My love of watching craft makers at work cannot currently be sated by The Repair Shop. I've watched them all. I've searched further afield for my fix, eventually coming across Julian Baumgartner on You Tube. Currently I can't quite get enough of watching his working process. I am in awe.
The work demands someone who is methodical and patient. Lots of scraping away, thoughtful slow careful preparation, the time he takes over this is simply astounding. These are obviously edited videos, often speeded up filming to fit into a half hour or hours running time. Then there is the cleaning, executed in rhythmic circular motions taking off just the dirt and varnish, but no more. If it won't come off with gentle solvents, then its stronger ones, and if these are ineffective then he scratches the residual old varnish off bit by tiny bit with a scalpel. All of these processes cannot be hurried and may take hours and hours and hours.
All the while he's not getting into a flap. His tables, unlike mine, never get messy or disorganised. He makes sure he takes regular breaks from the tediousness of some tasks. He knows how to look after his mental health. Loves the restoration part but is used to delaying his gratification sometimes for days. Then there are the decisions he has to make about what he is or isn't going to conserve, how far he is going to take his restoration, what his client wants and what he can deliver.
Here is one just so you get the feeling for its fascinating minimalism. Be warned its addictive and some of his videos have several sequences to be watched.
"Resistance is our way of getting ourselves off the hook.
Resistances provide us with a shroud to hide ourselves behind.
Peace of mind (in relation to resistances) means - you accept that there are waves in the ocean that each wave that comes will be different and that surfing them is the whole point."
SETH GODIN - In his lecture on Mindfulness & Creativity at Work from Love & Resilience - The Contemplative Care Summit, 2021.
It's futile because the person who reassures us that its all going to be OK, cannot possibly know that.
Seeking reassurance is a trap.
What we need to know is that people have our back, that when it doesn't work someone has got us that they will help us try again, help show us where to go to next."
SETH GODIN - In his lecture on Mindfulness & Creativity at Work from Love & Resilience - The Contemplative Care Summit, 2021.
What is there left to say about John Grant that hasn't already cashed its chips in on an already established line of musical myth making? Its as hard to look at an artist from a fresh perspective as it is for an artist to find one for themselves. Both develop expectations and associations built up from a repeated experience of what they love to write and what we love about them. We can become so accustomed to Grant's self confessional material that its robbed of its power to shock. amuse or awe.
He has often expressed his life experience in such a frank manner, its difficult to see beyond it to notice how he's filtered and packaged it for our consumption. The results process his feelings via some of the most honest, witty, yet scathing songs about former lovers you are ever likely to hear. Emotional truths struck home and cause reciprocal resonant chords in others -'yes me too'. Anyone who has broken up badly with a former lover and wanted to get back at them for the hurt they've caused, could hear it in a John Grant song. Much of this early solo material arose from a precarious sense of himself, to which the songs became a sort of cathartic therapy. Trying to rid himself of layers of self- destructive hate, doubt and anger. Over his three previous albums and associated live performances it was apparent that Grant has gradually been putting to rest, or at least managing better, the bitterness that drove his most cutting early songwriting. Where too now though for the bard of the withering put down?
As he releases Love is Magic, his fourth solo album, what more can we hear that hasn't been heard before? As Bella Union pre-released tracks from the album online, I felt concerned. What I was hearing, seemed like retreading old ground, a lost sense for a melodic line, run out of fresh ways to write songs? Grant himself thinks this album is the most complete realisation he's yet achieved of what he's wanted an album to be. My feelings about it before hearing it in full were then a little troublesome. I was surprised then to end up loving it.
Queen of Denmark released in 2010 was in effect a salvage job by the group Midlake, to rescue Grant from slipping into a self imposed retirement. The resulting highly successful album has much more of a country lite feel to it, and had echoes of his previous work in the Csars. By the time of Pale Green Ghosts, three years later he's confident about where he wants to go musically experimenting with electronics, though still dropping back into the style of the first album from to time to time. This gave the album stylistically speaking an uneven feel, even though its full of songs that are some of his best. My sense of 2015's Grey Tickles & Black Pressure was that it consolidated without developing further what he achieved on Pale Green Ghosts. With Love Is Magic, I believe I have a sense of what he's tried to achieve with this album. Its is more coherent in its form, being largely electronic in style from start to finish, but it also toys with something a bit more sonically adventurous too.
Between the last two albums he's done quite a bit of feature vocals on other people's albums. Most noticeably on Susanne Sundfor's Mountaineers, and with Creep Show. Both these allow Grant to sing over the most gorgeous sonic backgrounds allowing space to accommodate the full richness of his vocal timbre. Susanne Sundfor's album Music For Troubled Times, is a patchwork of songs each beautifully wrought. At times sparsely backed, sometimes lushly orchestrated, experimentalally mixing in the spoken word, whilst still hanging together as a whole album concept. Love is Magic bears a few similarities, there are re-statements of what is good in a John Grant song, whilst weaving into this bolder explorations of the song form, pushing at his own compositional boundaries. The track Metamorphosis for instance opens the album with a crazy in your face list of things that appear to have no association, bookending a sad little tune about the death of a loved one, written from the perspective of someone with an emotionally alienated sense of loss. It doesn't quite convince you to fully buy into whats happening, its a fraction too clever to touch you, but it is a courageous track to open your album with.
The theme that holds the album together, resides in the title track Love Is Magic. Laying out the different reasons for our experience and desire for love. He sings that however it arrives ' when the door opens up for you, don't resist just walk on through, there's really nothing else to do.' Since an earlier song Marz there's has been a nostalgic vein that reflects back on his early life. Its present here in the Tempest, where he yearns for someone to come play the Atari arcade game with him. It has within it a plangent vein of loneliness, requesting someone to come and share an enthusiasm with him, to love what he loves. Preppy Boy, is a young inexperienced gay teenager imagining himself falling for the most straight looking and hence unobtainable love object. Smug Cunt could be seen as another of Grant's character assassinations of a hate figure. But there is often a sense that Grant only dislikes them because they have what he wants, the Smug Cunt has unwarrented self-confidence, but by the bucketful. Diet Gum, opens with the line 'I manipulate, that's what I do, I manipulate that's what I'm doing to you' interspersed with a lot of gay bitching trying to put down the manipulator 'Do you really think you could seduce me in a leisure suit' . Yet these pathetic expressions of independence are empty ones. They are only susceptible to being manipulated, because they love the manipulator.
Critical appreciation for this album has been mixed, some have like me loved it, often for the very same things that others have found irritating. Sometimes, I have to say, Grant's use of electronic instrumentation can seem a bit like he switched the machine on and used whatever its factory default settings were. He needs a musical collaborator to push him to be bolder in his arrangements, someone who'll conceive a unique sound to enhance Grants songs further. That said, Love Is Magic's compositional themes are as rounded and thoughtful as ever. It still has its pokey moments, but in a gentler, less cruel way, and he is perhaps more forgiving of others failings than before. Though not quite the superlative album that one might still expect him to write, it points towards a few bold musical directions he could pursue and expand on further. Nonetheless, for all its sometimes half resolved quirkiness, its a really interesting album that I'm already quite besotted with.
THEMES IN THE LYRICS OF RON MAEL Part One - Unwitting Chaperons.
In 1974 I had a moment of blissful musical revelation, as a keyboard refrain faded in, built up and propelled guitars into the fray, and then Russel Mael's falsetto sang the following lyric : ~
Zoo time is she and you time The mammals are your favourite type, and you want her tonight Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat You hear the thunder of stampeding rhinos, elephants and tacky tigers This town ain't big enough for both of us And it ain't me who's gonna leave
Some might say that Russell Mael's semi operatic voice, has frequently hidden the lyrical inventiveness of his brother Ron under his high pitched, rapid fire delivery and often indistinct diction. You knew This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us contained a batty brilliance to it, unique at the time. But what on earth were they on about?
Over the years and twenty plus albums, Ron Mael has ploughed a distinct lyrical furrow with themes around the dynamics in sexual relationships reoccurring. These are presented from the masculine perspective, and focus on male insecurity in their relationships with women. These are perceptive, often challenging preconceived views about the dominance of male power in sexual relationships. In sexual relationships the use of power by either gender, quite often arises out of fear and insecurity rather than a primary desire for dominance. This woman/man has free will and could just up and leave you. Men over the centuries have exercised overt and covert uses of power, as a means of controlling by keeping women at home. Though never misogynistic, Mael doesn't particularly toe a PC line either, there is plenty of objectification and idealisation of the open playing fields of ones first youthful sexual explorations for instance. This he rarely does without his tongue being firmly in his cheek, or a healthy dose of irony being left hovering over it. As in Amateur Hour :~
The lawns grow plush in the hinterlands The perfect little setting for the one night stands The drapes are drawn and the lights are out It's the time to put in practice what you've dreamed about
Well she can show you what you must do To be more like people better than you
Chorus Amateur hour goes on and on When you turn pro you know she'll let you know Amateur hour goes on and on When you turn pro you know she tells you so
Girls grow tops to go topless in While we sit and count the hairs that blossom from our chins Our voices change at a rapid pace I could start a song a tenor and then end as bass
Choose your partners everyone If you hesitate the good ones are gone
Chorus
Dance laugh wine dine and talk and sing But those cannot replace what is the real thing It's a lot like playing the violin You cannot start off and be Yehudi Menuhin
Chorus
Often the men in Ron Mael songs don't quite know what to do, nor what to make of how a woman is behaving. The uncertainty within this atmosphere feels threatening or intimidating. So on Don't Leave Me Alone With Her, its the woman whose seen as being predatory and putting the man on his guard against her unwanted advances.
The Exodus is on The impetus is gone Nobodys having fun How about another drink Or maybe just a snack The rest will be here soon Here, let me take you mac I know its started slow Theres still no need to go
Chorus Dont leave me alone with her Every home is Rome alone with her And if you all go, who'll say no to her Dont leave me alone with her Dont my sweat and shaking register Cause if you all go, who'll say no to her
You look at her and say, "She looks OK to me" I look at her and say, "She looks OK to me" The reasons very clear You're watching her with me
Chorus
Unwitting chaperons, how come you cannot see Unwitting chaperons, how come you cannot see A Hitler wearing heels A soft Simon Legree A Hun with honey skin De Sade who makes good tea Dont leave me here to be
Chorus
On the track The Lady Is Lingering, Mael's lyrics capture the uncertainty surrounding attraction from the male point of view. You think someone might fancy you, but you're not quite sure. Should you make a move, or are you misreading the signals ?
Every word pronounced distinctly, slowly There are no contractions, nothing slurred Unprepared you watch in rank amazement As she lights her cigarette and stirs Every motion is complete, no editing of anything Encouraging, encouraging, and not the customary bill of fare
Chorus Can't you see the lady is lingering This lady's lingering, and you cannot believe the reason why
Every sip is of the smallest quantity That still denotes apparent thirst Every question is a means to draw long answers Play the fool, it doesn't hurt Splitting, splitting headache coming Get up early in the morning Where are the funny phrases That are always followed by goodbye
Chorus
Is it now all up to you, do you now guide the evening, or do you await a further signal, a look, a touch, a sigh
Chorus
Risky business, all this waiting, wondering A risky business, all this waiting, wondering A risky business, all this waiting, wondering A risky business, all this waiting, wondering
Chorus
Don't you know she's here?
The next lyric is from Indiscreet, one of the early Spark's most inventive and diverse albums. On a track called Tits, Ron Mael's perfectly evokes a realistic experience of a conversation, its character and tone, how the focus of the narrative can jump around from Harry, to his wife, to the barkeeper and back again in an instant. The scenario is of two men drinking in a bar, one believes he's got marital troubles, and is confiding in his best friend Harry. As the night goes on the pair get more and more drunk, and the conversation takes on an increasingly paranoid turn. Though the chorus talks about the change in availability of his wife's tits since they've had a child, the use of the word Tits in the title has a double meaning. Both these guys, the more drunk they become, are behaving like proper tits. This is fine lyric writing, and Ron Mael at his witty and ironic best.
Harry, it's good of you to stay Hear every word I say And not just duck away
God, these drinks are something warm and watered down Barkeep, how 'bout some ice Hey, Harry sit back down Say, that little thing there's fine from behind
They all look good after three or four, So drink Harry, drink Harry, Drink 'til you can't see no more of anything, no more of anything Drink Harry, drink Harry, drink 'til you can't see no more
For months, for years, Tits were once a source of fun and games at home And now she says, tits are only there to feed our little Joe So that he'll grow
Harry, it's really rough at home I've caught her on the phone Hey, who's that on the phone? Oh, that's no one dear, The standard sort of line Harry, you know me well, You know that I'm not blind Hey, you ain't been drinking Don't you know I'm buying?
They all taste good after three or four So drink Harry, drink Harry, drink 'til you can't drink no more of anything, no more of anything Drink Harry, drink 'til you can't drink no more
How well I know Tits were only there for fun and games at home And now she says, tits are only there to feed our little Joe So that he'll grow
God, the room is spinning round Hey, drive me home old pal God, you sure get around Harry, I know it's you who's breaking up my home Harry, don't say a word, just drop me off at home Harry, forgive me Harry, let's have just one more
It's all so good after three or four It's all so good after three or four It's all so good after three or four
So let's drink Harry, drink 'til we can't drink no more of anything, no more of anything Drink Harry, drink Harry, drink 'til we can't drink no more
How well I know Tits were once a source of fun and games at home And now she says, tits are only there to feed our little Joe So that he'll grow into a man
So let's drink Harry, drink 'til we can't see no more
Even on Exotic Creatures Of The Deep their most recent studio album, there;s a track She Got Me Pregnant, where he teasingly subverts traditional gender stereotypes. Wondering how men would cope if they were the ones who became pregnant, would they feel any different if they were left holding the baby?
Pregnant She got me pregnant Done using me I'm just a memory
You know how these girls can be they treat you all so casually They wine you and they dine you and expect a little la-dee-dee And then you learn that though she's several thousand miles away There is a part of her she's given you and now you have to deal with being Pregnant
Chorus
You know how society is showing some sobriety By letting individuals decide on how they get their thrills And if there is a consequence then you are left to deal with it Government will not be there to tell you what to do if you get Pregnant
Chorus
I offer you I offer you a simple word of warning Think it's never gonna happen to you, better, better, better think again
Chorus
A wham and bam and thank you sir is all that I would get from her I never should have given in I never should have given her The golden opportunity to love me and to leave me Without giving me the time of day and she is half the world away
Chorus
There are other subjects in Ron Mael's lyrical lexicon, too many to incorporate into one article. Recently the Mael brothers have released a book of selected Spark's lyrics which if you are interested you might want to investigate. In The Words Of Sparks
1 Art is not inherently spiritual. 2 The spiritual effect of art is dependent upon the eye and receptivity of the beholder. 3 Spiritual meaning or effects can sometimes be assigned artificially to art, by our culture. 4 Spiritual subjects or allegories don't automatically mean the art will have a spiritual effect. 5 Any art can be spiritually instructive, beneficial or uplifting, once we're open to it. 6 Spiritual effects come into art through an artist's use of colour, form and expression 7 Artist's become channels for spiritual influences to emerge through them. 8 The spiritual is drawn to art and artists that are sensitive to beauty 9 Spiritually uplifting art may not be beautiful in a traditional sense. 10 The spiritual effects that a work of art may have resist precise definition. 11 An artist cannot consciously create spiritual art. 12 An artist can consciously turn the making of art into a spiritual practice.
Everything and nothing to do with me The purpose in writing this series of articles has been to explore what the relationship between the spiritual and art may be. This has been a personal quest. Having set myself an intention to develop art as a practice, I wanted to be clearer in my own mind about the territory I'm entering. One personal concern was that in the rush for creative practice, my Buddhist practice could get sidelined. As in the past, I've have a tendency to 'drop the bucket in the race to find the next source of water.' So I've wanted to pin down what the potential areas for art as a spiritual practice may be. This has by its very nature drawn me into looking at the whole topic of 'the spiritual' in art, in perhaps more detail than I'd first envisaged. So it is a given that art can have a spiritual effect, and an artistic process can become a spiritual practice. At the same time both these can become Self serving conceits. They may give ones sense of Self and ones artwork a grander loftier air, and whilst appearing to be not about 'me and mine', in essence are. The spiritual can become a great and commodious cloak to hide all ones self centred motivations beneath.
Praise and appreciation is good to receive, whether its for an exhibition, for a creative project I've instigated, or for the rituals and shrines I create. I'm acutely aware that the mental state or emotional mood I was in at the time of creating a shrine say, can often be far from exemplary. Certainly not exalted, inspired or uplifted with any spiritual connection. I've found praiseworthy results are frequently created in the teeth of egregious resentments, mostly about the creative task itself. I don't find it easy to put this truculent negativity to sleep. If I'm lucky, engaging with a creative process will itself transform the conditions that caused the negative state to arise. That's not always possible, if creative frustration lies at the root of it. I find it paradoxical that what maybe communicated through my art is not affected by this, or become a direct visual translation of that mental state. Something the complete mirror opposite can often emerge in the finished piece. This is perhaps a reflection of how un-integrated I am in this area. The negative effect is upon the internal process, and not upon the end product. I do seem able to run creatively on auto-pilot, in the face of unfavourable conditions. The positive effect of a piece on others to inspire awe or emotionally move people, seems to happens regardless of this. I just paint the painting or do the shrine. What happens afterwards seems little or nothing to do with me. However unconscious, the creative process opens up areas of my psyche not exposed by anything else I do. So is it something I do, or is it something expressed through me, or is the effect of an artwork entirely in the eyes of the beholder? Without an objective source as a stimulus for what people feel or sense about an artwork, it must be founded entirely on the subjective perceptual and internal emotional response of each viewer. The artist's self-expression can only be one element in the story. For the spirit of something emerges through an artist, emerges through the artwork and emerges through the attention of a person looking at it. The personal is also universal, and the universal is also personal. This seems to be present at every point in the artistic process and in the finished piece
Artistic ideas can be hard to realise and bring into being, there are difficult births. At other times ideas almost paint themselves without obstacle or much deliberation. Solutions can be unearthed slowly and deliberately or pop into ones head fully formed, without precognition or forethought. These ways creative ideas emerge are not unique to me, or to artists, its appears to be how they happen to all sorts of people in all walks of life and activity. Ideas could be the simple snapping of brain synapses. Though not a random event, it can feel like that they come unbidden into awareness as though something is speaking through us. Not all cognitive processes dealing with creating solutions appear to be conscious ones. Some brain functions may run quietly in the background. Though its possible to map how the brain functions and the rudiments of how it operates, we're not yet able to fully comprehend how it generates ideas or solutions to problems. It maybe everything to do with me, or not entirely. We habitually see ourselves as the brains in charge, the controlling agency in all we do. Yet so much of how human beings live is unconscious, it seems hard to sustain this view in all eventualities. Elements do appear as if they are nothing to do with me. We operate far more unknowingly than we're ever likely to know or admit. Out of our desire to Self-aggrandize we blow our own trumpet far and wide. Buddhism would say that the conditions prompting any thing to arise into our awareness are multi-faceted and have a mutual complexity inbuilt into them. An example is given of a group of sticks propped up against each other for support that together make a stack. It's never one stick alone that is the determining thing, not just me, not just them, not just events. not entirely Self or entirely Other, not everything nor nothing to do with me. Whatever I do as an artist though undoubtedly playing its part, is unlikely to be the whole story in how people eventually respond to finished artwork.
The content or experience of Art as spiritual. From the viewers perspective, the specific aesthetic content or experience of a piece of art is what usually marks it out as being 'spiritual'. Renaissance content consisted of scenes from biblical history, the miracles and martyrdom's of saints, and Greco-Roman classical myths. This is what many people are referring to when they talk about the spiritual in art. These illustrative paintings of sacred people, stories or theology, may or may not evoke an uplifting response in the viewer, through this imitative expression. Such content cannot be guaranteed to produce art that will spiritually touch us. It might just as easily produce an inert picture, with an equally inert emotional response. So whatever is there in a work of art that people respond to as being 'spiritual' is more about receptivity, than its representational form.
The way a painting's content is formed by the artist, its colours, shapes and relationships as they run across the canvas, may fleetingly capture a spiritual truth about human life and mortality. This could be as true of non-representational as representational painting, Because a sense for the spiritual emerges through this illustrative content, doesn't mean it intrinsically belongs to it. Pictures might also be alluding to concepts or analogies not immediately visible in the artwork. They are spiritual only if one knows how to read them. This perception of art is a profoundly academic or literary interpretation of spirituality. Its a cognitive response, that may also have an emotive counterpart. But without that emotional response. the visual potency or vibrancy will never fully spiritually suffuse enough to inhabit it. The spiritual effect upon a viewer cannot be predestined by content or prescribed by art critics or even the artist themselves. It's dependent on the subjective eyes and heart of the beholder.
Art has spiritual meaning or qualities attributed to it.
From a Buddhist perspective, art that is too worldly or too other worldly in emphasis is bound to be flawed, because this is not how reality truly is. All art has at least the potential to be seen in a spiritual light, or be illuminating. Spiritual meaning, value or spiritual benefit can always be assigned too it.. This was most likely not part of the artist's original intention, and probably better if it isn't. To be able to perceive for ourselves, we have to be receptive to it, to be able to abandon any prejudices or preferences we might hold, to be more flexible in our perceptions and hold less rigidly to fixed points of view. Whether we see spiritual qualities in art depends mostly on whether our views obscure or highlight them.
Art is unlikely to be inherently spiritual
The word 'spiritual' is one of many value judgements placed upon art It is often short hand for a particularly elevated feeling, a sense of something positive, insightful or divine, an other worldly dimension or sensitivity. The 'spiritual' may place itself in a finished artwork but this is only ascribed to it through the viewer's perceptions. There is a viewpoint that only certain cultures, periods in art or types of content, have produced spiritual art. This is untrue. This is largely based on cultural or aesthetic assumptions of what has or has not spiritual value. Subjective aesthetic experiences often being presented as absolute objective ones. Its impossible to be completely definitive about the spiritual content or otherwise of art. It's probably safe to say, that if you can define it in great detail, then you're probably not talking about spiritual content at all. Its just too subjective an experience for that level of precision.
Art emerges from an idea and the evolving process of its creation. For an artist, a finished artwork may only be the conclusion of one line of inquiry, and not the end of the artistic investigation they've started. Each completed piece stimulates further questions during its creation. Form, content, and the particular effect an artist is trying to create in a piece, are the central issues in that process. Through the artist's choice of colours, mode of expression, its composition and style, the inhabiting spirit of an artwork is seeded via the artist. This spirit will generally manifest its true nature once the artist has effectively 'left the room.'
Alchemical ~ Nigredo ~ Albedo ~ Rubedo
Throughout art history qualities have been attributed to colours. They have been perceived as having magical propensities, as healing talismans, or in the case of alchemy indicate the current state of ones spiritual progress. These all attempted to bring religious, psychological or factual objectivity to the subjective and emotionally based experience of colour perception. These conceptual frameworks that surround the spiritual aesthetics of colour, have informed artists working methods. Artists as stylistically diverse as Mondrian and Kandinsky, found inspiration from theosophical concepts about the archetypal references of specific colours and shapes, that were the foundation for their future very radical abstractions.
Theosophic Colour States
Colours possess visual temperature, a vibrant energy and a capacity for shimmering movement or calming stillness. They are; light or dark; warm or cold; they recede or advance towards the viewer; seem to optically expand across a surface or contract inwards. It seems then quite natural for any artist to use colour as a visual echo of the human spirit and any desire to transcend their mortal limitations. Colour, in combination with form and expression, appear to be the essential core of what can turn an aesthetic into a spiritual experience. The outward expression of an artist's imagination, and the spiritual qualities an art work may communicate to the viewer, do not necessarily correspond in all particulars. Elements sneak in underneath the imaginative disguise put there by the artist. If receptive, an artist can be like a spiritualist medium, and become skilled in allowing disembodied entities to occupy and speak through them. If an artist can get themselves sufficiently out of the way that is. It is possible for the desire for Self-expression to be diverted into a vehicle for Other Power to express itself. Only via this type of subliminal channelling can an artistic process become an interface through which 'the spiritual' is given voice. The artist needs to be a blind instrument, otherwise this 'Other Powered Voice' will be drowned out by the artist's self-conscious awareness. For one can never self-consciously imbue 'spiritual' qualities into art. Though there are many fake mediums around!
Kandinsky
There is another way in which 'the spiritual' can enter into the artistic process, and that is by turning that process itself into a spiritual endeavour. Spiritual practice in art, is concerned with the artist's own creative and internal process. Whether the completed artwork is perceived as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, is, in this respect, a matter of little import. Spiritual practice is concerned with ones state of mind, the form of ones thoughts and emotions during the process of creation. As a practicing Buddhist, my aim is to be able to apply the Buddha's teachings to what I do. This means usually being aware enough in the moment, to be able bring them to mind and apply them to specific instances in my life. The artistic process is no different from any other human activity. The Eight Worldly Winds are always at play in all forms of human creativity. The desire for Fame, Gain, Pleasure and Praise often being thwarted by Infamy, Loss, Pain and Blame. Our Self craves significance and wants to be appreciated and recognised, as being here, as being an 'artist'. These are universal difficulties, we all want to know that our life will matter and something will live on beyond our death. Whether its our biological or our artistic children, the impulse beneath it is much the same. We can place too much self- identity and self-love into an artwork that even the possibility of it not being liked, can feel as though we are standing nakedly prepared for the final fatal body blow. Nothing seems worse than dying unknown and unloved. Practically speaking spiritual practice is about being aware of these issues and to bring forth a more helpful perspective. Remembering that the conditions that form our life and art change all the time, so not allowing the momentary ups and downs in ones confidence, to undermine or intoxicate one's sense of purpose. To be more equanimous in the midst of creative achievements or failures. Its more focused on the motivations going on beneath the artistic process, the conditions that might facilitate or impede the process, than a perfectly resolved idea and finished result.
Vidyavajra ~ A State of Alarm
I've found that I need to take notice of how I hold the reins of artistic control, getting the balance right between holding them too tightly or too loosely. The qualities and tendencies of my mental and emotional state can stifle or encourage the creative process. It's helpful if I can cultivate abiding in the present moment whilst I work on a piece. To not allow reflections on past or present errors in artistic judgement or anxiety about the future creative direction of a piece, to turn into obstacles. These can then hang around perfuming my mind, and distract me from my sense of purpose. I make a practice of turning errors into hidden intentions, to not see them as mistakes at all. but as a change in the evolving conditions that will form the final piece. I see one aspect of relaxing the reins of artistic control, as allowing the artwork to speak to me. It will show me what needs to comes next, only when the moment for it has arrived, and not before! Whenever I try to pre-empt or enforce control over the evolutionary direction of an artwork, then the artistic process grinds to a halt in doubt or prevarication. At worst the artwork spins off kilter into muddy incoherence. The habits, doubts and superficiality I may have about the artistic process, have to be constantly countered by creativity and clarity within the process, and remaining committed to it whatever happens. For me, the process of artistic creation is an ongoing debate between these aspects of my Self and subtler aspects of Other Power. The path of artistic self-expression will eventually reach a turning point and become a way to 'go beyond' self-expression. Not by renouncing all forms of self-expression or by abandoning the making of art, but by gradually transforming the Self-reinforcing underpinning that is beneath the artistic process. I grapple with these sorts of issues by externalising them, giving them a tangible form through a creative medium. Integrating the results of my exploration and struggles, which will hopefully strengthen the foundations of the path that ultimately leads towards resolving or transforming them.
When I say 'spiritual' what do I mean? For a Buddhist using the word 'spiritual' will have a different connotation than for a Christian, Muslim or Hindu. Spiritual, is not for Buddhism, another way of saying sensitivity to a godly presence, or soulful inclination towards a divine creator. So what would the Buddhist interpretation of the term 'spiritual' really be pointing towards, if not to that? Here is where I need to chose carefully what words I use. Most English terms expressing a 'sense for something Other' than mundane worldly existence, are so stained through with Christian associations that, without intending to, it could still sound like I'm talking about god. Also, when attempts are made to define god, they can become so loose and broad that anything and everything becomes absorbed into it, like a black hole. So it's a minefield for misinterpretation, but here goes.
Bernini's ~ Ecstasy of St Theresa
When the Moon is full, and the sky a dark blue, the silver white of our nearest satellite shines down upon us like a bright beneficent goddess. For many thousands of years the Moon was only a deity you would point at, ask a favour of, or worship. Godlike deities are usually like this, visible but distant, tangible but intangible. Yet they are said to influence and guide human behaviour, to which you need only to surrender too, however unfathomable their purpose. Theistic interpretation of the word spiritual reflects this. Its about being in ecstasy with the divinity, abandoning ones liberty or freedom of choice, to let god be you guide. Anything spiritual, comes to represent this yearning to be at one with the godhead, to have you soul lifted up, your spirits elevated or transported to a more heavenly angelic realm. In Buddhism the Moon is not a god, its just a way to imaginatively visualise the goal of Enlightenment. There's a traditional Zen phrase about 'a finger pointing at the Moon'. So whilst the Moon is Enlightenment, the finger represents the descriptions of Enlightenment and practices that point towards the way to get there. The meaning of the phrase is that the finger is not the Moon ~ the means to the end, not being mistaken for the end ~ the practices alone are not it. So a Buddhist gazing at the Moon is aspiring to become more like a Buddha. They are not asking any deity for help, but they are directing themselves on the path towards the state of Enlightenment. In some traditions, this is often couched in terms like Buddha Nature or Other Power, which are criticised within Buddhism as verging too close to deification. They are simply metaphors, ways of talking about Enlightenment as not remote, but present and waiting, as a finger pointing. The idea of Other Power is interesting, in that as our practice deepens the state of Enlightenment as a vaguely intuited Other Power can be perceived as coming to meet us, to give us a leg up. You might be forgiven for thinking that sounds like god, but its more like plants growing towards the rays of the Sun. The Moon and the reflection of that Moon in a puddle of water are, ultimately speaking, seen as the same.
Rothko
So 'spiritual' in a Buddhist context, would be any subtle or profound experience that enriches our sense of the Enlightened state. Things that give a heartfelt sense for our final destination as practitioners, reinforce our confidence, trust or faith in the efficacy of our practice, and in the reality of that goal. The full achievement of Enlightenment for all of humanity in complete alignment with the whole universe. For a Buddhist the experience of something spiritual in art, would be whatever gave us this visionary or passionate glimpse, an emotional uplift or encourage our Sraddha (faith.) in the goal
of Enlightenment. The basic qualities that the word spiritual evokes, are awe and aspiration to achieve that harmonious state of concord. In this Buddhist and Theistic use of the term spiritual bear a passing similarity, both desire to go beyond human and earthly limitations. It would however be a bit glib and superficial to say that we are therefore talking about the same thing. There are concepts and perceptions of how that ultimate goal is achieved, that differ greatly. They are not the same, so don't cobble them into a matching pair of bookends. The Prajna Paramita Mantra, expresses this ultimate Buddhist spiritual aspiration through a series of 'going beyonds' till we are Enlightened to reality as it really is. Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Altogether Beyond, Oh What An Awakening, All Hail! The spiritual in art provides a sensation in the present moment of what this 'going beyond' might be like. Yet for the artist, the art itself, and the viewer of the art, this spiritually awakening experience will be different. Generally art refines our sensibilities, it prepares us for ever subtler levels of awareness. The spiritual experience of a piece of art, could either be one instance of momentary transformation, or a gradually developed aesthetic instinct that slowly re-orientates our whole being.
In recent months I've been reading books about artists and their art. Initially I thought this was simply reconnecting with the work of favourite artists in a quasi-nostalgic regression to the enthusiasms of youth. The longer this has gone on the less true this has seemed. Yes, I have been rekindling enthusiasms, but at the same time I've been developing a clearer sense for what their artistic process was like and how that might correlate with mine. Some of these artists are Van Gogh, Mondrian, Van Doesburg, Kurt Schwitters, Paul Klee, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Sol Lewitt. They have all either influenced my working methods, style or my sense of aesthetic. As both a Buddhist and an artist, I'm interested in how art and the process of making it could be a spiritual practice and what it is that makes art 'spiritual' anyway.
Schwitters
Quite apart from any practical consequences upon my art and artistic process, their work possesses a joyful life affirming quality for me. This feels like a spiritual affinity. For some of these artists, their artwork was a search for the essential fundamentals of Art, a manifestation of the universal, that had a psychological or spiritual search for unity underpinning to it. They became more abstract and less representational the deeper this search for the spiritual in the universal went. This made their art grow progressively more weird, out of touch and hence other worldly. Its as if they've come down to us from an alien, if not alienating, realm ~ and hence increasingly difficult for ordinary folk outside of it to easily relate to anymore. Modern Art Aesthetics and Buddhist Metaphysics are both similar in this respect, in that the worlds they describe aren't that easy for the casual observer to comprehend or appreciate.
Klee
Essentially, most people have a simple uncomplicated desire to bring beauty into their world and hence appreciate when they see this in Art. Lets be honest, much of the world we are surrounded by is ugly. There is much about human life, and indeed some art, that is undoubtedly vulgar, grubby and wretched. Artists can show us these unpalatable, cruel and soiled aspects of life, and I wouldn't for one moment wish to censor or denigrate that. It is an important function for art to reflect all aspects of the world to us. The world is a place of suffering, one we frequently want to avert our gaze away from. Artists needs to be able to show us what the world is really like at its worst, as well as its best. These days the bias is towards the worst, and can be all we are presented with. We are encouraged to cultivate skepticism, cynicism, apathy, to view the world nihilistically. Because there is no hope, no beauty, no possibility of transcendence proffered, there is nowhere for our 'soul' to soar too. Something to inspire or aspire to in an elevating positive way is rare. Any artist who makes beautiful art can be seen as naive, fatally romantic and their work as a flawed escapism from the real brutality of life. A positive outlook or refined sense of aesthetic is out of fashion and not a position that an artist with any contemporary relevance should hold for long. It is, however, also true that the singular pursuit of beauty as an end in itself, will, at least in part, be founded upon the pursuit of an idealised vision of a pain free, perfectible heaven on earth ~ basically an eternalistic world view.
Le Witt
What we are being presented with here is a false opposition between a nihilistic and eternalistic art aesthetic. Each one pointing out the perceptual flaws in the others worldview. In truth, each has its own spiritual value, but each can also be misleading because of their partiality, and hence the incompleteness of their worldly perspective. If we form a more spiritual perspective on art, we don't have to buy into this dichotomy. There are aspects that can be of spiritual value wthin nihilistic and eternalistic art perspectives, though one has to be wary of them, and of our own bias towards one or the other. Ask ourselves ~ What does this artwork tell me about life and the world I live in? ~ What might it help me better understand? ~ Is it blind or insightful in any way? ~ Does it move me or encourage an enquiring or empathic response? ~ Does it point towards anything that is above or beyond existence? ~ Does it feed mine or other peoples greed, hatred or delusion?
A bit of an old rave from the grave, but early Frank Stella had a huge influence on me while at Art College. I'm just rediscovering the delights of his early work. The later work appeared to me to be a rather contrived volte face, if not reaction to the power and success of his love of squares and colour contrasts indicating depth. They positively fizz off the canvas, such is his evident delight in exploring all the possibilities. I get the same life affirming feeling from Bridget Riley's colour work too.
Bridget Riley's early Op Art became one of the visual touchstone of the swinging 60's. Her visual experiments have continued since then with the introduction of vibrant bands of colour. The result, though carefully structured and prepared for, is never sterile, it has warmth. Riley seems not at all concerned with putting her heart or the psychological mess of her mind on the canvas. No shock values or the messiness of self-expression here. What her paintings possess is an abundant sense of enjoyment with what she is doing with colour, shape, pattern and form. That said, her paintings do communicate something of her personality, a certain steadiness and balance, an unfussy unpretentious clarity.
Looked at closely, her paintings are never super pristine. The edges are not ultra sharp, the surfaces she paints on are rough watercolour paper or coarse linen, which mitigates against perfectly clean execution. This paint surface, however, does benefit by bringing greater depth and a richer softness to the colour quality. That said, Riley's paintings shimmer, and resist the eye settling on any particular area. Your gaze is kept constantly moving, engaging with being visually scintillated. Reproductions can never quite capture the immediate effect of her painting upon your perception. Her work is ripped off constantly, she's always been accessible and her ideas are readily adopted by popular commercial media, via wrapping papers, cards or wallpaper designs. They have to tame her though, by toning down the colour contrasts and oscillating quality that she revels in.
Other painters like Freud or Bacon might grab the headlines, for what they tell us about the grisly end of the human condition. However,Riley creates huge masterly work that celebrates another aspect of being human, our capacity to express and enjoy our exuberance. This is joyful painting, one that is optically experimental, but also uplifting and affirmative. It also possesses a truth and universality that can be undervalued in the pursuit of, and wallowing in, the oppressive shadows.
I first became aware of the work of Sol LeWitt whilst I was at art college. His work then was minimal, geometrical and graphic, purely line constructions drawn in pencil or charcoal across huge wall spaces. I was recently Googling for some help with a wall painting idea I had, and a couple of the hits were videos of a large exhibition of his wall paintings in the US. I found them quite astounding,striking and imposing,staggeringly beautifully composed and the use of form and colour - just awesome. Anyway above are a few shots to whet your appetite.
And once you've taken them in then watch this nine minute video about how they are made. I find watching this is so inspiring I can hardly keep myself from fizzing, I just want to go out there right now and paint one of the huge wall in the Windhorse warehouse like this. Amazing stuff.
