A Conversation with Gwynneth Haynes (continued)

PM: Let's talk about the incredibly cool painting on the cover--

GH: Ah!

PM: --and the disc of Waking the Mystics, and about the artist, Marion Peck.

GH: Yes. I love Marion Peck.

PM: We want to know all about her.

GH: Ah! Well, I was initially drawn to the works of Mark Ryden who you might know.

PM: I know his name, but not his work, truly.

GH: Well, both Mark Ryden and Marion Peck are part of this art movement called Pop Surrealism, which has been surfacing kind of in the last couple of years. I was looking at an issue of this magazine Juxtapoz, and saw the Mr. Bunny picture in this article, which wasn't covering Marion Peck, it was covering Mark Ryden. And Mark Ryden is actually her boyfriend. And he's a massively successful pop surrealist in a similar vein. And I initially wanted his works, but he doesn't really license his works.

PM: Right. He's too big.

GH: Yeah, he's too big. He said no to Courtney Love.

PM: Oh, wow!

GH: Yeah, I know. And he's obsessed with her, and he said to no to her, so that was interesting. But then I somehow got back to Marion Peck, and then called up their agent and did a licensing deal. And I feel so blessed to have it, because it fits so well for me with the music and what we're about.

PM: I love her painting, "The Evil Snowman." Do you know that one?

GH: Oh, yeah! She's really--she has an amazing imagination.

PM: Well, what, if I may ask, are you reading lately, and to whom are you listening?

GH: Okay. I'm probably--my reading list--I'm a huge Nietzsche fan. I've always been drawn to Nietzsche's work. And he's so funny because a lot of people think of him as sort of a big macho philosopher who's an atheist, and that's really all wrong. He's actually more a neo-pagan romanticist.

PM: [laughs]

GH: He was an amazing composer. He was a poet. He wrote music. And he really loved--remember he also wrote, "I can only believe in a God that dances." He's more like a Sufi if you read Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Zarathustra Records is my record company. So I love Fredrich Nietzsche He's probably one of my good pals, in terms of my spiritual inspiration.

PM: I've never heard him called a Sufi before.

GH: I know!

[laughter]

GH: I wrote my masters thesis on Nietzsche. And I read a lot of Rumi, speaking of Sufis.

PM: Ah.

GH: I'm a huge Rumi fan. He's a great--just so funny, so he can be so bawdy and earthy and funny, and then so spiritual and lofty, and so sentimental, and then so tough. And that's kind of what I like in a writer.

PM: It's like Hendrix, there will never be another Rumi.

GH: Exactly! There will never be another Rumi. So all those places he goes, I just so appreciate. I'm a big spiritual seeker, so I'm always reading some sort of spiritual text.

PM: So you would call yourself a spiritual person?

GH: I can't get enough of it. I'm probably one of the most spiritual people I know. It's all about that search for meaning. I've started studying mystics, the Mystical Kabbalah. When I lived in Los Angeles, I studied Gnosticism, and I studied Mystical Kabbalah, and I studied all kinds of forms of spirituality, Esoteric Christianity. I'm very interested in the real authentic concept of Jesus, the Gnostic Gospels, Nag Hammadhi works, that sort of thing. A Course in Miracles, I'm really into that work. So I do like some of the eastern stuff, too. I mean, in Hindu, I like a lot of the philosophies. I like the Bhagavad-Gita, and I like some of the Hindu chants. And I appreciate a lot of the concepts of Buddhism, especially when applied to psychology and experience, you know, human experience, concepts of detachment, letting go of stuff. [laughs] Letting go of attachments to people, and things working out the way that we think we want them to, letting ego get in the way. And I think that fear of separation is an amazing concept in spirituality that I'm trying to understand in the context of A Course in Miracles.

PM: Fear of separation.

GH: Yeah. Well, the fear that we're separated from God, or the illusion that we're separated from God, one of the greatest causes of suffering, according to this text. And I think it's true.

PM: You're just a lightweight through and through.

[laughter]

GH: Yeah. That's it. I'm always always reading, always learning, always wondering about stuff.

PM: Well, I love ending on that note. I knew you were a spiritual person. And that's part of our connection. I have a wonderful niece with two kids in Portland, and I can't wait to meet you in person sometime when I pay her a visit next.

GH: Oh, I would love to. How often do you get here?

PM: Not often enough, but the reasons continue to mount, and you're my new significant reason. I want to see the band. I wish you all the luck you deserve with Waking the Mystics. And we certainly consider you a most flamboyant breath of fresh air and a huge talent.

	listen to clips
	print (pdf)
	buy the CD here
	sophelux.com
	photo thanks:
	Alicia J. Rose
	puremusic home