24 Peaces

Wow! Three weeks on the road and we are coming home. We are 14 peacemakers complete with filming and I am planning to get painting as soon as I find a place big enough. Looking forward to being with my family again. See you all soon. gene

The longer I am in Israel, the more of the context of disharmony comes to light. Who wouldn't be so passionate about such a beautiful country? Peace seems to be considered a political stance to most here. It is becoming challenging to be in a different context of ones heart.

Felix and his friends from 72 countries around the world have committed to planting 1million trees in every country to fight climate injustice. Take a look at plant-for-the-planet.org. Stop talking, Start planting.

Update mid-travel from Frankfurt Germany. The bags under the eyes gives a clue to working on 36 hours and no sleep. I fly really well on the way home, but never sleep en-route. Oh yeah, Frankfurt is a very dog friendly place. Miss my pack at home already.

Israel Day 1: 3:30AM, Land Tel Aviv 3:40 AM, No luggage! :( 4:30AM Tel Aviv Beach Club to watch sunrise, drink coffee and meet our hostess, Dorit! 8:00 AM Jump in Mediterranean, except me, because I have no luggage :( 9:00 AM Drive to Be'er Sheva in Southern Italy. 11:30 AM Arrive to meet members of newly formed ARGANYA, a group committed to raising the collective conscious in Israel. 11:35 AM Lunch with ARGANYA's gracious members 11:40-1:45 - Film interviews in 99 degree heat. (note: I am still in pants because I have no clothes as doesn't Jennifer). 2:15PM Depart for Gallilee 4:35PM Arrive Gallilee - Tiberius at home of Dorit. Picture an Israel home tranformed by hand into a New Mexico Taos/Ashram artists' sanctuary. Overlooking all of Golan Heights. 5:00 Take power nap! 5:30 Shock awake from nap so as not to crash to heavily 7:30 Go for swim in the River Jordan. AWESOMELY refreshing at about 86 degrees outside. 9:15 Dinner at Nightclub by night, Jordan River baptismal by day. 1:45 Home, post blog, hoping for clothes in the morning. All is pretty good! 95 degrees at bedtime.

Dr. Deepak Chopra is the 13th peacemaker along this incredible journey. I am truly honored to have the opportunity to meet and talk to him. I will never forget our conversation.

24 Peaces is an artist's journey to inspire people to create peace through exploring its meaning with twenty-four peacemakers from around the world. With the purpose of igniting our own individual ability to create peace, the artist GENE (Gene Jimenez) is conducting a series of twenty-four conversations with both preeminent peacemakers and a cross section of every-day people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Through questions such as, What is peace? and What does peace mean to you? the artist seeks to reveal that the concept of peace can mean many different things and each of us has the capacity and responsibility to nurture and affect it. Additionally, GENE is creating twenty-four paintings based on the energy and content of these conversations. His unique energetic and vivid painting style intends to portray the creative possibilities for each person to use our world as a canvas to paint peace. A mixed-media project, 24 Peaces will be showcased as a traveling documentary film and art exhibition, as an interactive Internet portal, and as a stand-alone video program.

A small compilation of Israel. Salam and Shalom. May peace always shine upon your land. - GENE

A brief description of how and why I paint the way I paint. I am going to be painting with the energy that I create with the peacemakers throughout the '24 Peaces' project.

Why create the '24 Peaces' project?

Journey intro vlog. Looking forward to keeping everyone up to date as we continue along on our amazing artist journey.

A couple days at the end of October saw the building of a new glass blowing studio. This project was the result of a great guy name Steve in Fullerton, CA, who had a greenhouse project made...