June 18, 2024
Haight Street Voice: “What does the Haight feel like to you?”
Chris Dyer: “It’s probably the hippiest street in the world!”
Hey lovely People! Thanks for hoppin’ over to the website and hangin out here in Haight Street Voice land! From our digital version of the Summer 2024 edition, the video and full transcript are below of my conversation with the super creative and kind Chris Dyer. Enjoy!
PRINT ARTICLE (SHORT):
Peruvian-Canadian artist Chris Dyer kindly shared his “Keep Pushing Forward” visiounary artwork for the cover of this edition of HSV. Recently moving to the States, Chris just released his second book, Shamanic Journey and will be here August 3 at the Psychedelic SF Gallery to sign it for those wise enough to grab a copy.
HSV: You allow yourself to be so vulnerable in this book.
CD: I grew up in Lima as a sensitive, artsy kid. Peru is a macho country, I went to an all-boys school, and most are not sensitive artsy people. I had to build all these armors to hide the real me, to protect it. Those armors were negative defense mechanisms that made me hit a wall. So I started my path on the positive side of things and now it’s been decades.
HSV: Clearly psychedelics play a role in your journey.
CD: Aya (huasca) is my main mistress. She straightens me up, cracks my back, puts me back in shape, good enough so I can go and do my work. Plant medicines are saying, “Don’t be afraid of being yourself.” I’m trying to do my part of the ascension of humanity.
HSV: Painting must be incredibly healing for you.
CD: Painting is a meditation. You’re just sitting — which is treacherous on weight gaining! I just built a mini ramp in my backyard! I go out there and skate and sweat. I’m in my mid-40s. I’ve been skateboarding since 1986. It always intrigued me. It’s rebellious. You hurt yourself. It’s kind of like graffiti, the kind of art you’re not supposed to do. That also attracted me to skateboarding. There’s just something about zipping around and expressing yourself. It’s an art form. I don’t need an audience. It’s just me and my board. It’s a spiritual meditation for me, as is painting. My paintings are for me. I make them difficult to sell but I love sharing them. Murals are different, like a big energy blast. I enjoy creating these portals into different dimensions that hopefully bring in positive energy wherever I’m painting. I paint a lot for weed people, dispensaries, farms, and brands.
HSV: Last Gasp released your book. Founder Ron Turner is an SF publisher.
CD: He’s a legend! I’m honored to be with Last Gasp. Super stoked to be back in SF!
HSV: What does the Haight feel like to you?
CD: It’s probably the hippiest street in the world! So much history. Every time I’m in SF I go to Amoeba. I’m a record collector.
HSV: We love Amoeba! Shoutout to Joe Goldmark! Music is inherent in your work, yes?
CD: I love musicians! They’re full-on creators! My art is about the art, but the art is kind of like the bubble gum wrapper around the candy, and the candy is more like the consciousness. Not just my consciousness but the consciousness of everybody, which is a unified field of love. The world will evolve into a more loving world once we’re all open around our hearts and spread the love without fear. It’s what’s gonna save us.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Chris Dyer June 18, 2024
Haight Street Voice: Hey guys, Haight Street Voice. I’m here with Chris Dyer, an incredible psychedelic artist. (Chris waves) Hey Chris!
Chris Dyer: Hey, how you doing, Linda?
HSV: I’m well! I’m very excited to see you and talk about your new book and your art and your travels and how it all kind of relates to the Haight Ashbury, Haight Street Voice, a place where you sort of voice your, you know, where you’re at in the world. I know you just got back from a tour, so maybe tell me a little bit about that. You were gone for 10 days I think?
CD: Yeah, I’m always in and out a lot. The last bit of the tour was in Oregon. I was doing some live painting events and murals and book launches, so yeah I was out there on the West Coast I’m now back in my home of St. Petersburg, Florida.
HSV: Oh, you’re in Florida. Here I am thinking you were either … I know you’re Peruvian by way of Montreal, is that correct?
CD: Yeah! I grew up in Peru, in Lima, and I lived in Montreal the last 21 years but I recently moved to the States.
HSV: I love your candidness in the book. You’re really, really honest in your storytelling and the things that you’ve been through and I think … dangit, sorry, I had it all queued up sorry hon! I love the fact that really allow yourself to be really vulnerable in the book. If you could speak to that a little bit. The healing that comes from you doing your art, the essence of that.
CD: Yeah. As we spoke before, I grew up in Peru as a sensitive, artsy kid, and being that Peru is more like a macho country and I went to an all-boys school, and most people are not sensitive artsy people. I had to build all these armors to hide the real me, to protect it. And then those armors were all these negative defense mechanisms that made me hit a wall. I go into more in my first book that came out 2011.
And so I started my path on the positive side of things and, I don’t know, it’s been decades. Plant medicines that I’ve gotten more deep in the second book and plant medicines being kind of like, “Don’t be afraid of being yourself.” I’m always myself to some degree, for good and for bad, but there’s also this thing where we’re all supposed to be great and perfect at every turn, but it ain’t reality, you know? We have ups and downs and we have, you know, bad times and we lose and we make mistakes and we suck (laughter).
HSV: Yeah! We fall flat on our faces and our asses sometimes!
CD: Totally. And we can pretend that everything is fine and that we’re cool. But then you’re just living a lie. So more and more I’ve tried to be like, “Hey! Here I am. Good and bad. Here’s some wins, here’s some losses.” But really that’s what helps me connect with my followers because they’re also struggling and hurting inside. I think we all are.
HSV: Yep!
CD: So when I’m sharing also my down points and my mistakes, the problems in life, and being like, okay, but I try to be chill with it and try to move forward and this is what I do, like usually traveling and art and work to come out of it with some honor hopefully and make things come back to the positive. And I think the viewer of the artwork or the viewer of the story can relate and be like, “Oh, maybe I’ve got a chance too to do some work and be okay with myself. I think the ultimate goal is just to love ourselves no matter where we’re at.
HSV: Yeah! I mean it’s funny you say that because in my own personal world, you know, it’s hard not to be — especially when you are your own business — to not get tired and to not to, you know, where do you end and the business start and all of that? It’s a struggle.
I think the work you’re doing and allowing yourself to be vulnerable is a big part of it. But it’s scary too because you’ve got to go out in the world and you’ve got to be, like you said, you’ve got to have your boundaries, I don’t want to say force field, but protection I guess it is, right?
CD: Right. I guess we’ve all got to decide what’s our level of comfort. Once again, there’s no right level of vulnerability or perfect whatever. I think at the end of the day it’s about your relationship with yourself. It’s like, “Hey, I know I’ve got some issues, I know I’ve got some traumas, some things that I love and some things that scare me. And instead of judging myself like, “Oh, you should be perfect. Nothing should scare you. You should be super brave at every single turn.” And instead be like, “No, I am what I am. And I can accept that. I love myself no matter what.” And if naturally I get out of it, cool. Until then, I’ll be okay with myself and work with myself and not judge myself.
I think once you get comfortable with yourself, you put down your defenses and you don’t treat the world as an enemy that attacks you because you’re not fearing it so much because at the end of the day you’re comfortable. If everybody puts down their defenses and everybody’s comfortable with themselves, then we can all love more. And if we can all love more I think we’ve got better chances of making a world where everyone wins.
HSV: Yes! I know you do live paintings, you’ve got your Positive Creations brand — what don’t you do, dude! In my notes it’s like holy moly, what has this guy not done! (Laughter) It’s beautiful!
I wanted to speak to you, real quick, is that Thursday is the Summer Solstice and Friday is the Full Moon, so I’m really glad that we’re connecting this week because it’s been a long time coming and your book certainly speaks to those elements, even to the point of the name of the alien, Ash! I love that story, that you have a different part of you that is part alien or something like that. And so I was going to relate that — I’m rambling, but that’s okay!
“Hyper local with a global perspective is what Haight Street Voice is, the essence of the ‘60s, what was happening in the ‘60s, being kind to each other and being creative, exploring our minds and all of that, the psychedelic stuff. It’s like you, not only being a global traveler — so this kind of my first real global interview, really, cuz I love the fact that you have Planet Earth all over you — but to the point of even beyond here is the alien stuff that you say helps you, that it’s part of your mind or something? Something like that, there’s another piece of you that you can relate to, yes, a character?
CD: The alien thing was relayed to me recently by a psychic. Different psychics have told me that I’ve got many past lives for a long time. But even before that I also had alien lives, Lyran and even Pleiadian.
That particular painting was Pleiadian and I was told that that was my last life as a non-human before going out and being like, “Okay! I’m gonna go out there and be a human!” And I was told, “Okay, we could put you …” What’s happening in humanity right now is the best clusterfuck of energy to where we either ascend and awaken god in ourselves OR self destruct. It’s like the best show in town and we’re at the season finale!
So whatever matrix gave me the choice to incarnate as a human was like, “Hey, we could just put you at the last lifetime with a bunch of memories from human experiences OR you can live a bunch of human lives but that brings trauma and you’re gonna be carrying a bunch of baggage by the season finale. (Laughter) And that Pleiadian being was like, “Fuck yeah! Let’s do the whole human experience!” So here I am like hurting and traumatized, hopefully doing my last human life and trying to do my part for the ascension of humanity. Maybe it’s just humble offering of like passing on a happy word or smile or some art or a book, I’m just here to serve and help raise the vibe of you and so many people!
HSV: Yes! The book is so beautiful. How long did it take you to do this book behind me here?
CD: I started it in 2020 when I got stuck in Peru. I was like, “I think I’ve got enough for a new book, so I started putting it together on Photoshop. But the ending of the book kind of sucked at that point! I was like, “Ugh, I don’t want the book to end with ‘I got stuck in Peru and I broke up with my fiancé … a bunch of shit happened after that so I was like, “Okay, I’m not ending the book!” For years I was like, “I’m not ending the book now!” And finally now in 2023 I was like, “Man, this year is being a good, I’m being good, I moved into a new place, I’ve got a new relationship …” I’m like, “I think this is a good time to finish the book. Okay! Finish the book before shit gets shitty again! (Laughter)
HSV: Oh my god, that’s so funny!
CD: So finished it this last winter, I did some final paintings to wra p it up and worked with a publisher to put it out and now I’m gonna tour all year to spread it around.
HSV: Yay! In fact, you’re coming here! And I think I mentioned it’s Ron Turner of Last Gasp comics and his Colin who printed this beautiful book.
CD: Yes!
HSV: And he’s a San Francisco guy! I interviewed Ron. God bless him with all his cool comics and all that that he’s been doing forever!
CD: Yeah, he’s a legend! I’m honored to be doing this book with Last Gasp. I’ve been going to SF since 2001. I used to manage a skateboard company in San Francisco called Creation Skateboards, so I would go there every summer and connect with the skate scene. And through that I met different artists, and through that I met Last Gasp. I’ve already got two coloring books with them so I’d always visit them and check out that little museum they’ve got there on Florida Street. And there’s the Super 7 toy company that’s also in the same building and I’m a big toy collector.
But yeah, when I went to do this new book, Last Gasp was for sure the people I wanted to work with and luckily they were down for it. I mostly worked with Colin, the son, because Ron’s a little bit older and is retired, but he’s still around and yeah, I’m super stoked to be back in SF!
HSV: Yeah! Your date is — we’re not wrapping it up but — your date is August 2 I believe at the Psychedelic SF Gallery, correct?
CD: August 3.
HSV: Oh! It’s the 3rd! Okay! Excuse me! I’ll edit that out! August the 3rd, which is a Saturday.
You and I met at the Psychedelic SF Gallery last year and I think you were on your 2023 mural tour.
CD: Yeah, totally!
HSV: You and Paulina were just hanging out with Magic Mike and I rolled by cuz I’d just gotten off work and I sat down with y’all and she and I just started talking about cats instantly. It was such a cool groove.
What is the essence of the Haight, what does it feel like to you, just to bring it to the Haight Street Voice. Clearly there’s a psychedelic connection, but can you just speak a little bit about the Haight?
CD: Well, it’s probably like the hippiest street in the world! (Laughter) So much history, and every time I go to SF I will go there — mostly because Amoeba is there and I’m a record collector and I love going there. Now the prices at Amoeba — they’ve gone high in all record stores — but back in the day you could go there and find amazing records in the dollar bin because so many cool rock n roll bands have been from SF, California, and hippies collected, so even the dollar bin would have gold! Now, you know, it’s a little bit less but I still like to go and find books and just the events posters on the wall itself, it’s like a museum. Now they’ve got that new section with the DVDs — anyway, I’m like a promotion for Amoeba!
HSV: It’s okay! We love Amoeba! They advertise with me. I love those guys. Shoutout to Joe Goldmark!
CD: They’re great, they’re amazing. I also like to go to the Berkeley location. I’m a record collector, I’m a toy collector, I’m a DVD collector, so when I go to SF I’m like, “Ooooh! Let’s go to some cool stores!” There’s always cool toy stores and hippie stores and thrift stores, and you go all the way past the stores and up the hill and that’s cool too. Of course I always try and go visit the Grateful Dead house, and that’s like just because you can! It’s a block away and you can stand in front of it! And nice restaurants too. And of course it’s right next to the park, that’s a really nice walk too. So I always try to go to the Haight. Yeah, lots of hippies (Laughter), different kinds across the years.
HSV: Yes! I lived here in 1982 when I went to SF State and became a journalist and said enough of the hippie thing and moved to New York for 8 years just to get a little more grit.
CD: Yeah!
HSV: But I still — I live a block away from the Haight and I work there. The importance of community. I never would’ve though in a million years that I would grow and say, “I love my community!” I was very independent, I’m just gonna do this and do that and do my own thing. But the importance of community more than ever now, you know, your paintings, when you go on these tours, it must be a warm and fuzzy that you’re working with these people, and the music thing too that your involved in, music is very inherent in your work, is that correct? Do you feel that?
CD: Yeah, I love musicians! They’re full creators! For me my art it could be like, it’s about the art, but for me the art is kind of like the bubblegum wrapper around the candy that I’m trying to sell, and the candy is more like the consciousness. It’s not just my consciousness, but the consciousness of everybody, which is a unified field of love. And I’m trying to connect with that and I try to find other people who are trying to connect to the love and the creativity. And my art’s kind of like I’m throwing my fishing rod and the art’s at the end of it. And it’s like, “Who’s gonna be attracted to it? Who’s gonna bite?” And then I find my tribe. And then I hear their music and it’s like, “Oooh! You know wassup too!” And then we all find each other with our expressions. In your case, it’s your magazine.
And actually, you might remember meeting me at Psychedelic SF Gallery but I remember meeting you before …
HSV: Oh!?
CD: … because I went to your gallery where Stanley Mouse was.
HSV: Oh! Gallery 1506 on Haight, yeah!
CD: You were there bringing magazines or something, and I was just like inquiring, like, what is to get an artist in residency there? It’s so cool that Stanley Mouse just had a show and I was investigating what’s the possibilities of doing art in SF, which has always been something attractive to every artist.
HSV: Oh yeah!
Well, we want your stuff up here! Well 1506, we’ll have to talk to them!
CD: Yeah!
HSV: Okay, so (looking at notes). I wanted to say that I’m working with Dr. David E Smith who founded the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in 1967 for free healthcare, “Healthcare is a right, not a privilege”, he founded that whole thing. But he’s just starting, he’s 86 now I believe, and he’s doing the Haight Ashbury Psychedelic Center.
CD: Wow!
HSV: I’m working with him which is working with the UCSF doctors that are doing psychedelic-induced psychotherapy in a very controlled setting and it’s 100 percent working for PTSD and all of these things. I’m sure you’re clued in on all of that, but let’s just talk a little bit about psychedelics and the healing power and maybe just a little bit about — I know you’ve done a couple ayahuasca rituals, right?
CD: Yeah!
HSV: I mean clearly psychedelics are a big role in your journey.
CD: Psychedelics or Aya, and I also work with others, but Aya is like my main mistress. It’s like taking the car to the garage. She just straightens me up, cracks my back, puts me back in good shape, or good enough, and then I can go and do my work. I try not to use her as a ghost rider and be like, “Oh, I got nothing to offer. Hey psychedelic world, can you give me something to paint or write about because I got nothing.” No!
HSV: (laughter)
CD: I got lots, but I’ve got lots of a lot! I could bring in my whole humanness to influence it, or maybe I have negative things or insecurities to run the car of Chris. Instead I’d rather let my higher soul, my love, my good qualities run the show.
So yeah, I’ve worked with Ayahuasca over the years. It’s been about 45 ceremonies til this point. I’m kind of like on a hiatus, not like, “I can’t do Aya right now.” It’s just kind of like I’m feeling okay so I’m not looking right now when people invite me. I’m kind of like, “Naw, I’m good right now. Maybe later on.” If it’s something that feels like I must do it in that moment, I’ll go and commune with my inter-dimensional family and be reminded of who we really are on the other side. But I kind of got the gist of it pretty clear, and from that direction I’m just trying to walk a path knowing that I’m an avatar in some sort of god-dream consciousness video game to experience reality and trying to get back to itself. But the video game is so long, there’s no rush. (Laughter) I don’t have to be tied in right now. It’ll happen when it happens and I don’t want to put extra pressure on myself, actually the pressure makes it more difficult. I’m just trying my best every single day and forgiving myself and loving myself through all the mistakes.
HSV: In the book you talk a little bit about that you were drinking to excess and you were out of shape and you really were … my Papa used to always say “the higher the highs the lower the lows.” And you can’t know the highs without knowing the lows. And I think everybody knows that. We all go through really dark stuff, but it is higher when you get out of the darkness! That higher is higher. And for me, that’s through my writing, photography, and then I start getting in that groove, like you said that zone or whatever. I’m sure when you’re painting it’s really healing for you. Did it have a big part in your healing journey?
CD: Yeah. Painting is a really nice meditation. It’s very calm and slow, you’re just sitting, which is treacherous on weight gaining. I just build a mini ramp in my backyard, so when I’m sitting too much in my office or painting, I just go out there and skate a little bit and sweat a little bit cuz I’m at mid 40s! (Laughter)d
HSV: Yeah, I go for PowerTalks up and over Buena Vista every day. It’s like, “Okay, go!”
CD: Yeah, that sounds great!
HSV: Yeah, you know what I mean, just get out there, get out of the head — that whole thing.
CD: Oh yeah!
HSV: Skating relates to your painting, too? I mean, skating is … the skating culture is a really beautiful … I have friend down in Alabama and he’s an avid skater. There’s something really beautiful about that world. Can you maybe speak and relate that a little bit on how that was a big part of your journey, yeah, the skating world?
CD: I’ve been skateboarding since 1986, I was a kid obviously and it always intrigued me. It was rebellious and you hurt yourself and it’s illegal in many cases. It’s kind of like graffiti, the kind of art you’re not supposed to do, it’s illegal, it’s bad. That also attracted me to skateboarding, like you’re not supposed to go out there skating in the street. And, once again, I’m 45, maybe I shouldn’t be skating! I gotta protect my hands! (Laughter) But still, I’m like, “No! I love to do it!” And I bang myself and I don’t care because there’s just something about (hand motions figure 8) zipping around and expressing yourself. It’s like an art form. And I can do it all by myself, I don’t need an audience, I don’t need a team. It’s just me and my board and it’s pretty — once the ramp’s built and I got my board, it’s pretty much free every time I do it. It’s not like snowboarding where I gotta pay my ticket, etc.
HSV: Yeah.
CD: So … I really love it. I love the culture. Once again, it’s a spiritual meditation for me, as is painting. You were asking me about painting right before, for me painting is a relaxed, calm activity, but it’s also a way to reflect myself, aspects of myself, both good and bad, as a mirror for me to get my energy out and be honest with myself. And I paint for myself. My paintings are for me. And actually I sell less and less. I’d rather not sell my paintings if I can avoid it.
HSV: Wow.
CD: So I make it very difficult to sell my paintings. But I love sharing them, you know!? I love to do a show, and I like people seeing it, and I like to take them back home and put them on my own walls. (Laughter)
HSV: I love that!
CD: Murals are different. Murals I can do it in a day and it’s all there and I’ll never see it anymore. And it’s big, huge and fun and they open up portals all around the world! That’s a totally different kind of painting. That’s more physical. That’s like up and down and up the stage and I gotta bend down … that’s why I need my knees to be in good shape!
HSV: Yeah, man.
CD: it’s a physical activity kind of situation. It’s just like a big energy blast and I enjoy creating these portals into different dimensions that hopefully bring in positive energy into wherever I’m painting.
HSV: This one blows my mind, dude. It’s so beautiful. Immediately I’m just like, “Ahhhh.” It’s like a visual massage.
CD: Ah, thank you so much! That was a truck container I painted in the middle of nowhere in the state of Maine. It was for a dispensary. I paint a lot for weed people, dispensaries and farms and brands.
HSV: Beautiful. They must be like — they are your little babies really, aren’t they?
CD: Yeah! Totally! All my art is my children. The paintings that take me months to do, I kind of fall in love with them and that’s why I want to keep them. Murals it’s more like from the beginning I know that, “Okay, I’m not bringing this truck container back home.” It’s a service to the brother or sister that hired me and I’m okay with it. Here’s my energy and it’s all yours. Thank you for honoring me and helping me pay my mortgage. (Laughter)
HSV: How often do you go down to Peru? I was just kind of thinking of you in Florida. I’ve never been to Florida. But is Peru on your map a lot?
CD: Yeah, my parents still live there. They’ve got land. They bought me — well they built me an apartment on their land, so I’ve got a full furnished apartment in Peru and I try and go as often as possible. Right now, I haven’t been able to go last year or this year because I’m working on my green card. Until I get my green card, I can’t leave the country because if I leave and then I try to get back in, at customs they get difficult with me and they’re like, “Oh you didn’t do this or that correctly.” Then all of a sudden the house with all my stuff, I can’t access it for 5 or 10 years, that would be annoying! (Laughter)
HSV Yeah, more than annoying.
CD: Yeah. Or it would force me to just travel the world and accept impermanence. (Laughs)
HSV: It’s mind-blowing the places you’ve been to. I only wrote a few of them down, like India, Thailand, Jamaica, Hungry and a zillion other places. That’s just in you? Clearly you love to travel.
CD: Yeah, that started more in my early 20s when I went hippie.
HSV: Did you say “went hippie”?
CD: Yeah! Before being a hippie I was more of a metal head. I was a punk. I was a kid of the ‘90s. Really aggressive skater kid, and that’s when I was more of a drunk, and negative.
Then I went tree planting and through tree planting I discovered, like, “Oh my god, spirituality is not a religion. It’s just an essence that’s in religion but also everything else. And through tree planting I met hippies. And I was like, “Oh, hippies are not lame, they’re cool.” They’re talking about traveling, so then I started hitchhiking around Canada and then hitchhiking to Mexico and then Hawaii. And then once I started making money it was like “I wanna see the whole world.” And then I started traveling and then once my art career happened I got invited to go all over the world! So I went! The world was my oyster. I went to over 45 different countries. I love the cultural exchange of like I see what culture they’ve got and then I paint them a mural and I leave them my culture there to exchange the vibes. Yeah, it’s so fun!
HSV: It’s gotta be a high! I mean that’s just so beautiful. Living your most truthful life. Like I feel really blessed with my magazine. You know, am I rolling in the dough, no, but is it growing, yes. Do I love it? Am I scared of it, yeah. It terrifies me every time I’m on deadline, and then it happens. You know how that goes. How is this gonna come together? I have no fuckin’ idea! And then all of a sudden it comes together. I just have to show up, I have to be present for it.
CD: Yeah, well good job doing your offering. That’s so cool.
HSV: But it’s really beautiful to see somebody living so honestly. And I really do love your vulnerability in your book. I think I alluded to that, but it’s refreshing.
CD: If I’m not vulnerable I feel like I’m just kind of faking it. What’s the objective? Like who doesn’t suffer? And if I’m doing a book that’s reflecting, you know, it’s biographical. Since it’s the second book, it only starts from 2011 and on, but it pretty much starts with my divorce. That was hard and I felt like a bad husband because all of a sudden my art career was happening and that’s what I wanted, but at the same time my wife was sick and suffering and I was not there for her.
But then I was conflicted, what, am I not supposed to be this artist traveling the world spreading love and joy? So I was losing either way. So we just had to come to an agreement, okay, this is not gonna work out and we stayed as friends. We talk every now and then. She’s one of my best friends. She’s got a partner that stays home, which is what she needs. So I haven’t lost the my love for Valerie, but that’s only the first chapter. After that there’s more heartbreaks (laughter!)
HSV: But it’s really really beautiful. I commend you. The book really moved me because I think there’s a lot of people that aren’t willing to be that real and show that part of themselves. They gotta be cool and they gotta be “I’m a artist.” Even the skater, “I’m a tough skater dude.” Whatever the attitude is.
CD: I think we all just kind of like gotta drop the bullshit. Not that being cool is bad. I’m cool even when I suck. (Laughter). We’re all cool, you know, even a nerd is cool. What is cool? We’re all just cool because everything is an expression of god through a different fractal, physical reality. Everything is beautiful in its own way — even the negative people, they’re a character in a fucking video game and we need those negative creepazoid people to spice it up and make it interesting. I don’t know! Spiderman is great because he’s got so many great villains in his life who want to destroy him. I think that’s cool too. (Laughter)
HSV: I love that! I will say this: living in the Haight, you know they think it’s all unicorns and rainbows but it’s learning how to float through the ebbs and the flows. I think skateboarding for you, doing this flow, like a river doesn’t stop just because there’s a rock. They flow, they go with the flow. And that really is kind of the theme for this Summer edition. It’s the summer solstice and the full moon. It’s kind of like all of us just really going with the flow and allowing whatever it is to be what it is. It’s not like, “Oh that’s a bad thing over there” Or “Oh no we can’t have anything but unicorns and rainbows” because that would be completely boring.
CD: Right. Well, first and foremost I’m a Pisces, so I’m flowy, watery, fishy. But second, Ayahuasca is not a fun ride. It has fun cool points, but it’s like lets go and do something very uncomfortable. Like the body itself is like, “What the fuck is going on? What is this interdimensional reality? This does not match what I was here to do because in your mind you’re so expansive and you’ve left time and space, and Ayahuasca is just telling you surrender motherfucker! Surrender, surrender, surrender. Whatever happens is meant to happen and now just let me do my thing, trust that everything is good right now and everything is to make you better. And when shit goes down in your life, trust that too because that’s gonna take you to a better place as much as you don’t enjoy it, just roll with it.
HSV: Totally.
CD: Humanity is going through that right now. The shit is hitting the fan more and more, and it’s only gonna get more radical. And if we don’t learn how to flow and work with it and be resilient through it all I guess we’re just gonna what? Tap out, suicide, give up? I don’t know, I’d rather keep on playing the video game if I can. It’s my nature.
HSV: Excuse my cough! I’ve got a tickle in my throat. A little hair in my throat. I’m so sorry!
CD: No problem!
HSV: It’s part of the deal! That’s what’s happening! I have something in my throat!
CD: Yeah, yeah, yeah! Surrender to the throat people! (Laughter)
HSV: Yeah! I’m surrendering to my tickly throat!
Okay, we only have a few minutes left. I want to ask you what I like to ask everybody is, what would you like to say to the Haight community? It’s “hyper local with a global perspective” … to communities everywhere, what would you like to say? This is the Haight Street Voice so you can voice whatever. If you had a blowhard and you could tell the world, what would you like to?
CD: I don’t know! Like, just don’t worry, be happy! Same thing I was saying 2 minutes ago: sometimes shit is bad. Sometimes, shit is good. Let’s make the most out of it. Don’t spread the bad, you know? If you’re holding on to bad feelings, you’re sad, you’re angry, you’re frustrated, don’t pass it on to others. If anything, because you don’t want to suffer, maybe you can’t remove the suffering from yourself but how about we remove suffering from others, just by being nice, kind, helpful, whatever we can do. And maybe others will do the same for us.
If we all just pass around the good vibes, the kindness, the healing, the compassion, the support, then it’s a more tolerable world. There will always be hard times, so let’s try to be easy with each other and let each other be and not be like “You gotta be like me.” Enough fights, enough division. Let’s try to have compassion. I guess that’s what I would say!
HSV: Thank you babe! And we’ll see you Saturday August 3 at the Psychedelic SF Gallery. I really look forward to it! And hopefully Paulina is coming too?
CD: Paulina will be there!
HSV: Great, okay cool! I look forward to it!
CD: I think we’re going to have some blotter print releases also, so it’s gonna be a good time. Yeah, so big ups to the San Francisco community — I love you! I’ve always loved San Francisco. I’ve always wanted to live there, until it got too expensive for me! But I’ll always visit!
HSV: Well you definitely are — I mean look at this behind me! You ARE the Haight. A direct correlation there!
CD: Yeah, there are portals there too! I love the whole Grateful Dead community that lives around there. I’m going to Vegas to the Sphere on July 4.
HSV: Nice! I want to hear about that! I can’t wait to talk to you about that. I haven’t gone yet cuz I’m busy with the magazine, but yeah, it’s supposed to be so trippy.
CD: It looks amazing. I did the event poster for that week of July 4 so yeah, I can’t release it yet, it’s released at the event itself so I want to go there and see my poster around and see the show. But yeah, it should be amazing. It was such an honor to be asked!
HSV: Maybe I’ll have to dial that in. Maybe I’ll have to be up there too cuz the magazine will be out.
CD: July 4, your Independence Day.
HSV: Ooh, I like that. I could use a little shaking of the bones and all of that!
CD: Yeah, well, I hope you can make it. I’m sure you’ve got contacts that could help you get some tickets or something.
HSV: I’ve got a call into Bobby, actually.
CD: Oh yeah, nice.
HSV: We’ll see. And I’m trying to get him on the cover, but you know, I love you Bobby, if it’s not now it’ll be in the Fall.
So yeah, lots of love all around. And thank you for this book. It really is beautiful. I mean almost to tears, but good tears. It really moved me that an artist like yourself could really be that vulnerable because I try and be too tough sometimes and it made me feel like, “Hey Linda, it’s okay to be real, like we said.
CD: Yeah! Vulnerable is not weakness. It appears like weakness because it’s “Oh, I’m feeling tender” but there’s something about being strong enough to owning your tenderness. Like, “I’m tender right now but I own it and I’m cool with it and here I am in all my open-heartedness. My heart won’t be closed. My heart is open both to receive love and to give it. Cuz if I close it it’s hard to really give without fear or without an agenda. I think that the world will evolve into a more loving world once we are all open around our hearts and spread the love without fear.
HSV: That’s really beautiful. I think the whole world — it’s just so imperative at the point in time of healing ourselves and loving ourselves. It really is.
CD: Yes! It’s the name of the game! It’s what’s gonna save us.
HSV: And clearly you know. You can feel the love in your work. So we thank you!
Oh my kitty cat wants to say goodbye too! There she is. (Holding Amica up to the camera).
CD: Hi! Oh! Disappeared!
HSV: Yeah, she’s in the ether! Alright Chris, thanks so much, and have a beautiful one. We’ll see you if not July 4 at the Sphere — Sphere and loathing in Las Vegas — then I’ll see you August 3 here in the ‘hood.
CD: Sounds good, Linda! Thank you so much! Blessings.
HSV: Hey man, thanks for reaching out to me. It means the world, it really does.
CD: Yes, of course! Thank you so much for sharing my art with your community.
HSV: Yes! Okay babe, we’ll see you soon!
CD: Bye! Blessings!
HSV: Peace!
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