We caught up with Mear One to discuss his upcoming featured exhibition Cognitive Dissonance opening at Beyond Eden this weekend. Presented by C.A.V.E Gallery and Thinkspace Gallery the exhibition will showcase the trendsetting Los Angeles born and bred artist’s new powerful works at the two day multi-gallery event featuring the best galleries in Los Angeles. Read on for a statement from Mear and more from our recent interview, and last but not least, be sure to pick up his latest over-sized release of Dawning Of A New Age on 1xRUN this Friday at 12pm EST.
“So far as we’ve been taught, the further along humanity gets, the higher evolved we have become. But for all of Man’s great artistic, scientific, intellectual accomplishments and technological advancements, we continue to go places and fuck shit up, burning, drilling, pulverizing, and blowing things to pieces, acting and thinking less like Man and more like semi-conscious apes in a suit. According to the ancient Vedic literature, humanity’s story spans far into cycles of a very distant past. These cycles of life repeat, each time lowering in frequency from the previous state until the base of the lowest realm is apexed, then we begin the ascent back upward until a Golden Age is achieved once again…
…These processions have been recorded as being 24,000-26,000 year-long cycles. Even longer, more complex cycles have been described by the Maya. Many agree that we are currently in the lower realms of human consciousness, the Kali Yuga, and have been experiencing a de-evolution or Devolution. These time scales bring into question whether or not we ever evolved from apes in the first place. Hidden archaeological evidence presents this and other fascinating alternatives to humanity’s origin, for example, that we once existed alongside a variety of humanoid species, from the hobbits of South East Asia, the elves of ancient Europe, to giant sized humanoids, Cro-magnon, Neanderthal, and Australopithecus. Scholars continue to uphold tradition and legacy by protecting previously accepted theories while ignoring vast amounts of critical evidence that daily continues to be unearthed and excavated. There is always higher knowledge out there to attain, maybe someday it will lend itself to a more immediate kind of evolution in consciousness…
…Infinity is in the darkness. The darkness is where it all comes from. Deep within solid mass is the idea dividing itself into the multiverse. Consciousness choosing to be awake, open-eyed and fearless. The Shaman, psychic, teacher, elder again lights the way once pioneered in darkness, transcribing celestial scriptures handed down from ancestors long ago. The Seer who doesn’t just look, but sees into the subject matter and its true meaning. Wisdom of the cosmic wind connects all space, leaving behind an even deeper, more impalpable understanding about the universe that every point in space holds within it a part of everything. We seek a lesson toward our evolution for a story alone can only inspire…
…Daily phenomenon takes on many ordinary forms where often the extraordinary is only visible to the trained mind’s eye. We require a new field of vision to perceive the imperceptible, be it through psychedelic enhancement, meditation, or some other learned endeavor, the mind will respond to such rigorous training, so long as it is a conscious one, revealing new paradigm shifts and higher multi-dimensional awakenings.” – Mear One
1xRUN: Tell us a little bit about your most recent body of work Cognitive Dissonance, anything immediate you’d like to highlight of these latest works?
Mear One: My current body of work “Cognitive Dissonance” is meant to challenge the status quo, the standard norms, the traditional American headstate. I’ve chosen specific issues to explore, connecting the dots between them, to show the importance of how such broad, vast amounts of information relate and impact our lives. This is information I’ve been fascinated in since I was a little boy. These questions and frustrations have shaped my life, from growing up in Hollywood and witnessing society devolve before my eyes, from the streets where I learned my art of vandalism rooted in political angst, a form of revolt against the system that had created the conditions I was experiencing. In the late 70s I became fascinated with the TV program “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy, which even at the age of 5, actually helped me to connect with my mom on a more real level. She had knowledge of all these amazing tales from books on Buddhism, Astrology, Mythology, lots of ancient history, that later in life I’ve grown to cherish and reread with intense fascination. It’s astounding to witness nowadays the sharing of this knowledge via the interwebs on such a massive global scale. In the early 90s I was painting these apocalyptic political spiritual quests and it was hard to converse with people without being made to feel that I was a little bit of a conspiracy nut. But now since events like 9-11 and other disclosures, the rapid global environmental and economic changes taking place, the political manipulation and raping of our planet is so blatant and obvious that it gives me great joy to have stuck with my message all these years because I always knew that it was important and meaningful to pursue art to transcend the mediocre pop art scene I was coming up in.
1x: How many new pieces were created for this body of work?
Mear: I originally created eleven large and medium sized oils and acrylics. I decided last minute however to add one more to the series because the story just wouldn’t be complete without it. You might remember the image from our first print release together, False Profits.
1x: What strides and differences do you feel you’ve made with your latest works?
Mear: I’ve just been learning to perfect my skill further and apply new techniques and methods for achieving the look I want without having to overwork it necessarily, or how to pull off further detail that I may normally overlook. I’ve also been able to dig deeper and nail down specifically what it is I want to say about reality through my narrative approach in painting. For the past decade I’d been producing a lot more live art and enjoying the experience of a piece finding its conclusion within a short period of time, live and on stage. The great thing is that all those years working with live art, since 1998 I must have created well over 500 pieces that are in circulation through my fan base all across this country now, it has allowed me the practice to return to my more complicated studio work and knock it out within a more realistic time frame and with far greater speed.
1x: What (if anything) separates this work from your previous works?
Mear: There’s not necessarily a separation but an evolution. I’ve never changed my interests I’ve only added more information and more processes to how I create it.
1x: What are some of the inspirations new or old that helped shape these paintings?
Mear: I guess the most important thing for me with regards to inspirations new and old is how I’m able to use the information that informs my paintings. My personal understanding of how current forms of oppression are linked to our ancient world and who we once were, finding these connections helps me to understand some of my deeper fascinations in these different subject matters and ultimately guides the evolution of my works. If we knew who we were, that this entire world was once as connected as we are today, a world that many believe was more advanced technologically, spiritually, if we only knew this I believe the current state of society would undergo a complete overhaul. The struggles we currently face, like the need for clean water, clean energy, a safe environment, these are challenged by an elite few who have chosen to find ways of charging us for what is already abundantly ours; this current group of works illustrates my pure joy in thinking about and spreading this information to the masses, helping to generate feelings of empowerment and resistance towards what I believe is a maniacal group of intellectuals that would destroy the world for their own selfish purposes.
1x: Your paintings tackle some issues head on, at this point in your career how does the city of Los Angeles shape your work politically or otherwise?
Mear: LA traditionally has been this loudspeaker, this movie projector, this promoter of what she believes reality should look like. Realizing that guides my understanding about where the manipulation exists and eventually calling it out. LA is also really beautiful, the environment here and the idea that it’s in danger makes me feel connected to it, associated to it, almost related like kin, it makes me feel like a caretaker of my city and I know I’m not alone, so many feel that way. I think a lot of people share this kind of love hate relation with LA. It’s all really intense and I think that influences the intensity in my color palette or my painting technique or what it is I’m trying to say, and there’s always a level of special effects and cinematography a la the Hollywood I grew up in that comes through my work.
1x: Let’s talk about the philosophical nature of your works, when you paint what do you hope to convey and what do you feel you are getting out of your work that you may not have when you first began painting?
Mear: I’ve always been fascinated in philosophy. I grew up as one of those kids full of questions. Being a critical thinker I feel adds a depth to the art that I found lacking in the institution. Like I said before my mother had a lot of knowledge in some amazing and great reads and this developed in me at an early age a deep fascination with any type of information that fell outside the standard taught norm. Ever since I was a little kid I always felt there was something terribly wrong going on, yet I couldn’t put my finger on it, I couldn’t understand why. Then in my teenage years I was able to find my own independent voice and way of being a critical thinker through graffiti that I discovered what was wrong, that this sort of cognitive dissonance has been experienced by men for thousands of years. It is this strong willed iron-minded philosophical approach that has given me the confidence to paint what I paint and think what I think derived from these great minds I grew up on.
1x: Who are some current influences that may not be quite as apparent looking at your work?
Mear: Alphonse Mucha, Irving Norm, MC Escher, Maxfield Parrish, obviously Robert Williams and Alex Grey, Hieronymus Bosch, Norman Rockwell, HR Giger, Ralph Steadman, Robbie Conal, David Siqueiros, Diego Rivera. Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali … and Bob Ross.
1x: What else is on tap for the rest of the year for you?
Mear: Looking forward to a non-cluttered studio full of brand new white canvases! Excited to get some new murals going, start a new body of work, get out and do some traveling. Looking forward to getting back out to Miami in December for a group show at Hausammann Gallery in Wynwood, connecting with urban masters the likes of Shok-One (U.K.) and CMP-One (Denmark).
1x: Where else can people find you?
Mear One: Website – Facebook @Mear One – Twitter @mearone – Instagram @mear_one
-1xRUN