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
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
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 Ritts, 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
Bowl of Boys
“Sexuality is a major preoccupation of the mind. It’s natural outlets and rhythms are trapped in grand illusions, and subconscious thought. Identifying and harnessing these thoughts leads to growing out, and into a totally clear and productive poetry of mind/soul love, and a deep confidence in your own abilities.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Imitation of Illusion
“No one gets more excited by these pictures than I do. I just admire everything about them. They’re exactly what I love. The flatitude, the fake, the shapes and details. I use the same props over and over, and the same models over and over because I love them – I can’t get enough of them. I love Hollywood. It’s the capitol of glamor and illusion, the most beautiful people on earth are all here, and you can rent anything. Anything! I had three live poodles dyed to match a pink dress for a client in my studio.
My studio is so beautiful. It looks like the backstage of a Chinese circus, inside a Venetian villa, which has been turned into a temple by visitors from another planet. I collect masks, mannequins, Chinese lanterns, jewelry, hats, art books – my studio is crammed full of all of the stuff in my pictures. I never throw anything away.
I dream a lot – day and night – and look at lots of art books and European magazines, collective ideas spark, and then I draw – the drawings are very, very automatic. They zoom through from my right brain, and all of this great stuff reveals itself in religious visions. I pray.
My work is so valid for me because it is my life. These are the people I love and worship, this is my religion, and the process of creating is a mirror through which I learn, grow, and love. I’m having such a great time – I hope it shows. Most of all, I hope my creativity is contagious.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Evocation of Dalia
Featuring Stephanie Farago and her Art Doll collection.
“Give me all the light in your soul for this shot! Let your face melt into the warmth of the lights. Clear your mind, and look at me with no thoughts whatsoever. Become lost in your thoughts and stare off into the darkness, all the accumulated creative heights preceding this – one must multiply into a vast dazzling explosion of huge visionaryism.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Heal-a-zation Swathe ‘a la Glob Ba
“Recognition of our brother angels comes from an intuitive vibration. Odd how levels vary, yet instinctually we tune into our circles and form our famlilies. This ability is ultra-precious, and those of us who know it, cherish this wisdom. It is the core of reason for our being here on this plane.”
“The healer inside of us is the wisest, most complex, integrated entity in the universe.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
The Higher Order of Art
Steven Arnold's self portrait as Leonardo daVinci
“In every period, right back to the ancients -beyond naivete – artists have tuned in to the the higher orders. It’s beyond accumulative knowledge, what’s been communicated, It’s a mystery, a force-field of wisdom from the other side – like Leonardo, who still inspires us with his visual wisdom. These secrets are timeless, and will always electrify. This is the root of art, and why it is the ultimate teacher. This veil of riches we have ever to learn from, tuning into all orders, spans all civilization.
People are drawn to creative manifestors – it’s an energy field.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
