Transfigurations

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, unusual work
Review: Transfigurations continues the exploration begun in Alex Grey's first book Sacred Mirrors, revealing an ongoing dialogue between body and soul as depicted in his art. The nature of personal identity is revealed in a series of full-page color reproductions and some black and white images providing paintings blending science and mysticism. A beautiful, unusual work.

Rating:
Summary: Progression of an Artist
Review: Transfigurations is the pictorial history of the artist and how he finds his way towards his own personal excellence.

Alex Gray is a remarkable artist who has survived the different phases artists move through in their lifetimes, and has found himself a style and expression that is both moving and beautiful to experience. From his early works as a teenager, to his performance art of the 70's and 80's, Mr. Grey has translated many of his emotional experiences to various artistic mediums. The pictures and history provide you with the background you need to understand the spiritual inspiration Mr. Grey has finally found in his work and presented in this book.

I found this book to be very inspirational. The artwork is a personal and moving experience of the artist and I was very much taken by the meanings and visual ideals conveyed by them.

Bravo for a well produced effort on the part of the publisher, Inner Traditions, to be able to produce a book worthy of the works of this artist.

Spiritually inspired, expertly rendered and well produced, this book is worthy of a place on any serious collectors shelf.

Rating:
Summary: A Full Tour...
Review: Transfigurations was rather different from what I was expecting. I guess it just goes to show you that you are usually better off approaching this sort of thing with a mind that's free of preconceptions.

This lovely volume presents a rich tour of Grey's work. Unlike Sacred Mirrors, it gives several pages to involved discussion of Grey's mixed media and sculpture work. Unlike Sacred Mirrors (which I still treasure!), this one provides some very nice details of these non-paintings.

Nonetheless, Mr. Grey's paintings are well represented in this volume - as intense and spiritually challenging as ever.

I'd also recommend checking out his book "The Mission of Art" for some really cool insights into his artistic philosophy that really enriched my enjoyment of Transfigurations.

Rating:
Summary: Psychedelic art
Review: Truly edifying, powerfully enlightening art of the nervous system (peeled open) and all its glory.

The universe is marvelous, indeed. Grey is a shining star.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Artwork--Be aware of the message being sent here
Review: Very talented artist, and much of his story is very inspiring. This is a great book to share with people, as long as you know what else is contained in this book--his philosophies regarding psychedelics and the resultant culture would not be very constructive for most people I know...

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Artwork--Be aware of the message being sent here
Review: Very talented artist, and much of his story is very inspiring. This is a great book to share with people, as long as you know what else is contained in this book--his philosophies regarding psychedelics and the resultant culture would not be very constructive for most people I know...

Rating:
Summary: A New Gift From one of America's Great Artists
Review: What a treat a new collection of images from Alex Grey is.
This new book, following his original Sacred Mirrors, is an eyeful of wonder, magic, luminosity, and to borrow from Mircea Eliade, the spiritual philosopher, NUMINOSITY-- visions of the sacred, mystical and, paradoxically, of the unknowable.

In this beautifully rendered book, Alex Grey takes you to his newest visions and also to his fascinating roots. There are very few people who have followed his path. It is no wonder that he has such an amazing group of people (Albert Hoffman, Ken Wilber, Stephen Larsen) contributing to his book.

This is not your typical beautiful art book. It will fill you up, as many an art book can, but it will also lift you, and offer you a kaleidoscope of visions, or more precisely, ways of looking at the world.

the book also includes some images of Alex's dream project, the creation of a sacred space where his sacred mirrors series can be properly displayed. I have a feeling that when it completed, it will evoke feelings similar to those one experiences when entering Notre Dame, the Blue Mosque, (been to them) or the Pyramids.

Rating:
Summary: Do You Like Flaming Transparent People Staring At You?
Review: Yes, the title of my review is a little tongue in cheek, but only because I love Grey's work so much, and I'm soooooo jealous of his technique. I first saw Grey's work in a mall bookstore the year I graduated from high school, 1993, and as youngster artist, the paintings I saw were everything I aspired to be (with a dash of Keith Haring thrown in). Darn it, if this guy didn't take all my ideas before I even had them! At least he doesn't paint spheres like I do. Anyway, my parents bought me "Sacred Mirrors" as a graduation present, and that book is rewarding each and every time I turn to it for pleasure or inspiration. "Transfigurations" is an all around better book many times over. Everything that was Greyish about the work in "SM" can be found in plentiful supply, but his work has certainly taken on more depth since then. I was never really one for paintings like "Gaia" or "Universal Mind Lattice." I'm not sure if it's because he's been meditating a lot, reading more Terence McKenna or drinking cauldron upon cauldron of ayahuasca, or if he simply became "one" with certain patterns and uses of primary colors, but the hallucinogenic ("psychedelic," or better yet, "entheogenic") tendencies of his art have exploded. The male/female Homo erectuses (is that the plural, or is it "erecti?") with magic mushrooms and Cannibas all around are perhaps an obvious example, but virtually everything here is laden with a psychedelic aura. I especially like the small drawing based on an ayahuasca vision (please see the crude but brilliant book of ayahuasquero Pablo Amaringo's art, "Ayahuasca Visions" if that work intrigues you), being a fan of the brew. I've always admired Grey for his willingness to admit that such substances play a prominent role in his life, though I have to say that I would have had little doubt otherwise even if he kept it a secret from us. Before I saw this book, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing "Cosmic Christ" in person at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum (you need to see this place if you haven't already), and I must have stared at the work for at least a half hour. It's really a masterpiece. I can't wait to see how Grey's work develops in the next few decades, assuming neither he nor I are murdered or drastically crippled by another al-Queda attack. The book is, in a word, amazing. You need to buy it now! As one of the reviewers succinctly put it, "we've already missed out on Rumi, Blake, Swedenborg, and Gibran, but we've been sent a comforter for our time flowering from the same vine," and I couldn't agree more with that estimation, but for the fact that it didn't mention Neil Finn (especially Crowded House's swan song, "Together Alone"). (...)

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Artist
Review: You know what I LOVE about Alex Grey? He visually represents states of awareness that I share, in ways I never imagined... I think this is what a reveiwer below was referring to when he said "Grey stole my best ideas before I ever had them."

I remember walking through the woods one evening some 30 years ago and feeling that I expanded my awareness out into the starry infinity above me. This was a tangible feeling of expansion, not just an interesting idea. The cover of this book illustrates that very experience.

I might add that Grey seems to go further into spiritually expanded states than I ever have.

A friend of mine used to tease his wife. She would say "Honey, do you love me?" He would respond, "Only when I think about it." States of awareness (love, expansion, connection) are like that, aren't they? Sometimes we forget about them, and when we're not thinking about them, they're not present for us.

Grey's work is like a beacon bell that reminds me of what I never left but have sometimes forgotten. There is a restimulation of a state of beingness that says "Remember me?... I am still here... Wake up... You can drop the illussion... You can drop your stories... Welcome home.