Nemo
Nemo Boko
Artist
Web Site:
www.hollinghurst.org.uk
I am originally from Miami, Florida, USA - a mixing of languages, cultures and expression always seemed very natural to me. My mother was deeply interested in mysticism and the new age movement. As a result, I was exposed to a variety of shamans, healers and ministers from and early age. As an adult, I would learn my paternal grandmother of Native American ancestry was deeply inspired by the tarot, divination, hermeticism and the occult.
In high school, my family took on a Japanese exchange student which led to several of my trips abroad and becoming student president of my school’s Center for International Studies. Determined to begin a life of public service in diplomacy after college - I tripled majored in Politics, Religion and East Asian Studies, completing all three in under four years. Afterwards, I worked for close to two years in DC at a variety of non-profits - becoming deeply jaded and realizing that peace was simply not a priority in DC - I moved to Boulder, Colorado where friends were engaged in an experimental hip hop project.
For the first time, I started to relax my mind and learned to quiet its constant chatter. Through an epiphany in "no-mind mediation", I began to create art work in an egoless state - symbols and figures from my religious studies began to appear in my work and take on new meaning in my life. Strangely, at the same time everywhere I went, people mistook me for someone else they already knew, leading me to believe I must look like anyone or no one. That combined with the egoless meditations made the name Nemo, or Latin for "no one", stick.
I continue to explore the field of "functional art" integrating veves, sigils, fetishes and anything else necessary for the art to perform its function. In the future I plan on detailing my magickal experiments and methodology in booklets and manifestos. I continue to accept commissions of magickal works of art and I hope to work with others to inspire and empower their own practices.
Works by Maria J Leel published by Immanion Press