My
mission is to reveal art as an experience of consciousness which is the foundational and creative element of reality. By this I mean that art is
an open-ended structure capable of shaping consciousness and reality.
I am inspired by expansive and singular visions of artists that
contribute to an imaginative and ecstatic reality. -Cary Lewis Long
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| Cary Lewis Long |
BIOGRAPHY
Cary Lewis Long was born in
Bakersfield, California in 1961. As a youngster, he was drawn into the
fantastic realm of snakes and other reptiles from his association with the
town’s herpetologist and magician Al Robbins. Many happy hours were spent searching
for King snakes and Blue-belly lizards in the hot dry landscapes of the San
Joaquin Valley.
Summertime with his grandparents,
who were Theosophists associated with the Krotona Institute in Ojai,CA, introduced him to a world of ideas. His
grandfather worked as a civilian graphic artist at Point Mugu Naval base, and
his grandmother co-founded The Tibetan Friendship Group in 1960 an organization
to aid Tibetan refugees. Living with
them in their vine-covered country house, with its wall-to-wall library of
books on wide ranging subjects, instilled in him a keen sense of wonder.
Later he attended Menlo College and
UC Berkeley to study Fine Art and Philosophy.
During several years living in Oakland, CA he became a student of
Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was
especially immersed in the study of Time, Space, Knowledge, a series of books exploring
a new system of philosophical inquiry by Tibetan teacher Tarthang Tulku.
In 1988, he moved to southern California and apprenticed with furniture maker Tomas Braverman in Topanga Canyon. Here he learned the techniques of traditional,
hand-crafted woodworking. For several
years, he also worked at LA art galleries as a preparator, and at various construction
sites building homes in Los Angeles.
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| Ancient Axiom |
In 1992, he began his first art
project in Los Angeles. His aim was to
develop a new model of art practice that would give artists autonomy
and create visceral integration of art into everyday life. With a shoe-string budget,
he rented a fire-scorched butcher shop on Fairfax Avenue, and transformed it
into the Nova Express Café, a sci-fi art themed café. For fifteen years the café was a popular venue for experimental music
and performance, poetry readings, rock bands, storytelling and art events. Even
Timothy Leary was a regular customer in the early nineties. The press called
the place ‘a fantastic voyage’, ‘a fantasy getaway’, and ‘a décor that is out
of this world’.
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| E. Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One) |
A huge green dragon looms out of one
wall, like something that belongs in a Flash Gordon movie. "It's a
fragment of some alien architecture," Long says. "I used some
leftover garden hose, two screen doors, and a couple of buckets of plaster. The
building inspectors didn't quite know what to make of it."
Los Angeles Times, A
Fantastic Voyage
In 2011 he collaborated with Jennifer
Hyong Un Cho and launched Irisphere Visual Arts to promote contemporary visionary
art. The storefront space on Washington Blvd in Mid City was equally divided to
accommodate his workshop called Robot Iguana Studio.
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| Primordial, from Moon Lava Series |
In 2018 after Irisphere Visual Arts closed its LA storefront, he is rebuilding Robot Iguana Studio from the ground up in the California high desert, near his favorite spot in the world, Joshua Tree National Park. Here, where Joshua trees beckon from the landscape, and the San Gorgonio and San Jacinto mountains in the distance transfuse life’s profound grace, Art is, once again, a voyage into the unknown.
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| Robot Iguana Studio |
Contributor: Jennifer Hyong Un Cho, Irisphere Visual Arts