We met Michael Bosanko and I felt a soft intensity. As we got to know him that feeling was validated and magnified. Michael has an understated demeanor that belies the magnitude of his craftsmanship. He even has a particular gait that makes him seem to glide through steps....I particularly enjoyed our visit with Michael both personally and professionally.

      So, what was our visit with Michael like?  Well, I can describe it as smooth, like Michael.  As we got to know each other I realized this was going to be a real collaborative effort.  We all shared a vibe and awareness of what we wanted/needed without the need for a lot of explanations.  We had a great helper in Chris who is Michael's assisstant.  He is quick on the uptake and big...which helps when you are out on the streets with all your gear at 2AM under a bridge.  It always helps to have a few "large blokes" loitering nearby as a deterring presence.  There was one encounter in particular with 3 drunk Irish lads that pulled up in a windowless white van and seemed very concerned about us.  In a not very polite way they told us we were not allowed where we were and then spent some long moments assessing, seemingly, whether or not it was their civic duty to help us move along.  

      This is where Michael did his jedi mind trick.  As I mentioned  before, he has a beguiling manner and calmness that comes across as a strong undercurrent of strength and composure; he approached the van...chatted for a few minutes with them and bid them a good farewell.  I remember very clearly the look in their eyes. They were essentially "dismissed" in a complex and soothing way that left them slightly bewildered and wondering what to do next.  But in the end they drove off...too fast...and with one last yell in our direction......haha....  It was just like Michael had waived his hand and said "These are not the light painters you are looking for."  Star Wars Jedi Stylee....haha.....My estimation for Michael increased in that moment.  I have nothing but love and respect for him.

     Nonplussed by this encounter we got directly back to work and Michael proceeded to enter the zone.  This is something we saw over and over again with each artist in radically different situations.....it is an entering into an internal space.....a receding into a timeless place in which the sensitivity to unexplainable influences is heightened.  It is a state of being that really manifests the fact that "time" is a construct, or at least that our interpretation of and experience with "time" is purely subjective.  I am keen on this because it means that we can regulate and govern the outward pressures that time puts on our minds.  Rat Race, racing against the clock, a New York Minute, running out of time.....not so much.  It was always "energizing" to be with artists who stepped outside of these pressures and came back with beautiful light painting expressions from their internal universe.

     "I can go anywhere and still be nowhere..." I heard in my mind...an echo of a Big Youth song....I think this is an apt description for our trip.  We went everywhere and at every place we had light painting moments in the night that put us into the mystical "nowhere".  We can all go anywhere and we bring the nowhere with us.  I left Michael feeling more connected with this sensation than with anyone else...except maybe an equal measure with Jens and Cenci of Lightmark....Looking back at each place and time I find that I somehow remain sustained by the tranquility and soft strength that Michael exudes.

     I remember a moment in which I was again presented with a peak behind his curtain.  He was driving us through the "Welsh Highlands" as I like to call them.  We were experiencing "filmic" landscapes all around us, quintessential green hills, lakes in valleys, weather patterns we could see developing as we turned in 360 degrees on the top of pristine and exotic hill tops.....The temperature was dropping with the sun, the dark and ominous storm we were watching was heading in our direction, I was commenting on the rugged and isolated beauty...The storm and quickly vanishing light made us turn back.  We were not able to get to the waterfall he wanted to show us.....so he told us a story about it instead....

     Michael proceeds to tells us about his Martial Arts training in these hills.  He tells me that his "master" had the class running in these rocky, unpredictable hills with no shoes and socks....he said that it was winter and cold and wet....the class was put directly under the waterfall we were on our way towards, freezing water, to do the forms as the water crashed on top of them.  He described the experience as (paraphrasing) "I had never felt such a white light of pain and physical exertion and headache."  He said they had to stay under the crashing waterfall and repeat the forms until their teacher was satisfied and then run back down the hills barefoot.  

     Sounds like a Saturday morning Kung-Fu movie to me, but while hearing Michael tell this story I began to understand where his humility and strength comes from.  Training, discipline and humility seem to be the elements that have brought Michael to where he is today and we are privileged to have him included in Luminary.

    Thanks for the good times Michael.  Peace.