I used to think I was so special because I was a “graffiti writer”…
As I got older and saw one of the most important people in my life leave this earth, I realized that I was just another person in this rat race called life.
But if you play your cards right, you might still find some kind of happiness in this fleeting world…
Here are some of my graffiti photos and drawings, enjoy.
www.shermgrafik.com
We don’t know, do we? All we have to do is to just keep on going…
Who are you supposed to follow for guidance when everyone else is lost or in their own headspace most of the time?
The answer is: you follow yourself – the quiet, inner voice that tells you ‘hey I really like doing this’ or ‘let’s do this for right now and see where it goes. And then when we get bored, we’ll just move on to something else’.
You follow your interests, and build skills around it and see if that’s what you can do for a living.
If you’re not really sure, maybe you can take an aptitude test.
Besides the physical drives of needing food, water, and shelter and sleep to live…what else do you think about the most? That is what you should probably be doing.
I mean sure, you can read Reddit all day long and read about other people’s experiences…
but you still gotta figure out your own life and create your own experiences.
You have to follow your inner compass. Your inner compass won’t steer you in the wrong direction and if it did, then perhaps there was something you needed to learn from that experience.
You’re going to fail and make mistakes over and over again. That’s part of life that is simply unavoidable. From that you’ll gain knowledge, wisdom and a better understanding of your process and getting to know who you really are.
Keep on learning and making stuff, be patient with yourself and it will all come together eventually.
There is a version of you waiting patiently to evolve, get to know yourself.
Even at 48 – though it may seem I have accomplished a lot, like…been there done that…I still haven’t met my full potential and I still don’t know everything. And I think it will be that way until it’s time to leave our human bodies.
In between rage cleaning the house while listening to Metallica’s Orion on repeat, I stumbled upon a gif with my custom graphics; it was a repeating background of my first tiger tattoo, a scanned drawing of my angel bunny and a rose I traced over a real photo in Photoshop that I would use for Myspace (IYKYK) back in the early 2000’s. I honestly don’t even know how I did this but of course, I animated it. I also looked through the layers and found an old screenshot and a customized contact box, lol.
Customizing my Myspace profile was how I started to learn web design; because I was so obsessed with my profile looking original, I would always tinker with the custom CSS code so I can make it look however I wanted. And then I would make a custom background and someone would steal it. Good times, lol.
I really miss blogging and reading my friends’ thoughts. I miss Roxy and the OTP crew.
I’m pretty sure my gif art will last longer…existing forever in the digital space.
I made this in After Effects following this tutorial on YouTube, rendered a 30 second video and brought it into Photoshop, converted it into frames and saved it as a gif.
I really have tried, but I don’t have the energy that other people have to post consistently on social media.
As a mutable fire sign, I notice that I can definitely get it started but to continue it for the long run? Nope.
I am accepting it and not trashing my own abilities to stay relevant. I just don’t care that much either way.
What’s even crazier is that I looked into my Sidereal astrological sign recently and it turns out that…
I’m actually a Scorpio, and I can kinda see that; Scorpios are secretive and mysterious.
Here’s a photo of some candles I purchased recently from Mētztli at Revolutionary Mystic. I especially love the art on each label. Of course as soon as I lit the Solve et Coagula candle, I was immediately guided to revisit Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi; a book that normally puts me to sleep due to its arcane language…
oddly enough I couldn’t put the book down, and I understood a lot of it this time around.
Is there a devil? What is the devil? As to the first point, science is silent, philosophy denies it at hazard, religion only answers in the affirmative. As to the second point, religion states that the devil is the fallen angel; occult philosophy accepts and explains this definition.
Drawing from last week. As much as I enjoy posting crystals, I still very much enjoy drawing although it’s a lot more sporadic these days. It’s one of the few things that can still draw out the creativity in me, and it’s usually quite unexpected.
I can see the reflection of my inner world when I draw. And lately, it’s been roses and eyes; or should I say one specific eye – the third eye – the eye of psychic and intuitive vision.
Roses and eyes are occult symbols, and if you know me then you know I love all things occult.
I also feel as if I need more rose tattoos as I actually don’t have a whole lot.
Perhaps when I did the candle magic / crystal grid a couple weeks ago on the full moon, the energy of Venus is still doing its work – giving me the time to appreciate the beauty of all things, like roses.
If you’re reading this, I hope you are experiencing some of your own magic. I definitely am, as 2017 has been very good to me. Very thankful for it all.
I end up revisiting old graphic artworks because they still hold meaning for me. As a matter of fact, they become more relevant over time.
We’re all constantly creating or recreating our own reality, our own microcosms. Everyone’s living in their own universe, a world that they created.
Shermgrafik > Save the Savages > Metaphysical Vibes > Crystal Healer LA are my worlds.
The more I look at this, the more I realize that this is my Inner Temple. My inner world where all the things I love reside and collide to create something new. And do I love using bright colors in my design work. I love seeing those same colors on window splashes and handpainted lettering.
Don’t live life by some cheesy, stale quote. I get that quotes are really popular on the internet right now. I get a lot of followers who post nothing but quotes. Learn to exercise your brain – create your own quotes that are unique to you.
The term ‘occult’ seems to have a bad rep (depending on how you perceive it I suppose) – do a quick Google image search and you’ll see mostly dark, visual interpretations of the word. Different people interpret it in so many ways and that’s fine, everybody’s entitled to their own creative vision. In movies however, the occult has often been mostly portrayed as something weird, dark and scary. Synonymous with black magic, it’s become a permanent image in people’s subconscious that it’s an evil thing that can call in demons, vampires, witches, ghosts and otherworldy beings that can harm you.
The occult has also been tied to government conspiracies, the illuminati, the Knights Templar, Freemasonry, etc.
I admit that I was initially attracted to the occult by way of dark, strange imagery on the internet. I didn’t understand what the symbols meant, but I was drawn to it and knew that I liked it. It makes for great subject matter for when you’re creating something in the horror, cult, supernatural, sacrilegious, weird genres. One’s imagination can conjure up all sorts of imagery from the term. And it just looks damn cool.
Over time though I realized that the occult didn’t just encompass the dark, but also the light. My interest in the occult eventually led me to healing and learning about myself. The light and dark are One Thing. Duality only exists in our human minds, I believe it’s how we make sense of the chaos that is our earthly existence on this dimension.
The word occult simply means hidden from view; something mysterious, a secret. When I close my eyes and visualize the word, I imagine a beautiful shining light, hidden deep within my being and yours; something that you search for that’s really been there all along. This light has been dimmed by layers of programming throughout our human existence by negative beliefs and other mental junk and is just waiting to be rediscovered, awakened by our true selves.
All the things I have been spending time learning about these last 4 years – tarot, crystals, Qabalah, magick, meditation, metaphysics, mysticism, comparative religion, etc…all are part of the occult.
I hope this (sort of) clears up some misconceptions about that word. I’m sure someone out there can better clarify what I’m trying to say here but hopefully this will do for now. Feel free to add to this or expand what I’m trying to say.
On an unrelated note: the watercolor painting above was done when I was emulating the bold, traditional tattoo style of tattooing that I really like. I was trying to get into tattooing at some point and so my artistic style had that feel for a few years.
Framed mixed media painting from 2012. This painting exudes a dark and erotic mood; it depicts a young nun with her boobs exposed, standing in an infinite hallway that is the convent. A lustful woman, whose thoughts are both perverse and sacred. The red roses represent her desire, the three eyes above represent the Holy Trinity.
This painting was part of a group art show titled VEXED: Tits, Tatts and Turmoil at 423 West Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.
Please inquire to: shermgrafik@gmail.com
