Transfigurations

I have possessed a slightly beaten-up copy of Alex Grey's first book, Sacred Mirrors, since it was released, and I waited anxiously for Transfigurations to come out. Let me warn everyone: it is a book with a different message and focus than Mirrors. However, it is a message than many of us need to hear. This book focuses more on Grey's development as an artist, with an informative opening section on Grey's artwork through the years. It really gives meaning to his art to see the fruits of his confrontations with his "dark side" early on, and to see what those insights have contributed to the art he produces today. These pieces seem more personal than those in Mirrors, with Grey depicting families, birth, and his young daughter in his trademark hyper-realistic, transparent-skin style. He also includes some of his poems, which accompany a multi-part piece on the journey of the soul. Grey's earlier pieces tended to depict kisses, sex, or deities--universal themes we can all relate to. This book finds him paiting "headaches" or "despair" with the same insight he devotes to more upbeat subjects. Overall this is a great book, illustrating how Grey has grown as an artist over the years. If you are searching for just another "trip-book" on the order of his first publication, this may not be what you're looking for. But for me, it was an enriching view of what Grey's art is becoming as he, like many of us, tries to reconcile a transcendental and psychedelic worldview with a comforting and stable family life.

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.

If you liked sacred mirrors this book is the next step up. Opening to the first part of the book shows Alexs' earlier works and performances which seem strange compared to recent works. However it takes you through his lifes works and shows a very logical progression for the artist. His art progresses from a dark macabre form to a magnificant, spirtual art with bright exuberant colors. With the turn of every page I felt myself slowly filling with spiritual happiness until the end of the book when I felt overcome with spiritual energy and immediately upon closing the book I went into a meditative state and had the most wonderful experience. A must have for any Alex Grey fan or any believer in the sacred purposes of art.

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.

This well printed, well bound, book contains stunningly beautiful and provocative spiritual imagery that resonates with the truth within us. But anyone who has seen Mr. Grey's work before has come to expect this from him.The real treat is that the pages contain an incredible amount of intensely interesting background information (and tons of photos!) on Alex's early works, as well as insightful commentaries by Albert Hoffmann, Stephen Larsen, Donald Kuspit, and Ken Wilber.I have to say... I bought my copy at a higher price directly from Alex Grey's website (...). It showed up a few days after ordering, smelling of freshly printed ink, nicely wrapped and (best of all!) signed by Alex Grey. While it is true that Alex Grey's most recent book celebrates the Journey within all of us, it also offers the reader the opportunity to be subtly transformed by the power of the imagery and lyrical writing contained within - something that we can all benefit from during these disturbing days and into the uncertain ones to come.For this reader, the most exciting aspect of this book is the announcement of Alex Grey's plan to build a Chapel to house the Sacred Mirrors.I have no doubt that this Chapel will be one of the wonders of our age.May God Bless Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey and give them all the strength, luck, and power to support each other into the distant years to come.- G.F.