The Art of Transmutation ~ Join Us This Sunday, 12-1:30p ET
An inspiring space to activate your inner alchemical artist as an antidote to nihilism, anxiety, and despair...We got this!
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Upstate New York where
and I are laying low and integrating the events of the past month. 2025 really came in with a bang, especially for our friends and loved ones in Los Angeles. As some of you will know, Ari had to evacuate his house and neighborhood when the fires destroyed the Palisades.For Ari and me, making art is essential—not a hobby, not optional. It’s like exercise or breathing. Within days of his arrival, we went to the art supply store. He painted and I wrote poems and made mandalas. This is what we do to process and move through what’s happening; to know ourselves as creators of our reality. Making art is how we make meaning.
The Art of Transmutation. What is it? How does it work? Can I do it?
The Art of Transmutation is the process and practice of working with our body, heart, mind, voice, and hands to create art that elevates and liberates humanity from the shackles of such illusions as nihilism, isolationism, and materialism. It elevates the imagination and uplifts people. It expresses the full range of human experience and emotion, and is always grounded in Truth. The Art of Transmutation is art that centers the Sacred. It is art that is made from the heart. And it is art that is made in service to something greater than the self, the ego, commercialism or fear. It can be big or small, complex or simple, made alone or with collaborators. It has a purpose and that purpose is to inspire and ignite more life and more love in the world.
Transmutation is the process of changing something something from one state to another. In alchemy it is the process of changing base metals/materials into GOLD. There is a lot of junk and dross and debris in our culture of excess that needs transmutation. We can use ART to do that. And the beauty is by doing that…by practicing the art of transmutation…we are transmuted in the process. The art ends up making US.
It seems like more and more artists are getting this same message. Just last week, I was a guest co-host for the launch of the Art of the Second Renaissance. This is a movement, a magazine, and a collective dedicated to art that puts life at the center. Sylvie Barbier and Rufus Pollock of Life Itself, have been generating momentum for this cultural rebirth through art. They’ve codified many principles of alchemical art in their wonderful manifesto, which you can read here. I love, love, love what they are doing and the spirit they’re doing it with/from/in! Ari and I were both featured in the first issue of the magazine, which focused on the topic of Impermanence. I plan to continue a close relationship to this movement as part of the art collective.
There are many other artists, some friends and inspirations, that we hope to collaborate with and invite to join us in The Art of Transmutation if it does become an ongoing series.
What we will do this Sunday, February 2 from 12-1:30p ET…
On Sunday, Ari and I will hold a VIRTUAL open studio/launch of The Art of Transmutation. This time will be about connecting with Spirit, connecting with each other, and weaving ourselves into a community of like-minded, like-hearted creators.
This space is open to all who are interested. We are all artists—we’re all creating our lives after all. If you feel called, come!
This first event is a pilot and therefore, free. If you feel compelled to give, please consider upgrading your subscription to this Substack.
This is a pilot. If it feels rich, we’ll continue to hold this space as regularly as possible on Sundays. Maybe every Sunday or maybe twice a month. We will always feature a principle or practice of alchemical art. We will facilitate collective inquiry. We will have guests and featured performers. And we will always offer time and suggestions for a practice or creative exercises. You will leave feeling activated and inspired.
Here’s what you can expect from The Art of Transmutation…
The Sacred is at the center. This is a response to the desacralization of modernity; a taking back/reclaiming of our imagination from the mass media, capitalism, nihilism, isolationism…all isms.
We create as an offering and act of SERVICE to humanity and all living beings. Our hearts are in it.
We strive for embodiment, staying grounded and present to what is arising in our lives!
We believe in just doing it—stop worrying, start walking—we learn as we go, we improve over time, the art is a feedback mechanism.
We practice trust and surrender—harnessing the creative, generative alchemy in the union of masculine and feminine within each of us and together.
We listen to the unseen world, Nature, intuition, Source, cosmic wisdom, and guidance from other realms—our ancestors and the future.
We cultivate and keep good aesthetics because beauty is a virtue.
How it will flow…
Enter sacred space: Prayer/invocation/dedication
Introduction of topic or principle (Guest/topic/presenter/performer)
Collective sourcing of intelligence/inspiration - ‘we space’ around the topic
Practice/artistic exercise (i.e. mandala making, sketch, poetry, painting, movement, journaling…)
Reconvene, share, close
Here is a transmission/manifesto that came to me and was brought to life by Ari using AI:
How we got here
Ari began to embrace his own identity as an artist, director, and maker since we met and fell in love in 2021. Despite never having formal training, he started painting every day…and I mean, every day. So much creativity came pouring forth, so much was liberated through that practice.
This past summer, Ari started using AI to transmute men in power. The little movies, including Trump’s ayahuasca transformation, went viral. They seemed to tap into a latent desire for healing and peace for all—even the most divisive “leaders.” He used AI, and his gifts as a storyteller and editor, to create a parallel world in which the seemingly impossible became possible; planting seeds of hope in the collective imagination.
I’ve had a similarly winding journey to fully embracing my artistry. I have always written, but for years I did it privately. I have hundreds of journals full of poems, insights, musings, and sketches. When I met Ari, he encouraged me to complete the novel, Tenacious Magic, I’ve been working on (on and off) since 2010. The breakthrough that helped me finally finish it was his suggestion to launch this Substack and post the story serially. I did that in 2022 and 2023…as many of you know because you’ve been a part of this era of my writing and poetry. I am now actively looking for a publisher!
Another important alchemical art practice for me has been the making of earth mandalas. That began in 2017 and has been a regular, sometimes daily, practice ever since. I’ve learned so much about prayer, Mother Earth’s bounty, the elementals, the true use of art, and the power of beauty, symmetry, balance and harmony. I’ve also learned, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that LIFE IS the ART.
Right now, much of the “art” we see in the conventional/establishment art world and in Hollywood/Netflix is languishing, uninteresting, and stuck in an old creative paradigm. You could call it modernism or post-modernism. It serves to deconstruct reality, but doesn’t offer much in the way of construction (when it does, it is largely dystopian). It complains, but doesn’t offer solutions. It wallows in horror and gore, violence and depravity, but doesn’t elevate beauty, joy and the spirit. It is ironic or cynical, but doesn’t dare to risk sincerity. Of course, there are exceptions. There are moments of transcendence. Ari and I track them in music (the recent album by SAULT is divine), in film, in art and culture. But the vast majority of what makes it to the mainstream is not at all helpful—to say the least. At best it’s an escape or distraction from Reality…but then, we go right back to doom scrolling.
What Ari and I share is a belief—born of personal experience—in the power of art to liberate…not just ourselves personally, but humanity collectively. Sacred art is the expression of a free heart in service to evolution, expansion, and liberation. JOIN US!
The Art of Transmutation
Sunday, February 2
12-1:30pm Eastern
