This was a performance piece i did on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I opened myself up to the energies of the space, of the sand and water themselves, and let them move me the way they moved. i traced a sand mandala in the sand before i began and performed the movement piece in the center of the sacred space i created. I had no words, no tangible thoughts go through my mind at all, everything was clear and the only thing i heard was the sound of the environment singing its song. Then, after moving for quite some time i felt the urge to stop. I stopped my movements and stood in a prayer and the waves swept up the shore and the surf ran up along my feet, washing away the sand mandala i had drawn. Up until that very moment the water had not come up that high at all. The piece was done. I bowed and thanked the water and the serf once again ran up the shore, but this time to stop a few inches from my toes, as if acknowledging my thanks and bowing in return. I was thanked later by a passerby for my beautiful visual artistic expression and i handed her a painted mandala i had created to thank her.

We were walking around the find the perfect spot, a place that sparkled a bit above the rest of its surroundings that said, yes, this is where the performance needs to happen. After meandering for a little while I saw it, a mossy patch underneath a beautiful tree with several fruitings of gorgeous mushrooms. I went over there and after pausing a moment to feel the energy of the place, I began to move.
Because of the nature of what I am doing, there are very few thoughts that happen during these performances. I dont really notice what is going on around me in a cognitive way. I feel as though I am almost all perception and things just happen while I observe in almost an instinctual way. I did have a few realizations however, several thoughts that emerged from this emptiness in my mind and lingered for a bit so that I could understand their impact. I improvise like a jazz musician improvises, but my instrument is my body. Like jazz is slightly anti beat in its improvisational moments, yet all the while maintaining the beat pattern as its starting point, I do not have any beats happening in my head or anything I am really dancing to. There is always the central pattern of my heart beat which keeps my in a time signature of sorts, but I move freely around this regulatory measure, just as the notes in a jazz solo move around the original theme, deviating then returning, constantly evolving.

The Valence Project is a musical collective with an electronic jazz, downtempo, lounge, trip hop sound to it. My painting, "Give ME Myself Again," is the Album Cover.
This download page is a preview. The Album premiers February 14th.