#kerismith

[ghostofatree]

This was the final set from Ehi Passiko- largely unrelated but sitting non the less as a family of images - the first two pages being the faces of ancestor spirits I had begun to notice around me (due to strengthening my sense of holy apophenia and hallucinatory visions under the blessing of Keri Smith). I photographed these beings so there was evidence that my slide into alternative sanity was justified and that they were real. The one with the boiled eggs was especially real. After that was my wind-horse linocut, which in Tibet is the symbol for very speedy benefits of practicing Buddhadharma. Next are some very soviet, or at least winters, looking glimpses of the weather around by lovely flat on Gambier and finally a small reliquary of perfect objects including the button from Buddha’s Levi’s and a restraining bolt from R2D2 found on Tatooine #reliquary #sketchbook #drawing #journaling #kerismith #ancestors #ancestorspirits #facesinplaces #apophenia #windhorse #linocut #blockprinting (at Gambier Terrace) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQ1sHIMH_E/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

Ehi Passiko heads toward a close with this penultimate set of images opening with an assemblage I built for three forgotten martyrs. It occurred to me that for every church named after someone who experienced monstrous torture and death for their beliefs there must have many who were never remembered or recorded since the Roman motivation was to exterminate the new faith when they realised it refused to assimilate. These three figures of unknown saints were to represent people like disappeared political prisoners or courageous activists quietly murdered by oppressive regimes. An example was the South American trade union reps murdered by Coca Cola. They had generic un-detailed faces and were deliberately ambiguous and implied some narrative that we were not privy to. I covered them in dropped candle wax to imply they had been venerated for centuries. After that was a view of Windermere, the badger from the Badger pub, a cupboard I liked with a pandemic warning and one of my favourite Kerri Smith exercises of renaming colours to fit our own lives. It included the names of various Buddha’s, products available from Home Bargains and some ska songs, various nice places and the hem of Jesus’s robe and other things. The last page shows a young Saint Ben @fingerprint66 #kerismithbooks #sketchbook #drawing #journaling #kerismith #lakedistrict #saints #martyrs #queerartist #liverpoolartist #memories #2000s #assemblageart #assemblage (at Rydal Water) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjNkPpmsFZk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

Ehi Passiko heads toward a close with this penultimate set of images opening with an assemblage I built for three forgotten martyrs. It occurred to me that for every church named after someone who experienced monstrous torture and death for their beliefs there must have many who were never remembered or recorded, since the Roman motivation was to exterminate the new faith when they realised it refused to assimilate. These three figures of unknown saints were to represent people like disappeared political prisoners or courageous activists quietly murdered by oppressive regimes. An example was the South American trade union reps murdered by Coca Cola. They had generic un-detailed faces and were deliberately ambiguous and implied some narrative that we were not privy to. I covered them in dropped candle wax to imply they had been venerated for centuries. After that was a view of Windermere, the badger from the Badger pub, a cupboard I liked with a pandemic warning and one of my favourite Kerri Smith exercises of renaming colours to fit our own lives. It included the names of various Buddha’s, products available from Home Bargains and some ska songs, various nice places and the hem of Jesus’s robe and other things. The last page shows a young Saint Ben @fingerprint66 #kerismithbooks #sketchbook #drawing #journaling #kerismith #lakedistrict #saints #martyrs #queerartist #liverpoolartist #memories #2000s #assemblageart #assemblage (at Rydal Water) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjNjLCEso6m/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

Our summer adventures continued that year in beautiful Wales- our friend Bahooba has a stunning arts and crafts house high up over Fairbourne looking out to Barmouth. It is one of my favourite places in the world and she very generously let us use it for a summer week. This time @spamdanglers @elshaaaaa @owens449 @hettyjosephine @fingerprint66 and Richard came and had a beautiful week. The first is Barmouth bay from the garden, the second and third are Barmouth from Fairbourne, the next is Kev on the beach, then the slate fireplace and Richard asleep in his chair in the living room. Finally a day out at the stunning quarry with the deep blue water- a surreal space accessible by a little railway tunnel. At the time everything seemed so wonderful, we didn’t know how good we had it - one day things must be better again - I hope it is within my lifetime #sketchbook #drawing #journaling #kerismith #kerismithbooks #memories #nostalgia #beautifulwales #cymru #barmouth #fairbournebeach #arthog #summer #happiertimes #2000s #queerartist #liverpoolartist (at Barmouth North Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci5Mbuvs5g6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

The Northumbrian adventure ends with a few more plates starting with more offerings to Mithras (to replace the ones stolen by the child he cursed) and depicting the three small altars. One was hollow with an image of him cut into it and gaps cut out of the stone where his halo would be that would have been lit from behind with a lamp. The next two were Norse adventures at Lindisfarne including early religious realisations from my spiritual lawyer and the revelation to me that there was a Saint Joseph of Cupertino, patron saint of tea breaks. Next an amazing ITLAD quote from the prophet Steve Wright that reminded me of @cheattheferryman54 and Rosie asleep on the floor at Jo’s after that are a couple of pages which scholars have struggled to translate from the Aramaic and may have been apocryphal and finally some visions of Saint Sebastian as Cassius Clay and Ricky Gervais #kerismithbooks #kerismith #journaling #drawing #sketchbook #mithras #offerings #lindisfarne #memories #nostalgia #2000s #queerartist #liverpoolartist (at Hadrian's Wall) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cixl3ZPsEqn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

Our next adventure recorded in Ehi Passiko was up north to see Jo. This is partially shown in this set but also some other landscape format pics from the following weeks while some other portrait format are still to come. Jo had taken Kev and me to see, on Hadrian’s Wall the ruins of a temple to the Persian god of light Mithras - often favoured by Roman Soldiers. I wanted to draw but it was drizzling so I wandered round it to look instead. There were three small altars still intact at the front and some devout local pagans had honoured the ancient space by leaving buttercups on the altars. In the spirit of the Buddhist puja- “I make offerings at all the holy places and places in which the Bodhisattvas have been” I put the spare change I had on the altar. Coincidentally the rain immediately stopped - which made Kev and I laugh. I sat and drew for a while until a local school group arrived on a coach and noisy kids ran everywhere. One walked along the top of the ruined walls (without the staff member stopping him!) and got to the altars. He saw my offering and shouted to his friends “look! Free money!” And pocketed the coins. Immediately the rain started again, the outing was hurriedly cancelled and the kids put back in the bus- which made me realise one should not fuck with Mithras. Next day we visited the castle which was apparently Hogwarts in Harry Potter (which is a book by some transphobe), then to beautiful Lindisfarne to draw and honour Saint Cuthbert, Saint Oswald and Saint Aiden. After that, back home was an afternoon in the Albert with Kev and @extremenoisejasper and a drink in PKs with @steve73uk and a wander around the Victoria Gallery #kerismithbooks #kerismith #journaling #drawing #sketchbook #haidrianswall #mithras #temple #shrine #offeringstothegods #holyground #pagansofinstagram #queerartist #liverpoolartist #lindisfarne #harrypotter #fucktransphobia #ancientruins #castle #memories #nostslgia #summer #2000s (at Hadrian's Wall) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiscstoMMTS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

Ehi Passiko continues with a gap between lovely holidays to the beaches of England and Wales. I took the opportunity to meet @jennyannearts at #manchesterbuddhistcentre - the day before I was collaging white manmade things onto the brown paper in answer to one of Keri Smith’s explorations but went back to exercise two for our trip to the meditation hall with the large rupa of Amitabha as a Western Buddha. I had been unconvinced by the image when I saw it on photographs but was surprised to find it had reduced me to tears wen I was actually in its presence. J.A and I had had a lovely day discussing the Emptiness of inherent reality (or self) in phenomena, (as you do), and had experienced a pretty profound spiritual event when leaving- (like a good joke you kind of had to be there but we were both pretty amazed by it at the time). The next day was a return to ordinary Samsara and waiting in the phone with my call being appreciated and valued by Talk Talk to make a complaint. Horrible service from a diabolical company. The Dying Slave seemed like a reasonable response and not in the least hyperbolic or camp. Following that was an ill/observed drawing of Kev and exploration 6, which I had translated into the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of the Rosary to make notes about three stages of my life, the wonderful childhood full of kindness I had been lucky enough to have, the very challenging period with school and the Church about my sexuality and the unfathomable and seemingly un-earned good fortune of meeting the Buddhadharma, and having Jasmine, Kev and wonderful friends in my life #kerismithbooks #kerismith #journaling #drawing #sketchbook #amitabha #memories #nostalgia #2000s #shitservice #talktalk #queerartist #liverpoolartist #collage #buddha #manchesterbuddhistcentre #triratna #kadampabuddhism (at Manchester Buddhist Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiqAhMQMTrA/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

Still in Cymru our adventure continued. A series of photos were annotated with the spontaneous narrative saga of our Celtic ancestors. The saga tells us, purely on the basis of random photos placed together, that “The tribe’s chief (Richard) summoned fire to keep his people warm. It saw the full moon and was hungry so it leapt out of its pit and devoured it. It flew round the village and threatened the whole tribe. Until the tribe’s wise-woman trapped it in a magic box, the tribe were saved. The next day she was charged with witchcraft and had stones jammed betwixt her toes. She remained patient until the end. After her martyrdom they lived happily ever after, although the moon was never seen again.” We know this was true because the camera never lies. After this was a drawing of the burner, a beautiful piece of rust, found objects for the continuation of the Keri Smith exercise , some further photos, a drawing in tribute to the wise woman in charcoal from someone’s fire and some of the last found things to remain in place and not be lost. The sketchbook paper has proven to be treacherous and has unstuck much of the stickiness of inlaid objects. #drawing #journaling #kerismith #kerismithbooks #sketchbook #cymru #anglsey #shellisland #beautifulwales #firesermon #fire #nostalgia #memories #2000s #queerartist #liverpoolartist #holidaysnaps (at Shell Island / Lanbedr) https://www.instagram.com/p/CinACxFsYYw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=