Summary: In this 52nd episode, KMO speaks with film-maker Michelle Espinosa about her adventures in Peru and Ecuador. Later we hear from visionary artist A. Andrew Gonzalez about his use of entheogens as tools in the creative process. After our interview, A. Andrew Gonzalez wrote to me with the following: Forgot to mention....Something you could add For your listeners heading out to Burning Man. I will have a few large reproductions of my work at the Gaia Maitreya Temple at the Entheon Village http://www.entheonvillage.com/content/view/27/40/ Guests : Michelle Espinosa is a writer/filmmaker from Los Angeles. She graduated from the American Film Institute, received the Silver Platter at the Chicago Film Festival for her film, Pinfeathers, wrote and directed a series of small films as well as a play for the New City Theater in Seattle. After graduating and optioning a few screenplays, Michelle began writing fiction. She took time out from her career to steal a younger man through the window of his family's house, flee to Las Vegas to marry at a drive through and begin an outlaw life that landed them in a motel in a border town in Mexico with the car thieves, hired killers, coke dealers among other residents. They lived there for almost a year until finally able to move to Guadalajara. That was only the beginning of her many adventures all of which are captured in her stories. She has written a novel and is currently writing a non-fiction book about her experiences in Peru and Ecuador. A. Andrew Gonzalez, of San Antonio, Texas, is an award-winning figurative artist whose work has been exhibited in several countries. Born on October 13, 1963, and raised in a creative family, Andrew's art education is largely self-taught. His artist father, Anthony A. Gonzalez, encouraged his early interest in drawing and painting but gave him no formal training. In the year 2000, Andrew Gonzalez had the distinct privilege to work closely with the well-known Fantastic Realist artist Ernst Fuchs in Monaco and Austria. Photos of the experience can be seen at L. Caruana's website. The paintings of Gonzalez are created with airbrushed acrylics on panel or canvas. Forms, values and highlighting are created by lifting pigment with an abrasive eraser, followed by the application of transparent layers of pigment. Influenced by idealism in the mystical, visionary and esoteric traditions, the artist describes his work as a contemporary Tantric or Transfigurative Art that explores the dramatic union of the sensual and spiritual. His work is akin to a revival of classical neoplatonic ideals centering on the figure as temple and vessel sublimed by transformative forces. http://www.sublimatrix.com/html/gallery.html One contributor to this week's podcast mentioned that he had just started reading Accelerondo by Charles Stross. You can download the entire novel for free here: http://www.accelerando.org/book/ I'm "stealing bandwidth" with this image. It's hosted here along with lots of other great images: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/contemporary/A-Andrew-Gonzalez.html
