My friend Gregangelo is a real whirling dervish.
A whirling dervish is a mystical dancer who stands between the material and cosmic worlds. His dance is part of a sacred ceremony in which the dervish rotates in a precise rhythm representing the earth revolving on its axis while orbiting the sun.
Gregangelo ran away and not only joined the circus but started one. He is artistic director of the fabulously colorful and diverse Velocity Circus. One of his life long influences is Egyptology, and he has created his home as a living museum in the style of an elaborate Egyptian temple. I featured The Gregangelo Museum in my Guide to Mosaic Sites, because it is encrusted in mystical mosaics, by the equally fabu, Laurel True. It is open to tour by appointment.
For the month of November, Gregangelo will be Artist in Residence at the de Young museum in San Francisco with fellow artist, Jim Berenholtz, in conjunction with the KING TUTANKHAMUN exhibition.
Greg and Jim will be on site Wednesday–Sunday, 1:00–5:00 p.m. (until 8:45 p.m. on Fridays).
RA-Balisk, The Temple of the New Sun
Artists in Residence Jim Berenholtz (Hu Ra Designs) and Gregangelo (Velocity Circus) create a multi-media theatrical adventure through a solar temple. Explore the mysterious inner sanctum of the temple with archetypal wall paintings, three-dimensional altars, and dazzling special effects integrated into the interactive installations.
The temple art is based primarily on ancient Egyptian icons, motifs, and symbols, and also incorporates influences from other solar-worshipping, pyramid-building civilizations, such as those of ancient Mexico and Central and South America. Traditional iconography is interpreted with a contemporary sensibility, making RA-Balisknot an ethnographic documentation of something that might have existed in the distant past, but rather a vibrant, living, sacred space that brings the ancient artistic spirit forward to the present and into the future…
The Deets:
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
November 4, 2009 – November 29, 2009
deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park – Kimball Education Gallery
Special Friday Nights open until 8:45 PM!
