About the Artists

L.J. Altvater
"The psychedelic experience is not a prerequisite for creativity, or a guarantee of its improvement. But like any memorable, emotionally-charged event in one's life it is likely to influence creative work. The experience is important in regard to creativity and problem solving because it reveals new possibilities as well as old habits. For me this has inspired a progression from a rather gray, gloomy surrealism to a more vibrant, optically-stimulating type of imagery."
See http://www.sunecho.com.

Alex Grey
Alex Grey is best known for his depictions of the human body that "x-ray" the multiple layers of reality, revealing the complex integration of body, mind, and spirit. Grey's unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of humanity in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. A mid-career retrospective of Grey's works was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1999. His paintings have been featured on a Beastie Boys album cover, in Newsweek magazine, on the Discovery Channel, rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid, and have been exhibited throughout the world. His books include Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey, his philosophical text, The Mission of Art, and his forthcoming Transfigurations. Sounds True released The Visionary Artist, an audiotape of Grey's art, philosophy, and vision practices. See http://www.alexgrey.com.

Allyson Grey
"Intending to create spiritual art, I feel naturally attracted to abstraction and to a written sacred language. In 1975, I began writing automatically in an invented or transmitted language. I combine the elements of perfection, like the Jewel Net, with the secret language, and images of chaos. Chaos in my art is the entropy of the units of spectrally arranged squares using a system of "planned randomness," allowing every spectral unit to fall apart in a variety of ways. The three elements used in my work, Chaos, Order and Secret Writing, are non-literal representations of the sacred.
"Born in 1952, I've been married to Alex Grey for 25 years. With BA and MA degrees in Fine Arts, I've had solo shows at Stux Gallery and O.K. Harris Gallery in NYC, among others. Commissions of permanent public works include a 24-foot mural at the First Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts and my paintings have been collected by corporations and individuals. I paint and collaborate with Alex and our adorable actress daughter, Zena Lotus, in Brooklyn, NY."
See http://www.motley-focus.com/~timber/allysonpaint.html.

Stevee Postman
Stevee Postman is a digital artist living in San Francisco. Working with the union of technology and the organic he creates neo-pagan, faerie-inspired, visual transmissions. He is the creator of the Cosmic Tribe Tarot. His visionary work has appeared in numerous publications and galleries. See http://www.stevee.com.

Steven Rooke
Steven Rooke's work is the result of repeated cycles of selective breeding, wherein he assigns aesthetic fitness scores to individual computer-generated images within a population, followed by fitness-proportionate reproduction by "sexual crossover" and mutation of the underlying software genes. Entheogenic states provided him with much of the inspiration for designing the system, and inevitably informed his process of aesthetic selection. "Each image comes into being fully formed, and its genome is one of an infinite number of mathematically related structures. I fantasize that this process is a means for realizing visions from Plato's eternal mathematical realm, an aspect of the inner world." See http://www.azstarnet.com/~srooke.

Donna Torres
"Research trips to South America have influenced my work and have been important sources of information. These extended visits have given me the opportunity to live with native peoples and gain insights into their traditions. Studying the remains of ancient shamanic cultures, and specifically those of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, has been particularly important. The region's dry conditions have preserved the cultural remains of one of the largest shamanic societies in history. The paraphernalia used to ingest psychoactive plants forms a substantial part of the archaeological record.
"My studies have also led me to investigate living cultures that practice shamanic traditions. I am currently completing work for the Master in Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing at Florida International University in Miami." See http://www.stlawu.edu/gallery:http/dtorres.htm.

Robert Venosa
The Fantastic Realism art of Robert Venosa has been exhibited worldwide and is represented in the collections of major museums, rock stars and European aristocracy. He's done conceptual design for the movies Dune, Fire in the Sky, and Race for Atlantis. His work is the subject of three books, Manas Manna, Noospheres, and Illuminatus, featuring text by Terence McKenna. His art is also featured on album covers, including those of Santana and Kitaro. With studios in both Boulder and CadaquŽs, Spain (where he spent time with neighbor Salvador Dali), Venosa gives workshops at such institutes as Esalen in Big Sur, Naropa in Boulder, Skyros Institute in Greece, and Tobago in the Caribbean. See http://www.venosa.com.