Art as a Spiritual Practice

evolution 
(6'x6' oil and strange moroccan pigments mixed with water on canvas)

i've decided i want to post this essay i wrote last semester about my art practice. as i move ahead with my art, a dream i've had all my life, really, a longing, i am discovering the yearning so deep inside me to be a healing presence in the world through my art, to live out my story through my art, to speak to the world about what i have learned about how to find peace. and god, its been a long journey. but i now realize it was and has been all part of one story, one process, that on some deep level, i requested so that i could learn and then share what i've learned with others. i want to share this essay because i think it does a good job of explaining where i am at with my art and where i want to stay. i enjoyed writing it and in some ways feel at odds with the conceptual art world and its goals. this excites me and i'm hoping to clarify that even more as i go forward with my art in the future. here it is: 

for all those who seek healing and long to love their life:

Art as a Spiritual Practice

Suzanne Joy Teune

My art practice emerges from principles I have learned from my personal healing process. It is informed by two basic practices that feed off of each other. The first is a continual practice of conscious awareness of the Divine in every moment. The second is an understanding that the physical and emotional experiences in our bodies inform us of our right life. In this way, what informs my art practice emerges from the same theories that inform the rest of my life.

Martha Beck explains this extensively in her book, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World. She writes, “To navigate the wild world, you need to move your basic perceptual and analytical thinking out of your head and into the whole inner space of the body....we cover up the directional cues of our physical and emotional experience with verbal thinking.

Menders of all times and places have taught that silencing the thoughts in our heads and opening to the experience of the body and emotions is the basis of all healing. It's the only means by which we can reclaim our true nature or feel the subtle cues telling us how to find our way through life. Every Team member must heal inwardly by responding to this inner knowing before moving on to guide the healing of other things.” (Beck 2012)

Carl Jung also writes about this in his memoir where he refers to a conversation he had with Native American Chief Mountain Lake, “ 'The whites always want something; they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want. We do not understand them. We think they are mad.' I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad. 'They say they think with their heads,' he replied. 'Why of course. What do you think with,' I asked him in surprise. 'We think here,' he said, indicating his heart.” (Jung 1961)

Tom Brown encourages us in the western world that this way of life is still possible for us. He writes, “Hidden in our hearts are levels of awareness we have forgotten. Like great reservoirs they lie just beneath the surface, waiting to be tapped, waiting for their chance to gush to the surface and remind us of who we really are. We can all see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and feel much more than we do. The roots of the sacred tree are as much our birthright as the American Indian's or any other people who have walked the earth. They only wait to be rediscovered." (Brown, T. 1984).

Seeing and intentionally experiencing life as a sacred and beautiful Mystery formed by Love informs everything I do whether it is eating, walking, breathing or making art. I make a practice to place my awareness on this as often as possible. My practice becomes a way of listening and of participating in the Mystery. As I am placing my awareness on the Great Mystery, I notice and observe how my body responds in certain situations. When I respond to the sensation of desire by acting on it, I feel healthier and more energized. I also feel that my life is meaningful and exciting. Other things in my life begin to fall into place as well. My relationships become healthier and more meaningful. I feel abundantly provided for and filled with a sense of Trust rather then neediness and fear. Julia Cameron says in The Artist's Way, "What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us." (Cameron 1992)

My art practice emerges from this life practice. I have discovered that when I draw, I feel energy moving through my hands. I also notice that I feel more confident, clearer minded, and meaningful. I feel attracted to drawing from life. When I draw from life I have noticed that when I draw faces of the people around me, I feel engaged. More often then not, when I draw an object or a landscape I feel bored. Because I respect these cues, I am continuing to explore portraiture in my current work. As I make art work in this state of being, the art itself becomes embued with the energy of excitement and passion.

My art at the moment involves self-portraits made from blackberry dye as well as abstract pastel drawings. These are two very different processes. However, it is all a continued practice of what I feel excited about inside my body. Celebrating this sensation allows me to continue working with self-compassion and not judging what I do. This allows my work to look and feel spontaneous and free. When I work on the blackberry faces I feel a sense of pride and acomplishment as well as visual satisfaction. When I work on the abstract pastel drawings, I feel a sense of playfulness and joy. Because I work intuitively, I am discovering that as I work, the work takes on meaning, that I hadn't defined at the outset. For example, I am working on a piece now of an image of the back of my head with light flooding over me and shining into the shadow made by my body on the opposite wall. I did not intend to create this image, but as I'm painting it, I am realizing that it is a metaphore for my life. The light that pours over me and out of me shines into the shadows of my life and others. I don't think this is an accident. I believe that as I make work instinctively and intuitively, the energy with which I make the work creates work that is meaningful. Julia Cameron writes, "When we become willing to be an empty vessel, we must let go of ideas of how our work should look and should sound. It is the same problem for writers as it is for actors. If an actor has an 'idea' of the performance he is trying to give, that concept gets in the way of being true to the moment-to-moment life that is trying to move through him. Similarly, as writers, if we spend too much time conceptualizing our work rather than actualizing it, we become stuck in how something should look and that leaves us caught on a surface level when the work itself may wish to move deeper." (Cameron 1992)

Three artists who influence my studio practice are Christo, Rebecca Rebouche and Rebecca Schisler. While doing very different things, all of these artists have a similar sense of playfulness in their work. Christo's “Running Fence” was the first piece of his to inspire me. I love the white fabric flowing and weaving through the countryside in a wave. I also am working with fabric and am inspired by his intensions to explore freedom in his work. Rebecca Rebouche is an artist from New Orleans who's work exemplifies whimsical wonder of the natural world. In her work “The Wide Night” the stars in the sky seem to spill down wonderously into our lives. Rebecca Schisler's work is full of energy and playfulness and intuitive movements. This is seen in both “Where the Light Rests” and “Personal Hieroglyphs.” When I see her work, I feel given the permission to make marks that look free and untamed. I feel free to let my spirit into the work without overly directing it. I love the way her energy is present in the abstract marks that she makes. She inspires me both with herself and with her work. She writes, “I paint to explore the creative process, engage all of my senses and surprise myself. My paintings begin with a simple compositional idea (or a wild gesture), which I respond to instinctively by employing various methods of mark-making, continually re-envisioning the work as layers accumulate. I seek methods of applying material which will yield unanticipated results and emphasize movement and aliveness. I hope to achieve a sense of balance and eventual completion through consistently weaving thoughtful, controlled marks with more spontaneous, expressive marks. … I believe that as artists, we have the potential to help ourselves and others transcend limited and stagnant ways of being and empower each other as co-creators of our lives. I hope to create paintings that are conduits: windows to more liberated, more colorful, more surprising and mysterious ways of experiencing the world.” (Schisler 2014)

The key research concern that is central to my work ongoing is that I maintain the connection with my authentic self as I continue on in my work. I want my work to come from that place inside me that is most alive. Because I want the presence of my work to be healing for those who encounter it, it is important to me that it comes from that place in myself that is connected to my joy center and the Divine in all things. The Native American communites mastered this skill in the work and art that they made. In the Cherokee story, John Parris writes, “...we know the original Cherokee attitude toward the 'Great Mystery' -- the Eternal. It was quite simple. … The sun and the Moon and the Stars and Nature--they were his Trinity. The lightening and the wind, the thunder and the rain provoked both reverence and fear. God was in the things he saw about him--in the greenness of a leaf, the blush of a wild rose, the sun-sparkle reflected in drops of morning dew. To the Cherokee, God was as real and ever present as soft earth and the flowing river. ...To the Cherokee devotion was more important than food.” (Parris 1950) Also, The Institute for American Indian Studies museum and research center's website references to how Native American art was, "Once made strictly for personal use and often connected to spirituality…" (Lamarre, L.P. 2014) I aspire to make work in the same spirit and to learn more about them as I devolop as a human and as an artist.

In conclusion, when I make art, the critical knowledge which is currently relevant to what I do comes out of the same concepts that feed into my healing process. Namely, observing what I intuitively feel excites me and trusting that by acting on it without allowing it to become an “intellectual problem”. Influencing this way of thinking in my life are many writers, my own observations of my life, and artists who inspire me who I observe operating in the same way including Native American culture. I aspire to continue practicing this as I develope as an artist and to trust that this intuitive way of working is the best way to make work that is the most authentic and meaningful for me and those who encounter my work. 

 

References:

Books:

Beck, M. (2012) Finding Your Way in a Wild New World. New York, NY: Free Press

Brown, T. (1984)Tom Brown's Field Guide to Living with the Earth. New York, NY: Berkley Publishing Group

Cameron, J. (1992) The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. New York, NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam

Jung, C.G. (1961) Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.

Parris, J. (1950)The Cherokee Story. Asheville, NC: The Stephens Press

Internet Sources:

Lamarre, L.P. (2014) The Institute For American Indian Studies. Available at: www.iaismuseum.org. (Accessed: 10 January, 2015)

Schisler, R. (2014) Rebecca Schisler. Available at: http://www.rebeccaschisler.com. (Accessed: 10 January, 2015)