Designing Magic: The Draft of the Letter as the Quest for Mystery Everyone knows that occult really means hidden. But in that, one might surmise that the Cult of the Occult would be nothing more than the quest for the hidden. I probably live there, in more ways than...
Sometimes you go back to go forward There’s a noun that is oftentimes used in contemporary parlance: “creatives,” as a description for those that work in creative and maker space. It’s an interesting idea, using an adjective as a noun, but it works. I was sitting at a...
PRINCIPLES OF ABOVENESS THE STATE OF WOWNESS* IN THE NATURE OF SEEING, THERE ARE DIRECTIONS – THE VECTORING OF PLACE AND SITE, SIGHT SEEN AND UNSEEN. BUT IT DOES COME DOWN TO THE LOOKING – AND THE LISTENING IN THE LOOK. AS ONE STUDIES ANYTHING, THERE IS THE REACH BACK...
Strategic Magic, Designed Mysticism, Metamagical Thematics. It’s been said that illustration, the real meaning of the word is a shining — to illustrate is “making bright.” But also — to purify. The image above, a sigil of the Heptameron Arbatel, Peter de Abano, 1575....
What is wow? Girvin image above: a streetside wow, cast iron, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle. I was writing a proposal and overview for a client. And I used the opening: Wow! That was the first word. I contemplated that, an opening — wow! What is that? I was thinking about...
What do you know, anyway? Enchantment, engagement and embracement in the layering of brand messaging, visualization and experience design. The quest to know? The mystery of mind, message and meaning. What about that question, I was contemplating it — someone asked me:...
BEARING YOUR SOUL DIGGING IN FOR THE SOUL OF BRANDS I was writing a piece, earlier today, on the concept of baring — that idea of revealing, versus the other similarly sounding expression of bearing — which is more like “carrying” something. To bare, to lay open,...
The Scribble Book | The Journal as Magic Markings I have some books, journals that I’ve made, that only contain scribbles. Scratching. Scarring. Scripting. What I think is: that the scratching and scribble of antiquity, the ancient sound of drawing, the scripting of...
Working at Night — Night is Drawing Nigh Working at night, working at candlelight. Seeing by fire. Some nights back, as I was on the farther shore, waiting for the night boat to come crossing, I was drawing in the dark, with light. Dawn was shooting these images, with...
THE STONE THAT TURNS AND TURNS AGAIN. When a map becomes clear, there’s a path that could be drawn. It might not be for all to see. Others might see it, take those fragile steps into the unknown — and some: never again venture into the risk of the unseen, the...
