User:Brian Averill/Brian Averill

Born 1952 in Eugene, Oregon USA. Raised in Southern California, and has lived in many states and lands. Formal creative work since age 5, recognized as an artist in visual, musical and written media/performance in Los Angeles. Life-long pushing the boundaries in spontaneous works. Attended schools of art in America and Europe from Childhood. Trained under guitar Jazz veteran, Martin Lundblade, with classical studies at Portland State University.

Became a Bahá'í at 19 after a search for ultimate truth and solutions for world equity and peace.

Worked in music as singer-songwriter; publishers included the Chappell group; performed solo at venues and festivals from Paris to Stockholm. Produced compositions and albums of diverse genres and themes: singer-songwriter; electro-acoustic soundtrack, etc.; cultural fusions involving Near Eastern mystical chant, Romanian and other themes...

After a neurological illness struck in 1988 in Brussels, and being studio-based, a new level of work appeared: VISUAL ART: integrating ancient Chinese materials and studied under master in NE China in 1994; photography and "painting with light" on early AV computers; MUSIC: more prolific and expansive; WRITING: lyrical and "free" based on "stream-of-consciousness"; MULTI-MEDIA: tactile, analog and digital combines as well as theatre (Bruhaha Fest., Liverpool) and short art-film. Art historian and critic, Giorgio Agnisola wrote of this period: "The essential aspects of the artistic experience of Brian Averill are, in my view, divided up into two areas. The first is marked by abstract and informal exploration that motivates both his aesthetic and spiritual life. The quintessence of his artistic message, being without reference to the concrete or the figure, finds its source in primordial depths. The second aspect is directly linked to the first and concerns the probable and perceptible confrontation between visual art and music. Averill is also a musician, something reflected in the visual characteristics of his works. Relative to the language of Averill, a triangle can be imagined, its base founded upon music and visual art. At its summit a spiritual tension is both the source and horizon of his expression..."

Interests: Consciousness and this world as a simulation - illusion, metaphor, temporal, malleable - and dealing with mind-body health and self-development on the higher thought and energetic level. That which emanates from the major Prophets, such as Bahá'u'lláh, Christ, Buddha, Muhammad is the ultimate light and authority.

Institutional: B.A. University of Maryland.