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Exerpted from: Alarm Magazine November 2007 William Fields started having visions of alien spirits when he was seven years old and living in a house with his mother and grandparents in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a child, Fields wasn’t fearful of the spirits that appeared, spoke to him, and took him outside of his body, but he did wonder if their arrival meant he was crazy, and therefore didn’t tell anyone about the regular occurrences. Without much in the way of a formal education, Fields is a voracious autodidact and seeker who does not limit himself to a singular path. The alien spirits, as he considers them, that first visited him in early childhood and returned in adulthood inspired Fields to study a great many beliefs and traditions, and today his practice incorporates teachings from Tibetan Buddhism, Egyptian mythology, Gnostic Christianity, the Kabbalah, Theosophy, hermetic science, pagan goddess worship, and Hinduism. While communing with spirits in the ecstatic state of a vision — which lasts about two hours — Fields perceives the subject of the composition as well as its formal qualities and color palette. From inception, each work takes as long as three months to complete. Fields attributes much of his receptivity to his proximity to Pilot Mountain, a mountain of resistant rock that has survived millions of years and Fields considers a “cosmic energy center." Pilot Mountain appears on the horizon line in many of Fields’ works, and is the focus of a few. Fields perceives both “light” and “dark” sides to his work. Though he identifes more with the light and engages with spirits and teachers that are “pure hearted,” Fields does recognize some of his drawings to be “ferocious,” and accepts that there can be no light without darkness.
Though Fields has experimented with hallucinogenic drugs and credits them with helping him reconnect to the spirits after a long absence during his teenage years, he currently abstains from all mind-altering substances, so as not to interfere with the visions that now come clearly and consistently about twice a week. - Amber Whiteside | ||
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