TheRingOfDOOM 00023: Head East For Mae West's Lips

My favorite thing about this video is that I went all the way to Museu Dalí in Figueres, Spain with some art from my #MFDALÍ project to make it and that this art installation is so MF awesome. Experiencing something in person is infinitely more life-changing than reading about it and/or watching a video about it. I currently have many things in my possession that I’m saving to recreate my own version of this but I’m taking a different route and using moss for the hair… that’s as far as I’ve gotten; looking forward to fleshing out that project when the time is right. Most likely, the next version of this will be created three-dimensionally in a cardboard box or in the woods.

An #MFDALÍ moment in Museu Dalí in Figueres, Spain.

An #MFDALÍ moment in Museu Dalí in Figueres, Spain.

I made the #MFDALÍ collage featured at the end of the video with three of the same Salvador Dalí images to give the original an alternate reality. This is one of the first I did back when I was still wary of destroying a masterpiece and didn’t want to ruin the integrity of the original. Now I realize that each collage becomes more of my own masterpiece the more I cut it up and that abandoning the composition of the original creates the most interesting results. The point of the whole project is to learn so I’m grateful to have made enough collages to have figured this out.

On this day, I did not bring TheRingOfDOOM’s lip couch with me but I’m so grateful to have made the photos of my own collage work inside the museum that I really don’t care about missing one photo op. I did get to photograph the tiny lips couch the next day in and outside of Dali’s house in Portlligat with other versions of the lips couch… video on that part of the adventure coming soon.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing how I scale my art endeavors as I learn, grow, and create bigger opportunities for myself.

WTF IS #MFDALÍ

This spur of the moment analog collage was made with a thrifted Salvador Dalí art book containing smaller Dalí images from Reader’s Digest gifted inside. I loved it so much that I made it into a sticker, covered it with resin, and followed it up with a year’s worth of Dalían study via reading and cutting up all the cheap Dalí art books I could source locally.

The original MFDALÍ collage that started it all.

The original MFDALÍ collage that started it all.

If you’ve been following my social media profiles, you already know that this #MFDALI project has turned my internal compass to Spain and I’ve photographed some of my smaller collages on the grave of Salvador Dalí himself in Figueres, Spain in the last month. This collage was too big for my carry on suitcase so it stayed home but I did photograph the sticker version outside Museu Dalí. Still holding onto all the #MFDALI collages in hopes I’ll be able to have a solo show at some point alongside some of the originals… also not sure about the legality of selling collages that are so obviously made with Dalí’s art. I’ve emailed all the appropriate offices in Spain about it and I’m still growing into the fish they’ll reel in when they’re ready… or I’ll reach out again soon. I get better with every collage I make and I’m truly grateful I’ve spent so much time on this project so far.

Unstuck stickers outside Museu Dalí in Figueres, Spain. This photo was Day 100 or #100Daysofstickerswith206lizpart3

Unstuck stickers outside Museu Dalí in Figueres, Spain. This photo was Day 100 or #100Daysofstickerswith206lizpart3

At first, I was just cutting up the least offensive Dalí images with the colors I liked looking at the most but now I’m strategically cutting up the contents of the permanent collection of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida… problematic paintings included, for the photo ops. I’ve sidelined this project for awhile to work on creating a lucrative art career for myself via music videos, stop motion shorts, Street Art photography, TheRingOfDOOM merch, my analog collage art, and a whole bunch more but the #MFDALI project won’t be over for quite some time.

The I Dream In Dalí sticker in it’s natural habitat.

The I Dream In Dalí sticker in it’s natural habitat.

I’m glad I waited to immortalize this project on my website because as usual, my ideas get better with age. Since these collages are intended to depict the Dalían dreams of my fictional character TheRingOfDOOM, I’ve started to develop the stories I created for each collage and the results are truly hilarious. I’ll be posting the collages in the order I’ve created them with the stories attached. I may try to animate the series at some point but I now present the text version of the story for the first in the #MFDALÍ series, I DREAM IN DALÍ, below…

I DREAM IN DALÍ by TheRingOfDOOM

My first Dalían dream was a trip to say the least. This first hallucination seemed to set a scene instead of tell a story but I had no idea at this point how truly weird my Dalían dreams would become and the legends they would begin to weave together.

I had fallen asleep while watching the clouds roll by and thinking about the plethora of life options ahead of me. I’m guessing the golden framed human shapes that appeared in a pitch black room are rooted in my deep love for my creator and the life we’re building together with our head in the metaphoric clouds. Seems like the reason I’m on both tables in the smaller gilded human shapes is because I’m still thinking too small and have yet to move into the infinite potential of my larger self.

Pretty sure the table cloths must be tousled because my content delivery is less than smooth at this point but I know I’ll get better with age. There’s little on the horizon because my main focus at this time is targeted on building a sustainable and happy life with my creator… very few distractions surround us because we’ve gilded our friendship and no one else can get in (or we’ve covered them with some messy tablecloths). Still working on whether or not this is a good thing… I know it’s vital to be able to deflect the bad energies of others but empathy also reigns supreme when learning how weave others into your internal tapestry. A truly interesting life will always be a work in progress until it isn’t so the journey is priceless.

Guessing there are two of me present because I waffle back and forth between sprinting toward our infinite potential and drowning in my To Do lists. Previous to this dream, I hadn’t been documenting my nocturnal visions but when they’re this photogenic… I gotta collect and share em all.

Top 10 Museum Crashing Photos

I could never have predicted that I'd develop a hobby of photographing a fictional character in museums and next to Street Art. Since for most of my life I've been a follower, I've only recently feeling better about embracing my weirdness. Taking the time to figure out what my thing is has been priceless. The museum crashing started when I bought a ticket to Europe to take my first solo vacation upon leaving AEG. My method of handling the burnout I worked up to in the corporate music industry was to go to Europe and take a picture of @TheRingOfDOOM in the Landscape Room at Tate Britain where Banksy once hung his own works and changed the art world forever. Still funny to me that this was premeditated because I have zero history in the Street Art world but I'm pretty sure it was rooted in figuring out what kind of mark I wanted to make on the world. I love that since I'm just setting something on the floor and taking a picture of it in museums where photography is allowed, I'm not actually doing anything wrong. I've gotten some pretty weird looks but mostly people tell me it's "cute." Only time will tell what I'll end up doing next with @TheRingOfDOOM...

Random landscapes at Tate Britain in London

Random landscapes at Tate Britain in London

The FAILE installation at Beyond The Streets in LA

The FAILE installation at Beyond The Streets in LA

Fall Of The House Of Usher by Mario Merz at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York

Fall Of The House Of Usher by Mario Merz at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York

Over The Influence Gallery in LA

Over The Influence Gallery in LA

The Last Supper by Andy Warhol at Museum of Modern Art in New York

The Last Supper by Andy Warhol at Museum of Modern Art in New York

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh at Museum Of Modern Art In New York

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh at Museum Of Modern Art In New York

The Retna entryway to Beyond The Streets in LA

The Retna entryway to Beyond The Streets in LA

Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Washington DC.

Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Washington DC.

Cardboard cassettes at Beyond The Streets in LA.

Cardboard cassettes at Beyond The Streets in LA.

Super big dude at Hirshhorn in DC

Super big dude at Hirshhorn in DC