MISSION IN ART

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"We must discover what we are called to do.

And once we discover it we should set out to do it with all of the strength and all of the power that we have in our systems. And after we’ve discovered what God called us to do, after we’ve discovered our life’s work, we should set out to do that work so well that the living, the dead, or the unborn couldn’t do it any better."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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View from a studio window in Florence, Italy, 2016

THE 'WHY'?

The aim of art is multifaceted. Through my own personal lens, the main objective is comprised of three parts:

• Learning to see. To see, learn, and ultimately know one’s self in new ways ("self" also called the personality, ego, etc.). To see the physical world in new ways (quite literally meaning that shadows, color, etc. can all appear differently to one's eyes after a painting or drawing session).
  
• As a means of digesting impressions of the world around and within one's self; and ideas be they of a religious, scientific, spiritual, philosophical, or wordless nature (another word for "digesting" could be processing, but this does not hold quite the right meaning).
• As a dutiful act of fulfilling one's dharma and experiencing the unfolding of one's karma. Quite possibly the most elusive subject; an attempt at further explaining follows below.

These processes commune in order to create new understanding and culminate in the development of Being.

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“Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question...Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is
of no use.”

Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan"

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KNOW THY SELF

From the sonnets of Shakespeare to the cathedral of Chartres, the act of creation speaks through our Human hands. When we make ourselves willingly available, the expression of higher influences move through us like a conduit and take many forms; this is what we refer to as "art".

The true profit of the creative act lay in the process itself. The result, be it a sculpture, painting, or dance, can be looked at as a byproduct rather than the goal.

Engaging in creative activities thus allows us to raise our normal state of consciousness and awareness. From on high we see the world outside of us and worlds within us anew. Thus presenting a wondrous opportunity to revitalize the  mundane and deepen our gratitude.

Part of living a full and honest life is being able to see with clear eyes and consume every impression of our own unique experience. No one but ourselves can experience things the way we do; for we are, in part, the Absolute's sensory organ through which It experiences Itself.

To know thy Self is to know the All.

Chartres Cathedral on a trip to France, 2015

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"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour"

William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

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A view of the artist's studio. Beverly, Massachusetts

ART AS A MEANS OF
DIGESTION

As a glistening shard of glass breaks away from the whole of the bottle, we are fragmented piece of the Divine. We are cast out to to experience the world; we leave Home and with separation gain perspective. By seeing what is not, we learn to experience what Is.

And like seaglass, we are tossed about in the ocean of passing time until our edges are worn smooth. The highs and lows of our life's experience are the crests and troughs of the ocean waves. We are tumbled about in vague discomfort until, once again. we return to our Home on the shore; this transformed into rarefied jewels.

This mystically transcendent process is necessary to produce the unique iridescence of seaglass, and yet we must admit its brutal nature. As if a set of unforgiving teeth, the thrashing waves push and pull against stone like a masticating jaw. Swallowed down and spat out. Though it is only through suffering this simultaneous dance of destruction and creation that we are born anew.

The creative process stokes the flames of passion.

Etymologically "passion" stems from late Latin "to suffer". Willing engagement in creative practice is a means of inducing a controlled form of suffering with the aim of digesting our own Life as a whole. An artist brings his life's experiences to his process, which becomes life a sacrificial container into which his thoughts, emotions, and impressions go; so they may be held up to the Light of Awareness and digested.

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"And even in our sleep
pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom to us
by the awful grace of God."

Aeschylus, "Agamemnon"

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LIVING ONES ROLL

We, as Soul, come to the physical plane with a roll to fulfill. In essence, this roll is impossible to define with words, but it relates to a particular necessity to experience a specific set of emotional states; only able to be lived through the life of who we were born as. The unfolding of our life circumstances, be it our occupation, the people we meet, or place and time we live, are all an attempt by Soul to bring about these emotional experiences by manifesting the world around us.

While our lives are not necessarily predetermined, Soul does attract the circumstances of our lives in an effort to bring about specific emotional states.

Through this lens, sometimes referred to as the Law of Karma, the labels of "good" or "bad" do not apply, as dualism does not exist at this level of Being. When met with the Right attitude, from a place above both pleasure and pain, the events of one's life can bring about higher levels of consciousness and deeper states of Being.

Thereby there is something Right and True about fulling one's dharma, or one's roll. This time my life circumstances have lead to me playing the roll of an artist. So that I shall do. And down the path I will walk, as it unfolds and leads be right to where I've always been:

Here. And Now.

Buddhist depiction of Samsara, the churning wheel of Life and Death

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"Keep breathing,
keep living,
keep searching,
keep pushing on,
keep bleeding,
keep healing,
keep fading,
keep shining on.

This is for the hearts still beating..."

Converge, "Last Light"

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