Machine Systems

I've recently posted two new works on my website from my latest series titled "Machine Systems". From outside the box, these new works would seem a departure from previous work. However, they are nothing more than a different perspective of the same issue that's been swimming around inside my head for some time.

In the recent Prayer works, I've been dealing with two sides of the same coin, doubt and belief. As a person experiencing life, I think that we have a choice...to believe or to doubt. Machine Systems are visionary contraptions we build for ourselves where belief and doubt are used to create mechanisms for reaching the end goal. What's interesting for me about this idea is the pains we go to in our lives to build these machines, construct these systems that perform the same set of actions and reactions over and over again. And I wonder if in harnessing the power of these machines, we also let go our responsibility to alter the machine if the outcome no longer suits us. We believe so strongly in their ability to serve. They become somewhat autonomous movers and shakers in our lives and we forget we built them in the first place and can change the machine to affect our lives in different ways, reach new goals, create a variety of outcomes.

I think about my own machine systems. How I've spent my whole life building these wondrous contraptions that provide a set of reactions and actions for any given situation. I have a machine that says "You can have everything you want, but only if you work hard." This particular machine has served me well throughout the years, so I do not doubt it, I believe in it and its ability to produce the outcome it was built to achieve. However, because I built this machine, it has limitations. It cannot take into account my new experiences, ideas, and lessons learned unless I change the system or scrap it altogether and build a new one. For instance, working hard may very well achieve the goal in the end, but working smart may get me to the end result in less time and with more elegance. The beauty and elegance of the machine is to be considered and as I walk through my life, I no longer need to use hand tools to build my house if power tools are available. The elegance of the solution feeds my need for beauty.

So where does doubt and belief come into it? When I build the machine, I am motivated by what I've learned from experiences. I have deduced certain "laws of living". For example, I've watched my parents work hard their entire lives and they have achieved their goals. Therefore, I interpret this to mean that working hard will get you what you want. My machine systems are designed to work from this knowledge and belief in these laws. If I doubt the machine, it cannot work for me. Then I have doubted the laws and I am left reinventing the wheel with every task. So I build the machine with faith. I use it with belief. However, I have found that it is unwise to believe without re-evaluating the systems I construct. This has led to concession and a sort of inability to walk with grace and beauty that I find unacceptable. The machine takes over. It runs my life. It is no longer a tool I use to achieve certain material and emotional goals for myself. It no longer feeds me. It rules me and I am caught up in a confused contraption of my own design.

Walking with Honor

I have come to realize through my business experiences as both a retailer and as an artist that the world is riddled with people who do not walk with honor. I find myself disappointed with the human race when I have to deal with people such as these. I hear myself thinking, "Oh. You're one of them." In such cases, I alter my behavior, spend many hours strategizing how to cover my ass, expend precious energies trying to keep what I feel is mine. And this is because for these folks, life is a game where you can only win when someone else loses. It does not occur to them that games can also be played where the object is for all parties to prosper. Mutual cooperation for personal benefit.

I will continue to hold my ground. And I am concerned that so many people seem to be driven by building their lives on the backs of others rather than creating a life from the foundations of their personal integrity and vision.