen dozens of times within a single lifetime. This is the concept of the 'Past Life Series' that I do each year.

This year I have chosen for the first time to do something different, largely by encouragement because like most middle aged men I claim to be groovy with change but meh i become comfortable like an old cat though still having that kid at heart nature and enthusiasm I often go for it anyway better or worse and Im grateful for that part of me, even though it, at times, doesnt always get along with the other parts haha.

"The Past Lives of JFL" 2011

I made an open call to just ten people who were willing to have their palms painted. There are reasons I enjoy approaching this creative mark through the palm and I'll detail that later. After literally an hour of making the open call announcement my inbox had near to 230 responses (admittedly my ma was one), I was in awe at this almost to disbelief and touched beyond words. Its a risk putting ones self out there with something so personal as their creativity, this was one of those moments where it felt wonderful. That all being stated the next few entries will be on this process, each work is as different as we are but like there's mind body soul each piece has a continuity making it one of the series. With this starting process these ten souls were asked to trace their hands onto paper, a left and a right, providing they had two and if they didn't then only one would be needed and of course marking which was which. Then they were to mail those tracings to me. Right now I'm waiting for them and once I have them I'll walk through what happens next.

I'm happy you've read this, its kind that someone would be interested in my process and I welcome you to the more which is later. In the meantime, celebrate the present its only here for now.

;)