For five years we have been on a unique and wonderful journey, travelling together, creating and honouring life on Mother Earth. Our visual art, photography, film-making, music and networking combine into a synergetic whole dedicated to carrying the torch of a true spiritual vision based on sharing and love. We have hitch-hiked extensively around Australia and New Zealand, connecting with the land and the people; our inspiration comes directly from the land, sea and sky; the Earth, moon and sun; our fellow beings both human and non-human, the cosmos, and eternal consciousness. We are of the P.O.O.H. tribe, the 'people of one heart.'
What we are really about is creativity in harmony with our highest spiritual path. Our mission as crew members of Mothership Earth is not only to honour the beauty and power of nature, but to create awareness of the ways that humanity is destroying our planet through ways of 'living' that are incompatible with life and to re-navigate our overall process towards a more conscious and coherent reality in which lethal contradictions have been resolved, in which mitakuye oyasin, 'all our relations' can truly flourish.
Our primary inspiration is from Mother Earth and nature, the power and beauty of the cosmos and the undisrupted places we are lucky to be able to visit, from the grand creative intelligence behind the infinite complexity and harmony of 'the music of the spheres.' In terms of human artists, we feel that the art-forms of the indigenous people of Australia in general is an expression of the deepest human connection to the spirit of life as we know her, and in particular, the Keringke group of the central desert, led by Kathleen Wallace. We have powerful connections with them creatively and they all have painted rocks that we gave them. We are also greatly inspired by the art and the ecological philosophy and vision of Friedrich Hundertwasser, who we didn't get to meet but visited some of his architectural sites in Germany. Our 'Mother Earth Temple' on Flinders Island Tasmania is in part dedicated to him. In terms of western artists, Liesbet's very first painting greatly resembles the early work of Georgia O'Keefe, although Liesbet had never seen any of her art; I have been described as 'the Kandinsky of today.' Some of my art has been described as 'native American space technology' or having been done by 'an aborigine scientist on acid.' With respect to our music, we are greatly inspired by the songs of the humpback whales, as well as the native American flute music of artists like R. Carlos Nakai and Johnny Whitehorse. And our favourite film-maker is Ron Fricke, whose non-verbal films Chronos, Koyaanisqatsi, Baraka and now Samsara represent to us the highest use of cinematography we've ever seen.
'Time is Art' refers essentially to the multi-dimensional creative process that is continually on-going, the transformation and expression of consciousness into the worlds of form, pattern and manifestation and our perception and awareness of and communication about these worlds. 'Time is art' may also refer to the relationship between what physicist David Bohm refers to as the implicate and explicate holomovents: the implicate domain is non-manifest, simultaneous and therefore timeless, but the explicate domain of manifestation and expression, is poly-temporal and multi-dimensional. Finally, 'time is art' in terms of day to day life can be taken as a replacement for the capitalistic adage 'time is money.' Money is an out-moded and even occult delusion that we are choosing to keep alive, whereas 'art' is the true and real expression of life, consciousness, creativity and love.
Together, Liesbet and I have painted over 40,000 rocks, over a thousand paintings, and made five films. We play music together, and I've recorded several cd's of experimental and improvisational music with a variety of friends, as well as doing the sound-tracks for our films. As I write this now, we are embarking on our most advanced creative project to date, a 'beyond film' about the whales and dolphins that's not only about who they are as fellow sentient beings on Gaia, but also about the grave threats to their well-being and even existence posed by human activity ... activity done by US, not an 'evil them.' This project will bring together the very best of our creativity in every possible dimension, will be at least as much about sound as anything we can see with light, and will explore a true synergy of consciousness in which they are light-years ahead. The cetaceans quite possibly hold the key to our own long-term survival and advancement as a species if we can somehow manage to surpass the hurdles of our own limitations so that we can actually hear and understand their message.
Click images to scroll through gallery
We did a lot of web-site and blog work for our friend Barry Brailsford, an historian and wisdom carrier of the ancient Waitaha peoples of the south island of New Zealand. Here is his new blog that Liesbet designed: barrybrailsford.blogspot.co.nz
We were invited to contribute to the newest issue of Oracle magazine, a large-format publication originating in San Francisco in the late 1960's. We have the place of honour, with 3 pages of art and text. A new issue will be coming out later this year; in it will be a new article I'm writing on the implications of the Hopi prophecy 'If we dig precious things from the land we will invite disaster.' To see our contribution to Oracle, and their site, too:
www.synthaissance.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/our-contribution-to-new-oracle.html
Liesbet is having an exposition of her paintings and other creations near Brussels. It's called "Love in Life", or "Liefde in Leven". Here is a link to see a lot of her art: picasaweb.google.com/ilnissky/ART
To see our medicine wheels click here.
"THE WHITE ELECTRIC DOG TRANSMISSIONS" The Brink/Jeff Phillips by jeff weffiops
I have an article in the current issue of Uncensored magazine, available in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, entitled 'We Are Not Alone...Yet: How We Are Waging War on a True 'Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.'(Click here to download this article). It's the story of who the whales and dolphins really are as fellow sentient beings, as well as the real global threats from human military-industrial activity that are making their lives impossible. To us, this is perhaps the most important issue concerning life on our planet at this time: it has to do with our true identity as passengers/crew of Mothership Earth, who else is here with us, and the future of life as we currently know her.
We are currently working on a 'beyond film' based on this article. We have made a 12 minute trailer that you can watch here:
'Aihe Tohora Paikea Wananga' ('The Knowledge and Wisdom of Whales and Dolphins')
And here is the link to read the entire unedited version of my article.
Any art commissions we get help to fund our projects. Please get in touch. I have an internet e-group called 'synthaissance' that you can be in if you send me your email address.
Cheers love light and infinite creativity from the 'ultimate creative partnership' Jeff & Liesbet