Forever Altered: Robert Venosa and the Visionary Art World
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22 w x{ © { x{ G Forever Altered: Robert Venosa and the Visionary Art World By Martina Hoffmann and Robert Venosa (in his own words) [email protected] The late visionary artist Robert Venosa de- the finer arts, I quite suddenly became which I designed the Santana logo, which scribes an early childhood dream “in which attracted to oil painting, especially as is considered somewhat of a music icon a large, demonic-looking bird tried to exemplified in the works of the Visionary today. enter my body by forcing its way through artists such as Ernst Fuchs, Mati Klarwein, my eyes. However, a large, brilliantly William Blake, and Gustave Moreau. In April 1972, Venosa put his Dodge van glowing sword, floating in the air, sliced filled with a concise selection of belongings off the demon’s head just in time, and in Upon seeing the work of Mati Klarwein on a boat, and headed back to Europe. In doing so saved my sight. When I awoke, and Ernst Fuchs in the book Psychedelic June of the same year he discovered the there was a dead dragonfly next to my Art in 1967, I knew that this was the world small Catalan fishing village of Cadaqués, head. I couldn’t have been more that four that I also desired to paint. They were, af- Spain, situated on the Mediterranean coast, years old at the time.” ter all, painting the visions that I had been renowned for the fact that it was the home having since my first LSD journeys in the of Salvador Dali. It was at the Lincoln Hall Boy’s School that mid-60s. As a result of the mind-expand- I started to awaken to my artistic abilities ing influences of the entheogens, I was Dali was quite accessible, especially to by sketching. The deeper gift, however, absolutely attracted to Fantastic Realism his fellow artists. Venosa, who, over time, would remain dormant for the next fifteen for its potential of allowing transcendent, cultivated a close friendship with the mae- or so years until the mid-Sixties, at which otherworldly visions. stro, spent many a memorable evening in time, thanks to Lysergic Acid, my mind and the Port Lligat casa, enjoying the spectacle consciousness were psychotropically—and that surrounded Dali. Rather “hallucinate” forever—altered. in personality, the maestro made sure that his visitors understood that “Dali does not The beginning of the “consciousness revolu- take drugs, he is the drug!” tion” proved to be a time of great change and transformation for many, including I met Dali in 1972 on my first visit to Robert Venosa. In 1964, living in Manhat- Cadaqués, Spain, where the Maestro tan, he become an art director for Columbia lived. Actually, I looked in the phone book Records and directed one of the first music and there was his listing! When I called videos ever made for The Temptations, the house, his servant handed him the called “Runaway Child, Running Wild.” phone and his first question was, “Are you beautiful?” With measured confidence Later Venosa founded his own commercial Robert Venosa and I answered “yes,” and he invited me art and advertising agency in the city. Here Martina Hoffmann over that evening. I subsequently spent he designed an abundance of award- much time with him during my 17 years winning cover art for jazz label Blue Note in Cadaqués. My relationship with him Records, as well as for a number of up- was based on our absorbing conversa- and-coming musicians of the time, including In late 1969 I had gone to a Tim Leary tions regarding art, and my introducing Carlos Santana. lecture one evening in NY, and noticed him, through books, articles, catalogs to a few very interesting looking guests new and unique artists whom I knew Dali Walking away from the extremely comfort- sitting behind Tim on stage. A few days would enjoy.” able lifestyle offered by the multi-million later, a friend asked if I wanted to go see dollar-a-year agency to pursue a path of the work of Mati Klarwein at his 17th In 1981 Robert Venosa met the German existentialist struggle and near-poverty Street loft. Having seen Mati’s work in a artist Martina Hoffmann, in the wee hours of would seem, in the eyes of many, to be number of publications—and having been Beltane morning in a café on the Mediterra- reaching towards the heights of lunacy. absolutely inspired by it—I jumped at the nean shore. She had come down to Cada- But such were the demands made by an opportunity. Upon walking into the loft, qués on a visit from Paris. They recognized expanded consciousness in conjunction there was the couple I had seen at Tim each other on a deep level instantly and with the Muse of Painting. Leary’s lecture! It was Mati and his lovely stayed together for the next 30 years until Caterine Milinaire. We immediately be- Venosa’s recent graduation to the next level It was during this cross-burning re-birth came friends, and, as I was still doing my of existence. From 1982 on the couple lived that the perceptions and values of art took commercial art to survive, we worked on a and worked together in Cadaqués, travel- on a dimensional change for me. Having number of album cover projects together, ing to the U.S. regularly and eventually had little or no previous experience in most notably Santana’s “Abraxas,” for splitting their time between both places. w x{ © { x{ G w x{ © { x{ G 23 In 1992 I first met Terence McKenna at a be able to paint the visions from just one In my own experience, I must say that an seminar he was giving in Boulder, CO. He aya journey. There is just too much, a deli- abundance of inspiration and conscious- dazzled me with his intellect, as well as his cious abundance, of heretofore unknown ness expansion has been transmitted to knowledge and explanation of the sacra- forms and colors that inundate the inner me in the form of the various sacramental mental world of psychedelic substances. eye during the journey. I have throughout entheogens. Psychedelics have probably We bonded as friends when he visited my the years discussed this with Pablo Am- had the most profound influence on my life studio and saw that I was painting what aringo, and he agrees that there is not a since the zygote selected my gender. They he was talking about. It was a friendship canvas or palette large enough to capture have catapulted me from the most banal of that culminated in the collaboration of my the smallest iota of the overall ayahuascan deep-sleep consciousness levels up to the book Illuminatus, for which Terence wrote visual storm. authentic Sun King’s hall of light, life, and the text. Actually that oil paint. There can be text, which is more like little doubt that altered poetry, was the last he states of consciousness wrote before his untimely have a profound effect death in 2000. on the creative quality and productive output of It was also during this the visionary artist. period that Venosa and Hoffmann were intro- Visionary art is subver- duced to the Amazonian sive in its message to the psychedelic ayahuasca. world…in the sense that Throughout the years they the common mind can- regularly explored the far not entirely escape the reaches beyond the veil subliminal force planted during shamanic journeys in the creation that will in the Amazonian rainfor- affect, superconsciously, est of South America. whomever confronts With excitement they the art. The form, color, became familiar with the imagery, energy and visual language that is so spirit in the work, contain inherent to “the mother’s the seeds of an awaken- realm,” and found im- “Celestial Tree” by Robert Venosa. Oil on masonite (1976). ing and, unbeknownst mense inspiration for their Prints available at www.venosa.com. to the observer, the first art therein. Often during stages of allowing experi- this time, while spending weeks with the Venosa’s personal transformation, initi- ence to follow suit. And from experience dieta and medicina they also taught fellow ated in the 60’s, came full circle during a comes knowledge, followed ultimately by travelers painting techniques and methods pilgrimage to Dr. Albert Hofmann’s home in wisdom. for manifesting their visions on canvas. Switzerland in the mid-90’s: “After ringing the doorbell, Albert himself opened the While Robert was still alive, he and I both The ayahuasca experience is mostly inexpli- door and Robert, with open arms, gave him started dreaming a vision that he named cable, and the only word that does come to a contagious smile shouting “Father!” “VIVA” (Venosa Initiative for Visionary Art). mind is “Holy.” Now, after his transition I feel called to The good doctor reciprocated the smile, as keep this dream alive and will work towards Those images, perceived in ayahuasca well as the hug, and a natural familiarity creating the future location for a permanent space, were profoundly inspirational, was established between them right there Venosa museum collection and visionary and provided the initial stimulus for me to and then. Hofmann showed great appre- cultural center in order to keep his vision attempt my own interpretations of the in- ciation for the arts and always enjoyed w{ ~{ { | |{ }{{w D© explicable, divinely mysterious, sometimes seeing Venosa’s and Martina Hoffmann’s terrifying, but gloriously beautiful visual latest creations during their annual visits that world of ayahuasca. I, myself, as an artist, became a tradition until Albert Hofmann’s know it would take numerous lifetimes to transition in 2008..