The Transfigurative and Esoteric Art of A. Andrew Gonzalez

The Oracle of the Pearl

Myspace gets a lot of bad press, but actually, there's a lot going on there with art and music. I was first exposed to myspace three years ago through my then seventeen-year-old son. His band had a myspace music page with over 40,000 "hits". They booked and went on an east coast tour of almost two weeks, as a result of connections made through myspace. I said to myself, "hey, there is something going on here." I created a couple of myspace music pages for myself; one for my blues guitar music, and one for some more recent largely electronic ambient music. Through surfing myspace, I have found a TON of great music that I would never have become aware of otherwise, and I have also discovered a lot of great artists as well. One of the artists I discovered on myspace is A. Andrew Gonzales.

From the artists' statement: Feeling the need to contribute transformative images of beauty to the collective imagination, my imagery would develop an implicit antithesis to H. R. Giger's artwork. I felt driven to show in my work the liberation of the body and soul out of the dark depths of decay and perverse eroticism. By sublimating the erotic towards an angelic sensuality and by using ascension and rebirth symbolism, a sacred eros would emerge as the predominant theme of my work.

Gonzales' paintings are created with airbrushed acrylics on panel or canvas. Forms, values and highlighting are created by lifting pigment with an abrasive eraser, followed by the application of transparent layers of pigment.

(Click on images for a larger view)


Crescendo of the Heart


Magia of the Heart


Unio Mystica


Yemanja (The Awakening of the Heart)

Paul Laffoley

Paul Laffoley has been described as a "visionary painter, designer, futurist, and hyperspace cartographer." Laffoley attended Brown University, graduating in 1962 with honors in Classics, Philosophy, and Art History.

During a CAT scan of his head in 1992, a cylindrical piece of metal 3/8 of an inch long was discovered symmetrically lodged in Paul's brain. It is in the exact middle of his head, in the occipital lobe of his brain, near the pineal gland. The CAT scan was advised by his dentist, after noticing something unusual in a routine x-ray before a root-canal. The dental technician asked Laffoley "Uh ... Sir, have you ever been shot in the head?" Local Mutual UFO Network investigators declared it to be "an alien nanotechnological laboratory." Laffoley has come to believe that the "implant" is extraterrestrial in origin and is the main motivation behind his ideas and theories. (quote from www.laffoleyarchive.com)

Visionary genius or obsessed weirdo-- decide for yourself. Actually, the majority of great artists could be described as obsessed weirdos, come to think of it.

What I know is this: I find his work and his life story to be thoroughly fascinating.

You can read more about Laffoley by clicking here. There is also a ton of information on Laffoley's website: www.laffoley.com.

Note: the images below were found on a number of different websites; many of them did not have dates. This work was created between the mid-1960s and the present time. As far as I have been able to ascertain, Laffoley works mainly in oil paint, and sometimes in acrylic, and at a fairly large size-- typically around five or six feet square.

(As usual, you can see larger versions of each image by clicking on them.)


Vision of a Just World


The Solitron


The Solitron - zoom of double Mobeius strip with sigils & Tesla tech


The center of the Solitron


The Telenomic Process of the Universe


Cosmolux - redesigning the universe as a singularity


World Soul of Plotinus


The Kyklos of Hermocrates


The Geochronmechane


Geochronmechane - main orbital system


The Orgone Motor


Fractal Cube from The Orgone Motor


Dimensionality: The Manifestation of Fate
(click on this image for a really LARGE view)

Man Ray

A major figure in Dada and Surrealism, Man Ray is not as well known to the general public as Salvador Dali or even René Magritte. Best known for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray was also a painter and a creator of what he referred to as "objects" (assemblage sculpture, typically using "found" objects).

I love this statement from Man Ray:

I say anybody who does creative art is a sacred person. I do not care what he does. Whether he paints academic pictures or he is modern or different from anything else.

I like that.


Gift, 1921


Untitled rayograph, 1922


Untitled rayograph, 1922


Observatory Time, the Lovers, 1934