I painted Tch' Kung in Richmond, California in a studio I built in my backyard with the help of a friend from the Pacific Northwest, Richard Fritts. This isn't the only blend of Northwest and Bay Area influences assembled in this work. Tch'Kung is the name of a musical collective in Seattle which attracted anarchist teens and fire-breathers. I knew a few of the band members from my readings at Writer's Guild venues in Seattle where their earlier band, Fear the Cow, would play. Tch'Kung played one night at the Weathered Wall while their pack of followers howled and drummed downstairs with fiery half-nude females dancing. Utterance Tongue hummed, popped and buzzed an inconsistent jazz improvisation to a small group of artists and nerds up in the third floor lounge. Publisher, editor and writer Troy Skeels of counter-culture fame unloaded some Tch'Kung cd's on me which label reps had peppered him with early in the show. I found their music particularly conducive to the mood I needed for this painting, which was a revolutionary attempt in my process to fuse my Reactionary Symbology with Simplexity styles. The symbology is drawn from Northwest Mystic painters and the Simplexity elements present are a visual mnemonic for the form of Qi Gong I practice. When painting Tch'Kung I was still struggling with the results of a recent spinal surgery. David Tsang, a traditional Chinese physician and now long time friend taught me Qi Gong and as much Feng Shui as I could absorb.