PRAYER FOR THE CURE
“ Sometimes I’m not sure I like being nailed to the word tableaux, even though it’s the one I myself use most often in referring to these pieces. I also think of them as magical Rorschach tonkas. The word tonka implies a certain usefulness as an object for meditation. I like that. What the hell. Call them tablonkas! Or tongleaux! Whatever they are, I’ve found a great happiness in this form. It uses every part of me.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
DRESSED FOR DALI
“Although androgyny is rooted in antiquity, it carries a powerful message for our own time. Spiritual perfection depends precisely on rediscovering one’s androgynous nature. Androgyny knows no boundaries. It leads us beyond the tyranny of convention. Androgyny may indeed be the guiding principle of the new age. It is the incarnation of totality.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
LET THEM EAT CAKE
“[My art] starts with Ludwig the Second of Bavaria meeting Woolworths and Barnum and Bailey over dinner with Louis the 14th in drag, then it just spirals out from there. I’m constructing a new mythology from the shards of the universe.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
GESTATION
“I want images to be complicated, not smart, designy little things. I’m bringing back density – pieces that take time to look at.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
KLIMTESQUE
This never-before-seen tableaux-vivant, is styled after the Austrian Symbolist painter, Gustav Klimt.
“In the right atmosphere, your creative dam will burst forth in a beautiful compassionate celebration. This will be the key to your success on all levels.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
HUNGER FOR THE MARVELOUS
“It will be my ability to get each subject, quietly and secretly, to unleash their creative powers, and in so doing, liberate them from their normal inhibitions, and into a state of trust, openness, and creative frenzy.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
UNTITLED, 1982
“Nowadays, in our cities of steel, we still haven’t lost our need for ancient ritual. Our dances with masks and drum are alive in our bones. We are witch-doctors in designer jeans. The same sexual impulses rule our buying power, claw at our self-illusion. We get high, on whatever, and tune into our instinctual selves. We seek guides, need teachings. As we accumulate, we share, and thus we grow. The more evolved our sharing, the richer our growth.
Oh, beautiful evenings, when we truly share!”
STEVEN ARNOLD
DISPLAY
"Dislplay" is a never-before-seen tableaux-vivant.
“[This is] the reinvention of art in America, free of the vices of ambition – insist on yourself.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
INVITATION TO YIN YANG
FUTURESCAPE
Great, extended use of the brain. Powers we can only sense now, will manifest and bring a magnificent age of clarity. The merging of the sexes becomes a force-field of creativity. Utopian satellite planets Food and energy for everyone. An age of humanism more passionate and conscious than we can fathom, If we wake up and listen to the universe.STEVEN ARNOLD
NEW BIRTH OF VENUS
“I want to keep from violating my sincerity, which would be most destructive. I want total purity in my relationships with all of my friends, without draining my creativity. I want to believe in my friends so much that it teaches them to believe in themselves.’
STEVEN ARNOLD
Self Portrait, Oil on canvas, 1974
“Don’t violate your own magic or water it down:
Trust intuitive forces within
Creative Madness must be free to flow
Spirits will guide – relax and recieve
Listen to the voices, emanate clarity
Allow the images to create their own meaning
Listen for Dalai Lama
Ancient wisdom will manifest
Go to your original vision and be true to it
No one can tell you how to create your own world
It is all within you
Follow the shapes and rhythms of nature
Let the film speak of awakening through love
Emit positive energy, compassion.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
THE SALONS AT ZANZIBAR
“ It was an old pretzel factory. When we walked through the doors there was this tremendous palace of ornamentation, and creative energy, and bits & pieces of theater sets that he had done. Certainly, it was like walking into the fourth dimension. Steven never got up before noon or 1 in the afternoon. He’d be sitting there, smoking his cigarette and drinking his coffee, while sketching in his book the dreams he had the night before – fantasies and visions. He had salons every day – you could always drop by for cocktails and wonderment. There would be a whole group of fabulous people, sitting around enjoying drinks and conversation. It must have been so similar to what took place in Montparnasse during the 20s.”
PAT COLE
” Steven’s salons, I would say, were sort of like Versailles – before the guillotine, please. There was a melange of people that got together – a naked man, a sex change, a drag queen – all talking to a lawyer. Comparing Andy Warhol’s evenings to Steven’s: Warhol’s were like Alcatraz, or Sing-Sing, but you were allowed to go in and out. One day we went to Steven’s studio and the doors were closed. It was a very sad day for Los Angeles, because all of those creative people, all of a sudden, didn’t have a place to go. We all scattered like the Twelve Tribes of Israel – I guess we’re waiting for another Steven to come along. I am definitely, and I’ll wait.”
HOLLY WOODLAWN
Desire for Extravagance
“Less conventional thoughts, breaking into more creative mind, expanding into vast new realms, leading into a whole new struggle-less melting and architecturing -leaving behind doctrines ever so absolute in all forms of expression – soaring up and into unexplored kingdoms.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Theatre of Atlantis
“Travel through Europe in a wagon with a troupe of occult clowns
Wear long black capes navy wigs powder
Iodine falls – rings of coal around the eyes
Red patent leather platforms
Leather jumpsuit with studded gauntlets
Don’t speak for weeks, pretend you can’t hear
Live in drag at age 70
Long chocolate nails ropes of emeralds
Make insane secret unshowable films
Build a secret underground garden
Learn hypnosis cast spells
Expand psychic powers write volumes sculpt
Crude primitive jewelry and diamonds
Live in a vast cave and mural every surface
Sleep in a giant clam
Eat only off silver
Wear insufferable amounts of perfume
Click your tongue hiss and stare
Use fame and fortune to highest zone advantage
Let poverty teach.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Pandora’s Offering
“My Sorceress,
Your devoted servant has been reading: Siddhartha, Journey to the East, Steppenwolf, The Prophet – the madman leaves for his enchanted journey on September third. First Rotterdam and Amsterdam, then London, Paris, and off to the Mediterranean. He has sold flowers on the streets of New York, lunched at the Plaza, made masks and costumes for an off-Broadway play, exhibited drawings in a Sheridan Square gallery, and now this wiser wizard is off into the mist to explore and learn. With him everyday, he carries the memory of his magic sorceress who lives among the flowers and the trees.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Sovereign Right of Self Discovery
“We need forms of expression that are direct and pure without temptations of luxury. In the future, artists will rule and regain their sovereign rights of self discovery. The era of alchemy will return in one swooping cycle…New criteria will smash tired molds, individualism will reign, and mediocrity will melt.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Steven and Sculpture
“To change mediums is re-awakening. I’m so glad that I started [assemblage] sculpture…that’s fairly recent. It’s so great to get your hands dirty and get burns from the glue guns – stuff that doesn’t happen in photography.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
There Is No Seperation
“People don’t organize their lives well as reflected in their homes, lists, and handwriting. I must apply my sense of organization to all phases and levels of my life. At this time it is of prime importance to be centered in every subtle phase of life – in food, clothing, grooming, society structure, philosophy, reason, compassion, sex, etc.
I want to be pure, strong, and honest of intent in every direction.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Self Portrait
“Fantasy is a universal human trait, and art is the principal means of expressing it.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
The Master
Robert Musselman and Angie Bowie
“I was photographed by Steven Arnold from 1982-90. he was called “the MASTER” by many of the top photographers of his time (Herb Ritt’s, Greg Gorman, Albert Watson and many more). The photo here is of my girlfriend at that time (1984), the vivacious Angie Bowie. To be photographed by Steven was an event of extravagent surrealism and… high art. His studio was decorated in way that transported you into another world entirely and you didn’t ever want to leave. It was an extravaganza. . Steven was such a sweet and gentle soul and he was a joy to create with, I miss him so very much but I’m thankful to have been able to collaborate with him, it was heavenly.”
ROBERT MUSSELMAN
Death of Simplicity
“Isn’t [God] the ultimate artist? Look how the skies have been painted, the mountains formed, and look at the people he made. We’re all just reflections of his great creativity.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Ascending Angel
“Creativity is the furthest extension of the highest in man – GIVE. Don’t be tied down to daily consciousness. Yoga, dance, creative friends and amorphic change develop inner strength. Force your planets to move!”STEVEN ARNOLD
