CODY A SEEKINS

CODY A SEEKINS

Jātaka Tales of a Budgie-Sattva 5 -- Relinquishing Culture
Jātaka Tales of a Budgie-Sattva 5 - Relinquishing Culture




Psychedelic Works
​An album containing a greater saturation of psychological morphism than my Jataka Tales series. The Psychedelic works are literally the rendering of mind manifest with no overt thematic filter shaping the body of paintings as a whole.

Fuku Shiva

Picture"Fuku-Shiva", Oil on Canvas, 20" x 24", 2014
The term "Fuku" refers to fortune or good luck. "Shiva" refers to the Hindu deity who represents strongly polar qualities, both severe and delicate. On a beach inspired by adventures on Phi Phi island in Thailand, three youths cavort. Two are representational figures and the third is psychologically rendered. A dynamic relationship ensues between the triad; a reciprocity of active and passive states. The boy on the right engages in maneuvers of evasion, defense, and is dressed in a speedo which reiterates the colors and symbolism of the caution tape on the left and upper right frame of the composition. In concurrent reaction the psychedelic figure shoots out a rocket powered paper airplane. The nude boy seated in the froth and sand approaches in passive repose, and is met with active attention but equal physical reserve by the psychedelic being. Perhaps the most naked figure is also the least representational. Looming large, dynamic, and active, it engages its companions playfully. Various symbols interject into the otherwise naturalistic scene, most notably a beach ball and two contaminated barrels nested in the sand. The upright barrel reads "FukuShima" in Kanji. The barrel laying down reads "Dharma". To the left the scene is boundaried by caution tape, reiterating the danger of the nuclear waste while also hosting alien archetypes, whose presence, as is the nature of these entities, runs up and just behind the consciousness of the psychedelic figure's eggshell-like skull. 
Picture


​The painting glows aquamarine in the water and stars, and green in various other areas when lights are dimmed, glazed with a stable strontium compound; truly engaging to view in partial darkness.
Jātaka Tales of a Budgie-Sattva
​A sample of an emerging MFA thesis at the Academy of Art University.


Jātaka Tales of a Budgie-Sattva

As I clear my conscious mind it peels away like a snake skin to reveal the vast unconscious dimension of my greater being. Because this awareness produced in me a natural affinity for eastern thought I refer to my works as Jâtakas. I see the struggles, enigmas, sentiments, and ephemera of my experience as similar to the historical Jâtaka narratives of Gautama Buddha before his enlightenment. The term Budgie-Sattva is an appropriation combining the word budgie (parrot) with bodhisattva, or one who is still on the path toward perfect awareness.
Meditation is a discipline of being simply aware and without attachment. Whereas one can sit and meditate, my practice happens during the flow of daily activities, including studio time. This allows me to uncover impressions of personal identity and experience which characterize the present moment. Over time a complete work manifests, often giving me insight into its full meaning well after the painting is dry.
In “Jâtaka Tales of a Budgie-Sattva” I explore a group of past identities which build my present experience. The young male figure characterizes this series of incarnations. Though environments and identities of the figures shift, another essence remains in my power animal, the omnipresent budgie influence.
My paintings speak both of the completeness of a moment and its impermanence. Each work embodies active investigations into the nature and morphology of self. I explore the my thread of subjective experiences through a diverse mosaic of cultural and geographic environments. Left behind are artifacts of a sincere, meaningful expedition.
PictureOil on Canvas, 40cm x 60cm (approx. 16” x 24”), 2019
The Dreamer
​A commissioned artwork for a graphic novel project

In this image a boy finds himself within a vision of a cornucopia of mutations. Their forms encroach so much they threaten to overwhelm him. At left are a mass of denizens, exhibiting mammalian, fungal, plant, snake, and bird characteristics. Many of its junctions froth with tiny bubbles, as if still in the process of a fermenting metamorphosis. The least mutated member of the group is a crow, mouth open and facing vertically in a soundless “kaw!” as it is absorbed into the mass.

At lower right is a particularly toothy creature; something akin to a giant chlorophyll green membrane, thick and embedded with innumerable eyes setting above a dark maw passively laying in wait.

In the middle beyond the young man an entity yawns wide a beak-ish mouth, around which are more spiny and pincer-like projections branching out of a segmented green skin existing corporeally somewhere between amphibian and plant. Its teeth are like maize covered in a thin cataract. Further still in the distance are a variety of strange eyes and a mushroom cap with human teeth.

Hovering before the boy is a psychedelic alien, communicating via its manifestation as a nexus of colors, forms, and shapes spanning the spectrum from butterfly to bird to fish to mandrake vegetation and more. Its left most projection precipitates into glowing blue-green worm-like transparent fingers, from which a broadcast of blue filamented energy engages the boy’s mind.

Haloing the boy’s head is a dim cratered moon setting against a dark starry sky. His face and throat are illuminated by an unknown and intense light source, as is his left hand which reaches out gingerly to touch the alien vision before him.

The narrative speaks to a reflection concerning transformation and its relationship to identity. The character’s hand gesture and the number “33” on his shirt foreshadow his own spiritual potential, catalyzed by the interloping influence of the psychedelic alien presence.