User:Postjam

James Post
James Post (b. 1983) (A.K.A. Postjam) is an artist living in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is an avid Shaolin Kung Fu practitioner under Sifu Lawrence Hill at the Systems Within Systems School in New Brunswick, NJ and also subscribes to the [www.KurzweilAI.net] weekly newsletter. Postjam is interested in consciousness and how it can change through transformative practices.

Also the development of the global consciousness through communications technologies and near-future technology revolutions in nanotech, biotech, and a movement towards a class 1 civilization. He watches TED Talks Director and Blacktaoist on Youtube daily, and reads a wide variety of books on metaphysics, philosophy, martial arts, psychology, art, culture and society, and other sciences. His artist practice is residue of an evolving and involving model for his activity and research.

He is influenced by Ken Wilber, Ray Kurzweil, Sifu Lawerence Hill, etc. Postjam is interested in such artists as John J. O'Connor, Paul Laffoley, Tim Hawkinson, Tom Freedman, Archie Rand, Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton, Frank Haines, Steve DiBenedetto, Alex Grey, Stelarc, and others.

Personal Statement
My work is informed by the martial arts, psychedelics, integral philosophy and conscious research. I an currently making a series of b&w ink blots and drawings from blots, using random form elements as a basis, then adding aggressive line detail and airbrush (mechanical breathing). I use this process as a meditation. The prospective technological singularity creates in my view a myth for our rational 21st century society. The power of the myth I see in my generation is the prime motivator for personal transformation and emotional alchemy to beat a greater psychological alienation. My drawings are residual to the process of my current research and practice of the martial arts, seeking a spiritual directive.

Education
James grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey and graduated from Bedwell Elementary School, Bernards Middle School, and Bernards High School in 2002. He still keeps in contact with several teachers from his gradeschool days including Jim McCarron, Carolyn Soohoo, Don Wilson, and Mark Reinman. James still considers Jim McCarron his mentor as an art teacher. He earned his BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2006 with a concentration in painting and drawing and a minor in psychology. There he studied under Raphael Montanez Ortiz, Carrie Moyer, Phillip Orenstein, Steve DiBenedetto, Hanalina Rauchenberg, Rudy Serra, Sara E. Wood, Jessie Farber, John Yau, and Brian Benfer.

He received his MFA from Brooklyn College in 2008. There he studied with Archie Rand, William T. Williams, Tom McGrath, Juana Valez, Vito Acconci, Jack Flam, Mike Strauss, and Siebren Veerstig.

James Post's art can be viewed at http://www.artconspiracy.com/artists/gopostal.htm