Alex Grey's portrait of Obama

I'll have what he's having.

You would think that enough enlightenment would enable you to figure out that all men who hold positioms of social power are only the puppets of those who do their deeds in the shadows, as only good deeds are done in daylight while Obama, Bush and every other elected official hides behind closed doors and reveals to the public what they wish.

The original features American-flag like stars and stripes in the background. Also different red energy 'veins'. I don't think Alex Grey is mindlessly approaching Obama's image at all. Maybe it has more to do with the energy and charisma that Obama seems to possess. You really can't deny that he is well-spoken and there just seems to be something warm in his image.

You may believe this to be a true feeling or a political ploy, but it's no less that he is our leader now and very much integrated into the world as the U.S. President, so this painting is relevant.

That being said, it's not a personal favorite, but it's not the end of Alex Grey either...so very dramatic...

I am going to shit illuminati inscribed psychedelic super strings through my ears@!&()(*@#%!!!!!!!!!!1

Do more research instead of propogating reactionary youtube memes your Ron Paul friend got you into..

The tone of much of this wayy overly PREDICTABLE. Its tiring folks.

Oh yeah, by the way it should be thought as Individualism THROUGH Collectivism.

There are no such things as isolated individuals if you carry out your questioning and reasoning and senses of who you are thoroughly. A figure always needs a background to be seen.

Other wise, with one battling to extinguish the other all you get is Ayn Rand greedy Bush corpo-capitalism, which is what has been working so great now leading us through its current death, collapse, backrupt and crisis phase! With the other extreme option of straight robot communism.. This is what the so called paradigm shift is about, complementary Unity over dominating dualisms. Opposites work together, thats why we have sex! This what this says to me, opposites working together and boundries dissolving. Art and Politics...

I think this may simply be Alex's way of reminding Obama, and the people, whoever you are as long as you have bones, viens, and a brain, that we have to live up a true mature worldcentric leadership and vision the best we can (even if you think both of these people are just vague shadows and kitsch images of the true ideals they promote) are those ideals REALLY attainable in the immature ways we infer that they are by the harsh criticism of positive support out of a base notion of fear? Get over it.

As another said: "They're just people."

I went to Mr. Grey's website to read his interpretation of this piece (after all the meaning of art is in the eye of the beholder...maybe he intended to send out a different message?) No such luck. My disappointment stands. He's case-in-point that mind control is a powerful drug. For someone I had regarded as a visionary artist, he can't see past the packaged & branded product that is Barack Obama. One particular statement made me throw up my hands altogether:

"...his heartful clarity coming through in his talks are all qualities of a highly evolved person..."

OMG!!! They are qualities of a person who travels with a teleprompter to every speaking engagement large or small!! Listen to him speak without a prepared speech in front of his face and he stumbles worse than Bush! Is Alex Grey really that gullible?

Many people who I thought SHOULD know better have disappointed me. Alex Grey is one of them. I expect stuff like this from Shill.i.Am & Company.

Oh well...

"Rastafarians turned Haile Salassie into a living god and now they have a religious excuse to smoke ganja"

This comment is so off base and simple minded. True, Rastafarian's believe of the herb as a sacrament but no different from Catholicism believing communal wine as a sacrament. I think you would find a tough time finding supporters that say that is a religious excuse to drink wine.

A comment such as that is demeaning to an entire community of the world's population, is bigotry at it's most basic level, and is stupidity at it's greatest

Perhaps you should join the world in elevating your consciousness and evolving like our species was meant to do...

1L

knowing what's to come from obama, this painting is a real let-down. i'm pretty ashamed...

maybe if alex grey had painted someone like ron paul in this context...

I agree, and in a way that makes the painting interesting. Ignoring stylistic, artistic, or other critiques (which others seem happy to carry out), the painting could be seen as the answer to a question: "What would a 'visionary' artist produce is asked to do a political poster?" It's interesting in the same way that an answer to "How would Rembrandt paint Micky Mouse?" This isn't to liken Grey to Rembrandt or Obama to Mickey, but I think you all get the point. Hell, Andy W. made a carrier out of answering the question "what would a graphic illustrator produce is asked to make 'fine' art?"

I think people need to relax on this a bit. Sure, Mr. Grey is a fine artist, but you can't expect everything he does to be of the same quality, and I would refrain from reading too much into the painting or his motivations.

No one -- neither Grey nor Obama -- is as sacrosanct as some seem to see. I think some of the passion in these comments come from the fact that some people have elevated either or both a little too much... They're just people.

Lastly, it seems to me that this portrait will have more impact in a historical sense then for the current generation. Hundreds of years from now someone will see this painting and think, "Wow, Obama must have been the Jesus and the Buddha of his time."

“What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek -- it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers -- in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.” - Barack Obama

Watch his victory speech in its entirety, without your preconceived notions and not be moved, not fell something in your consciousness stir….

[link]

but the expression on obama's face is bringing things down to earth more than typical alex grey, i think. i guess he's not gonna suddenly switch to cubism on us or something, just for obama's sake. i do sort of see a psychonaut dipping his toes in the aspirations of the sheeple (instead of kicking them), at least.

anyhow, something like that. i think the picture is communicating something pretty well, and it's worth more than any amount of words i might try to connect with hyphens.

it's hard to look at a political image and not be cynical, but it's worth a shot sometimes, i think. maybe obama cares about the world as much as people posting on dose nation, right? i can understand alex grey wanting to suggest there's a spiritual element there, anyhow.

but yeah, for all the work alex grey put into it, i still wouldn't want to look at this image TOO much.

I don't have time to rant about this corporatist politician this morning, nor his Mr. Drug War VP. I just wonder if I will be able to avoid saying "i told you so" a hundred times over again in the coming years.

America still has some serious waking up to do. The degree to which we have been had, hoaxed, swindled, bamboozled and brain-washed by the propaganda machine's two-party system and the hyper-rich banking cartel that runs it and the petrol-pharmaceutical-military industrial complex, is going to blow the lid off the minds of all the sheeple who think the change is going to come from B.H.O. and not US.

We're also now hearing of plans for World Government and other collectivist moves.. not good at all.

INDIVIDUALISM OVER COLLECTIVISM.

How Alex Grey managed to overlook these things I dont know.. another victim of the Hope-Mongering