The Digital Art of Helena Blomqvist

The 'season series' (spring, summer, autumn and winter) by the brilliant Swedish digital artist Helena Blomqvist. Visit this site if you wanna see other works.

Paint or Die but Love Me

The astounding Paint or Die but Love me 'liquid' table by John Nouanesing

Happy Diwali

Diwali (or Deepavali) is one of the major Indian spiritual festivals, celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains as the "Festival of Lights", where the lights or lamps (deepak) signify victory of good over the evil within every human being.

I wish a happy Diwali to all Terra Incognita blog readers and collaborators and also to all occasional visitors...Let shine our inner Light and all the divine qualities which, well hidden within us, are just waiting to be revealed...

(thanks to my gurubhai Raghu for the astounding Gif!)

Notebook

Nice, creative video by talented young Dutch artist Evelien Lohbeck
c

Peter Tosh: Equal Rights

"Everyone's crying out for peace now, none's crying out for justice...I don't want no peace, equal rights and justice..."
"Equal Rights", one of Peter Tosh's immortal anthems... (in the video you can see also the bad consequences he got after having been brutally beaten by Jamaican cops. That was one of the several attacks he suffered for openly speaking against local politicians' corruption and in support of cannabis legalization.)
His son Andrew will sing (together with Kymani Marley and Cen'C Love, Bunny Wailer's daughter) during the next Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam (Nov. 23/27), when Peter Tosh will be inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame.

The Entheogenic Art of Pablo Amaringo

Pablo Amaringo is well known within the entheogen network and among the visionary art lovers. He was 10 when drank ayahuasca (the psychotropic concoction primarily made with the Banisteriopsis caapi vine cooked together with Psychotria viridis leaves) for the first time. Then he repeated the experience at 18, for curing some heart disturbes, but continued to be rather sceptical towards that ancient healing tradition. But when he saw his agonizing sister perfectly healed by an experienced shamaness, who cured her without even touching, he understood that the ayahuasca potion contained something potent, even miraculous indeed. After several sessions, he perceived to have particular healing skills and powers and began his own training to become a vegetalista, a shaman who uses plants to diagnose and heal people. He worked in that way from 1967 to 1977 continuing at the same time to paint the visions he got after drinking the "plant teachers". In 1980 he met the ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna (Terence's brother) and in 1990 Pablo proposed him to find a way to sell his art works; Dennis wrote to his friend Eduardo Luna, an anthropologist particularly interested in traditional uses of visionary plants. From the collaboration between Amaringo and Luna born Ayahuasca Visions, the book which showed the Amaringo's paintings to the public at large for the first time. Currently Amaringo teaches painting in the art school that he has founded in the Peruvian city of Pucallpa.


To see more of his works go here while to read about ayahuasca go here

Global Warming

A short, sad, but meaningful video about the global warming

Schubert: Piano trio in e flat, Op. 100

Stop doing what you're doing for a while, take few minutes for yourself, just relax and enjoy this immortal music. Pure healing balm for mind & heart...

5 Great Pix of the Day

Vintage Drug Ads

Currently some of the following substances are in the list of 'dangerous' (I would say 'taboo') and strictly scheduled compounds and in some cases they aren't anymore used by doctors and in hospitals. However once they were openly advertised and commonly used by patients.
Go here and see other old ads of local anesthetics like novocaine (brand name of procaine), sleeping pills like placidyl and doriden or opiates like pantopon or demerol and much more...

(D)evolution

The Great Saturday Psychedelic GIF

Another great GIF for all you GIF lovers out there...Enjoy and save in your personal GIF archive...

The Fantastic Art of Mike Worrall

Mike Worrall (born 1942 in Matlock Derbyshire, UK) is an almost self taught artist and designer. His fantastic art - which sometimes reminds me the works of the Czech surreal painter Jacek Yerka - is featured in films such as Nate and Hayes and Alien 3. He moved in Australia in 1988, where he continued his career and sold paintings to Roman Polanski, among others. Polanski said that one of Worrall's works gave him the idea of making Macbeth.
He currently lives in Holgate, Australia, with his wife and sons.
Visit his site to see other beautiful paintings in great format.
(thanks Maurizio)

Surrendering to the Spirit Vine

Visionary artist Alex Grey shares his hilarious, horrific, and heartening adventures with "the champagne of ayahuascas." He visits "all the horrors wrought on humanity," but comes out exploring fantastical landscapes that inspire his paintings while uncovering the ultimate lesson: "to surrender to love."

Alton Ellis R.I.P.

Alton Ellis (born 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica) was one of the musical legend of the Caribbean island. He began his career in 1959 recording for Coxone Dodd at Studio One and later also for Dodd's rival Duke Reid. By the mid '60s the ska rhythm began to slow down to rocksteady and Ellis's "Mr. Soul of Jamaica" was regarded as one of the definitive rocksteady albums. His song "Get Ready - Rocksteady" was the first song to refer to the name of the new genre.

During the late '60s and early 70s Ellis recorded for some of the Jamaica's top producers, making several hits like "Deliver Us" and "Back to Africa", which reflected the philosophy of the rising rasta culture.

After touring around the world, from 1972 he based himself in the UK, keeping on recording and performing regularly. He made triumhant returns in Jamaica at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in '83 and '85 and in 2006 he was inducted into the International Reggae and World Music Awards Hall of Fame.

But his health began to deteriorate and in December 2007 he was admitted to hospital in London for treatment of cancer of the lymph glands.

He returned to live performances after chemoterapy, but got a collapse during a show in London in August.

He died on Wednesday October 8 at Hammersmith Hospital, West London.

Another shining star of the Jamaican music has gone...

(thanks Maurizio)

Advanced Style

Advanced Style is a funny blog by Ari Cohen dedicated to the cool and/or eccentric style often shown by old people.
Ari says: I have always looked to street fashion for inspiration and since moving to New York four months ago I noticed how awesome so many of New York's older men and women styled. My main goal is to capture examples of Advanced Style from the sophisticated and well dressed to the accidentally stylish and colorful folks out on the town.

22 of the World's Most Creative Alphabets

See 22 of the world's most creative alphabets gathered from the portfolios of artists, photographers and design students here
(via The Presurfer)

Monkey Waiters in Japan

A Japanese tavern has turned to two monkeys for help with its table service. The Kayabukiya sake house, in the city of Utsunomiya north of Tokyo, is using a pair of uniformed Japanese macaques called Yat-chan and Fuku-chan to serve its customers.Kaoru Otsuka, who owns the restaurant in Utsunomiya, Japan, said he did not teach the sake-serving monkey its waiting skills. Mr Otsuka claims Yatchan watched him serving customers and remembered how to do it.

Psychedelic Goa Trance

A very well-done video about the rave party scene in Goa. Techno/trance music isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I consider raves and psychedelic techno culture the ideal continuation of the free festivals and gatherings of '60s,'70s and '80s...Even though raves probably aren't the best 'setting' possible for really meaningful and deep entheogenic experiences, they represent a rite of passage/initiation for many and I have much respect for the smart and corageous people who keep the counterculture flag high organizing, despite all the various current problems and police repression, this kind of (free) events.

The Surreal Worlds of Jacques Resch

The surreal worlds of Jacques Resch (born in France in 1946 and now residing in Africa)closely remember the art of Brueghel and Bosch, with the addition of typical contemporary society incubi. Check out his site for further oil paintings.

The Ukulele Orchestra

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing and singing "The Good The Bad and The Ugly". Nice and very..."English"!

The Visionary Revue

I strongly invite all the people interested in entheogens and visionary art to check out the new issue of the on-line 'zine Visionary Revue dedicated to the above mentioned topics. And see also the interesting videos about the seminar held this summer by Laurence Caruana (visionary painter and Visionary Revue editor) in Italy and a visionary art discussion during the Boom Festival in Portugal.

(below paintings by Bryan K. Ward and Daniel Mirante)