| CURRENT
WORKS: 1996 Thru 2007 - (page still in progress) |
|
|
Das
Urpflanze Haus : Die Erde Blume
The Plant-House and the Earth Flower
1997
Subject:
The Vegetable-House as the Answer to Low Cost Housing
Symbol Evocation: The Apotheosis of Being in Pauperis
Comments: The modern movement in architecture is based primarily upon the utopian solution to the most basic of building types: mass-housing. As we enter the Bauharoque Period with its bulging populations, unwinable wars, the degrading of the world environment, and gradual increase in poverty level life styles, what could be more plausible than having the world housing shortage ended by simply sowing genetically altered seeds so that houses could be grown almost anywhere on the surface of the earth, with a growing time of approximately two months.
|
Das-Urpflanz Haus - Die Erde Blume
|
Ink,
Gouache, Handset Lettering, Collage on Board
30 x 30 inches |
Das-Urpflanz Haus II - Scale Model
1981 - 1997
Subject:
A House Created by Grafting together
Various Forms of Vegetation
Symbol Evocation:
The Primordial Plant-Form of the poet Goethe
|
The Vegetable House
|
Model: natural materials, plastics, model-making materials, paints, drafting film,
accompanied by a museum case with Plexiglas top
60 x 48 x 96 in. |
Das-Urpflanz Haus II
Comments: The secret to grafting and growing Das Urpflanze Haus to a mature and seeded state is the Ginko Bilboa or Maidenhair Tree. Native to China it tolerates all climates and soils. It was saved from extinction in the 19th century by certain Chinese Monasteries. The tree dates from the Mesozoic Era (144 million years ago) making it the oldest flowering plant alive at the time of the dinosaurs. Shoots of the tree can connect deciduous to conifer trees, fruits to vegetables, grasses to vines. The Ginko Bilboa tree is not subject to the divine proportion (.382…/.618…), the proportion of death. (Paul Laffoley)
|
Scale Model of Living Plant House
|
Model: natural materials, plastics, model-making materials, paints, drafting film,
accompanied by a museum case with Plexiglas top
60 x 48 x 96 in. |
Das-Urpflanz Haus II
Modernism’s most pressing problem was assumed to be the construction of Mass-Housing that is truly affordable by all As we enter The Bauharoque [the third phase of Modernism] , architects are now faced with such problems as:
bulging populations, un--winnable terrorist wars that seem to keep on escalating, a general and continuous degrading of the world’s natural environment, politics as entertainment and a substitute for religion, or the popular media making money by pitting various interest groups and classes against each other. |
Das-Urpflanz Haus II
|
|
Das-Urpflanz Haus II
What could be a more plausible or delightful solution than to live in a world-wide garden - The New Eden – populated with physically alive architecture that could exist almost anywhere on the Earth’s surface or under the ocean or up in the air, that was produced in growing time of approximately two to three months. |
Das-Urpflanz Haus II
|
|
The Physically Alive
Structured Environment - The Bauharoque
2004
I believe that if a strategy for mass housing could found, that would involve non-repressive personal environments [ that would avoid mechanical standardization], a base could be established from which other social problems will be solved. Then finally the quest for meaning in existence could gradually replace the goals of our almost complete secular world. To do this requires the total convergence of Science with Mysticism. (Paul Laffoley)
|
The Physically Alive
Structured Environment
- The Bauharoque
|
India ink,
photo-collage,
vinyl letters
on acid free board
31, 1/8” x 31, 1/8” |
| The Context of the Bauharoque |
The Context of the Bauharoque
|
|
| The COSMO PHONON: Prior To The Big Bang (2003) |
The Cosmo Phonon
|
Ink and vinyl lettering on board
21 x 21 in. |
The SOLITRON
1997
Subject:
A Design for a Perpetual Motion Device
Symbol Evocation: The Natural Abundance of the Universe
The basic definition of perpetual motion is an objective process that does more work than the amount of energy you put into it; the output is greater that the input. Perpetual motion occurs in three classes: (in order of difficulty)
1) The creation of energy
2) The reversal of entropy
3) The elimination of friction |
The SOLITRON
|
Oil, Acrylic, Ink, Lettering on Canvas
73 1/2 x 73 1/2 in. |
| THANATON |
THANATON |
|
The Skull of Plotinus
1997 |
The Skull of Plotinus
|
Screenprint on Rag Paper
Edition of 100
16 x 12 inches |
| Precatio Auctor - Prayer Projector (1999) |
Precatio Auctor - Prayer Projector
|
Oil, acrylic, and ink on board
20 x 27 in. |
The Writings of Jesus Christ
2000
In the Gospel according to Saint John, Chapter 8, Verses 1 to 11, some Scribes and Pharisees bring forward a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery. They presented her to Jesus, saying in a sarcastic manner: “Teacher, this woman is an adulteress. According to The Law of Moses , we must stone such women to death. Now what do you say ?” They were trying to trap him into an occasion of blasphemy.
Instead of responding verbally at first, Jesus bent down on one knee and wrote on the sandy ground with his forefinger. The Pharisees kept on with their questions, but Jesus remained mute. Eventually he rose up and spoke : “He who is without sin cast the first stone”.
THE HOLY SPIRIT [ The Principle of Ordered Freedom – The Magen David (The Shield of David)] that hovered over the waters of The Earth, [ in The Book of Genesis], entered The Hypostatic Unionized Soul of Jesus, and The Divine Power was transferred by Him into The Cross of The Earth, in order to give The Earth the means once again become EDEN , and act as an Edenic Model for The Entire Physical Universe. (Paul Laffoley) |
The Writings of Jesus Christ
|
India ink, sand, letters, color pencils, collaged materials on board
30 x 40 in. |
The Final Descent from HYPRAXIS:
The Completion of the Hypostatic Union |
The Final Descent from HYPRAXIS: The Completion of the Hypostatic Union
|
|
The Five Principles of Geezer Art (2003)
2003
The art or cultural contribution of the elderly derives from the slang term “Geezer” : a queer , odd, or elderly eccentric person. The word comes from “guiser” [ one in disguise],a word from Scottish Gaelic.
In relation to the “Youth Cult” of 1950’s and 1960’s that we have just passed through, “geezer” means the youth you once were is in “disguise” inside an old body. Often the elderly complain to younger companions of a 20 year old soul trapped in an 80 year old body, etc. The desire for self-reliance and serious interaction with the world and history burns as brightly as ever, while the young may deny this of the old.
Today, however, the tide has turned. The population is getting older and remaining healthy. The average person over 65 has an exercise regimen and takes at least 35 nutritive supplements. Households where some members reach the age of 100 is not uncommon. And the wisdom a person gains over a lifetime is being cherished again. The old are no longer being looked upon as a wad of Kleenex to be used for their money and thrown away, or shunned like an alien from another dimension. Click for Larger View.
|
The Five Principles of Geezer Art |
India ink , vinyl letters, and photo-collage on acid free board
31 x 31 in. |
| The Gate Of Brahman |
The Gate Of Brahman
|
|
Anthe HieronymusBox II
1999-2003
Notes:This is a psychotronic device (a mind-matter interactive system), otherwise known as a “radionic”, “radiesthesia”, “Dowsing” instrument. This present invention derives from the work of the American inventor Thomas Galen Hieronymus, who obtained the first United States patent for a psychotronic device on September 27, 1946. Later, January 2, 1952 he received a British patent.
The title of his patent is: “The detection of emanations from materials and measurement of the volumes therof.” The wording of the patent specifications was such that it attempted to disguise its real intent: The patenting of a magical charm .. it works by means of Eye Energy and Touch Energy of the operator through a Two-Dimensional System of components. The various shapes and colors act as attractors and inhibitors of visual energy (energy that is efficacious without motion).
|
Anthe Hieronymous Box
|
Serigraph inks, aluminum, gold & copper wire, mahogany, blood, glass
No. 4 from an Edition of 6
25 x 25 x 3 in. |
The Fetal Dream of Life into Death
This painting describes aspects of the fetal dream [ the most primitive of all dreams] that I sustained during my hospitalization which lasted eleven months. The dream occurred in the night between July 18 and 19, 2001.
The dream was induced by an attempt to overcome morphine addiction which happened as a result of trying to control the pain of five operations on my right leg while I struggled to decide to have said leg amputated. |
The Fetal Dream of Life into Death
|
21 1⁄2 “ H. x 21 1⁄2” V.
Oil paint , acrylic paint, letters, India ink, on linen |
| Allegory of the Cave, the Line and the Sun |
Allegory of the Cave, the Line and the Sun
|
|
The Parturient Blessed Morality of
Physiological Dimnsionality: Aleph-Null Number
2004
From the mid-nineteenth century until now, Dimensionality has gradually replaced the traditional concept of fate, first anthropomorphized by the ancient Greeks as three female sovereigns who determine the course of human life. The fates from the latin “fata” (singular- “fatum”) derives from the ancient Greek word “moirai” (singular- “moira”). Both words mean “prophetic declarations” or “oracular utterances.” When an event is said to be fated it is the same as that particular event being decreed to come to pass. But for humanity the future always remains unknowable except for an occasional divine inspiration which is seldom heeded. This is the condition the human species finds itself in relation to the future, never to know the absolute future, but always believing it can. (Paul Laffoley) |
The Parturient Blessed Morality of
Physiological Dimnsionality: Aleph-Null Number
|
17”V. x 24”H.
India Ink, vinyl letters, and photo-collage on board |
| Nicola Tesla |
Nicola Tesla
|
|
A MAQUETTE FOR A THOUGHT FORM
Homage To:
C.W. Leadbeater, Annie Besant, and Rudolf Steiner
By: Paul Laffoley 1993 |
|
|
text reads:
Thought Form Developed By Lucid Dreams 66 to 71: Image Entry Dream October 6, 1992, Image Exit Dream november 4, 1992, 5:02A.M.
(Paul Laffoley, Registered Boston MA Architect Seal in Center Circle of Base) |
A Maquette for A Thought Form
|
|
Gaudeamus Igitur: ( let us then be merry, let us therefore rejoice)
Homage to: Antonio Gaudi y Cornet (1852-1924)
visionary architect (2001)
In 1908 the great Catalonian architect Antonio Gaudi was retained to design a grand hotel for New York City. The location chosen was the site upon which the Twin-Towered World Trade Center would be eventually built between 1962 and 1974.
At first, Gaudi was extremely enthusiastic to be part of the American Dream to such an extent that he feel destined to design the hotel. He made some preliminary sketches of a structure reaching to a height of 1016 feet composed of clustered catenary formed parabolic towers of varying heights grouped together like engaged columns around a central soaring shaft. But somehow the sketch plans never progressed to the design development stage. (Paul Laffoley). |
Gaudeamus Igitur
|
Ink, Letters, Collage on Board
15 7/8 x 15 7/8 in. |
A Grand Hotel For New York City (2002)
According to the self styled apologist of post modernism , architect Charles A. Jencks, the dynamiting of the Prutt-I Goe building on July 15, 1972 at 3:32 pm central daylight time worked the official ending of the heroic phase of modernism and the ushering in of postmodernism. In like manner the beginning of the third phase of modernism , sometimes called post- post-modernism, transmodernism, neo-modernism, or the Bauharogue can, in my opinion, be marked by the ironic symmetry of this architectural and personal tragedy of September eleven, 2001 at 8:45 to 9:03 am eastern daylight saving time. This phase of modernism will be characterized by the utopian impulse of the Bauhaus School united with the theatricality of the baroque. Historically it will transcend science-fiction. Time travel will occur and all instrumentality will be actual living structures.
Now that ground zero is but a gaping wound on the body of New York City and on the soul of America, many have speculated as to what to do with the violent laceration of our nation. I believe one thing is clear, anything that is placed there to begin the healing process can not proceed from the same living ego impulse that motivated Minoru Yamasaki (1912-1986). That is why I feel Gaudi’s Grand Hotel would be the appropriate solution:
|
A Grand Hotel For New York City
|
Ink, photocollage, and vinyl lettering on board
22 1/4 x 14 in. |
The SPIRITUS: A Spectral Hotel from History
First, the Hotel was planned there in 1903;
Second, Gaudi has been dead for 75 years,
Third, the Hotel would function as a celebration of life for which New York City is famous;
Fourth, it could act as a permanent memorial for all those who lost their lives in the disaster;
And fifth, it would take the combined efforts of the entire artistic and architectural communities of New York City and other areas to bring the building into being.
(Paul Laffoley) |
The SPIRITUS: A Spectral Hotel from History
|
|
The SPIRITUS: (detail)
|
The SPIRITUS: (detail)
|
|
| The Quest for the Vision of the Just World |
The Quest for the Vision of the Just World
|
|
The Time of the Light: The Bauharoque: 2000-2014 AD
1997
Subject: The Nature of Time/Space after
the existence of the Time Machine: 2013 AD
Symbol Evocation: Unbridled Futurism
|
Time of the Light 2013-2063
|
Ink, lettering,
collage on
Acid Free Board
40 x 32 in. |
The Time of the Dark: The Bauharoque: 2050-2099 AD
1997
Subject: The Nature of Space-Time after
the existence of the Space Machine
(Perpetual motion: 2063 AD)
Symbol Evocation: Unbridled Repression |
Time of the Dark 2063-2099
|
Ink, lettering,
collage on
Acid Free Board
40 x 32 in. |
The WORLD SOUL Of PLOTINUS
2001
Subject: The Source of New-Platonism
Symbol Evocation: Transcendent Evolution
The divinity is a graded triad of hypostases: 1) The One, or first existent. 2) The Divide Mind (nous-logos or the forms) or the first thinker and thought. 3) The All Soul or the first and only principle of life in which the body is described as a system of consciousness and matter and is to be considered distinct from the soul.
The simple teachings and practices were formed in 54 essays between 253 and 269. In 268 Porphyry of Tyre arrives from Athens to become the major disciple of Plotinus. After Plotinus dies Plotinus arranges the 54 essays into 6 groups and 9. This is why they are called the enneads. (Paul Laffoley) |
The WORLD SOUL of PLOTINUS
|
Oil, acrylic and lettering on canvas
73 1⁄2 x 73 1⁄2 in. |
On Becoming A Shadow
2002
the name “shadow” has all the juice: Plato used the shadow as the symbol of illusion and art; J.C. Lavatar in the 18th century said it was the shadow of the face, not the face itself that was the soul’s true reflection; the ancient Egyptians held that there are nine parts to the human personality: Ren (the name), Seknem (the form in heaven), Saho (the spiritual body), Khu (the ethereal casing of the physical body), Khat (the physical body), Ka (the doppelganger of the body which empowers the shadow), Ab (the heart), Ba (the soul in the Ka), and Khaibit (the shadow of the physical body enlivened by the Ka); Masaccio in his fresco of 1427-1428 in Florence depicted Saint Peter healing the sick by simply passing his shadow over the body of the supplicants,” vampires have no reflection in the mirror or shadows because they are the “nosferatu,” the undead existing in a nether world between life and death. (Paul Laffoley). |
On Becoming A Shadow
|
Oil, Acrylic and Lettering on Canvas
37 3⁄4 x 37 3⁄4 in. |
FREE WILL VERSUS FATE
Homage To: Richard Matheson, Randolph Caldecott,
FIRE SIGN THEATRE, 'Paul A Hitler' |
Free Will Versus Fate
|
|
SPACEMAN
Homage To: John Cage ( and others). |
SPACE MAN
|
Oil and ink on gesso board, frame by the artist
7 3⁄4 x 5 3⁄4 in. |
Pickman's Mephitic Models
2004
In May of 1980 I received an announcement in the post from “The First Annual H.P.Lovecraft Festival” to be held in the basement of Sayles Hall on the campus of Brown University at 4:00 P.M. on Friday October 31,1980.
Since I have read the horror stories of Lovecraft and found his world-view fascinating [ a false atheism disguising a self-discovered mythology], and I did graduate from Brown , I decided to go to Providence just to visit my Alma Mater once again, but I was also filled with curiosity about Lovecraft. (Paul Laffoley)
|
|
Oil and
acrylic paint,
vinyl letters,
India Ink,
photo-collage,
velvet drapes,
human thigh bones,
on linen canvas.
68” X 52” |
| Pickman's Mephitic Models |
Pickman's Mephitic Models
|
Oil and
acrylic paint,
vinyl letters,
India Ink,
photo-collage,
velvet drapes,
human thigh bones,
on linen canvas.
68” X 52” |
The Death and Life of Monsieur Sebastian Melmoth:
Au Théâtre du Grand Guignol
Subject: Baron Corvo punishing Oscar Wilde
Symbol Evocation: The physics of the connection between life and death.
Notes: If any two men could represent the polar opposites of nineteenth-century “fin de siècle,” my candidates would be Frederick William Rolfe (1860–1913), alias “Baron Corvo,” and Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900), alias “Sebastian Melmoth.” Rolfe was almost unknown during his lifetime, while Wilde was perhaps the most notorious person in the world. But like all opposites, each contained elements of the other.
- Paul Laffoley
(.... continued in upcoming book) |
The Death and Life of
Monsieur Sebastian Melmoth
|
|
Newest Painting Just Completed!
PISTIS SOPHIA:
Basia -
Fallen Angel Losing Her Wings
2002 – 2006
Basia: the fallen angel at the instant of losing
her wings,
while entering a female human body making her now appear
as an earth bound, fiercely independent Barbara:
the primitive woman in the state of Nature,
so strong she can crush any contemporary petit-maître.
Her power as a life-changing genius of the emotions
is also efficacious as a healing agent – this is “the
triumph of the feminine will”,
a natural born femme fatale who is paradoxically
fragile, optimistic and joyful as a daisy:
The thirtieth Aeon called Sophia
Homage to:
• Ayn Rand
• Leni Riefenstahl
• Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
• Pierre Ambroise
• Francois Choderlos de Laclos
• Edvard Munch
• Gustave Moreau
• Alfred Kubin
Click
on the Painting or
Here
to View Larger Version (opens
in new window) |
Basia: Fallen Angel Losing her Wings |
2004 – 2006
Oil and Acrylic paint, Vinyl Lettering, India Ink,
Photo-collage on Canvas, Velvet drapes,
Magic Mirror (two way mirror with electrical components)
104 x 59 3⁄4 x 6 1/2 in. |
|
|
GALLERIES:
EARLY WORKS 66-76
- MID-PHASE 76-96
- CURRENT WORKS 96-2007
|
