Light & Illusion – Art by Randall Klopping

so that people understand my absence

I am having to give up on working because I can’t afford to keep my computer on all day or won’t have power soon. California keeps cutting deeper and deeper into the foodstamps portion of my SSI (disability) and that is where I was robbing my own budget from so that could continue working. I am furious as hell that California is allowed to cheat to survive and yet people like me just don’t get to even live and are robbed of being able to work for a future like normal people! Federal law says that our benefits cannot be decreased but California and other states are being allowed to do just that and the fed is doing nothing to make up the difference!

I have worked and worked and life just kept getting worse because our leaders CHEAT. President Obama promised he would not sacrifice the disabled and yet that is exactly what he has done and continues to do! He still remains silent on the problems in the Social Security Administration and all the failures in programs for the disabled. He remains silent about states like California stealing our aid not just once, but MULTIPLE Times!!!! 2/5ths of our foodstamps have now been cut and now they are talking even more cuts.

Its not just by any means only me, but many disabled persons whose live are being destroyed. Many loosing their homes, can’t repair our vehicles, can’t afford necessities such as clothing or even food often. Many I’ve talked to have same problems I’ve run into, super long lines of people at places giving out food and the healthy ones get food boxes because they can stand in line but they don’t volunteer to help get food to those who disabilities that prevent them from standing or sitting for long periods can’t stand in line and so ones like me go without that source of help we once had.

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” – Albert Einstein

I’ve come to understand what Einstein meant by that. Basically that if society does not provide the genuine opportunity it makes no difference how hard an individual works for it. And now that our society has become one that abandons it’s responsibilities and steals support to such individuals, now more and more of us don’t even get to work for it. Pursuit of happiness is impossible if one cannot earn money and are robbed of even being able to afford the basic necessities!

Over the last few years I have sacrificed more and more of those necessities trying to keep working to build a future but with never getting to enter art shows/competitions the reality was that I was denied even getting to compete. Without being able to advertise my work I had hoped that social sites would offer a solution but that has proved to be no real hope because only a few even pay attention and helped tell others about my work, the rest made no real effort to help most likely because they never paid attention anyway.

I’ve sacrificed to the point of having no clothes left, living in utter filth and now even going long periods without food just to try to keep going. To those few who honestly tried to help me I say thank you. To those who didn’t, don’t bitch about paying taxes and how much welfare costs because without genuine opportunity its impossible to get off it, welfare is an endless trap not a hand up.

I’m sick of asking for charity… I WANTED TO EARN IT! What does it say about America that the reward for my hard work and sacrifice is to be robbed of even being able to work for it???

Additional Note (11/18/2009) – someone suggested to me this morning that maybe some people might misunderstanding (not sure if that is the right word) my talking about my disabilities and/or problems and suggested I not because they are negative. I know she didn’t mean insult me and was trying to give me advice but I can pretend to be positive to please others when there is almost nothing positive in my life.

I live with major psychological problems and am physically disabled. I try hard to be positive but daily life for someone like me is a living hell of problems hitting me from every direction and with very few positive things in it. I thought our societies treasured a person who is honest? Honesty isn’t only when it can be taken by others as positive, it is in the good and the bad. If a person only does it when it benefits them then they are not really honest with others or themself.

It was also suggested that some might think that I am somehow going to rip them off, so let me make sure people understand. Buying my work on prints or products based on my art, you do not send the money to me. I sell my art through a Print-on-Demand company called Zazzle and they handle all transactions and then zazzle sends me my commission on the sale. I make less money selling my art this way but it insures people will get their purchase and in a timely manner rather than my condition causing any delays in receiving what they pay for. I do not even solicit donations nor accept them when offered, I work as hard as I can to make a positive change in my life, just like each of you! I too want the dignity of earning it. The only times I take payment directly is 1) commissioned work, which I do not accept payment till after its done and 2) licensing one or more of my artworks to be used commercially.

If a disabled person is not allowed to talk openly about the negative things then that person is denied being able to show what they have overcome or are working to overcome. I am sick & tired of hearing people suggest that we should pretend that our conditions do not exist, that we should keep them in a closet because normal people want only the positive. Such attitudes condemn us to extra problems beyond those our disabilities do and makes life even more difficult. I don’t talk about my problems because I want people’s pity, I (we) need people to understand.

The definition of “disability” is:
1. lack of adequate power, strength, or physical or mental ability; incapacity.
2. a physical or mental handicap, esp. one that prevents a person from living a full, normal life or from holding a gainful job.

Despite my disabilities I work hard to do the best I can! Why is a normal person doing the best they can accepted and a disabled person’s not enough?

Trying to get help from government programs is frustrating trying to sort out and they give us short time limits to do things like appeals but then give themselves ten times as much time for their part. They don’t acknowledge the problems our disabilities cause and give us extra time, instead they pretend that isn’t a factor and give themselves the extra time! And now they are indian giver’s, give it and then take it back. That doesn’t give us reason to hope, it destroys our hope!

Trying to contact non-profits for help means we have to contact 20-30-40 or more of them just to maybe find one or two that will give us a little help. It all eats up so much of our time and resources trying to get help from someone that it robs us of time to work toward building a life for ourselves. Even having been working 16 or more hours a day, every single day I possibly can toward earning money only results a few small sales a month for me, no matter how hard I’ve tried year after year. In the last 3 years I’ve earned $447.24 for thousands and thousands of hours of hard work. There is nowhere near enough time to both seek help and work for my future!

I keep hearing leaders like President Obama refer to our nation as
“great”, Governor Schwarzenegger “the great state of California”, etc. So how is it that in watching the news the other night I hear how murderer’s get help selling art they create when disabled persons get no such help? How is it that the criminals in our prisons get 3 square meals a day and the state of California steals 2/5ths of the foodstamps from the disabled so that we only can afford 1 meal a day? Our flag is supposed to stand for “liberty and justice for all” but our leaders sacrifice the poor and disabled people, while protecting the rights of the criminals over us. And our leaders make NO SACRIFICES to themselves, they live in luxury even as they force us to go without necessities. Shouldn’t they be cutting 2/5ths of their paycheck too? To claim greatness when they’re actions or inactions are dishonorable just adds insult to the injury!!!

Disabled people with family and friend that are able to help them are still able to survive but those family and friends are able are not surviving in many parts of the country. Our leaders seem ignorant of this and yet our forefather’s did over 200 years ago!

“The poor who have neither property, friends, nor strength to labor, are boarded in the houses of good farmers, to whom a stipulated sum is annually paid. To those who are able to help themselves a little, or have friends from whom they derive some succor, inadequate however to their full maintenance, supplementary aids are given which enable them to live comfortably in their own houses, or in the houses of their
friends. –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782

I never expected to be kept in comfort but in modern day America the leaders are taking even part of the aid that then deny us necessities! Yet I and others have a talent that with help offers the potential of earning my (our) own way again some day. But not if there is no real opportunity, not if we are denied being able to compete to show what we can do, not if people tell us we shouldn’t talk about the reality of our lives. We can’t even get leaders or their staff to talk with us so the reality is that we don’t even have representation in the USA. We have no voice in their decisions, no voice in the media, they just talk about us but don’t include our voices, so how is that representation? In a time when even so many normal people need help to survive how is it that leaders think that people with extra needs (the disabled) can survive on even less help??? More and more each day loose the battles and become homeless because we can’t effectively fight back and only a few are fighting for us.

Why are our rights under the law and constitution denied? Why are the very people the law charges with protecting those rights the ones that are violating them? Why do so few people hold leaders accountable for these things? Why are our basic human rights being denied in the United States of America?

I’m sorry that this is so scattered in my writing it and the anger shows through but it is impossible to focus with so much stress from so many problems hitting me from all directions. I have spent all day trying to write this and I shouldn’t even have my computer on because can’t afford to run it all day like this and yet it is my only way to speak out, to try to get my voice heard before I too loose everything yet again. I don’t have any advocate for me, my mom used to but she died last year and my dad isn’t able to or to help me financially. The one fried that used to help me financially is unemployed and can’t anymore and combined with the government blindly cutting so much of my help, I just go without more and more. Merely existing is not liberty nor is there any hope of pursuing happiness!

Amidst the Clouds of the Brighid Nebula

“Our dreams are firsthand creations, rather than residues of waking life. We have the capacity for infinite creativity; at least while dreaming, we partake of the power of the Spirit, the infinite Godhead that creates the cosmos.” Jackie Gleason

Two new SciFi and Space artworks of my Brighid Nebula. Click here to see the first two artworks of Brighid.

Brighid – Fire and Water -2009
Poster & Canvas Art Prints available up to 52″ x 78″

In Irish legends, Brighid was the patron of poets and bards, as well as healers and magicians. Brighid was in charge of Water as well as Fire and so this became the color theme of this science fiction nebula. A captivating piece of space art to bring life to your wall!

Amidst the Clouds of Brighid -2009
Poster & Canvas Art Prints available up to 78″ x 52″

Both of these artworks are fractal illusions except the planet in the second piece which is painted.

To purchase a print simply click on the image(s) above and these artworks are also available on these products:

Brighid – Fire and Water Art Binders

Brighid – Fire and Water Greeting Cards

Amidst the Clouds of Brighid Mousepads

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

The Izanagi Nebula – Fractal Illusion Artworks

“The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive.. it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.” Albert Schweitzer

The Izanagi Nebula -2009

In Japanese legends Izanagi was the primordial god of the sky and the creator of everything good and right. I choose a Japanese god for this nebula artwork because of the dragon shaped cloud in the center right. This artwork pure Fractal Illusion, even the asteroid entering view in the upper right is fractal.

Weaving a New Star for Izanagi -2009

Its been quite some time since I’ve done a piece for my “Weaving a Star” series so I thought for a second piece of this fictional nebula, I would weave a star within this SciFi artwork. This is the first of that series that is pure fractal where in previous artworks the background of the star weave was digitally painted in.

Painting is slow and tedious with only a trackball to work with. One of my goals I’m working for is to someday buy a top of the line stylus.

These prints may be purchased in up to MASSIVE sizes, if you’re interested just click on the images above to go to it in my store. These Fractal Illusion artworks are also available on an Avery 3-Ring Binder (click below)

The Izanagi Nebula -2009 by Teknowizard
Browse other Art Binders

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

Great Binders for Home, Office & School (Gift Ideas)

Zazzle, the site I sell my art through has recently added a new product I can sell my art on – Eye-catching Avery Custom Signature Binders. I have been working hard to set up a good selection based on my SciFi and Space artworks as gift ideas for the approaching Christmas holiday season to help me earn some money this year.

Superstition by Teknowizard

The space and science fiction artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

Gift Ideas to Inspire Kids in Math and Science

“The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.” John Glenn

As the Christmas shopping season approaches I am working on creating posters & products based on my art to help inspire young minds with a desire to learn their math and science. Most of my artworks now are fractal illusions, created by mathematically altering the normal geometric nature of fractals to form multiple components that when joined together form an illusion of the universe. It is through math and science that I am able to make the universe my playground.

Below are some of the posters and products that I have gotten set up in my store. I will be working to setup and create more in the days ahead. If you are interested in purchasing one just click on the one you like and browse more in my store if you like. I’ve been working as hard as I’m able from bed and gotten many science fiction & space art prints & products to choose from already set up.

Within the Brighid Nebula – Inspirational Poster
available up to 65″ x 52″ (inches)

Within a Sea of Blue – Inspirational Poster
available up to 44″ x 35″ (inches)

Within a Sea of Blue – Inspirational Binder

Within a Sea of Blue – Inspirational Mug
many mug styles available

If you see one of my artworks that you would like set up as an inspirational poster then drop me a note and let me know which artwork(s) and I’ll set them up as soon as I can for you.

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

Society, Philanthropy & Hope

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” – Albert Einstein

Philanthropy – altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.

Society often baffles me and always has. That is part of what life is like for persons with mental disabilities and conditions like Autism. For many years I have watched people with obvious physical disabilities have to fight tooth and nail for accommodation of their conditions even long after the ADA was passed, and those with not so obvious conditions just blatantly discriminated against in day to day life. I’ve had to face it and fight back many times.

I see many organizations & charities formed and do a lot of good but they can never raise enough funds to truly tackle the whole problem and they often have to send letters to people in need stating they have limited resources and will not be able to help. To those able to get help it is a miracle and those who don’t it becomes disheartening blow after blow.

Here in the United States trying to get help from the government is basically a case of a person having to give up their rights, even those protected by the Constitution! The SSA is one case I can testify to personally as during the “evaluation” process I was never at any time treated as a person who was innocent but instead was even denied due process because they weren’t even doing proper testing, rather just going through the motions and then issuing automatic letters of denial. Never at any time in the almost two years of runaround did they do tests like x-rays or MRI’s, in the first appeal they evaded ever scheduling the informal hearing I had filed for and instead tried forcing me to undergo psychological evaluation even though I had not filed under my mental disabilities! When I finally did get to go before a Judge in a formal hearing, I won my case without an attorney representing me, something just about every disability advocate & attorney will tell you is basically doing the impossible. Even after winning that battle nothing really changed because nearly a decade has shown me that they just break other rules. Part of the problem is our leaders are not properly funding them, even under Obama’s administration we are being sacrificed more and more even as he claims he can juggle the books and pull off a miracle called health care reform.

Many people out there, whether their hard times come from disabilities or just from circumstances, are working hard to rebuild their lives. But trying to get help from Charities or the Government eats up so much time and yields so little help that it often isn’t much help in reality. Too often we can’t get them to listen to what we need , thus it doesn’t fill the need and so we give up on asking for it.

There are many ways in which philanthropy can be done beyond the donating of money or volunteering time. With the invention of Social networks such as Facebook & Twitter we can communicate a need or show the hard work we do and yet most people don’t often pay attention. People will share and retweet the goofiest things to no end and yet ignore people working for something when 10 seconds spent passing on their post to others could make a real difference. I’ve watched many try to raise awareness of important issues such as victims of abuse & stalking and seem to be completely ignored. I see many like myself working hard to overcome hardships and yet it seems to mean little except to a few here and there.

Personally I would rather have a thousand people help me let others know about my art so that I can earn money with which to rebuild my life, than I would 10,000 people offering me money (charity). Why? Because the former gives the person in need a helping hand and allows them dignity and real hope! Think of it in terms of the old saying, “give a man a fish, you feed him for the day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The biggest difference can often be made in the day to day. There are many people out there in need that have talents & skills that with a little help offer the potential of supporting themselves. But often our society is in such a rush and gets so caught up in competition that people like us don’t even get to compete. Imagine what it feels like for them, to have a gift and live in a world in which we don’t get an equal opportunity to show what we can do.

Without proper help and opportunities we have little or no chance of earning money and without that we can’t really develop and build a life for ourselves. That is an environment in which it becomes nearly impossible to pursue happiness no matter how hard we work for it. Without the opportunity for development we don’t really get to live, we get mere existence and that over time destroys hope.

To truly give hope to others then must not philanthropy become a part of our day to day activities as well as giving money & time to charities and organizations?

The Arachnids Web Nebula (art)

“Art forms of the past were really considered elitist. Bach did not compose for the masses, neither did Beethoven. It was always for patrons, aristocrats, and royalty. Now we have a sort of democratic version of that, which is to say that the audience is so splintered in its interests.” David Cronenberg

The Arachnids Web Nebula -2009

I recently discovered an ancient race of arachnid like beings from a parallel universe that have opened a dimensional wormhole gateway to build themselves a new home in our universe. Their own universe dyinng, they use both remnants of a dead star in our universe as well as materials mined from their own to create a new nebula within which they will hide their worlds.

This piece of science fiction art is one of my Fractal Illusions. For those unfamiliar with my work, this art form is one I have been pioneering, inventing ways in which I could take fractals beyond the normal geometric form and design fractals that when woven together they form illusions of space. This one of course is pure imagination and makes a great gift idea for any Sci-Fi art lover!

This SciFi artwork is available as:
Art Poster (up to 52″ x 78″) — Art Card (customizable)

New product available: eye-catching Avery Custom Signature Binders

The Arachnids Web Nebula Binder
by Teknowizard Randall Klopping

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

The Final Pieces of Poseidon (art series)

“Any great work of art… revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world – the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.” Leonard Bernstein

The Poseidon nebula is a fictional region of space on the far side of our Milky Way Galaxy. These are the final two artworks of this SciFi art series of fractal illusions.

The Exploration of Poseidon -2009
Click here to purchase an art poster
available up to 52″ x 78″ (inches)

Leaving the Poseidon Nebula -2009
Click here to purchase an art poster
available up to 78″ x 52″ (inches)

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

Wormhole Exit to Poseidon

“The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” Paul Strand

Wormhole Exit to Poseidon -2009

I do still like to play with the geometric nature of fractal art and sometimes weave it into my science fiction and space illusions as with this wormhole artwork exiting near my Poseidon nebula.

Zoom view of the exit (wormhole mouth)

“We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” J. K. Rowling

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

Wormhole at Tal Koor – artwork

“Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.” Publilius Syrus

While visiting the world of Zaellah I had heard stories told of the path to the underworld, described as flaming red gate opening every thirteen years near a star they called Tal Koor. The more I listened to the tales the more I suspected that it might be some kind of wormhole and I wanted to seek it out.

It took a lot of searching, often hailing ships traveling throughout the region to pick up a clue here, a scrap of rumor there. It turned out to be quite the challenge! Most of the races treated the subject with fear and superstition, hesitant to even talk about it as none of their explorers who had sought it out had ever returned. Till I ran into a Cazzian freighter who told me of the loss of his first ship thirty-seven years ago. A break down had set him far behind schedule and he was of using the nearest star with the intent of attempting a sling shot maneuver. Just as he neared the star he said that some kind of phenomena had opened just behind his ship and nearly simultaneously the star before him exploded into an intense cycle of flare activity. He and only a third of his crew had survived, their ship floated dead in space for weeks till a small patrol craft had detected their beacon.

He didn’t remember the actual coordinates but he pointed me in the right direction to narrow my search. I spent weeks cruising the region he’d pointed to on the star charts and then I found it. It nearly got me as well, for as I was passing close to one of the stars in this open cluster the wormhole suddenly erupted into normal space. My shields got a bit singed but I was lucky, unlike a nearby asteroid passing above the star.

Wormhole at Tal Koor -2009

Since I’m not feeling well today I thought I’d rework one of my wormhole artworks from earlier this year. I wasn’t happy with its overall appearance and so decided to redo the star field and brighten up the nearest star (Tal Koor). This science fiction art piece is now almost entirely fractal illusion with only some of the most distant stars painted in. And I just got a notice that it was given by Zazzle a Today’s Best Award when I set up the art print in my store.

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.