ARTstrology is visionary stargazing for the sophisticated life-traveler. Behold your patron saints, the 12 modern artists whose work and personas embody many of the characteristics of the traditional 12 sun signs. But unlike traditional astrology, the dates corresponding to the signs are different. ARTstrology follows where the planets REALLY are cosmologically speaking–the sidereal zodiac–taking into account the precession of the equinoxes, not some pre-fabricated cycle. So, step back look at your canvas and explore with your true inner artistic nature.
(January 15th-February 12th)
GAUDI
the natural visionary
My most personal and memorable encounter with a Gaudi structure was when I had the great luck of attending a small dinner party at my friend Paco’s apartment in Barcelona. We sat outside on his balcony eating a feast of Catalan food while gazing upon the dramatically lit Casa Mila on a warm summer evening. Experiencing the surreal architecture with others in an intimate setting helped me commune with it on a ‘real’ level. I bring this up because, this month would be the most opportune time to commune deeply with your inner-Gaudi through your intimate contacts with others. The first half of the month will get the ball rolling. By mid-month, you will be fervently exploring the deepest corridors of your identity. And by the 21st when Jupiter, planet of expansion touches Venus, planet of love, an intensely intimate encounter will bring illumination.
(February 13th-March 13th)
CHRISTO
the grand-scale environmentalist
Through 2005 Christo Javacheff and partner Jeanne-Claude will work together on yet another massive environmental project, this one entitled The Gates. Their plan is to erect 7500 free-hanging ‘gates’ made of saffron colored fabric panels around the walkways of New York’s Central Park. If it sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. But for you, Christo’s like-spirited creator, it will seem like child’s play. That’s because, this month, even in the depths of August languor, getting the job done will be the highest priority in your life. You’re letting your larger-than-life identity slip into the back seat as you get comfortable with defining yourself through your labors and actions. When you finally take a much-needed pause to look up from your busy-work towards the third week of August, you are pleasantly surprised to find that having a little companionship in your travailles could make them doubly rewarding.
(March 14th-April 13th)
ROUSSEAU
the surreal dreamer
In the Henri Rousseau painting, “A Centennial of Independence,” a group of peasants is depicted in mid frolic, dancing around as if totally liberated. The piece was a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of France as a republic in 1792. Unlike this piece, your celebration will not be focused on such serious political matters. The pastoral jubileum that you will find yourself in this month is of a far more whimsical nature. It will allow you, for once, to focus on the more benign and light pleasures of life such as pure amusement, creativity for the sake of enjoyment, and friendships and groups that share this same purposeless, yet valuable energy. In the coming months you will put those deeper Rousseau-like thoughts of the subconscious and the psyche in the back of your mind, for they will bring you nothing but frustrating disorder. Instead, raise your paintbrush to the juicy, frivolous brand of jumble that is just dying to be your muse.
(April 14-May 14)
POLLOCK
the action painter
Lights, paintbrush, action. It’s time to splatter with the potent energy of your very own patron artist Jack the Dripper as all the signs in the sky point to a rush of energy in your career sector. If you can keep all your paint tubes ordered and covered amidst this highly charged creative process, you will succeed in reviving what you thought was a lost career cause. If, on the other hand, your filing system is as manic and chaotic as your creativity, you will find yourself getting emotionally unhinged by friends or associations that do not seem to be gelling with your goals. Never forget that your deepest strength is your wild abandon. At the same time, it’s your ability to find your own hackneyed order in that abandon that gives you the edge over other artists. Oh Pollock, be still, your proverbial bottle of whiskey is coming in on the 21st when a rush of inspiration washes over you with 151 proof intensity, and this time, the bottle is half FULL.
(May 15-June 14)
O’KEEFE
the earth comber
Your astrological patron art saint, Georgia O’Keefe discovered her true ‘home’ in Northern New Mexico, a place whose landscape provided the most profound inspiration for her work. At the same time, her years in the hub of creative intellectualism in New York City alongside Alfred Stieglitz also provided an equally vital home backdrop of a different sort. This month, O’Keefe, will be the perfect time to take the proverbial Manhattan gallery tour, join a salon or just wax intellectual at a downtown cocktail party. Your greatest pleasures in August will be generated by your mind’s excursions, via communication and expansion into areas unfamiliar to you. By mid-month this sort of high-level brain cavorting will give you a sense of the larger perspective on things. And oddly enough, going external through this sort of communication will do wonders to improve situations on the domestic front by the 21st. By then, your “home,” in every sense of the word, will really be your castle, and like Georgia, the place your dwelling will only be bordered by billowy sky and sprawling mountain ranges.
(June 15-July 15)
KAHLO
the complex dualist
Do you remember the moment when Ms. Frida Kahlo suddenly became associated with everything from jeans, to film, to Madonna? It almost seemed as though, overnight, the profound and pioneering Mexican artiste became a household name–Kraft, Crest, Kahlo. Don’t worry fellow Kahlo, you won’t have to wait until you’re dead for those sorts of financial rewards to stream in. But you’ll have to be a bit more patient than you’d like. You’ve just exited a rather propitious financial time and are entering a more draining one. It’s not that you’re going for broke, but money is not going to fall into your lap the way it did earlier this year. This month sees you entering a new financial cycle, a new chance to make things right in your bank account. Like your artstrology icon, success in your money zone will be deeply tied into communication and intellectual matters. One piece of solace, amidst all this is that the full moon’s energy will give you one last chance to gain funds from shared resources–partners, family, taxes, real estate.
(July 16-August 16)
MUNCH
the moody expressionist
Recently, my dear Munch, you’ve been taking a leaf off the inspiration tree of your Czech contemporary, writer Franz Kafka. You’ve just been metamorphosing and transforming so much that you hardly recognize yourself. Have no fear, the grueling process will reach a resting point by month’s end. You’ve got to become more familiar with yourself and a new incarnation of your identity before you eat the fruits of security later this month. The full moon on the 12th pumps up the energy on a certain relationship that’s been on your mind. Learning to grow into yourself while allowing another to be part of that self is hard work, especially now that Mars is retrograde in your house of deepest intimacies. Getting up close and personal is not coming easy to you right now. Just let things go. You may need to move two steps back before you move one step forward. Around August 21st expect a surprise that will surely boost your security level. Whether it’s financial, emotional or inspirational, it will fix you onto much more stable ground.
(August 17-September 16)
DUCHAMP
the flip absurdist
One of Marcel Duchamp’s well-known pieces, is entitled, cryptically enough, “To be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close To, for Almost an Hour.” Perhaps it’s about time you started following these instructions, as best as you can, taking into account your own framework. The universe is telling you to explore all those oddities that your subconscious has been harboring for all this time, and bring them out into the open. August is a cross-over month for Duchamps, a time to harness as much of your inner self, dreams and unconscious desires as possible, and learn how to unite them with your external self. During the first half of the month, you may be looking from the wrong side of the glass and as your so-called imperfections start to surface, around mid-month, being the pride-filled sollipsist that you are, want to run for cover. Take Marcel’s advice in this case. When the above-mentioned piece arrived at the museum with an unforeseen crack from shipment he did not complain but rather celebrated what this contributed to the work.
(September 17-October 17)
MONDRIAN
the left brained de stijl-ist
Sometimes, even grid-masters like you need a little time away from the matrix. Perhaps it’s time to pay a visit to your buddy Jackson Pollock or better yet add in some purples, pinks and fuschia’s to those power grids of yours. This month, not unlike the stereotypical August, is about stepping away from your regular routines and chores and giving in to that ‘hidden force.’ Mondrian’s fellow countryman, Dutch writer Louis Couperus wrote a novel entitled just that (”De Stille Kracht,” “The Hidden Force”). It explored that beautiful, mysterious ethereal something that ushers in sybaritic pleasures, voyages of the Id and just plain garrulous times. The moon seems to indicate that your social activities and friends will be the forces that pull you out of the grid. By mid-month fun and romance will be in full swing. Of course, you’ll be hard-pressed to get much done, which for Mondrian’s is the kiss of death. Oh please, don’t embrace that hard, finger-wagging Dutchness, instead give in to the lazy, jovial side of Mondrian’s culture.
(October 18-November 15)
WARHOL
the fan of beauty
My father used to work in advertising in London in the sixties. At some point, before his fame, the young Andy Warhol brought some prints in to his agency, hoping to find bread-and-butter work. Years passed, and those prints, which went up, up, up in value, ended up in my grandmother’s attic. One day, when clearing out the ‘junk’ she tossed them out with the rest of the dust-collecting surplus. This month, as issues of the home reach a boiling point, vis-a-vis a new career cycle, you might want to think before you make any big decisions that you might later regret. With Mars going retrograde in your sector of creativity this month, you’re running low on inspiration and all of your work-related motivation is coming from far more mundane areas. Don’t do something simply for the money, seek out the things that leave you awestruck. Around the 21st friendships or ties to a new group could do the trick.
(November 16-December 15)
PICASSO
the creative destroyer
The real Picasso had a tough time moving past his small world of petty romantic intrigue and seeing the bigger picture. He played all of his women against each other and watched the dramas unfold. It’s a pity that even this megalomaniac wasn’t able to re-focus the attentions on himself and see that he was the weak one, afraid of losing control with his amours. The stars are begging you, this month, to bring such realizations to light. This is your time to go beyond the petty minutiae and experience the bigger picture. This will be especially beneficial to you in career matters, particularly after the middle of August when you’ve figured out exactly how you can communicate your ideas to a larger audience. It’s all about scale, grandeur, the bigger audience. So, it’s time to step outside of your house and re-enter the world. Just before the end of the month some sparkling surprises will have everybody on your side and you may put your career in a totally different light.
(December 16th-January 14th)
GAUGUIN
the passionate adventurer
This year marks the centennial of the death of your patron creator, Paul Gauguin. It therefore makes sense that, so far, 2003 has been a year of the deepest of discoveries and rebirth. But, my Gauguinian friend, the celebration of the century has only just begun. As Jupiter, planet of expansion enters your ninth house (which places it in the ‘dignity’ position) you will finally be able to experience this new you through your inner adventurer. Despite the fact that the early part of the month looks a bit more nuts n’ bolts than you would like, all of these mundane details are necessary, for they’re paving the path towards those far-flung journeys that will beckon you in the coming year. For a clue as to what those might include, keep a close watch for any sparkling incidents that take place on the 20th through 22nd. And remember, unlike the man Gauguin, you won’t necessarily have to travel to Tahiti or some exotic land to live out your destiny. Other exotic delights found in the most unexpected places could equally enrich your life.
It’s hard for me to, er, put this in a way that doesn’t sound negative. I find myself modifying a statement made by the assassinated Dutch right wing political candidate: “Los Angeles is full!” Unlike Pim Fortuin I’m not anti foreign influences in my home town. I think the smorgasbord of cultures is what makes places like New York so interesting, so why not LA. But, since my return to LA a year ago (I had been gone for close to a decade) I have noticed an ugly congregation of the worst kind of people from all over the nation here in my once sweet and friendly home town. 
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