Age of Magic and Enchantment
							It was the Golden Age of magic and enchantment, an age that saw the dawn and demise of the hippie culture. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, disco, all the outrageous excesses, the gay movement, and the assassination of Harvey Milk. There were also the innovative realities of that period, including the rapidly developing threat of Nixon’s impeachment and the growing certainty of the Vietnam War being brought to an end by the will of the people, who struggled for peace and enlightenment against formidable opposition. It was also the age of an awakening of the individual and collective consciousness. The galvanizing effects of these realities have had their influence in the U.S. to this day.
							Like a lightening rod that directs its energies to mankind by expanding the cognitive and affective abilities of the human race, such people as Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, and Ken Kesey, not to mention the Aztec and other ancient Mesoamerican cultures, opened what some considered to be a virtual Pandora’s Box of altered perception by introducing LSD and “magic mushrooms” to contemporary culture, effectively awakening a whole generation to the possibilities for greater human perception through the use of mind-expanding, hallucinogenic substances.
							At this time of burgeoning self-expression, spirited by a compelling self-reliance, and the stimulating creativity and originality of the time, Mulleian’s vision and sense of oneness personifies that spirit and is clearly amplified in his statement: “In order to see God, you must allow God to see through your eyes.” From a very early age, Mulleian had come to believe that we are all spiritual entities not separated by boarders, barriers or even time. That such a profoundly penetrating statement is made with such clarity prompts one to wonder from what depths of consciousness does it personify?
							From as early on as age three the artist’s sense of awareness grew until it would gradually assume the responsibility of a messenger, the themes of peace, love and transformation to be calibrated thematically within the artist’s work. Mulleian’s mental, emotional and physical demeanor were of one connective matrix with the bigger equation, the unification of all things, a thematic paradigm which became the superlative driving force behind the artist’s often prophetic vision.
							Or does the vision stem from something much deeper still? That such an individual has obtained from the very beginning an inward sense of the purpose of being, allowing him to consciously live the experience within, one questions the circumstances that would draw such insight to the surface. Perhaps it rises from his mystical experience while in Vietnam, or from his Armenian and Black Foot Indian spiritual heritage, particularly given both of these culture’s history of genocide, possibly providing a strong genetic influence from the very beginning. These historical factors might have aided in his strong sense of awareness, indwelling him with a clear sense of perspective of the human condition, regarding war, nuclear annihilation and spiritual consciousness in relation to humanity’s rightful roll in it’s future.
	The photo (above) of G. Mark Mulleian was taken by notable photographer John David
			Hough as a part of a photographic series for After Dark Magazine in 1974.