In LA there is a little newsprint magazine floating around, Coagula Art Journal. The writing, wry, ironic, sarcastic, silly and serious, is about art, making it as an artist, art in LA. I approve. In issue #90, Senior Columnist (that's his title, seriously. Another is Poet. And ... Spiritual Advisor.) Any how. Senior Columnist, Gordy Grundy writies about a new venture of his: The Fellowship of Fortuna, "America's fastest growing art-centric religion." Oh yeah. I like it.
I also like the way he sets the stage for his pitch.
Braving the cold, I throw an arm and hand out from under the warm covers, toward the Venetian blind. It snaps and slaps up to reveal a medium grey sky, a monochrome without definition, no clue to its time. I can't tell if it is morning or evening. Who knows? Maybe I slept the day away. I'd like to ...
Stretching one's limits and pushing the personal envelope can be exhausting. Talking to people is hard. Recovery time is longer than I thought. For every hard-charging day, I need two to recover. What am I doing?! Morale is manic or depressive. It is either a day of brilliance and harmony or a day of soggy damp despair. Nothing in-between. An I going stone mad?
Oh I can relate completely. [Even if it is roller blind, not Venetian that he means; rollers snap, Venetians pull up.]
Venetian.
Roller.
Map of where to get them custom fitted in Nottinghamshire, UK.
I digress.
What Gordy Grundy is talking about is his idea that the Fellowship of Fortuna could become a movement. He wants backers, team-players, ground swell.
The basic principle, unifying theory as it were, is fortuity, otherwise known as the luck of the draw. He explains on the FoF website, "one thing that unites every human being is Chance. Sometimes good or sometimes bad, we all have Luck. While most call her Lady Luck, we know her as Fortuna. Every church needs as icon and the Roman Goddess is the inspiration for ours." As luck would have it, Fortuna looks a lot like Angelina Jolie. Now that's a goddess.
He's got a lot worked out: god, the meaning of life, how to keep your head above water — and product: artworks - posters - stencils.
Slogans and mantras too. The best might be: Better Than.
I want to leave everywhere I go, better than I found it.
I want to leave everyone I meet, better for the encounter.
Better Than is fortunato. It could even end wars.
Yes, it just might at that.
It's not a cult, it's a culture, he says. It may be a culture of one for now, but who wouldn't want to be called one of the Fortunates?
Buona fortuna Gordy Grundy, on your drive to get attention, funding, members, drinks, whatever. May the goddess be with you.
