It was spring 1965. Lennon and his wife, Cynthia, and Harrison and his wife, Pattie Boyd, were attending a dinner at the London home of dentist John Riley and his girlfriend, Cyndy Bury. Before the foursome left, Riley asked them to stay for coffee, then urged them to finish their cups. Shortly after, he told Lennon he had placed sugar cubes containing LSD in the coffee.
‘Imagine’ speaks from the heart evoking powerful emotions of unity and love; this comic strip joyfully animates this feeling perfectly.
Pablo Stanley masterfully captures the intent and love behind John Lennon’s now iconic song.
The loving thoughts that led to this song’s creation are beginning to take shape in today’s society. As technology and communication expand and unify our consciousness, connections we make pave the way for massive changes in the way we live and interact together.
John Lennon Imagine Comic Strip
John Lennon Imagine Live
Enjoy this live version of Imagine and check out the work of Pablo Stanley
Dave MacDowell’s art melds satire with an unapologetic wit.
The style of MacDowell’s work pairs surreal visuals with deliberately recognizable pop culture references to transform the known into a hilarious commentary on society.
Disney Brainwash
The Last Friday
Pryor on Fire
AM: And you are entirely self taught. What methods did you use to educate yourself in the art of making a good painting? You seem to have a wonderful, and quite individual, grasp on color theory…
DM: Downloading color wheels from the Internet, and struggling with the illusion that I was doing it right. As a career decision from the start, I decided to always use a small script brush to make the work super detailed, and to keep the themes varied and entertaining. – Dave Macdowell, Arrested Motion
Seven in the Box
Saving the Princess
Bad Motha Eraserhead
AM: Some of the great lowbrow painters such as Robt Williams and Todd Schorr must be a huge inspiration to you. Where else do your significant inspirations lie?
DM: I need to tell stories and express what I feel. I always figured that if everything was painted really well, you could say whatever you wanted. I think hidden behind a lot of my candy colored pieces are revolutionary slants leaning toward the misfits and underdogs. Subtle jabs at Classism, racism, greed and commodified sexuality. It’s all in there, but never in your face. – Dave Macdowell, Arrested Motion
Hendrix in Wonderland
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Imagine
Alice in Limbo
The Dude Abides
The Dude
When Yoko Ate Ringo
AM: You had a dalliance with Banksy and also the planned Banksy Unveiling show in the UK not too long back. How did that come about and what happened?
DM: Banksy wrote and said he was a fan of my stuff years ago on Myspace {Remember Myspace anyone?}. My friend in London curated a show with the pitch of revealing the guy. Of course they never did, it was all cheeky fun. Banksy and those guys are all tight anyway, so their Broken Britain madness continues. – Dave Macdowell, Arrested Motion
It is well known that Bob Dylan fully turned The Beatles on to cannabis.
In 1964 they were introduced by a mutual friend, the writer Al Aronowitz, at a New York Hotel. Upon arriving at The Beatles’ suite that evening, Dylan asked for cheap wine, and during the wait Dylan suggested they have a smoke.
The Beatles looked at each other apprehensively. “We’ve never smoked marijuana before,” the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein finally admitted.
Dylan looked disbelievingly from face to face. “But what about your song?” he asked. The one about getting high?”
The Beatles were stupefied. “Which song?” John managed to ask.
Dylan said, “You know…” and then he sang, “and when I touch you I get high, I get high…”
John flushed with embarrassment. “Those aren’t the words,” he admitted. “The words are, ‘I can’t hide, I can’t hide, I can’t hide…” – Peter Brown, The Love You Make
After the room was secured, Dylan rolled the first joint and passed it to Lennon. He immediately gave it to Ringo Starr, whom he called “my royal taster”. Not realizing the etiquette was to pass it on, Starr finished the joint and Dylan and Aronowitz rolled more for each of them.
The Beatles spent the next few hours in hilarity, looked upon with amusement by Dylan. Brian Epstein kept saying, “I’m so high I’m on the ceiling. I’m up on the ceiling.”
Paul McCartney, meanwhile, was struck by the profundity of the occasion, telling anyone who would listen that he was “thinking for the first time, really thinking.”
How Cannabis Influenced The Beatles’ Music
By the time they came to make Help! in 1965, The Beatles’ cannabis use had reached a peak. It affected their songwriting, which became mellower and more introspective. During the filming of Help! they were often stoned on set, which caused them to forget their lines.
The Beatles had gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast.
We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just glazed eyes, giggling all the time. – John Lennon
Cannabis had a significant effect on The Beatles’ music. It found its way into a number of songs:
The Beatles – Got to Get You Into My Life
Described by Paul McCartney as “an ode to pot”
The Beatles – With a Little Help From My Friends
This track was condemned in some quarters due to its reference to getting high.
The Beatles Push for Weed Freedom
On 24 July 1967 The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein added their names to an advertisement which appeared in the Times newspaper calling for the legalization of cannabis.
Sponsored by a group called Soma, the advertisement also demanded the release of all people imprisoned due to cannabis possession, and further research into the drug’s medical uses.
One’s creative juices can be augmented by a pleasant workspace environment.
If you’re having trouble with your creative output, taking a look at how successful creationists have traditionally set up their inspiring workspaces may help.
Although the spaces are unique to each artist, one over-arching theme is an aura ofpeace and solitude.
Super stoners rep their love for cannabis and stoner culture with body art. See if you can find some inspiration for your next tattoo in this gallery of creative stoner tattoos.
John Lennon quotes get to the heart of the matter like an arrow from Apollo’s bow; precise and piercing, provoking the inner depths of our minds into expansion.
Time
Do what you love and you will love your life.
Summing Up Life
Focus on what’s positive in your life.
Love
Let your love flow freely.
Lost in Translation
Do not use God to divide the masses. United God smiles upon us all.
Happiness
Happiness is a choice. Choose to be happy and your life will align with that choice.
Honesty
Be true to yourself.
Peace
Get in touch with your inner most desires and move towards them.
God and Pain
When you speak to and seek out God, focus on what you’re searching for; you’ll find all the answers are inside waiting for you.
Essentially, marijuana can extend the range of our free-associative capacities. It increases the novel ways in which we find connections between ideas, and it also extends the range of ideas that we might somehow relate to one another.
While not surprising, it does offer a scientific validation for what so many artists, philosophers and scientists have been saying for ages: that marijuana is a cognitive catalyst that can trigger heightened free-associative creativity, increased pattern recognition, and insight. – @JasonSilva
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace.
Levitan: John could you please tell us what the situation is with you and your entry into the United States?
Lennon: A lot of people don’t want me in , they think I’m going to cause a violent revolution, which I’m not. And the others don’t want me in because they don’t want me to cause peace either, because war is big business, y’know, and they like war because it keeps them fat and happy. And I’m anti-war so they’re trying to keep me out. But I’ll get in, because they’ll have to own up in public that they’re against peace.
John Lennon – Watching The Wheels
Album: Double Fantasy
John Lennon enjoyed his time away from center stage so much that he wrote a song about it. Watching the Wheels was released in 1981 after Lennon’s murder. This song is a great reminder of the simple beauty that can be found in everyday life.
John Lennon – Watching The Wheels Lyrics
People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing
They give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I’m o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you’re not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I’m lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
Tell them that I’m doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don’t you miss the big time boy you’re no longer on the ball
I’m just sitting here making the wheels run round I really love to watch them roll No longer riding on the merry-go-round I just had to let it go
People asking questions lost in confusion
Well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I’ve lost my mind
I tell them there’s no hurry
I’m just sitting here doing time
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels run round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go…I just had to let it go
Oleg Shuplyak is a talented Ukrainian oil painter who uses hidden images to turn his artworks into mind-blowing optical illusions. Through carefully placed objects, characters, coloring and shadows, there is a second image in the painting which creates an optical illusion.The second image is so easily observable in some paintings, that you can miss the first one consisting of an inconspicuous landscape or characters in different settings.
It’s hard not to observe the faces, especially when they portray famous personalities like Van Gogh, John Lennon, Sigmund Freud or Salvador Dali.