About 20 years ago these pieces were bequeathed to me from my late Grandmother, Marjorie Bedoukian. I remember Walter Gulezko, who I know from my childhood as Wally. I was around six or seven years old when Wally was visiting my Grandmother  in rural Perth Ontario, Canada and recall a good warm feeling from the memory of him.  There were a few other friends of my Grandmother and have some pieces made by Cherry Holmes. I mention this because I also have a portrait of Wally by her. It is a wood burning piece. It was hung in Marjorie’s summer kitchen in the old farmhouse she bought and lived in.

   Originally when I had acquired these pieces of art I had a marginal interest and they just looked like classic psychedelia and I had hung them in my garage. I a pique of awreness I awoke to the symbolism in the unique time of history when the art was created.  The late 1960’s and early 1970’s marked a change and was a tumultuous time for the world. The world began I kind of awakening.  As a kid in contrast, my world was only what I knew around me in country homestead in a piece of forest, old farmer’s fields and swamps. A magic time childhood is and I was blessed to enjoy.

   Childhood shapes the adults we become. The art by Walter Gulezco captures a visual snapshot and feeling of time.  He had taken the collection of imagery of thoughts and visions and translated them to a very brief visual essay of dream states.

   2019 we are a long way from 1960’s. The use of hallucinogenic drugs and the journey into  altered human consciousness became available to a much wider population.  There is some resurgence of that today but in a much more controlled environment.  The purpose to help jar the mind from rigid patterns of vision and thought.  As Aldous Huxley stated, open the doors of perception.

    Memories of childhood are as dreams. Being a child is like being in a dream.  The intensity and shifting of emotions occurs very fast in children. Much faster than when we became adults and our patterns become cemented into rigid thought, emotional and behavioural patterns that become narrow, limited and controlled. Adults spend vast sums to go on trips where as children can cut loose and freak out because the mind hasn’t been trained to filter itself out. They become entranced in music, art and play in imaginary altered worlds. Adults have to work to get back there and many have no concept of how to get back there.  The past lodged in the neuro pathways of the brain and dreams are not dissimilar to a self induced chemical trip from hallucinogens. Our childhood state is a part of who we are in mind and body and resides in our subconscious or shadow side. These hallucinogens are extremely powerful and can open door to allow our conscious state to glimpse into the unconscious shadow side by taking the mind into the near uncontrollable dream state.

   These pieces of art are a visual kaleidoscope into the shadow of the mind viewed by people who are most likely conscious. Walter is presenting the viewer with an opportunity to see beyond the reality we presently take for granted.

   I have made some headway into making contact with Wally in summer of 2018 and if you find this page please contact me.

Anthony Sinn

Winter 2018