FLOAT Press Blog

Real freedom is worth fighting for, get informed

2012-01-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.thrivemovement.com/

Top Ten Actions
1.
Get Informed, Speak Up & Connect with Others
2.
Bank Locally
3.
Buy and Invest Responsibly
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Join the Movement to Audit and End the Federal Reserve
5.
Keep the Internet Fair & Open
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Require Election & Campaign Finance Reform
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Take Part in Critical Mass Actions

Beautiful reviewd by DeWitt Cheng of the Esat Bay Express

2011-08-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Beautiful

When: Through Sept. 9

Truth is no longer beauty; nowadays, honest art must be subversive, ironic, and detached -- or must it? John Neary's sculptures and Sally Ann Rodriguez's paintings may not be traditionally beautiful, but both artists aim at powerful emotion and push the figurative/anatomical envelope (though not always successfully). Both also look back to Romantic and Expressionist precursors: Rodriguez writes, "The artist never gets away from being a servant, an excavator, a janitor, a builder, a seeker," and she alternates between life studies, imaginary portraits, and abstracted landscapes. "Yellowstone," "In the Hills," and "Hand Like a Foot with a Fish in my Pocket" are her strongest works here. Neary sculpts Rodinesque or Wagnerian figures who struggle from their organic matrices ("Ashes," "Breathing Room," "Powder"); despite their modest size, "Return" and "Power" are monumental, their tragic heroes imbued with superhuman (or subhuman) intensity. Beautiful runs through Sept. 9 at Float Gallery (1091 Calcot Pl. #116, Oakland). 510-535-1702 or TheFloatCenter.com

— DeWitt Cheng

Next 2 amazing exhibits in the gallery for 2011

2011-08-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

Coming to the Gallery in September...

Transient Spaces

Paintings by Rozita Fogelman

& mixed-media conceptual sculpture Leah Markos

Opening Party September 17th 6 to 9pm

Show runs September 11th through October 29th, 2011

Transient Spaces explores symbiotic dualities: impermanence by its nature implies a stay of some length, and likewise, where there is weightlessness there must be solidity, and where there is change, there must be stability. Nature is our ultimate model of "ever" "changing"-yet-always-there. So our own human natures are elemental yet kinetic. Transient Spaces includes textural abstract paintings by Rozita Fogelman and mixed-media conceptual sculpture by Leah Markos.

Rozita Fogelman - Mixed media painter

Rozita Fogelman is a multi-disciplinary media artist originally from Tbilisi, Georgia. In the past twenty years, my artwork grew out of a need to tell stories of vulnerability and compassion. My recent work: Body, Land and Water is my attempt to create a metaphor addressing the need to reconnect these core elements of water and earth. In Hebrew, Body, Land and Water: אדם, דם, אדמה-all elements are coexists in balance as one collective living consciousness. rozita.posterous.com

Leah Markos - Sculptor/Installation Artist

"Our egos, relationships, and consumerist lifestyles combine in ever shifting combinations that pervade and shape thought and feeling. In my sculptural works, simple evocative forms adorned with multiple stylized teats toy with the wavering line between comfort and coldness. A related sense of thwarted promise is made solid in some works, as seen in blunt, heavy shapes to be carried as burdens, but embedded with cores of more complex or beautiful materials. These pieces both lament and celebrate. Other works simply illustrate obstacle or difficulty, with an occasional underlying call to notice what we use, discard, create and ruin." --Leah Markos

The FLOAT Gallery is Proud to present...

Nina Glaser Mosaics,

With Plasma Sculpture by Michael Pargett

Opening Party Saturday November 5th, 6pm - 9pm

Show runs October 31st through December 31st

New work.. Defunct Gallery

FLOAT Gallery is proud to present the return of Nina Glaser. Exhibiting her Glass Mosaics illuminated by Michael Pargett's Plasma Sculpture.

International photographer Nina Glaser's photography career included teaching at the Academy of Art University, and the publication of two monograms: "Outside of Time" and "Recomposed". Nine years ago, Glaser decided she had completed the body of work she felt she was destined to do. Glaser's photography is both haunting and extraordinarily powerful. Her creative energy then shifted to creating her now thriving hypnotherapy business. Nina Glaser Hypnotherapy.

After a 9 year absence from the art world, Glaser is back taking her next step into the tactile world of glass mosaics; many contain imbedded images of her extraordinary black and white photography.

Past work.. Metal Ring

"I was a fine-arts photographer for 18 years. Black & White images, painted nude figures, stark and timeless. I left photography when I felt that I had used the medium enough to express and explore the themes that mattered to me. In my break from photography, I taught fine-arts photography at a local university and printed for other photographers.

Even though my current day-time work is highly creative in thought and language, I missed the tactile experience of art. I have always loved glass, and have wanted to paint. Making glass mosaics lets me enjoy both. I use bright, colorful stained glass and apply it as if it were paint. My current body of work is narrative in nature; each image tells a story, while also inviting the viewer to participate and interpret." -Nina Glaser

About The Sculptor:

Michael Pargett enjoys the paradox between the high energy that creates the illumination, and the slow, sensual movement of the gas mixtures that can be achieved to present a visual experience that is as compelling as it is hard to describe. His expressions are at times humorous and at others inspired by a desire to honor the basic elements of the gasses themselves. During the filling portion of the creative process, he attempts to allow the gases themselves to express how they would like to manifest within the glass.

"They feel as though they have something to say, if I only knew how to listen consistently" - Michael Pargett Theartelectrique.com

Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level - Very Cool!

2011-05-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level

Canadian researchers report floating in an isolation tank increased the technical skill level of young jazz players.

By Tom Jacobs

View Comments | PRINT | E-MAIL

Forget practicing scales, how about trying altered states? A new Canadian experiment suggests floating in an isolation tank may increase the technical ability of musicians. (istockphoto.com)

Floatation Tank Helps Improve Grades

2011-04-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Floatation Tank Helps Improve Grades

Published

Dr Marc Dussault

on April 3, 2011

in Exam Stress and Anxiety, Memory Skills, Positive Mindset and Study Psychology

. 0 Comments Tags: Deep Learning, Deep Reading, Floatation Tank.

If you’re really keen to tap into the limitless potential of your unconscious mind, you’re going to want to have session in a floatation tank. In this day and age of constant interruptions, time slicing and multi-tasking, research reflects it’s having an effect on our ability for deep thinking.
The changing nature of work, study and leisure is rewiring the human brain in such a way that deep reading the concentrated pursuit of linear stories and thought – is being trained out of us.
A University Of California (San Diego) study found that the amount of information the average American processed in 2008 was triple what it was in 1960. This has turned many into pancake people – spread wide and thin.
A series of psychological studies over the past 20 years have shown that after spending time in a quiet rural setting, close to nature, people exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and improved cognition (learning). Their brains become calmer and sharper.

Floatation Tank Improves Your Grades

Now it may not be quick and easy to head out to the country, but a 1-hour session in a floatation tank can do you and your grades – real wonders.
It’s inexpensive and easy to do. The feelings of weightlessness have to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
You should test various approaches to using a floatation tank as a study aid:

Try to study before, using the floatation tank to resolve problems, or just do a mental review of what you just studied.
Try to start studying before, float and then attack your hardest assignments or problems, reverse the process and see which combination works best for you.

Using a floatation tank as a pattern interrupt will stimulate your creativity and innovative thinking by tapping into the subconscious part of your brain, unleashing the Exponential Potential™ that resides within in.
All you need to do is trust the process and “release yourself from the expectation of the outcome” as Dr Deepak Chopra extols. This is not something you can force. You need to ‘let it happen’ and then marvel in its quasi-magical powers as you become the genius you always knew you could be!

Here is the webiste We found this on: http://www.get-better-grades.com/blog/floatation-tank-helps-improve-grades/

Another fine article about floatation therapy

2011-03-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Float Your Way to Good Health

Alternative healing methods to restore your mind, body and soul

Christy Leung

Feeling tired, run down and exhausted lately? Alternative healing methods might help solve your problems of being overworked or having emotional distress.
More and more individuals are moving away from or supplementing Western medicine and traditional treatments with alternative healing methods. You probably recognize holistic healing methods such as homeopathy, massage therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatments . . . but what about "floating?"
Here's a rundown on several alternative treatments you ought to know about and try:

Floatation Therapy

Here at DH headquarters in Portland, Ore., we're just miles away from FloatOn, which claims to be the largest float tank center on the west coast. Developed by a neuroscientist in the mid 1950s, floatation tanks were originally named "sensory deprivation tanks." In more recent years as the therapy has grown in popularity, the name has changed to "float tanks" and a therapeutic session in one of these tanks reportedly gets rid of all sensory input and enables to the brain to calm down. About 40 minutes into your float, "your brain stops producing its normal Alpha waves and starts churning out Theta waves. These are responsible for that 'between-waking-and-sleeping' state."
People who have undergone floatation therapy have raved that the relaxed state from being in the tank have alleviated a range of conditions including anxiety, day-to-day stress, chronic pain, insomnia, jet lag and it has even helped fight addiction. Besides physical benefits, floating is also valuable for spiritual practice and improving concentration and focus. Floatation therapy has become more recognized in recent years and has even been featured on shows such as The Simpsons, Fringe and CSI. Have you tried this unique therapeutic remedy?

Lubbock Texas rocks the 4th state of matter!

2010-11-22T17:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.glassartists.org/Gal17751_Plasma_Tubes.asp

Tony Greer has been creating plasma art for over 30 years,

check it out!

Jabberwocky, reviewed by Dewitt Cheng of the East Bay Express

2010-09-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Jabberwocky

The whiffling, burbling (i.e., puffing and bleating/murmuring/warbling) monster may have been slain by the beamish boy in Lewis Carroll’s poem, but the Jabberwock’s galumphing comic/sinister spirit lives on in the exuberant fantasy paintings of Cheryl Finfrock and Liz Mamorsky. Finfrock’s paintings of childlike protagonists (“Wheels for Feet and Teeth That Talk,” “Flight of the Bumble Bee,” Mothra Vs. the Tugboat”)) imbue expressionism with graffiti-style raw energy in the service of story-telling, albeit with indeterminate narratives, despite their un-Victorian suggestions of Tim Burton perversity; her abstract landscapes (“Forbidden Paradise,” “Outpost”) are surprisingly lyrical evocations of nature. Mamorsky explores improvisation to generate her imagery (“Tube Sex,” “Jabberwocky,” “Catzilla,” “Shreckless”), which seems to combine both mythopoeic “primitive” art and its Surrealist-colonialist variants: “Characters emerge and are developed, sometimes deleted or allowed to morph into other creatures.” Jabberwocky runs through September 18 at Float Gallery (1091 Calcot Pl., Oakland). 510-535-1702 or TheFloatCenter.com. — DeWitt Cheng

SURRENDER, Opening party Thursday June 24th 6pm- 9pm with live painting by Android Jones DJ Random Rab will be spinning down tempo

2010-06-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

Please join us this Thursday for the opening party of SURRENDER,

Thursday June 24th 6pm- 9pm with live painting by Android Jones
DJ Random Rab will be spinning down tempo

More about the artists

Please join the FLOAT Gallery for: Enigma… Artist mixer

2010-05-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Please join the FLOAT Gallery for:

Enigma… Artist mixer

Artists Dave Meeker & J.B. MacKinnon will discuss their work
In the presence of fine company and free libations.

Friday June 11th, 2010, 6:00 - 8:30 PM

J.B. MacKinnon will be speaking about the art fan, critic, consumer, casual observer as a vital co-creator of both my work and our joint show. jb-mackinnon.com

It takes only a moment to realize you have lost something essential once it is gone. It is my desire to help others see what can’t be seen, notice the under valued, and to take a moment to breathe. – Dave Meeker davemeekerart.com

Directions

DeWitt Cheng of the East Bay Express reviews Where do I go from here

2010-04-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

Another Fab review on our current exhibit:

Where Do I Go From Here?

When: Through April 24
Phone: 510-535-1702
Price: free

Gauguin's mythic "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" depicted a tropical Golden Age; these days we dream less about pre-colonial utopias and worry more about post-industrial dystopias. This show, curated by Nancy Vicknair, presents speculative alternatives to our damaged (but slowly healing) capitalist reality. SalaneC . Schultz's acrylics, graphic-style and infused with absurdist humor, suggest animated films: in "Man in Museum," a gigantic stick figure squeezes between abstract paintings to inspect a tiny figure statue. Clayton Thiel's ceramics explore an eclectic personal mythology: His monumental dreaming heads, both infants and sages, suggest an unknown civilization. Mark Wagner envisions a trans-temporal past/future in oils like "The Creation of Language," digital prints like "The Art of War," and his "Digital Muse" series, the Eternal Feminine gone kaleidoscopic. Where Do I Go From Here?runs through April 24 at Float Gallery (1091 Calcot Pl. #116, Oakland). 510-535-1702 or TheFloatCenter.com

— DeWitt Cheng

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/Event?oid=1616611

Art Reviewer Michael Singman-Aste's words about our current show....

2010-04-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

Where do I go from here?

April 1st, 2010 “Where do I go from here?” Work by Mark Wagner, Clayton Thiel, and Salane C Schultz, at FLOAT. March 20th - April 24th.
In 1992 I visited Virtual World, a gaming immersion center in nearby Walnut Creek. Hot on the release of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s novel “The Difference Engine,” steampunk was just starting to catch on as a subculture. The lounge at the entrance to Virtual World was designed to resemble an expat bar in colonial India (or was it Mars?), the decor replete with potted ferns and ceiling fans. Following a debriefing, we were led into the gaming area, where each pilot stepped into their own mechanized warrior. I’m a bit claustrophobic, but once the door closed, rather than feeling trapped, you felt immersed in a new, virtual reality, while on your HUD new found allies and enemies lumbered across this fresh vista. You were cut off from the outside world but completely in touch with this other dimension.
Walking into FLOAT, which bills itself as an “urban art spa,” I flashed back to Virtual World. It is not only an art gallery, but a flotation center as well. They offer “Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy” (R.E.S.T., which provides a much better acronym than “Flotation And Relaxation Therapy”) in what is commonly referred to as a sensory-deprivation tank. And after a briefing on what to expect from their experience, clients are similarly led from the gallery’s lounge to where the flotation tank awaits behind a curtain.
“Where do I go from here?,” work by Mark Wagner, Clayton Thiel, and Salane C Schultz, is guest curated by art publicist Nancy Vicknair. The gallery’s website broadly describes the exhibit: “Three artists explore the next dimension though magic, mythology, symbolism and story telling.”
This is the first show in six years for Alameda-based artist Wagner, who made news in 2008 when his nonprofit “Re-Enchanting the World through Art” organized the world record-setting chalk drawing in Alameda’s former naval air station. “Where do I go from here?” includes some of Wagner’s older work, including “Creation of Language” (1992) with the strong Native American imagery for which he is well known, as well as ”The Nature of Technology” (2003) which humorously shows African animals depicted as bipeds posing for a camera, as indicated by the focussing circle at the center of the print.

"Horned Goddess" (detail), "Green Man Medicine" (detail), and "The Art of War" by Mark Wagner

Wagner’s newer pieces are complex, beautiful, and fearsome. The trio of signed, numbered, digital prints–”Horned Goddess,” “Green Man Medicine,” and “The Art of War” (2010)–all appear to be warriors, there to protect or heal us. The theme of fierce but beneficent figures continues with his new paintings “Sentinel of Time” and “The Soul Gatherer.” The latter, a 32×44 oil and mixed media on board, was among the pricier works in the exhibit, and fetched $3200.

"Tree House I Never Got to Build," "Raven Head," and "Totem Figure w/Toys" by Clayton Thiel

Mark Wagner has collaborated previously with Clayton Thiel and their styles and mythologies mix easily. According to Thiel’s statement, “Once imbuing his heads and figures with more obvious narrative elements, often composed of symbolic objects or story-telling hints to be interpreted, his sculptures now ask only to be examined for themselves.” However, his work in this show is not only beautiful and intriguing, but also has a strong narrative quality. One cannot help but wonder what story they are telling.

Salane C Shultz with her "Sideways Girl"

The paintings of Salane C Shultz are playful, a quality exhibited by the artist herself. Shultz is also a musician–she’s Miss February in the tongue-in-cheek 2010 West Coast Accordion Babes Pin-Up Calendar–and she anthropomorphizes music into figures reminiscent of Kokopelli, the Native American fertility deity who also represents the spirit of music. With their silhouettes and intertwined loops, the subjects populating the mythology of her two-dimensional universe also call to mind Keith Haring.

"The Concertina Player" and "Man in Museum" by Salane C Schultz

FLOAT is located at 1091 Calcot Place, Unit #116, Oakland CA, 94606. (510) 535-1702. Open 7 days a week, 10 am to 10 pm by appointment.
Michael Singman-Aste
Postdiluvian Photo

Original blog:
http://networkedblogs.com/2290Y

Dream Class #2, coming to the FLOAT Gallery April 20th

2010-03-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

FLOAT Presents:

Group Dream Work Class by Travis Wernet

April 20th, 7-10pm

Come join us for a potent and stirring evening of Group Dream Work. Dreams are the language of our deepest source of self-knowing and hold the keys to an ever-deepening fulfillment in our journey of Life. In this group, Travis Wernet will facilitate a safe container for all participants to glean the messages of our night-time travels and the truth in our Souls. There will be an introductory period for describing group technique and guidelines. We will then invite folks to share dreams, have a short break and come back to share some more and close the evening. In this comprehensive and felt-approach to Dream Work, there is a multi-layered benefit to working and sharing in a group setting, not available to us when we attempt to understand our dreams alone.

Please join us for this monthly dreamy evening @ FLOAT.

Class specifics:
Date: Tuesday April 20th 7-10pm
Price: $20- Early Registration and $25- / Day of Class
The group is limited to 10 participants.
Pre-Registering access via PayPal: to: didjfish@sbcglobal.net a Receipt will be emailed to you to confirm your registration.
What to Bring: (1) A Comfy Pillow, Yoga Mat or sports chair to sit with on the floor of a work, live loft. (2) A written/recorded recent/outstanding Dream to share.
*Snacks and Tea will be provided during break

About Travis Wernet:

Travis Wernet has worked in group settings for the last 15 years. He studied Universal Archetypal Dreams and Mythology with Jeremy Taylor at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland California, and has been assisting folks to unravel the meaning in their dreams for many years. His background includes several years’ service in Community Mental Health, in addition to Clarity Breath Work Training levels I-IV and a Reiki Practitioner Certification. www.intuitivesound.net

A vitrural tour of oaklands artist run galleries

2010-03-05T11:03:00.000-08:00

Berkley journalism student Caitlin Esch just finished a fabulous multi media project about Oakland's artist owned and operated art galleries... take a look! http://oaklandnorth.net/beyond-broadway-telegraph/

Fellow Travelers Three artists explore location, dislocation, memory, and imagination.

2010-01-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

By DeWitt Cheng

Published in the East Bay Express 1/6/2010

The web is fast replacing reality in human consciousness, and we technophiles generally gain from the new ways to examine and interpret the world. The idea that tools shape brain evolution, or that instrumentality alters mentality, is old hat, of course, but smiling, happy iPod people should not assume that texting/tweeting supplants traditional material- and reality-based art. The mixed-media works by Anna W. Edwards, Martin Webb, and Nanci Price Scoular in depARTure demonstrate anew the virtues of imaginative struggle. David Hockney once theorized (disingenuously, during his photo-mosaic period) that the greater the time spent making an artwork, the better it is; it's a claim as bogus as is its converse. Travel broadens, and the creative journey (or grappling) is half the fun (or pain).
Edwards makes acrylic paintings based on her memories of exploring unfamiliar locales on foot; refracted through contemplation and improvisation, her sensations take abstract form in richly colored atmospheres ("Windswept," "Still Waters," Setting Sun,") pulsing with light and movement. They suggest, variously, surrealism, neo-romanticism, Abstract Expressionism, and color-field abstraction. These are lyrical, spiritualized landscapes in which collaged fragments of paper and cloth hover amid moody clouds or lava flows.
Webb, who grew up in an English mining town and now often works with day laborers, is showing mixed-media (concrete, metal hardware, wood, tile) pieces dealing with the themes of immigration and home: "laborers, forgotten coal miners, and elusive coyotes [the quadrupeds, not the smugglers] caught in fragmented narratives in fragmented landscapes." These physically imposing yet elegant works ("Walgreen," "Depot," "Coyote") depict the contemporary built landscape, rendered with its own raw materials and bedecked with signs and shadows.
Scoular, South African by birth, focuses on immigration, too. Her "Journeys" works — digitally printed photographs on canvas obscured with overlays of acrylic paint — suggest ambiguity and change, but with paradoxical visual authority (Lionel Feininger and J.M.W. Turner come to mind). The recurrent "rusted iron rings and gates, bound to concrete ... [symbolize] the yearning of an immigrant to gain entry, commit and belong ... [to] never go back," to forge "a new context and meaning." Reception with didgeridoo performance by Travis Werner on Saturday, January 23. DepARTure runs through February 13 (along with neon/xenon-plasma light sculptures by Michael Pargett) at Float Gallery (1091 Calcot Pl., #116, Oakland). 510-535-1702 or TheFloatCenter.com

Holiday Buy-pass...the Anti-Christmas Party ....!?%&#@%*?

2009-12-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

Holiday Buy-pass...the Anti-Christmas Party ....!?%&#@%*?

Let’s skip all that holiday tradition and celebrate without an ounce of Christmas cheer, please join us for: The T R A N S P O R T Anti-
Christmas party & closing celebration...

t r a n s p o r t yourself beyond the usual!
Saturday December 19th, 6 to 9pm, at the FLOAT gallery.

This year, instead of buying-in to the consumption hustle, come enrich your senses at the FLOAT Gallery, to celebrate an artful awareness project.

Replace the usual material escape! Come look into your life, with a free psychic reading...
& Give deeper... to someone special in your life, with discount FLOAT gift certificates available only at the event.

The Genie will summon up live "scratch guitar" for your ears.

About the exhibit:
In this project, a car dies to give life to awareness, from one transformative vow:
I will never again own a fossil fuel burning vehicle.
Witness the t r a n s f o r m a t i o n : a public interactive awareness process, a chance to make art with a usually untouchable machine.
Witness the d e c o n s t r u c t i o n : a live sculptural process, with each unhinged piece unearthing new questions in participants.
Inspired inside the floatation tanks—with their own ability to transport us—this project will now come alive right next to them. See a powerful film of mechanical and self-deconstruction. Sit down inside car-part-artwork sculpted into an experiential living room. Bring your hands to kinesthetic pieces, offered for your own reconstruction. And follow our evocative wall of visual artwork welded with introspective writing. All inviting a new space to open up in you, to t r a n s p o r t your own life...

About the artists:
Drake Logan founded apostrophe' productions as a vehicle for interdisciplinary art and awareness process projects designed to raise public empathy around issues of social justice and self-expression, ranging from fossil fuel consumption to transgender visibility. When not facilitating interactive art, she still paints on canvas or the street. Logan is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at The Wright Institute. apostrophe@resist.ca
Julia Robertson is an artist and activist interested in promoting social change through interactive video and art projects. She created a non-profit production company, Pinch Me Films, with the mission to create and distribute educational videos for youth. Robertson is currently working on her MFA in Social Practices at The California College of the Arts. www.pinchmefilms.org

About The Genie
The Genie is an avant-garde guitarist, performer, and musical pioneer best known to audiences for his 'scratch guitar' shows, a unique performance involving live looping, slide guitar, beatboxing, unconventional syncopation, and various original techniques which he has crafted.

Hear music and see videos at www.myspace.com/thegenie

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 (located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios) Oakland, CA 94606
510.535.1702
info@thefloatcenter.com, www.thefloatcenter.com
Directions

Floatworks kicks out a lovely video of Floating!

2009-12-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Check it out!

Step #2 drake’s deconstruction, black rock city 2009, by Dave Raphael

2009-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Check out drake’s deconstruction, black rock city 2009.

http://daveraphael.com/blog/?p=1202#respond

An amazing photographer Dave Raphael has documented the destruction: http://daveraphael.com/blog/?p=1202#respond

Come check out the Opening party this Saturday... 6-9pm
http://thefloatcenter.com/gallery.html

More images of FLOAT artist work, and floaters

2009-10-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Coming to the FLOAT gallery November 1st

2009-10-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

t r a n s p o r t

Through the looking glass, a Mad Tea party coming to the FLOAT Gallery

2009-09-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

Through the looking glass

Three artists reinterpret Wonderland...

Mad Tea party on September 26^th 6-9pm with live Jazz by "ManOverboard" and Bubbling Absinth spiked tea if you dare!

Show runs Sept 21^st- Oct 31^st

Join artists Bruce Tamberelli, Darwin Price, & Yvette M. Buigues for the opening reception of “Through the Looking Glass.” Prepare to be amazed by strange and wondrous works of art. Enjoy the jazz stylings of 'ManOverboard' . You'll be grinning like a Cheshire cat!

So book a float, with our mad as a hatter special and check out our Mad tea party on September 26^th. Great art, costumes, live music and wild libations!

FLOAT Gallery

1091 Calcot place #116 oakland

510-525-1702

Thefloatcenter.com

Only 4 more weeks of brilliant playful creatures, and junk yard kinetic art

2009-08-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Come check out “The Moose Must Persuade the Duck”
Encaustic Drawings & Monotypes by Cheryl Finfrock,
Kinetic art by Sudhu Tewari

Show runs through September 19th, 2009, Call for appointment M-Sun 10am-10pm
Both of these artist’s work is based in the exploration of seeing the world though childlike dreams. For art is the breath between the work and its viewer. Sometimes random and playful, it is the process itself that allows the collection of intention midstream. In this way, the Moose must persuade the Duck, as the work is pointing to a vision. Look, see it isn't all just all a thought experiment.

Cheryl Finfrock is an internationally known artist that creates monotypes, paintings on paper, canvas and wood. Narrative expressionism, humor, and symbolism are central throughout her work. Recent exhibits span US and Europe including New York City, San Francisco, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Berlin, Copenhagen, Montreal, Olomouc, Paris, and Sofia.

Sudhu Tewari is an artist, instrument builder, tinkerer and improviser. He has also been called a junkyard maven, bricoleur, and young-audio gadgeteer. An early interest in disassembling alarm clocks and coffee makers gave rise to electro-acoustic instruments constructed with the remains of discarded stereo equipment, kinetic sculptures and sound installations.

Moronic Urban Myths of Floatation Therapy (Sensory Deprivation)

2009-07-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today I had a large crew of students come to float in my tanks, when I asked the main person in the group how he found us, he told me that his psychology professor told him it was a great way to hallucinate, and it is really fun.

Seriously should this professor really be teaching anyone anything? Dream state yes, theta waves yes, fun, most certainly. But without the use of drugs no hallucination’s in any commercial tank.

I have heard these and many more moronic myths about float tanks, such as…

People freak out (None in the history of commercial floatation tanks)
It’s claustrophobic, and it will make your more claustrophobic (Imposable without proprioception)
You will lose your bowels as soon as you get in the tank (Honey if you have that kind of a problem, we suggest you simply stay home until you get better)
You must use a tampon, or the salt will get inside of you (What are you smoking?)
You will absorb all the sodium, and it’s bad to be in salty water. (There is no sodium in a floatation tank)

Fortunately these ridicules urban myths are said by people who have never floated, and are just tossing out moronic opinions, as they apply butter to a burn. Thankfully my customers are far more evolved then them.

Please feel free to offer more Moronic Urban Myths of Floatation Therapy, as I suppose I should begin to keep a log.

June is all about Art in the East Bay!

2009-06-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

June marks many art crawls around the east bay and specifically around the FLOAT Gallery.

Support your local artists, and come explore the wonders of the east bay art scene.

East bay open studios, Ju ne 6^th, 7^th & 13^t ^h & 14^th

Jingle town Arts & Business Art Walk, June 6^th, 7^th & 13^th & 14^th

Estuary Art Attack, Art around the Island. Galleries open every 2^nd Friday of the month, 6-9pm.

Enjoy!

You can now float with an owie!

2009-05-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's the deal... It's always been that you cound not float in a floatation tank when you have a new cut or wound, that has not healed over. The salt is just not going to allow that to happen.

Well now you can... I must say I just love my brilliant customers. 3M is now making a product called Tegaderm, it is a waterproof bangdage that comes in many sizes. Normally any bandage would simply not work in the tank... until now. In addition you can even float with a cast, another fine tip from my customers.

So the next time I hurt myself, I will no longer wait to recover before I get to float!

Hmmmm sweet, new float pod on the market

2009-04-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Our Fine friend from London Tim @ Floatworks, has developed a new tank called the I-sopod , not to be confused with the Isopod.

I'm quite sure that his vast years of experience has resulted in an amazing floatation tank. I look forward to trying it sometime soon.

Gillian Kendall of Curve Magazine Floats in Austrailia?

2009-04-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

I tried it

Womb Without a View

Looking for some alone time? Try a sensory deprivation tank. By Gillian Kendall

It was a typical weekend evening, and my partner and I were companionably complaining about bills: the mortgage, the damn insurance on everything, the vet expenses for our four aging animals. I told her, “I get tired of being a grownup.” Sometimes I want to be a kid again, with
someone else to not only pay the rent but also clothe and feed me, take me out for fun
and then, when I’ve had enough, take me home and put me to bed. I want to sleep in
a place both warm and dark, preferably a waterbed heated to body temperature—as
womblike as possible. I get that womb-y escape from isolation tanks. Also called float tanks and sensory depravation tanks, they are large, waterproof, soundproof boxe in which the user floats on a bed of water thick with Epsom salts, basking in dark, warm, private silence. I
first floated when I lived in downtown San Diego, a city so sunny and lively that it frayed my nerves. For relaxation, and out of curiosity, I took the plunge into isolation. It’s a little like death. After I had a calming drink of herbal tea in the anteroom, a soft-spoken receptionist led me to the changing room to get ready for my soak. There I stood alone in a large, dark bathroom
with piped-in, ultra-soft New Age music, getting ready to face infinity—for an hour, at least.
I shed my clothes, put in earplugs and applied Vaseline to any little cuts or scrapes on my
body, so the salt wouldn’t sting and interfere with my bliss. Then I opened the lid of a coffinlike box and peered inside. Strewn with Epsom salts, the water smelled like the ocean and looked like molten glass. Stepping in, I felt nothing at all—the water was exactly my body temperature—and once I leaned back, floating was inevitable. Well supported, I sank only slightly, my knees and breasts staying above the surface. With my face well above the waterline, I breathed in the steamy, salty air with gratitude. I couldn’t go under if I tried, and no one was going to
bother me for a long time. I took several minutes to close the top of the box, because
I knew that once the lid came down, it was going to be utterly dark and a little weird. (Claustrophobes, take note: There’s no lock on the lid and you can open it with a touch at any time.) But once I shut out the light, I wasn’t afraid of the dark so much as fascinated by the noise and color inside my own mind. What came to me was a slow, gradual peace, like going into a dreamless sleep. The day’s worries and my recent emotional upheavals melted away, leaving
me feeling safe and protected. In my timeout from life, I was free to think things through, to meditate or pray or do nothing at all. Also, I saw a light—not enough to interfere with my relaxation, but a sure, small beam of white, like a star, coming from the far end of the tank. I thought there must be a pinprick opening in the seal of the lid. Later on, when soft music wafted into the tank to suggest that my soak was over, I dressed and was reborn to the world of light and sound. As I drank a second cup of chamomile, I told the receptionist
about the light leak. “Oh, really?” he said. “I doubt it, but I’m always looking for an excuse to soak. I’ll go check it out.” Ten minutes later he came back grinning, drying his hair. “There’s no leak,” he said. “We get sent in there all the time to look for lights—red, gold, white—people
see all kinds of things. Whatever you saw, it wasn’t coming from outside.”

Hippie 3.0 is now!

2009-04-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

Hippie 3.0 is now!

Over the past month, we have noticed a growing movement of hippie identification, from the local Eastbay hippie hangout to hearing the self identification of friends calling themselves hippies. And we think this is a good thing.

The dictionary defines a hippie as one who doesn't conform to society's standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle.

Being a hippie is a matter of accepting a universal belief system that transcends the social, political, and moral norms of any established structure, be it a class, church, or government. Each of these powerful institutions has its own agenda for controlling, even enslaving people. Each has to defend itself when threatened by real or imagined enemies. So we see though history a parade of endless conflicts with country vs. country, religion vs. religion, class vs. class. After millennia of war and strife, in which uncounted millions have suffered, we have yet to rise above our petty differences.

The way of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive hierarchical power structures since these are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom. This is why the "Establishment" feared and suppressed the hippie movement of the '60s, as it was a revolution against the established order. It is also the reason why the hippies were unable to unite and overthrow the system since they refused to build their own power base. Hippies don't impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies seek to change the world through reason and by living what they believe.

The Hippie transcends petty differences, by promoting love and tolerance. In Hippie language, this means accepting others as they are, giving them the freedom to express themselves and not judging people based solely on appearances. The Hippie movement is symbolic of a signpost on the road to freedom. Freedom to do what you want and follow the flow of life allows for utmost personal growth and mind expansion.

If this is the wave of the future, well we embrace our inner Hippie and those who identify as such.

"Hippy is an establishment label for a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For every visible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand invisible members of the turned-on underground. Persons whose lives are tuned in to their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of American Life"

Timothy Leary (The Politics of Ecstasy) 1967

Floating a Mills College Student

2009-03-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Floating meditation unique experience

by Kim Harris in Sports & Health

In the tank, my body bobbed in space. I couldn't tell where my limbs ended and the water began. Were my eyes open or closed? Was I drifting from side to side? After a while, I decided it didn't matter. I was floating. "It's sensory deprivation, but in a good way," said Allison Walton, co-owner of FLOAT, Floatation Center-Art Gallery in Oakland.

I too noticed an alleviation of my fears while floating. After the initial nerves wore off, and I was able to enjoy weightlessness, I noticed a very clear change in my thinking. I was no longer a separate entity from the water. I had become the water, and the skin-temperature water made it feel as if I was floating through space. The pain and tension in my back and neck melted away.

After my float, I felt the clarity that many clients describe. I was awakened to every sense. The hot shower was extraordinarily refreshing, and the cup of green tea that Allison had made was soothing and warm in my hands. I drank the whole cup in five minutes. The artwork in the gallery was more colorful than when I came in.

Just a select few select paragraphs from Kims entire story.

Lions, and Tigers and Shamans .. oh my!

2009-02-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

For my birthday this year. I decided to check out a modern day Native America Shaman named Emaho. Some of my amazing floatation therapy customers have been following him for over a decade, and I decided to find out why.

The Event was amazing, great food, great fire dance and common sense old school life wisdom.

Here is a bit more about Emaho:

Emahó is an American Indian shaman who has been organizing seminars in Europe for more than 20 years. Firedance is a part of them. Born as a Catholic, mother was Spaniard, father an American Indian from the Tewa tribe.

Emahó passed through Buddhism, he is a catholic bishop of the Antioch church, he became a Hinduist and mainly he is 'a child of life' as he says. His teaching is about how life is very universal and above all religions.

The ritual of firedance took him 7 years under unusual circumstances and has now dedicated it to people living in Europe as a gift. Six months a year he is working at the seminars.

Answering the question 'what is happening during fire dance?' in an interview for the Respekt newspaper, Emahó said: “The spirit of people is a black space. Splendid, divine, completely black space. It is Life. And at his edge there is a rainbow moving light. It is a dream-like body of every human being. All people are born like divine beings, fascinating and spontaneous. But all injuries and disappointments are like grains of sand clogging up this dream-like body. We have no notion, how much these grains affect us inside, induce diseases and problems. During the firedance I can see dreamlike bodies of people dancing with me and I work with them. I remove all grains of sand being like weight. All of us have them, we are weak, critical, unfair, confused and injured.

So... get your shaman on... it's a great ride.

Yelp and the Business of Extortion

2009-02-18T12:31:00.000-08:00

Kathleen Richards, Managing Editor of the East Bay Express a wonderful independent local paper posted this article about Yelp today.

Although this article has nothing to do with floatation therapy or art, we appreciate her coverage of the local businesses that have experienced the flip side of the Yelp experience.

Our customers have been leaving wonderful reviews on us since we opened, and as of now only 50% of these 5 star reviews still exist, since we won't pay yelp to advertise with them.

Float Into Paradise, by Vision magazine

2008-12-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing article about floatation therapy and Float Spa San Diego, written by long time floater, Sydney L. Murray:

Holistic Practitioner Review

Float Into Paradise

by Sydney L. Murray

As I was walking into the session room at Float Spa San Diego, I was mesmerized by a photograph of large salt formations from the Dead Sea. The space was very clean and inviting and I was instantly impressed by how soothing it felt. Speaking to Mark Lesicka, one of the co-founders of Float Spa, along with his wife Maylou, I found out that he had sought out the practice of floating to alleviate chronic pain. Traveling to London, they learned much about the practice of floating. After the Lesickas’ return, they opened Float Spa.
If you haven’t ever floated, you are missing out on an amazing experience. I love the feeling of being suspended in warm soothing water. As I allowed myself to “lift,” I initially had the image as seen in the classic film 2001 Space Odyssey of a body floating out into space with the person’s arms and legs extended. I was weightless. Not bogged down by the hectic pace of my life, I was floating and my mind drifted into a peaceful and open space.
The next night, I experienced very vivid and memorable dreams. I mentioned this to Lesicka, who has also experienced the benefit of having more lucid dreams, as well as the ability to recall them with clarity. He said that there have been studies which show that floating creates a bridge between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which might explain having the experience of a more conscious dream state.
Floating has been around in the United States since the 1970s but was initially developed by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in the 50s when studying the effects of what they called Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique or R.E.S.T. Since then the float tank has been used in health care, medicine, fitness training, sports science, education and the healing arts.
Scientists have estimated that up to 90 percent of the brain’s work is derived from the stimuli of our routine external environment. Gravity, touch, temperature, light, and sound affect the muscles, the nervous system, and the organs of the body. The float tank screens out our external physical stimuli, allowing for a pure state of sensory relaxation.
This lack of stimulation of the nervous system triggers a reaction known as the parasympathetic response. Muscle tension, blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen consumption are often reduced dramatically. Stress hormones are reduced as well and are replaced with uplifting endorphins.
Discovered by NIMH researchers in 1976, endorphins are literally a natural source of elation, happiness, or what some have called a “natural high.” They can also help alleviate fatigue and chronic pain, while improving higher brain functions such as learning and memory retention.
And the good thing about the float tank is that it all happens without much effort for the client. You just enter the tank, lie back and float. The tank is the temperature of your skin, which is 94.5 degrees. It is filled with an Epsom salt mixture of about 30 percent which, when combined with your body’s natural buoyancy, allows you to float in a small amount of water. Float Spa San Diego’s website illuminates the use of Epsom salt and why it is so valuable to our bodies: “One of the earliest discoveries of magnesium sulfate, the scientific name for Epsom salt, occurred back in Shakespeare’s day in Epsom, England (where the compound was first distilled from water) which explains the first half of the name. The term salt probably refers to the specific chemical structure of the compound, although many people mistakenly assume it refers to the crystalline structure of Epsom salt, which has an appearance similar to that of table salt. (Table salt, of course, consists of sodium chloride, so it’s an entirely different substance than magnesium sulfate.)
Magnesium is the second-most abundant element in human cells and the fourth-most important positively charged ion in the body, so it’s little wonder that this low-profile mineral is also vital to good health and wellbeing. Magnesium is a major component of Epsom salt and also helps to regulate the activity of more than 325 enzymes and performs a vital role in orchestrating many bodily functions, from muscle control and electrical impulses to energy production and the elimination of harmful toxins.
Studies show that Magnesium is an electrolyte which helps to ensure proper muscle, nerve and enzyme function and is critical for the proper use of calcium in cells. Another benefit is that it can help prevent heart disease and strokes by lowering blood pressure, protecting the elasticity of arteries, preventing blood clots, and reducing the risk of sudden heart attack deaths. Magnesium may also reduce inflammation and relieve pain, making it beneficial in the treatment of sore muscles, bronchial asthma, migraine headaches and fibromyalgia.”
The seemingly subtle mental and physical effects of floating can greatly improve your powers of emotional control and sense of wellbeing. Negative emotions and many unwanted habits seem to melt away in the tank, along with any physical tensions and the stresses that accompany them. Smoking, alcohol dependence and weight control problems can be effectively lessened or even overcome—and sometimes these changes can occur spontaneously. Research suggests that compulsive behavior patterns such as these are linked to low endorphin levels in the body. In fact, according to experts at NIMH, the float tank “is the only technique ever shown by controlled studies to be effective over extended periods of time.” Studies show success rates of 81 percent in eliminating or sharply reducing smoking, 61 percent in reducing alcohol consumption, with similarly impressive results in combating weight control problems. In the deep theta state that comes with floating, you experience increased access to and control over subconscious mental processes. You can literally become the master of your own mind.
So if relaxation, stress reduction, the lessening of chronic pain and the ability to remember your dreams more vividly are just a few of the many benefits you may desire, then floating is for you. Try it today—it just might change your life.

For more information about Float Spa San Diego please call 858.279.3301 or visit www.floatspasandiego.com.

Let There Be Delight Incandescent plasma: aurora in a bottle.

2008-12-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Let There Be Delight

Incandescent plasma: aurora in a bottle.

By DeWitt Cheng

Printer-friendly version | Send a letter | E-mail story

December 10, 2008

Ed Kirshner's "Blue Lightning Party."

Solid, liquid, gas, plasma. Plasma is the high-energy, cloudlike fourth state of matter. It is abundantly found in the universe in suns and stars, but occurs on earth only in lightning and the aurora borealis — and, of course, plasma TVs, and now plasma art: airtight glass sculptures outfitted with high-voltage transformers that increase the electricity's frequency high enough to ionize and energize the neon and xenon. If you've ever watched the silky, liquid effects of a low-temperature orange-pink-blue flame in a guttering fire, the hypnotic, organic ebbing and flowing of plasma incandescence may appear similar to you.

Seven artists who work with plasma are showing their light sculpture at the Float Center. Neon and glass expert Bill Concannon of Crockett is showing a "Neon Coke Bottle" standing beneath an archway of colored bottle necks, everything radiant. Kinetic and neon sculptor Ken Herrick shows a work resembling a black clock dial with glowing linear elements spiraling out from the center — astronomy, perhaps, as seen by Muybridge and Flavin. San Francisco sculptor and woodworker David Hollister makes perverse conceptual art in "Persephone," hiding his plasma within a long sealed gray box so that turning the piece on makes no visible difference whatever, a wry take on Greek mythology's nymph trapped in the underworld half the year. Ed Kirshner shows "Blue Lightning Party," a model car boasting eight glass cylinders firing plasma, wheels with plasma rims, and plasma klaxons or horns; the intense red glass of his "Plasma Cherry" tempts the viewer even as the lightning discharges inside give pause. Sculptor Norman Moore explores his interest in myth and metaphor with an architectural structure entitled "Dream" that simultaneously suggests hourglass, goldfish bowl, crystal ball, emperor's orb, and alchemist's alembic. Co-curator Michael Pargett's "Carry-on" is a waffle-foam-padded aluminum briefcase housing a glass tube or bat filled with gas — an excellent solution to the portability/protection problem. Allison F. Walton, curator and gallery co-owner, is showing "Plasma Xenon Head," a blue glass robot's head that will eventually be completed with a body. Four lyrical abstract paintings by Sally Rodriguez complete the show.

A closing party and free plasma educational presentation by Ed Kirshner will take place January 10, 6-9 p.m. Plasma Nation runs through January 10 at the Float Center (1091 Calcot Pl., #116 Oakland). TheFloatCenter.com

Show to display Artist's responses to Iraq

2008-09-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Show to display Artist's responses to Iraq

By Angela Woodall
Oakland Tribune

Not since U.S. troops pulled out of Vietnam has the country experienced such raw emotion as provoked by the war in Iraq, now in its fifth year.

In response, the FLOAT Gallery in Oakland has organized "Human Remains," a thought-provoking exhibit of artists whose work revolves around the Iraq War, which began March 2003. The show opens Thursday — seven years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon — and runs until Oct. 11.

On Saturday, the gallery will host an opening party from 6 to 9 p.m. at its 1091 Calcot Place location, featuring mixed media, film and spoken word. It is located in unit No. 116 in the storefront of Cotton Mill Studios. The gallery's owners, Filomena Serpa and Allison Walton, live in Alameda.

The requiem and performance will include paintings, works on paper, color photography of soldiers serving in the war, camouflage ball gowns, mixed media, music video, filmed performance and spoken word.

Some of the artists included in the exhibit are: Bill Stoneham, Collin Harris, Marty McCorkle, Melissa Sweat, Janeyce Ouellette, Anna Tsiarta, Kari Ann Owen, Tony C. Yang, Diego Marcial Rios, Anastasia Winter Schipani, Bernard Rauch and Marisa Handler.

Poets will include former members of the armed forces, Iraqi citizens and others speaking out about the war in Iraq. The entrance fee is $2 and includes free refreshments and snacks.

Sensory deprivation tanks in the media: FRINGE on FOX

2008-09-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

What can you say... Altered States in 2008.

AUTOEROTICA, East Bay Express Critics choice this week

2008-08-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

EAST BAY EXPRESS

CRITIC'S CHOICE

AutoErotica

"Nobody with a good car needs to be justified," declared one of Flannery O'Connor's fictional characters, accurately assessing America's century-long embrace of the gospel of gasoline with all the fervor that any jealous, justifying god could want. Prayerful motoring has declined these days, what with the rising cost of burnt offerings, so AutoErotica, a nostalgic/satirical look at our gearhead folkways, is both timely and timeless. Here are Philip Hall's romantic digital photographs of exotic 1930s Bugattis and Delahayes, and iconic, resplendently finned 1950s Vettes and Caddies; Bill Silveira's eccentric, humorous sculptures made from salvaged auto and other mechanical parts -- including a '55 Cadillac front end mounted like a taxidermied animal head; and Laurel True's gritty but elegant alt-material mosaics, immortalizing anonymous patches of roadway replete with skidmarks, cracks, and potholes. Through September 6 at theFloatCenter (1091 Calcot Pl., #116, Oakland).510-535-1702 (call for hours).

-- By DeWitt Cheng

Voted Best of the bay, by the SF Bay Guardian!

2008-07-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

BEST DRUG-FREE ALTERED STATE

Kelly Vogel at Float: Best Drug-Free Altered Stat
GUARDIAN PHOTO BY CHARLES RUSSO

Sometimes other people are just too much to bear. And it's always their fault, isn't it? The guy at the liquor store forgets to stock your brand of cigarettes. Some yuppie in a fancy car nearly runs you off the road. Your manager fires you, your landlord evicts you, your friends diss you. Don't you wish you could just make them all disappear for a while? Well, if you've ever seen the movie Altered States, you know all about sensory deprivation chambers, those weird water tanks psychology students use to study brain chemistry and sleep cycles. In a deprivation chamber you are utterly alone. Your body is suspended in warm water, your ears are submerged so you can't hear a thing, and it's totally dark, odorless, and soundproof. The entire world melts away, and you're left with raw brain waves. Outside of a ketamine trip, it's the most detached experience humanly possible. Lose yourself at Float, then, an art gallery with a room full of deprivation tanks.

1091 Calcot Place, Unit 116, Oakl. (510) 535-1702, www.thefloatcenter.com

The Art of Floatation won … Best of The East Bay Award 2008!

2008-06-30T23:39:00.001-07:00

BEST ART GALLERY/ALPHA-WAVE RETREAT

The Float Center

1091 Calcot Pl., Ste. 116, Oakland, 510-535-1702, TheFloatCenter.com

Stressed — us? The electronic workplace — the paperless office — was going to end all that, wasn't it? Remember when the Internet was supposed to make work obsolete? Okay, the future was way oversold, and now instead we're all prey to Madison Avenue 24/7/365, and right on track for the chummy billboards of Minority Report, and Too Much Information. Flotation is one solution; it's the modern equivalent of the monastic retreats of the early Christian Desert Fathers — except that we don't have to live in a cave or hole (like Terry Jones' jumping gymnosophist in The Life of Brian) — just spend an hour in body-temperature saline water and silent darkness every now and then. Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST), to use its original designation, vanquishes stress and increases alpha-wave activity and endorphin levels (relieving chronic pain); it improves blood circulation, energy, and concentration; it also detoxifies the body and lowers blood pressure. The Float Center features a professionally curated art gallery as well (co-owner Alison Walton is an artist), by the way, with colorful, intriguing contemporary paintings and sculptures, so your eyes will get a treat both before and after tank time.

+++

It’s not really Alpha, unless you’re playing with a robot in the gallery. But in the sensory deprivation tanks / Floatation tanks.... it’s all about Theta waves, Choose double dip on the endorphins with a deep tissue massage in our urban art space.

EBX is an amazing local paper, and great supporter. We love that their elite team selected us for this honor. Here’s to floatation therapy becoming the next best local artistic chill!

Finally the 1st video in the Robots Are Art series

2008-06-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Artist and founder Frank Garvey of Omni Circus a Robotic cabaret in San Francisco.
Shows off Go Boy, as we set-up the ROBOTS ARE ART, show and contest last December. This has nothing to do with floatation, just art!

Seriously get that head out of your butt! Three cheers for the De-grumpy tank!

2008-06-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

It’s funny that every once in awhile a new or semi-new floater will have some kind of life epiphany after a good floatation therapy session. It’s not unusual for someone who had been afraid of taking risks, or trying new things will exit the float tank willing to open up and make long overdue changes in their life. Or even the remarkable 1^st time floater, who is both afraid of the dark and the water, exits the tank after having a great float and overcomes their own fears.

I know rare people who, after just a single float decided to leave their longtime lucrative career and start something entirely new, focusing around quality of life rather then simply the path of the almighty dollar. Just one float!?!

Bad economy, what if, should have, could have, we all at times find a way to … for lack of a better term, get our head stuck up our butt. Simply over thinking too many options in life, or not allowing ourselves to sort things out in a rational positive manner. Stop, be grateful and enjoy what’s around us, clear your head, and follow your path. Oops, so easy to forget.

Yep the last few weeks I have needed a float to break a grumpy unsettling moment, exiting the tank really happy and with a clear head, ready to be productive.

One of my Canadian buddies is flying in tomorrow, she had been struggling about what job to take and in what country, to the level of self abuse. She even continued to over think her recent decision to stay in Canada, and the process became even more painful. So escape Vancouver where she can’t find a float tank, so why not come float in Oakland. Just get the head back on straight before starting her new position. What an excellent idea.

After 17 years of floating, it still amazes me how a simple hour of buoyant silence can reset our brain out of mega grumpiness.

Once called sensory deprivation tanks, then floatation tanks and now perhaps de-grumpy tanks, a new name for an old school solution.

A majestic presence in our floatation tanks

2008-05-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

This morning I received a call from Liz Mamorsky, one our amazing artists and she told me that she heard Muriel Maffre from the San Francisco Ballet talking about FLOAT, Floatation Center - Art Gallery on public radio KALW 91.7 Artery arts program.

How cool is that! I knew she was a dancer when she came to float, but not really how important she was. What an honor to have her come float with us in our art space.

I love it when art and floatation collide.

Piedmont Post Associate Editor Todd Kerr reviews Below The Surface at the Float Gallery

2008-04-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

At FLOAT Gallery, see Beneath the Surface

By Ross Todd Kerr
April 3rd 2008


The FLOAT Center is an urban spa located in the Jingletown district of Oakland, where patrons find comfort in saltwater floatation tanks. The FLOAT Center is also an art gallery curated by Fil Serpa and Allison Walton, arguably one of the hottest curatorial teams in the Bay Area just now.

Through May 17, the FLOAT Gallery is showing Beneath the Surface, an exhibit of visionary paintings and illustrations on paper by Liz Mamorsky as well as interactive assemblage sculpture by Paul Baker.

In her youth, Liz Mamorsky was a child star in New York and currently does voice work for radio, television and games, including Sims 2, Sam & Max, and AVampyre Story. Mamorsky is also a prolific artist, who has been exhibiting her visionary paintings, studio furniture and sculptures since the 1960s. For a sampling, go to lizland.com.

Paul Baker is an assemblage artist who creates interactive sculptures that are carefully constructed to entertain children of all ages. His ongoing series: Machines for Living are built intentionally to help us examine our lives and evoke memories, through insight and humor.

The FLOAT Gallery is located at 1091 Calcot Place #116 in Oakland. For more info, go to floatcentergallery.com or call 535-1702.

Yet another creative way to stop the world...

2008-04-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with floating....

2008-04-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

The Depths of the Subconscious

2008-04-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Depths of the Subconscious

Liz Mamorsky's paintings and Paul Baker's sculptures deluge the imagination.

"Cyclorama" by Liz Mamorsky, 2007

By DeWitt Cheng

April 9, 2008

The subconscious, according to Surrealist theory, is the source of creative authenticity; it's a reprise of the ancient notion of the artist as inspired and god-possessed, and today most artists try to balance instinct with editing, imagination with logic. In Beneath the Surface at the Float Center, the works of Liz Mamorsky and Paul Baker emerge from such complex thinking, and consequently reward prolonged viewing. This venue is ideal for such a show, since water traditionally symbolizes the subconscious: dark, formless, and dangerous, but also full of potentiality.

Mamorsky's oils on canvas depict a mythic world teeming with animal spirits. Exuberantly colored and packed with detail, the paintings combine Cubism, Art Deco, and Surrealism (particularly Paul Klee and Max Ernst) with older folkloric traditions: the compartmentalization of larger forms, the textural delineation of scales and feathers, and the compulsive ornamentation (horror vacui) recall the animist wood-carving traditions of the South Pacific and Pacific Northwest; the serpents and birds recall aboriginal or Native-American cosmologies. Mamorsky's totem animals both crowd the picture plane like puzzle pieces, archaically, and seem to flow transparently into each other, in modern ambiguous, contradictory space, psychic rather than physical. In "Beneath the Surface" and "Bounce," a mass of faces confronts the viewer — like demons beleaguering St. Anthony in his Egyptian desert hermitage, or masks winking and scowling at Ensor in his Ostend studio. In "Over the Rainbow" and Purple Stocking Yellow Pumps," assemblages of faces set into organic abstract structures have sprouted walking legs. Mamorsky's drawings on amate bark paper also are being shown.

Paul Baker's Machines for Living may take their name from modernist architect Le Corbusier, but they clearly aim at more than rational industrial design. These intricately wrought assemblage sculptures, fabricated from a miscellany of materials (mahogany, brass, ivory, crystal, ball bearings, artist mannequins, playing cards, roller skate, starched collar, steam engine, phonograph rolls, and semipetrified mammoth tusk), become palaces of memory and musing in the Joseph Cornell mode, but with a satirical, absurdist, Duchamp/Westermann bent. Sporting hooks, drawers, handles, labels, charts, winches, springs, and knobs, each piece is a combined dollhouse, miniature stage set, shrine, and Victorian apparatus of inscrutable intent (e.g., "Fog Machine," "Landing Alignment Computer"). The artist, who studied medieval reliquaries, encourages viewers to tinker and explore, using his work to unlock "free association and personal memory." His notes on the works are illuminating as well, citing Jules Verne, Sisyphus, Nicolas Poussin, acanthus leaves, and the Girl Scouts. Beneath the Surface runs through May 17 at the Float Center (1091 Calcot Pl., #116, Oakland. TheFloatCenter.com or 510-535-1702.

The 2+ hour float, a not to be missed experience

2008-03-27T12:14:00.001-07:00

After 17 years of floating I always thought that 1 hour was all I needed, but in the last few months I have discovered the wonders of a 2+ hour float.

It's amazing, feels like 1/2 hour and you exit the floatation tank wanting more. I now understand what my select few regular floaters experience in this increased time frame. It is often said you can’t make up for lost sleep, but with the amount of unparalleled rest you receive, I have to challenge that theory. Powerful, brilliant and lasting.

Here is a little about one customer’s recent experience of trying a longer float:

“It was amazing the 2 hours seemed like 30 minutes and when I got out of the tank it was something I didn’t expect I was energized, and felt 10 years younger and all my ADD symptoms were gone including the back pain I had been having for the last few weeks.

The next day I noticed I was happy; really happy, much happier than I had felt in months.

I have suffered with ADD all my life along with symptoms that go with it such as depression, anxiety and social anxiety. I just had the most replenishing rest I ever had, far superior rest than sleeping in my own bed.” Kari- SF

Other 2 hour’s floaters that float at the gallery include very accomplished musicians, who use the tank to work through writer’s blocks, brainstorming and to prepare themselves for upcoming events. I now truly understand why.

Material Evidence Is the East Bay Express critics choice this week

2008-02-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

CRITIC'S CHOICE
Material Evidence

After Marcel Duchamp disparaged the merely "retinal" enjoyment of painting, and even the very odor of the turpentine, many artists looked askance at pictorial sensuousness and a love of materials, rather like puritan church fathers ashamed of having bodies and urges. This sort of iconoclasm is emphatically not operant with the mixed-media paintings of Peter Boyer and the plasma light sculptures of Ed Kirshner at The the FloatCenter. Boyer's powerful abstractions in black, white, and ocher join calligraphic gesture, textural contrast, and collaged cutouts. Intuitively adding and subtracting materials until the elements cohere into a "presence," Boyer exploits the accidents that inevitably occur: "I want the paintings to be these objects of contemplation through this wrestling process that I go through with them." Ed Kirchner's Kirshner's elegantly engineered glass vessels, with their dazzling, phosphorescent light discharges (inspired by the aurora borealis), are clearly the product of another type of problem-solving, albeit one conditioned by scientific principles and incessant experimentation. Kirshner, who decided to become an artist in his fifties, explains his lambent alembics, transcendent marriages of art and science: "I strive for a formal simplicity ... using finely balanced, responsive, self-organizing plasma that seems to take on a life of its own." Material Evidence runs Tthrough March 16 at The the FloatCenter (1091 Calcot Place, #116, Oakland). TheFloatCenter.com or 510-535-1702.

-- By DeWitt Cheng

Finally an International Floatation Center listing!

2008-01-28T22:59:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered where to find a place to float while traveling internationally?

As luck would have it a serious floatation fan has created an unbiased site to do just that. Check out Marks new site that allows you to find a place to float both in your area and, around the world. http://www.floatfinder.com/

Floating through life just got easier!

Gotta love floatation studies!

2008-01-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

Today a wonderful man Tim, owner of Floatworks sent me a link to a new 2007 study on floatation from Karlstad University by Sven Åke-Bood, below is a bit about it:

Bending and Mending the Neurosignature: Frameworks of influence by flotation-REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique) upon well-being in patients with stress related ailments.

The overarching purpose of the current thesis was to assess the long term effects of a treatment program involving flotation-REST for the experience of pain, from the point of view of variables connected with Melzack´s neuromatrix theory, and to examine the extent of a potential attention-placebo effect in connection with flotation-REST.
The first study (Paper I) aimed to investigate long-term effects of flotation-REST four months after treatment. Seventy patients participated, diagnosed as having stress-related pain. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or a flotation-REST group and participated in a total of twelve flotation REST or control sessions. Results indicated that pain areas, stress, anxiety and depression decreased, while sleep quality, optimism, and prolactin increased. Positive effects generally maintained four months after treatment. The second (Paper II) examined the potential effects of attention-placebo. Thirty-two patients who were diagnosed as having stress-related muscular pain were treated for a period of six weeks. Half of the patients were also given attention for a period of 12 weeks, while the remainder received attention for 6 weeks. Participants in both groups exhibited lowered blood pressure, reduced pain, anxiety, depression, stress, and negative affectivity, as well as increased optimism, energy, and positive affectivity. The third (Paper III) investigated whether or not 33 flotation sessions were more effective for stress related ailments as compared to 12 sessions. Participants were 37 patients with stress related ailments. Analyzes for subjective pain and psychological variables typically indicated that 12 sessions were enough to get considerably improvements and no further improvements were noticed after 33 sessions. Finally, the fourth study (Paper IV) aimed to examine whether and how the combination of therapy and flotation tank could be used to treat patients with severe stress problems. Two women on long-term sick-leave participated in the study, which was carried out over a period of one year. Four overarching themes were generated: the therapeutic work model, transformation of feelings, self-insight and meaning. These together constituted a “therapeutic circle” which after a while transformed in to a “therapeutic spiral” of increased meaning and enhanced wellbeing.

It was therefore concluded that flotation tank therapy is an effective method for the treatment of stress-related pain.

This link has the entire 87 page PDF about the study for you reading pleasure.

Get your '08 FLOAT on

2008-01-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

Get your '08 FLOAT on

By Justin Juul

Doesn't it sometimes seem like the world is working against you? It's bad enough those days when you wake up feeling like shit for no reason, but it really sucks when things just get worse from there. And it's always their fault, isn't it? The dickhead at the liquor store forgets to stock your brand of cigarettes. Some yuppie in a fancy car nearly runs you off the road. Your manager fires you, your landlord evicts you, your friends diss you. Sometimes other people are just too much to bear. Don't you wish you could just make them all disappear for a while? Or better yet, don't you wish you could disappear?

I mean let's face it, even if you could temporarily get rid of all those other assholes, you'd still be stuck with the biggest asshole in the world: yourself.

Keep reading ...

When the wheel of contentment begins to rotate downward, most of us turn to drugs, go into workaholic mode or -- for those who can afford it -- go on a vacation. But all that stuff is too predictable and it often leaves us feeling worse. What if there was a way to temporarily disconnect from life without any of the usual consequences?

Well, if you've ever seen Altered States, you know all about sensory deprivation chambers, those weird water-tanks psychology students use to study brain chemistry or whatever. It's supposed to be the coolest experience in the world, something like meditating on acid.

In a deprivation chamber you are utterly alone. Your body is suspended in warm Epsom-water, your ears are submerged so you can't hear a thing, and it's totally dark, odorless, and soundproof. After a minute or two in an isolation-tank, the entire world melts away and you're left with raw brain waves. Outside of a bad ketamine trip, it's the most detached experience humanly possible. Sounds great right? The only problem is that the tanks are hard to get access to unless you work in a medical lab or live in Spain or London where they've become fashionable for some reason. Not anymore.

The owners of FLOAT, an urban art gallery in Oakland, got their hands on some tanks a couple years ago and are offering their services to the public. A psychedelic dip in one of FLOAT's tanks is the perfect cure for those post holiday-with-the-family blues. Just strap on some Speedos, shut your eyes, and forget about those assholes (and yourself) for a while.

New Year Package at FLOAT – 3 Floats for the Price of 2 ($140.00)
1091 Calcot Place, #116 Oakland
510-535-1702
www.thefloatcenter.com

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Posted by Marke B. on January 07, 2008 02:04 PM | Permalink

Comments (1)

Floatation Tank:

Using the floatation tank is the reason why I was able to avoid back surgery and stop living a life of debilitating back pain after 6 years with a pinched nerve. I still have a pinched nerve but I don't get paralyzed anymore.

After seeing my x-rays, my doctor said that he could only attribute my remarkable recovery to floatation therapy. I've dedicated a lot of my time to educating people on the therapeutic value of floating - for stress reduction, deep relaxation, pain relief. If you're really uptight and stressed out, go ahead and float for an hour and see if you can maintain your stress level - I bet you won't!

Posted by Floatation Tank | January 7, 2008 07:53 PM

How Sweet is this post I just found:-)

Artist & War Poets Call for Entry

2008-01-07T21:20:00.000-08:00



Artwork influenced by the Iraqi war
All media types encouraged.
We are also looking for War Poets.
If interested please call or send
website link or images to:

Info@TheFloatCenter.com

ROBOTS ARE ART

2008-01-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

ROBOTS ARE ART

A DIY Show & Contest

Show runs through Jan 17/08

Opening on December 13 ROBOTS ARE ART a DIY Robotic art show & contest made a kinetic splash. During the opening party December 15^th the robotic art was judged by Monty, from ANYBOTS the first humanoid robot of it's kind, and David Calkins, President of the Robotics Society of America, and founder of the international RoboGames.

Here are some image and video links:

KTVU Video Link

NOVOSCENE image link

Robots served beer, painted paintings and even a disgruntled beggar robot roamed up and down the sidewalk asking for 50 cents. Ugobe Pleos played with the children in the crowd, who had an opportunity to shake Monty’s hand and get a signed autograph from the robot. And a small gold robot did a floating Zen version of Tai Chi.

Party goers won raffle prizes including a visit to anybots to meet Monty and Dexter in person, and free robotic magazines and travel mugs were dispersed to the crowd.

The exhibit encompasses a diverse group of robotic artists including mixed media, painters and kinetic artists. The Art is 100% violence free, and will focus on form, function, and fun.

Robotic Artists:

Cheryl Finfrock - Painter
Camp Peavy - Robotic artist
Mike Wilder - Robotic Artist
Willy Matsuno - Mixed Media (Prize Winner)
Max Chandler - Robotic Artist
Paul Gibson - Painter (Prize Winner)
Christoper Palmer (CTP) - Robotic Artist (Prize Winner)
Mark Murry - Mixed Media (Prize Winner)
Scott Wiley - Painter
Liz Mamorskey - Mixed Media
James Lovekin - Mixed Media
Paul Baker - Kinetic Artist
Nemo Gould - Robotic Artist (Prize Winner)
Al Honig & Dr. Johnathan Foote - Robotic Artists
Mark Galt - Robotic Artist
Frank Garvey - Robotic Artist (Prize Winner)

This is a not to be missed show!

FLOAT Floatation Center - Art Gallery in Oakland Magazine

2008-01-07T19:46:00.002-08:00

IN THE SCENE

That Floating Feeling

“When you get here you’ll shower and shampoo; then you’ll float like a cork for an hour; then you’ll shower and shampoo again to get the salt off.” And no, I didn’t need a swimsuit. “Just bring

a brush or a comb. Everything else is here.”
Prepping me for what used to be called a sensory deprivation experience when I was a psych student in the ’70s was Allison Walton, the managing partner at Float, a “flotation center” and art gallery that she and her partner, Filomena Serpa, call an urban art spa.
The gallery showcases Oakland artists. Exhibitions change monthly, and the setting provides a relaxed, colorful, artsy atmosphere for the floatation-tank therapy sessions they offer. Research suggests that floating reduces blood pressure, relieves stress and tension, promotes circulation, stimulates creativity and a whole lot more. “It helps with jetlag and hangovers,” Walton adds, citing personal experience.
Stepping into the body-temperature water in which 1,000 pounds of Epsom salts have been dissolved—to keep one buoyant, remove toxins, facilitate relaxation and more—and wearing nothing but the yellow earplugs floaters are given to keep the ears dry, I wondered what to expect. I closed myself in, as instructed, lay down in the 10.5-

inch-deep water—and immediately popped to the surface, as Walton had said I would. She has floated for years for stress management. When traveling in London and Europe, she’d see many places to float. But in the United States, they were difficult to find. In the 18 months since they opened Float, they’ve noticed the resurgence of a trend.
And what better way to duck off and get instant relief from sensory overload? I quickly felt remarkably “held” and able to relax, alone with myself in the silence and the pitch dark, doing “the lazy person’s yoga,” as Walton called it later. When I left, my senses were alert. The traffic noises seemed magnified. Later, at the Alameda Library, the sound of a woman snoring and teenagers talking—usually distractions and annoyances—made me smile. Someone must have pulled my cork—or was I still floating? A week later my upper back tension had not returned, but I knew I would.
Float Floatation Center – Art Gallery, by appointment 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Tue.–Sat., 1091 Calcot Place, No. 116, (510) 535-1702, www.thefloatcenter.com.

—By Wanda Hennig
—Photography by Jan Stürmann

FLOAT Press Blog

Real freedom is worth fighting for, get informed

Beautiful reviewd by DeWitt Cheng of the Esat Bay Express

Beautiful

Next 2 amazing exhibits in the gallery for 2011

Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level - Very Cool!

Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level

Canadian researchers report floating in an isolation tank increased the technical skill level of young jazz players.

Related Stories

Floatation Tank Helps Improve Grades

Floatation Tank Helps Improve Grades

Another fine article about floatation therapy

Float Your Way to Good Health

Alternative healing methods to restore your mind, body and soul

Floatation Therapy

Lubbock Texas rocks the 4th state of matter!

Jabberwocky, reviewed by Dewitt Cheng of the East Bay Express

SURRENDER, Opening party Thursday June 24th 6pm- 9pm with live painting by Android Jones DJ Random Rab will be spinning down tempo

Please join the FLOAT Gallery for: Enigma… Artist mixer

DeWitt Cheng of the East Bay Express reviews Where do I go from here

Another Fab review on our current exhibit:

Where Do I Go From Here?

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/Event?oid=1616611

Art Reviewer Michael Singman-Aste's words about our current show....

Where do I go from here?

Dream Class #2, coming to the FLOAT Gallery April 20th

FLOAT Presents:

Group Dream Work Class by Travis Wernet

April 20th, 7-10pm

A vitrural tour of oaklands artist run galleries

Fellow Travelers Three artists explore location, dislocation, memory, and imagination.

Holiday Buy-pass...the Anti-Christmas Party ....!?%&#@%*?

Floatworks kicks out a lovely video of Floating!

Step #2 drake’s deconstruction, black rock city 2009, by Dave Raphael

More images of FLOAT artist work, and floaters

Coming to the FLOAT gallery November 1st

Through the looking glass, a Mad Tea party coming to the FLOAT Gallery

Only 4 more weeks of brilliant playful creatures, and junk yard kinetic art

Moronic Urban Myths of Floatation Therapy (Sensory Deprivation)

June is all about Art in the East Bay!

You can now float with an owie!

Hmmmm sweet, new float pod on the market

Gillian Kendall of Curve Magazine Floats in Austrailia?

Hippie 3.0 is now!

Floating a Mills College Student

Floating meditation unique experience

Lions, and Tigers and Shamans .. oh my!

Yelp and the Business of Extortion

Float Into Paradise, by Vision magazine

Holistic Practitioner Review

Let There Be Delight Incandescent plasma: aurora in a bottle.

Let There Be Delight

Incandescent plasma: aurora in a bottle.

Show to display Artist's responses to Iraq

Sensory deprivation tanks in the media: FRINGE on FOX

AUTOEROTICA, East Bay Express Critics choice this week

EAST BAY EXPRESS

CRITIC'S CHOICE

AutoErotica

Voted Best of the bay, by the SF Bay Guardian!

BEST DRUG-FREE ALTERED STATE

The Art of Floatation won … Best of The East Bay Award 2008!

BEST ART GALLERY/ALPHA-WAVE RETREAT

The Float Center

Finally the 1st video in the Robots Are Art series

Seriously get that head out of your butt! Three cheers for the De-grumpy tank!

A majestic presence in our floatation tanks

Piedmont Post Associate Editor Todd Kerr reviews Below The Surface at the Float Gallery

Yet another creative way to stop the world...

This has nothing to do with floating....

The Depths of the Subconscious

The Depths of the Subconscious

Liz Mamorsky's paintings and Paul Baker's sculptures deluge the imagination.

The 2+ hour float, a not to be missed experience

Material Evidence Is the East Bay Express critics choice this week

Finally an International Floatation Center listing!

Gotta love floatation studies!

Get your '08 FLOAT on

Get your '08 FLOAT on

Comments (1)