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In this gallery I've
called The Womb of Creativity I explore my responsibility as
an artist who is communicating to my world family through the powerful
visual-symbolic imagery of spiritual experiences and insight. In 1989
I took eighteen of my paintings done during the previous nine years
and re-examined each image with the eyes of my original intention, creating
an intimate story, poem or personal mythic journey to place the work
within a context of the transformational process. The inspiration point
from which each painting evolves is personally unique and varied but
relevant to common human experience: an ecstatic timeless moment, the
attempt to grasp a paradox, a dance with the higher imagination or the
retrieval of a part of myself long ago lost in the shadow landscape.
Each writing arose to the occasion of this rebirth of intention and
followed the path of transition to the place of power. The wise words
of a courageous spiritual trailblazer, whose understanding and realization
have inspired or challenged me over the years and whose words encapsulate
in a precise jewel my glimpse into the realm of truth, begin and end
each written piece.
Modern western
society is removed from the world of myth, dreamtime and symbols.
Our conditioning does not allow us to understand that to absorb or
resonate with a painting, a tree, a flower or another human being
you don't need to have taken five years of art history, botany or
psychology. The essence of that which we see as outside of ourselves,
"the other," can be experienced by slowing down a bit, relaxing
our guard, really looking at the other with our eyes, reaching out
with all our senses and curiosity. You receive precisely what you
give to a painting, a tree or another being. It is from this whole-hearted
place of communion with life that wonder and magic begin to pervade
each moment with a sense of the sacred.
My personal practice
of this mindfullness meditation process and my concern around communicating
the gifts received to others, guided me into an attempt to be present
with my own artwork in this way. It might be presumed that I would
find immediate intimacy and interconnection with a piece of art that
I've spent hours-weeks-months wooing into existence. It is my experience
that this is not the case, in fact it seems even more difficult when
the subject of concern is something or someone you already think you
know well. As I sit here relishing my bran muffin at the Tassajara
Bakery I realize that we forget that every chair in the neighborhood
coffee shop, even though mass-produced and similar, looks different
depending on what's reflected in the chrome arms at that particular
moment; light, color, movement or shapes. The chairs' appearance changes
based on how I'm feeling at that particular time in space. Is it inviting
or hard, old and battered, desirable or undesirable or couldn't I
care less, my attention consumed by my inner dialogue? As I looked
at my artwork it seemed familiar, yet every painting had a unique
voice revealing some message, relevant and undiscovered. My preconceptions
and expectations had previously veiled and muffled the song, choking
the joyful interconnection that comes with establishing intimacy and
truth. Opening to "the other" requires the courageous act
of becoming vulnerable, considering the other's importance as at least
equal to one's own. I thank all those of courage who have led the
way into the unknown and revealed the path of transformation from
their own experience and unique perspective. These guides are invaluable
to use at a time in history when the obstacles to being our best selves
often seem insurmountable.
I propose that
the transformational-spiritual-visionary art that comes from the "mystical"(1)
experience of an inspired artists--creates a current mythic map to
guide human beings through change and suffering on the personal and
mass level. Herein lies its' relevance to modern man, woman and child.
I choose to describe the inspired artists in the words of a contemporary
mystic Paul Brunton:
"Turning
to the meaning of the world "inspiration" what more can
one say than that it is the "in-breathing" -- the in-breathing
of a spiritual quality that raises a work or person above the commonplace
order of things? I do not mean that a work is inspired when it is
cheaply glamorous or that a man is inspired when he is rhetorically
aggressive or that a mind is inspired when it indulges in clever intellectual
jugglery. It is my standpoint that all inspired art is the expression
at most or a product at least of spiritual experience, although the
latter may not be well understood by its experiencer. The experience
must come first. Art is movement and noise, whereas the spirit out
of which it arises is hushed stillness and invulnerable silence."(2)
Art of this nature
is not understood or valued by this society and I believe the responsibility
for this contingent ignorance lies on the shoulders of the artist,
gallery owner, museum director and mass media for the form and context
of its' presentation, as well as in the responsibility of the viewer
to bring more than a haphazard attention to the realm of the sacred.
Insight into the
ethical accountability of the inspired artist in relation to their
world family has come to me through extensive reflection on the profound
and often negative effect images or concepts can have on the perceiver
if presented in a profane fragmented way out of the context of the
whole sacred mythic story or environment. Times have changed and we
often do not naturally have the mythical or ethical framework within
which to intuit consciously all the pieces of a transformational story
within one piece of art when we walk off the city street into a commercial
gallery or museum and encounter it. The gallery environment is not
set up as a sacred space, not do we undergo any ritual or preparation
as we enter that would help us leave our worldly everyday mind behind
and engage with the art in a more open sensitive manner. Images that
portray the transformational-spiritual-psychological journey are powerful
in their message and more often than not impact us on a deeply unconscious
level. We walk quickly back into the street, away from the profane
context of the gallery's presentation and get into a fight with our
spouse, not even beginning to glimpse the profound challenge to our
reality that has actually taken place. Art of great merit and revelation
is rejected, and we hang insipid decoration on our walls. Our environment
is plagued with unrelenting media: T.V., movies, newspapers, radio,
commercials, billboards etc., that consistently reopen our deepest
wounds; memories of defeat, grief, fear, betrayal, lust or hate without
offering any real avenue of healing. It is an overwhelming deluge,
for we are already thrown into those experiences continually with
everyday life. Our need is the myth, the rituals, the inspired arts
and the appropriate sacred context within which to experience these
maps of the unconscious, so they can show us how to make changes or
live peacefully with our own truth.
"Translating
my visions into words. A quest into the earth-spirit continuum."
This is my present response, as revealed in these writings, to this
infinite challenge of the creative mind: to go beyond boundaries,
labels and conditioning that define the role of an artist and limit
her ability to relevantly communicate about the realm of myth and
the sacred to her society. I challenge the outworn belief system that
says an artist is limited to visual media if she paints and should
not talk about her work, that this somehow taints the images' power
or impact. Creativity is a way of "Being" in the world,
a way of Being whole and in harmony with life. Why cut out our tongue
and put our eyes on a pedestal?
Between the conscious
and the unconscious, the mind has put a swing: all earth creatures,
even the supernovas, sway between these two trees, and it never winds
down.
Angels, animals,
humans, insects by the million, also the wheeling sun and moon; ages
go by, and it goes on.
Everything is
swinging: heaven, earth, water, fire, and the secret one slowly growing
a body.
Kabir saw that
for fifteen seconds, and it made him a servant for life 1.
ENDNOTES
1. Brunton,. Inspiration
and The Overself, p. back cover
Mystical
-- "There are swift elusive moments that every real artist knows,
and every deep lover experiences, when the faculty of concentration
unites with the emotion of joy and creates an indescribable sense
of balanced being. Such moments are of a mystical character."
2.
Ibid., p. 39.
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