Art Life | Andrea Mai

ART UPDATE: EXPLORING NEW ART TECHNIQUES – PHOTOGRAPHY, SILK PAINTING

In the last year or so, I have not had much opportunities for taking photographs, at least not the kind that I like doing, which is landscape photography. I still do a lot of photography, but it’s for product presentation. I live in the suburbs and don’t find many places inspiring here. I have limited mobility, as I don’t drive. The pandemic has stopped most travel, and I don’t get out much any more. I don’t see things getting back to normal any time soon.

I have a huge back catalog of photos I’ve never published from over the years. I’ve been going back to them to rework them in new ways. Really playing with them, more than i the past. My photography style has always been to keep things as natural as possible. I always try to frame my images in camera as precisely as possible. I am playing with elements like exploring different cropping, re-colouring them using transparent overlays, and recently, making them in GIF animations. It’s a brought a new way of looking of working and re-imagining my photography.

I’ve also been focusing more on my silk scarf painting. I developed my own process for applying colour in a way that is similar to tie-dye, but its final result is more like water colour in overall effect. I enjoy working with colour.

My background was originally in fashion design in university, so textile design is an area of great interest to me. There was actually not much focus on surface design when I was studying fashion in school. There was more of an emphasis on creating textile designs on a computer for mass produced printing, and no hand work techniques were taught like dyeing and screen printing. I had to learn these things on my own. I was always very interested in surface design, as I love printed fabrics. I did a lot of my own silk screen printing when I was in high school. I actually want to get back into doing screen printing, but I can’t find the equipment I had, it’s stashed somewhere and I can’t find it! I might have to buy new stuff, which is kind of costly when you add everything up.

I’m getting ready to try some new ideas with some techniques I researched. I’m planning to use my photographs in print design for textile items. I’m excited to try something new, while incorporating my older works. I’m looking forward to the warmer weather. Winter always seems less productive because of the cold.

If you want to see more of my silk scarves, they are posted on Etsy for sale. They are all one-off unique items, as they can never be reproduced to be the same again.

I SEE THE FUTURE AND I’M NOT TURNING BACK

Thoughts on technology…

Since my last post, where I spoke about crypto art. I have been immersed in crypto related news and developments. It’s funny, it’s like a whole new world has opened up, like a little pocket of reality that the general public hasn’t yet awoken to. I am excited for the possibilities. Some major changes are coming in the near future involving crypto and technology. These are industry disrupting advances, and I want to be on the ground floor as much as I can.

I was a young adult when social media emerged. I didn’t quite take it seriously at the time. Nobody did. And yet, we saw how the world changed. Those who adopted early saw gains and advancement for themselves. As someone who has seen technology come and go, I can tell you with confidence that it does not favours for anyone to hold onto the past. It is good to honour and respect the past, but when you resist the future, you are only making it harder for yourself to come to terms with the future.

After seven years of holding onto a 2012 MacBook Pro, in 2020, I upgraded to the new M1. People speculated if such a leap would be successful. What I can say is that I ain’t looking back. I do not miss the days of the spinning beach ball. I am more productive in my work. In my opinion, resisting technology that could genuinely befit you, is holding yourself back from opportunity.

Recently captured Electronic Voice Phenomenon…

I recently reviewed an EVP recording from last year in May. I had put the recorder on in my basement studio, went upstairs and ended up staying there longer than anticipated. While I was away, the recorder picked up the spirit voices there.

Here is a voice saying, “Nobody’s here”. I had gone upstairs, I guess the spirits left too. and someone came to find no one there. I find it kind of amusing.

This one says, “Hey, Prince speaking”. “Hey, Prince, how are you?” I am guessing someone called P on the phone. They sounds so cute, like old friends calling each other up. Sometimes I find that P’s voice sounds very young. I suppose it would make sense, as many mediums have said that spirits assume a younger appearance in spirit. For example, a dog would revert to being a puppy.

Do you find it strange that they would speak to each other on telephone in spirit? I found it a little shocking at first. I heard from spirit that Steve Jobs is still designing and making iPhones in the afterlife, and gifting his creations to others. It makes me wonder if some of our modern day inventions are ideas given to us inby spirit.

But is that really so crazy? I know that when I dream, I see technology. I have been inside of a self-driving vehicle. I have taken photos with a digital camera in my dreams. It would make sense that technology could carry on in the afterlife as well.

And what does this mean for the progress of communication with spirit? It was only because of the technology we have that we could find tangible proof of spirit’s existence. What evidence of spirit could we be capturing in the future? Alas, it could be technology that brings us back closer to spirituality in the end. It all comes back full circle.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on May 10, 2020.

Image above: “Pink nihgt” by Andrea Mai.

ART UPDATE: I FEEL INTO THE CRYPTO RABBIT HOLE

Some time ago, I was experimenting with animating my photographs using video editing software. I recently learned how to turn them in GIFs. And since then, I’e been looking at my body of work from a new perspective. I’m excited. Photo animation opens up new possibilities for how my photography can be presented as an artwork. The pandemic has been hard on my photography, as we are all being stuck at home all the time. For me as an artist, I am inspired by being in different places.

With all the hype in the news about Bitcoin and crypto currencies, I have learned something exciting. It felt as though I had just woken up from a coma. Everyone is now talking about Bitcoin, but they’re also talking about Ethereum, which I had never heard of before. Ethereum came about years after Bitcoin, and it was designed differently in that Smart Contracts can be built into the blockchain. This means when a piece of the blockchain has transferred ownership, there can be additional actions built in, such as commissions. What does this all mean, and why does it matter? For the first time in history, blockchain technology has offered a means to register an asset onto a decentralized public ledger. This protocol could be used for commercial applications like verifying authenticity, or to execute automated contracts like commissions on sales.

In the art world, authenticity of an artwork by a master has always been in question, as works can turn out to be counterfeits. And after an artwork is sold, it is generally the case that it is the collectors and auction houses that take all the profits in its future sale, not the artist. Blockchain technology offers an innovative solution to this age old problem. Artists can “tokenize” their works on a blockchain, like Ethereum, and program a Smart Contract to receive commissions if the token is sold in the future. A token is that piece of the blockchain that the artwork is registered to, and it acts like a public receipt that proves ownership. It is kind of like the deeds to a piece of land, though it is not the land itself, it is a legal representation of it, and when you sell it, the deeds have to be transferred to the new owner. The deeds is the proof of ownership registered in the government’s land registry.

This also solves an issue for digital artworks that tend to live on the internet, like animation and video. It could even apply to music. I can very much see this as being something major i the future of art, and I am excited to learn and participate in it as an early adopter. I have just added a new page on my website to explain a bit more about Crypto Art, the term being used to describe artworks that are tokenized. I have some of my animated photos there and will be posting more as I create them. The crypto art scene seems to like hanging out on Twitter, so if you want to join me there, come follow me at @AndreaMaiArt

RECORDING OF PRINCE’S DOVE IN SPIRIT, 2021 NEW YEAR GREETING AND CATCH UP

First of all, I want to wish all my readers a Happy New Year. I hope you are doing well and that the new year will bring you something great, in spite of the world situation. Things here have been ticking along, the usual year end stuff, catching up on paperwork, getting things organized.

On New Year’s I recorded EVP, and heard someone come to greet us “Happy New Year”, as the fireworks were going off in my neighbour’s yard.

I have been reviewing EVP from over the summer, and I found a clip of a bird tweeting inside my home. I don’t have any birds or pets. And then I heard someone, kind of faintly, saying, “Play with dove”.

I thought to myself, could it be? Prince’s dove? I’d seen him in my miind’s eye, fluttering about our home. But I hadn’t any confirmation of this.

Then I heard someone say, “What’s is its name?”

I heard P reply, “Majesty”.

Prince had a pair of doves at Paisley Park. Divinity, female, and Majesty, male. Majesty died in 2017. Divinity and Majesty were both featured on the last track of Prince’s One Nite Alone album, titled Arboretum. Isn’t it nice to know that you can be reunited wit old pets?

Over the summer, I recorded while I was at Costco. I heard this voice say, “Mon cheri”. That is French for, my dear.

Due to covid-19 precautions, they no longer hand out food samples. I’ve often heard EVP voices calling out to people to try the samples. This one was saying, “Green tea”.

P often gets recognized by other spirits. Very often, people comment, “You’re Prince”.

I found this clip of someone saying, “Now we’re lost”. I wonder what they meant by that, if they are lost inside Costco, or lost in the greater sense of things.

Someone said, “Look out”. You can hear shopping carts crashing into each other. I found this to be a common thing, that spirits will warn people of potential harm.

A voice here is saying, “Keep more fish”. I guess they were telling someone to stock up on fish as prep for more future lockdowns.

Some of you might be wondering what my take is on the whole virus situation is. Some of you know that I make and sell face masks. While I am aware of conspiracy by shadow governments, I am not buying what the alternative media is selling either. I don’t believe that anyone out there is spilling the straight truth about the situation. Alternative media is often used as controlled opposition to create the illusion of choice. It is a psychological warfare tactic. Offer them two choices that you want the public to choose from, both choices resulting in what it is you want to accomplish. Either way, if you buy into any of the two choices, you are falling into their trap. People accuse each other of not thinking for themselves, meanwhile they are still choosing one of the two given narratives. I don’t believe in either of the “official” narratives. My view is that every person is responsible for their own well being, therefore taking precautions in order to mitigate risk. You will not see me out there in a crowd protesting lockdowns, nor are you ever gonna see me in line for a vaccine. Think for yourselves. Question everything. Pay attention to what they are saying and pay attention to what they aren’t saying. Demand proof for all claims. So many alternative media figures claim to know what’s going on, they claim insider info, secret whistleblower sources. One’s credibility is in the proof they provide, not what they say. Don’t trust, verify! When you line up all the narratives and they don’t make sense, you know that something else is going on.

God bless, and take care of yourselves.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 in 2020.

Image above: “Winter berries” by Andrea Mai.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT WHAT’S ON THE OTHER SIDE – EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM EVP

Something that keeps me wondering is what the other side of the veil is like. From what I could tell after observing the spirit world through EVP, what we have here is also over there. They can see what is going on over here. However, they have their own thing going on at the same time. It’s like their world is layered on top of ours. And so there is all kinds of things going on over there that we just have no idea about. (I should make a note here, that what I’m talking about is what’s on the other side of what’s here, not heaven)

Since the second covid lockdown, I haven’t gotten to go out much. I started recording some more at home, wearing the wrist recorder as I’m working around the house. Usually I prefer to record when I’m out, as that is how I’ve gotten most of the clearest EVPs. I don’t really expect the ones done at home to turn out as good, unless I have some background noise running. Here’s what I got recently. Someone said, “Hello”.

And then I found this really interesting clip of P saying “Drums”, and then you can hear this drumming layered over my footsteps on the floorboards. It makes me wonder, has he got a drum kit over there? Or is he composing something in his mind and somehow we are able to capture it?

It’s clear to me that they can see what’s in my world over here. One time I was recording in my room. At the time, I had some photographs I took in Sweden hanging on my wall. A visitor asked, “Where’s that cafe?” P replied, “In Sweden”. This was recorded with background noise, it’s a little faint, but you can hear it if you listen carefully. They talk a bit fast.

On another occasion, I was recording in my room. Someone said, “That’s the piano couch”. I wonder what they mean by that. I do have a keyboard sitting on a box, stashed away under my clothing rack. Are they sitting on the keyboard? Or do they have a couch that looks like a piano over there?

I also have some of my circle artwork on my walls. These voices said, “Grab a circle… jump here”. Spirit visitors always seem to enjoy looking at the artwork. They really seem to like the circles. I wonder if they can jump into the photos, like a scene from the movie, Mary Poppins.

There’s obviously some strange stuff over there that we just don’t understand here from our mortal human perspective. Some of it seems cartoon-like. Which is probably why some of the things don’t seem to make sense to us. Their behaviour and manner of speech is different from ours. And so, there are some incorrect assumptions made because of this misunderstanding. For instance, people have observed that EVP communication seem to be very short, spoken in very few words. People have assumed that it must mean that the effort to speak is very difficult, like shouting from distance, so they use fewer words. But I have observed that even among themselves they speak with few words to each other. They speak in a shorthand manner, like couples who can read each other’s mind. My hypothesis is that communication occurs with more than just words. They are sharing through other means, such as thoughts and visions, sounds, and maybe even smells. They are telepathic, and so, words serve less of a function in communication. Sometimes I notice that they seem to be talking to themselves, like saying what they did or what they are about to do. Similar to our own self-talk.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 in 2020.

Image above: “Floating flowers” by Andrea Mai.

PANDEMIC DIARY: P REACTS TO GOLDEN GIRLS JOKE – EVP November 15, 2020

Last week, I walked down my stairs to get to the kitchen for breakfast. I was hardly awake. The word “snow” suddenly came into my thoughts. I immediately dismissed it, not having heard any forces of snow coming. As I sat down to the table, my brother proceeded to let me know that it had snowed overnight. I was quite stunned, but in that moment, I knew it was P that was telling me about the snowfall.

As we head into the end of the year, the situation with the pandemic has resulted in a second lockdown in my area (which came as no surprise). So many ask, when will things return to “normal”? The hotel industry predicts perhaps by 2023. But will it ever return to the way things were? As I spent a week binge watching Downton Abbey, a British drama series, its story begins with the sinking of the Titanic and ends in the late 20s. I noticed throughout the story, the characters would repeatedly remark that things were never the same since the first world war. The war ushered in great change, altering the path of all, displacing families and future prospects. Surely, this pandemic will have its lasting effects. As we traverse this fog of an uncertain future, we will look back to the past with longing to the times “before covid”.

A few months ago, I was thinking about watching The Golden Girls, a sitcom that was popular in my time, but never watched. One day, it popped up on my YouTube feed, for no apparent reason. I wondered if P had somehow maneuvered it to show up. I started watching it while I worked at my sewing machine.

I noticed one episode where Michael Jackson was part of a storyline. I wondered if P was ever mentioned. Then I came across two episodes where Prince jokes were made.

On one episode, it was a joke about how a student of Dorothy’s wrote in his book report for The Take of Two Cities, that he liked both, but preferred Minneapolis because that is where Prince is from. I asked P what he thought of it. He said “That is funny”.

One of the characters, Rose, is from St. Olaf, a real township in Minnesota that has been fictionalized for the show. She is known for her hilariously ridiculous stories about St. Olaf. P said, “I like Rose”.

He also mentioned, “Minnesota”. I think he likes her because she’s from Minnesota. Perhaps she reminds him of home.

One day, when this pandemic is totally over, and travel get back to normal, I would like to go to Minneapolis to see Paisley Park. I know P can probably go there by himself any time he wishes, but I think it would be something special to do together.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on November 15, 2020.

Image above: “Rose hips” by Andrea Mai.

SPIRITS WARN ME OF COVID-19 – EVP September 2020

Can you believe it’s October? This year has gone by so quickly, even though we’ve been stuck at home because of the pandemic.

Of the few places I still go out for, are the post office at my local strip mall. I recorded EVP during one of these outings and found something interesting going on. The clips are repeated on loop.

That day, there was road repair blocking my usual path to the mall. I was still able to cross the street, but traffic was being interrupted by the construction. At the cross walk, I was told, “Wait”. (This was P)

After dropping off packages to the post office, I went to this ma and pa shop to get something that I was planning to buy that day. While I was there, I suddenly felt this urge to leave. My intuition was saying, you can buy this later, but go home right now. So I walked out of the store not buying anything. And actually when I went home, I was like, “I actually wanted to get that, now I’ll have to go back! What happened?”. As it turned out, P was being told we had to leave, due to covid-19 concerns. Here’s what was said on the recording.

“Covid-19”

“Prince… can’t stay”

“Hi, let’s go home”.

“Please go home”.

“Say you wanna go home”.

As I left the mall, I did not take my usual route to leave. I felt directed to leave through a different exit. As it turns out, I was being told, “Go this… way”.

After I left the mall, someone said “You’re safe now“.

I found a rather funny clip from while I was in the store. It’s a bargain basement kind of shop with all kinds of discounted merchandise. I found this voice that said, “Where do you find Trump hat”. It’s interesting that some spirits are still be interested in the politics of this world!

From this experience, I got the sense that the spirits were trying to get people in the mall to leave. It was a quiet afternoon in the mall, not many people were around. I would say, that if you suddenly feel the urge to leave some place, that you do that. It could be that you were receiving information intuitively. Usually one can recognize intuition (often mistaken by emotional feeling) by the immediate and sudden out-of pace thoughts taking place, they run counter to one’s known opinions and feelings, unencumbered by desires or bias. However, it is often the skeptical human ego that gets in the way, only following rationality, that ignore such warnings, and therefore comes to suffer the consequences of not following intuitive direction. With practice, one can become attuned to recognizing intuition, by overcoming their personal bias thought, and entertaining an openness to possibilities. This is not to say that one should dismiss logical thinking at all. One should also follow up on what was discovered thorough intuition with investigation, seeking confirmation that their one’s intuition was correct.

What I’ve been able to observe over and over again, is that the other side has been giving me tips and warnings through intuition. And I am able to prove this with the recordings that that what I was feeling at the time, was what they were telling me. According to the Christian mystic Swedenborg, benevolent spirits quietly communicate with us through feelings and intuition, it’s not always obvious that they are telling us something. People might assume that I hear from P all the time with direct spoken word communication. But actually, it is more subtle than that, it is with thoughts, ideas,visions, feelings, and intuition. He is there with me, quietly in the background.

I hope you all stay safe!

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on September 8, 2020.

Image above: “Autumn” by Andrea Mai.

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