A Few Letters...
From Vol 2 Issue 2 - March, 2000

Hello Rog,

What a pleasant surprise to find your email yesterday. I am really happy you found me floating on the web... it is so strange, because I am now working on a new exhibition, using a combination of realist, abstract and visionary.

The theme is the spirituality of woman and goddess that existed, be it mythical or lore. There will be 12 paintings of 30" x 30" and a few marble sculptures. I am attempting to bring some moment of gentleness and meaning to our time. What your gallery stands for is exactly what I am trying to accomplish in this part of the world. I am afraid to say this is not without a lot of difficulty and friction from different sources. The art being produced today is about everything that is wrong in our society. I recently went to the opening of an exhibition; I was appalled by the depravity in the artist's work. If he wanted to show the worst and the blackest part of human soul and nature, then he succeeded beautifully. I find the arts being produced today is ego based, it either promote sexual depravity or depict violence and ugliness. R.L. Johnson’s `Animatic Manifesto’ is exactly what I feel and what I am about. This is why I said, I found it strange that I received your email at this time...I am really in need of support and understanding in what I am attempting to do with my art...and out of the blue you wrote to me. Makes you think, ‘someone is listening’.

I will certainly join your group, it will be an honor and a privilege to be part of your art movement. I saw your work and I would like to thank your father, for giving back a great talent to visual arts. I will fill out your application form on your site and I will be in touch again. If there should be anything I can do to lend a hand, I am available.

Guéganne

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Hello Mr. erLee,

Good site. Thanks for the invitation. The style and content of your project seems very appropriate to your region. I'm not sure about the philosophy though. I have strong atheistic tendencies. While I live in the physical world with no spirits or magic, I do appreciate the work of the shaman – derived from imagination, sensory deprivation, and hallucination. I like your thing. You are expressing ideas, not just aesthetics. Concept is very important - it makes pictures into Art.

Thanks,

B. M.


Dear B. M.,

Thank you so much for your response, and I appreciate you comments. I must say, for some of us it's hard to make such across the board distinctions between strictly 'physical' and 'esoteric' realities; I do see them as inextricably linked. Our words often fail us, but the unfolding evolution of our species, our thought, and our capacities to perceive more and more of the subtleties of our utterly miraculous existence, speaks for itself.

Rog

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Rog…

First of all let me say ...Where have you been all my life? I've been looking for something like this for years! Just visited your site and may I say... Fantastic. I'm blow away. I would be most honored to be a part of what I consider to be the most important revelation of our time. I have just started my own gallery here in Sedona, Arizona and I'm working toward incorporating an awareness of the reconnection to the Creative Source, and understanding that we are all one. Locally I have just begun my mission to give back to the community, and have many projects in the wings awaiting funds and so on. Your pages have been an inspiration. To have a community of like-minded individuals is essential in any endeavor and I know that we can all benefit greatly by having a venue such as the Millennium Art Gallery. I'm looking forward to being a part of a great cause.

Peace, Love, and Light to Your Path

Robert Jackson

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Hi Rog,

I must admit that my concerns are in line with the ones expressed there. The only thing that sets me apart is, I do not exactly share the optimism that seems to be emanating from the site. This could be partly due to the fact that I live in a part of the world (Bombay-India), that, despite having claim to a rich spiritual tradition, is not the best of places to nourish that kind optimism.

Baiju P.

Dear Baiju,

Thank you so much for your response. I appreciate your sentiments. The following might help the 'nourishing of optimism' in your own work, in relation to the creative work of a growing number of conscientious individuals:

We believe our Animatic Art Movement and it's principles can and will help to envision a better world. What we are hoping is that many thousands of artists, from all over the world will join us in bringing a new vision to the global community. There is much we can accomplish as a group that cannot be accomplished by an individual acting on their own.

Our mission is to affect a change in thinking, and to begin with the artists - we whose activities are concerned with responding to and creatively interpreting common realities. When we, as creative people begin to assert positive interpretation, and joyful, hopeful comment on a larger picture of human life, the consciousness from which our work stems, is already transmuting negative patters of pessimism into greater understanding of humanity’s essential unity.

There can seem to be many “causes” which preoccupy us, depending upon geographical region and political incentives, but from a grand perspective, there is only one all-embracing ‘Cause’; the Cause of human enlightenment, the continual evolution of the spirit of all things. Religion has always informed us of this Cause; human frailty has split the essential truth into inummerable fragments. Today, we have the unprecedented challenge to remember and seize our calling, each one of us; to cultivate and co-create, with the spirit that is life itself, a new world that is our destiny.

Peace to you and yours.

Rog

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Dear Antony, 

My browsing the web led me to your site; At first, your outlook seemed inspiring. But your paintings are sadly, filled with disgust for others, prejudice about human conditions you don't know, and steeped in negativity - how ironic, no?

I am impressed with your sense of purpose, and your thoughts on the age in which we live. We have begun a new global art movement, which examines these themes also, but with a distinctly positive light; I believe that the 'Christ' is truly within, and that this powerful and clear reflection has only to be ushered forth by an inspired heart.

The common fixations on the 'ills' of the world are, frankly, what make it so. The force that is God, the Most Compassionate, is the force that IS His creatures - and this Love is so great that it allows us freedom to CHOOSE, for ourselves, where our attention goes, ie: on the 'Light' or on the 'shadows' ("To see only ugliness is a disease that one actually chooses to contract; while it requires the courage of creativity to discover the starlights hidden beneath the mundane!" -Amy Hanford /Cummings). There is ample proof in the world around us of how the 'shadows' envelop the once-sanctified institutions of church and state...

(Our site) explains more of the emerging philosophy and our art movement. It would be a pleasure to have you join in the vision, and perhaps re-invigorate your art with some of the actual light and love you speak of.

Sincere Regards,

Rog

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Greetings Rog:

After skimming through the information you sent me, I have a question for you...what is the incentive for a gallery to sell an artist's work when the artist has to pay the gallery for representation? I may have misinterpreted things, but galleries sell an artist's work and then take a commission...not the other way around...my works are quite good and I don't feel that I need to "pay" a gallery for representation...

Sincerely,

A. H.

Dear A.,

Aside from our firm tenets about creativity and its role in affecting positive change on a global level, we are a business that must address certain requirements, in order to move towards our essentially humanitarian goals. I do believe that our fees for digital processing and uploading of a personal gallery are in no way outlandish. We are artist ourselves, all having had various experiences with galleries and the corporate art world. We are committed to changing some of the common thinking about art. The change will begin with the artists themselves, the message will come through the art and through the common vision of the creative minds involved.

We have every hope that our movement, strengthened by both active and passive members, will garner much attention, and result in ongoing revenue to the fine artists we represent.

I thank you for your important questions.

Rog