TEACHING ART FROM THE DEATH BED (Notes on the Artists Mind)

THIS IS A DRAFT. I'LL BE ADDING TO IT IN THE COMING WEEKS. PLEASE CHECK BACK OFTEN

I'm unpacking a lot of surreal experiences this week. Many know I had open heart surgery last week (August 2025 at the time of this writing). Many don't know that I came pretty damned close to dying on the operating table due to a massive spiking of my blood sugar. Well, I wasn't really looking for a near death experience, instead I was looking for more of a “near art experience”.

I was attempting to stay in what I call "the artist’s mind". My goal was that no matter what happened I would stay in this suspended art consciousness as long as I could. My belief is that a thousand tiny problems take us out of the artist’s mind constantly. Work problems, relationships. Life constantly shove us away from it.

So using my own body as a test I attempted to remain in the artist’s mind constantly. This was no small task because from the starting point to the present time almost 5 days have so far passed.

So what is "the artist’s mind"? Simply put, it's that moment of perfect clarity, when your mind is in perfect sync with the artist within you. You feel that anything is achievable within it. And then it crashes and burns 2 minutes later and your left floundering and lost at sea once more.

It is replaced with a thousand other things. You are late for your day job. The kids are freaking demanding. You need to pick up dog food. And that moment of perfection is lost. 

So what good is it? Here you feel that oneness with universe and next you've stepped into dog crap. Well, that's what these experiments are about.

Can you exist within the artist’s mind no matter what the circumstances of life. By my attempts to exist within the artist’s mind under roughest of situations (open heart surgery), its teaching me to be a better artist and to exist in that zone for long periods of time. Now we need to learn from each other so we can become better artists.