Art - Painting and Thinking

The Convergence

2011-12-26T17:19:00.000+01:00

The Convergence of Baraquiel and Zophiel

The two met on the plane that spreads between the two Forests of Consciousness. Dividing this, a small distinct path meandered towards the Father Mountain which hung majestically; a curtain of faith that split the burnished sky.

The angels found their feet at each side of the path. They shared a common bond, an energy that was unlimited, strong and tested. They were brothers by any other name. They stood erect and heroic subsuming the last light of the day, a pure white fiery ball of truth slung low behind the crisp Tyrian purple peak of the mount.

As always at this point their hands found and clasped each other's forearm and the rivers of knowledge flowed and converged. This was how they learned, without words, without writing, or on this occasion symbols.

Zophiel's energy nourished Baraquiel's; Baraquiel's to Zophiel's. The circle and triangle becoming one, the Red Bird sang on the reed.

A vision: 26th December 2011

2011-12-07T17:02:00.001+01:00

The Story of Mushkil Gusha - Idris Shah

ONCE upon a time, not a thousand miles from here, there lived a poor old wood-cutter, who was a widower, and his little daughter. He used to go every day into the mountains to cut firewood which he brought home and tied into bundles. Then he used to have breakfast and walk into the nearest town, where he would sell his wood and rest for a time before returning home.

One day, when he got home very late, the girl said to him: ‘Father, I sometimes wish that we would have some nicer food, and more and different kinds of things to eat.’

‘Very well, my child,’ said the old man, ‘tomorrow I shall get up much earlier than I usually do. I shall go further into the mountains where there is more wood, and I shall bring back a much larger quantity than usual. I will get home earlier and I will be able to bundle the wood sooner, and I will go into town and sell it so that we can have more money and I shall bring you back all kinds of nice things to eat.’

The next morning the wood-cutter rose before dawn and went into the mountains. He worked very hard cutting wood and trimming it and made it into a huge bundle which he carried on his back to his little house.

When he got home, it was still very early. He put his load of wood down, and knocked on the door, saying, ‘Daughter, Daughter, open the door, for I am hungry and thirsty and I need a meal before I go to market.’

But the door was locked. The wood-cutter was so tired that he lay down and was soon fast asleep beside his bundle. The little girl, having forgotten all about their conversation the night before, was fast asleep in bed. When he woke up a few hours later, the sun was high. The wood-cutter knocked at the door again and again and said, ‘Daughter, Daughter, come quickly; I must have a little food and go to market to sell the wood; for it is already much later than my usual time of starting.’

But, having forgotten all about the conversation the night before, the little girl had meanwhile got up, tidied the house, and gone out for a walk. She had locked the door assuming in her forgetfulness that her father was still in the town.

So the wood-cutter thought to himself, ‘It is now rather late to go into the town. I will therefore return to the mountains and cut another bundle of wood, which I will bring home, and tomorrow I will take a double load to market.’

All that day the old man toiled in the mountains cutting wood and shaping the branches. When he got home with the wood on his shoulders, it was evening.

He put down his burden behind the house, knocked on the door and said, ‘Daughter, Daughter, open the door for I am tired and I have eaten nothing all the day. I have a double bundle of wood which I hope to take to market tomorrow. Tonight I must sleep well so that I will be strong.’

But there was no answer, for the little girl when she came home had felt very sleepy, and had made a meal for herself, and gone to bed. She had been rather worried at first that her father was not at home, but she decided that he must have arranged to stay in the town overnight.

Once again the wood-cutter, finding that he could not get into the house, tired, hungry and thirsty, lay down by his bundles of wood and fell fast asleep. He could not keep awake, although he was fearful for what might have happened to the little girl.

Now the wood-cutter, because he was so cold and hungry and tired, woke up very, very early the next morning: before it was even light.

He sat up, and looked around, but he could not see anything. And then a strange thing happened. The wood-cutter thought he heard a voice saying: ‘Hurry, hurry! Leave your wood and come this way. If you need enough, and you want little enough, you shall have delicious food.’

The wood-cutter stood up and walked in the direction of the voice. And he walked and he walked; but he found nothing.

By now he was colder and hungrier and more tired than ever, and he was lost. He had been full of hope, but that did not seem to have helped him. Now he felt sad, and he wanted to cry. But he realized that crying would not help him either, so he lay down and fell asleep.

Quite soon he woke up again. It was too cold, and he was too hungry, to sleep. So he decided to tell himself, as if in a story, everything that had happened to him since his little daughter had first said that she wanted a different kind of food.

As soon as he had finished his story, he thought he heard another voice, saying, somewhere above him, out of the dawn, ‘Old man, what are you doing sitting there?’

‘I am telling myself my own story,’ said the wood-cutter.

‘And what is that?’ said the voice.

The old man repeated his tale. ‘Very well,’ said the voice. And then the voice told the old wood-cutter to close his eyes and to mount as it were, a step. ‘But I do not see any step,’ said the old man. ‘Never mind, but do as I say,’ said the voice.

The old man did as he was told. As soon as he had closed his eyes he found that he was standing up and as he raised his right foot he felt that there was something like a step under it. He started to ascend what seemed to be a staircase. Suddenly the whole flight of steps started to move, very fast, and the voice said, ‘Do not open your eyes until I tell you to do so.’

In a very short time, the voice told the old man to open his eyes. When he did he found that he was in a place which looked rather like a desert, with the sun beating down on him. He was surrounded by masses and masses of pebbles; pebbles of all colours: red, green, blue and white. But he seemed to be alone. He looked all around him, and could not see anyone, but the voice started to speak again.

‘Take up as many of these stones as you can,’ said the voice, ‘Then close your eyes, and walk down the steps once more.’

The wood-cutter did as he was told, and he found himself, when he opened his eyes again at the voice's bidding, standing before the door of his own house.

He knocked at the door and his little daughter answered it. She asked him where he had been, and he told her, although she could hardly understand what he was saying, it all sounded so confusing.

They went into the house, and the little girl and her father shared the last food which they had, which was a handful of dried dates. When they had finished, the old man thought that he heard the voice speaking to him again, a voice just like the other one which had told him to climb the stairs.

The voice said, ‘Although you may not know it yet, you have been saved by Mushkil Gusha. Remember that Mushkil Gusha is always here. Make sure that every Thursday night you eat some dates and give some to any needy person, and tell the story of Mushkil Gusha. Or give a gift in the name of Mushkil Gusha to someone who will help the needy. Make sure that the story of Mushkil Gusha is never, never forgotten. If you do this, and if this is done by those to whom you tell the story, the people who are in real need will always find their way.’

The wood-cutter put all the stones which he had brought back from the desert in a corner of his little house. They looked very much like ordinary stones, and he did not know what to do with them.

The next day he took his two enormous bundles of wood to the market, and sold them easily for a high price. When he got home he took his daughter all sort of delicious kinds of food, which she had never tasted before. And when they had eaten it, the old wood-cutter said, ‘Now I am going to tell you the whole story of Mushkil Gusha. Mushkil Gusha is the remover of all difficulties. Our difficulties have been removed through Mushkil Gusha and we must always remember it.’

For nearly a week after that the old man carried on as usual. He went into the mountains, brought back wood, had a meal, took the wood to market and sold it. He always found a buyer without difficulty.

Now the next Thursday came, and, as it is the way of men, the wood-cutter forgot to repeat the tale of Mushkil Gusha.

Late that evening, in the house of the wood-cutter's neighbours, the fire had gone out. The neighbours had nothing with which to re-light the fire, and they went to the house of the wood-cutter. They said, ‘Neighbour, neighbour, please give us a light from those wonderful lamps of yours which we see shining through the window.’

‘What lamps?’ said the wood-cutter.

‘Come outside,’ said the neighbours, ‘and see what we mean.’

So the wood-cutter went outside and then he saw, sure enough, all kinds of brilliant lights shining through the window from the inside.

He went back to the house, and saw that the light was streaming from the pile of pebbles which he had put in the corner. But the rays of light were cold, and it was not possible to use them to light a fire. So he went out to the neighbours and said, ‘Neighbours, I am sorry, but I have no fire.’ And he banged the door in their faces. They were annoyed and confused, and went back to their house, muttering. They leave our story here.

The wood-cutter and his daughter quickly covered up the brilliant lights with every piece of cloth they could find, for fear that anyone would see what a treasure they had. The next morning, when they uncovered the stones, they discovered that they were precious, luminous gems.

They took the jewels, one by one, to neighbouring towns, where they sold them for a huge price. Now the wood-cutter decided to build for himself and for his daughter a wonderful palace. They chose a site just opposite the castle of the king of their country. In a very short time a marvellous building had come into being.

Now that particular king had a beautiful daughter, and one day when she got up in the morning, she saw a sort of fairy-tale castle just opposite her father's and she was amazed. She asked her servants, ‘Who has built this castle? What right have these people to do such a thing so near to our home?’

The servants went away and made enquiries and they came back and told the story, as far as they could collect it, to the princess.

The princess called for the little daughter of the wood-cutter, for she was angry with her, but when the two girls met and talked they soon became fast friends. They started to meet every day and went to swim and play in the stream which had been made for the princess by her father. A few days after they first met, the princess took off a beautiful and valuable necklace and hung it up on a tree just beside the stream. She forgot to take it down when she came out of the water, and when she got home she thought it must have been lost.

The princess thought a little and then decided that the daughter of the wood-cutter had stolen her necklace. So she told her father, and he had the wood-cutter arrested; he confiscated the castle and declared forfeit everything that the wood-cutter had. The old man was thrown into prison, and the daughter was put into an orphanage.

As it was the custom in that country, after a period of time the wood-cutter was taken from the dungeon and put in the public square, chained to a post, with a sign around his neck. On the sign was written ‘This is what happens to those who steal from Kings.’

At first people gathered around him, and jeered and threw things at him. He was most unhappy.

But quite soon, as is the way of men, everyone became used to the sight of the old man sitting there by his post, and took very little notice of him. Sometimes people threw him scraps of food, sometimes they did not.

One day he overheard somebody saying that it was Thursday afternoon. Suddenly, the thought came into his mind that it would soon be the evening of Mushkil Gusha, the remover of all difficulties, and that he had forgotten to commemorate him for so many days. No sooner had this thought come into his head, than a charitable man, passing by, threw him a tiny coin. The wood-cutter called out: ‘Generous friend, you have given me money, which is of no use to me. If, however, your kindness could extend to buying one or two dates and coming and sitting and eating them with me, I would be eternally grateful to you.’

The other man went and bought a few dates. And they sat and ate them together. When they had finished, the wood-cutter told the other man the story of Mushkil Gusha. ‘I think you must be mad,’ said the generous man. But he was a kindly person who himself had many difficulties. When he arrived home after this incident, he found that all his problems had disappeared. And that made him start to think a great deal about Mushkil Gusha. But he leaves our story here.

The very next morning the princess went back to her bathing-place. As she was about to go into the water, she saw what looked like her necklace down at the bottom of the stream. As she was going to dive in to try to get it back, she happened to sneeze. Her head went up, and she saw that what she had thought was the necklace was only its reflection in the water. It was hanging on the bough of the tree where she had left it such a long time before. Taking the necklace down, the princess ran excitedly to her father and told him what had happened. The King gave orders for the wood-cutter to be released and given a public apology. The little girl was brought back from the orphanage, and everyone lived happily ever after.

These are some of the incidents in the story of Mushkil Gusha. It is a very long tale and it is never ended. It has many forms. Some of them are even not called the story of Mushkil Gusha at all, so people do not recognise it. But it is because of Mushkil Gusha that his story, in whatever form, is remembered by somebody, somewhere in the world, day and night, wherever there are people. As his story had always been recited, so it will always continue to be told.

Will you repeat the story of Mushkil Gusha on Thursday nights, and help the work of Mushkil Gusha?

A hand and a foot do not clap together - proverb

2011-12-07T16:29:00.001+01:00

Conversation - Ego to Self
2011

Watercolour, gold leaf on handmade paper

180mm x 110mm

"There is no certainty; there is only adventure"

Roberto Assagioli

Integration of transpersonal approaches to my own work

2011-11-02T16:18:00.003+01:00

Assagioli and Jung both understood that we often have internal conversations with our Self and this can be for some revealed as a creative act. In Jung’s case he believed that creating art was part of the psychological process and fancied that psychoanalysis could be approached in a more creative manner. He hid much of this notion for fear that this approach wouldn’t be received well at that time. He believed that the archetype being a primary source of psychic energy as a psychic symbol attracts more energy. In turn being a core element to the fecundity of artists and the creative act. (Stein, p84)

Assagioli’s model indicates that when we become aware of and connect to the higher or transpersonal self then, as in my case, making art can demonstrate understandings of synthesis in process. Here I can present some examples of my paintings that demonstrate exactly this. In all my work, I am not acutely aware of what I am intending to paint. The painting develops over a period of time and when I feel that there is nothing I can add, remove or alter the active painting process ends. After this the process of understanding carries on and in time I become aware of what the piece is saying to me.

Painting	Title & Meaning
	Emergent (2006) 250cm x 100cm I have come to recognise that this piece is represents my transpersonal self, asleep connected to the “I” which is the island (Jung) surrounded by the unconscious self in this case being the sea. I am also aware of the stars in the water reflecting the higher realm, maybe being the sub-personalities of the middle unconscious realm. Once awakened we can experience a new reality and meaning to life.
	Kapala Kapala (2010) 80cm x 60cm Originally the painting began to speak about the conscious and unconscious self. Here the circle is the Sanskrit cranial vessel that contained the elixir of immortality. Like most sacred containers it is the bowl, the vessel, the chalice of life. Ornate or simple. The luminance is in the taking and translation. It is the culmination of becoming at the end point of the Kundalini another connection to the hierarchical transition from the base realm to the transpersonal self.
	Red lands (2010) 200cm x 150cm This piece has been somewhat difficult. The colour is sedate and yet the image resonates. Metals - meaning - reaction again. I think that the picture surface is important, the connectivity happens here as well as the colour references. Red being ritualistic. Squares and triangles make connections and communicate here. The composition intends to create or suggest some balance. As for theme, the meaning I suppose. Well, the intention was to explore how the mundane, the tangible, connects with the greater Spirit... The Red Lands - The Egyptian understanding of the external world, external to the Self. On a mundane level the area away from the Nile and its fertile black ground.
	Wake UP (2008) 200cm x 150cm This piece was painted at a time when I was interested in parallel time, Gnosticism and some reading about quantum entanglement. In terms of psychological approaches this reads as meeting a sub-personality. An emergent form of the self, a facet to become familiar with.

With a relationship to coaching I would use art as a vehicle to explore with the coachee what images mean for them, what does art do to help them reflect on who they might be, their preconceptions about what they know about their true self. If the work was the coachee’s own art then the questions may be the same with an additional focus on what was happening when the pieces were being made.

With reference to peak and mystical experiences there has been some development using art within transpersonal approaches. “Boucouvalas stated that transpersonal orientation is capable of accommodating many areas, including alternative methods of communicating, knowing and healing. Rational and non-rational modes are accommodated, leading to a broader, deeper way of perceiving creativity…” (Kaufman, J. and Baer, J, p83)

Imagery can be a release for emotional expressive qualities and in some experiences as a wholeness, oneness, freedom and connection to something greater than the self. Csikzentmihalyi (1996) commented in his creativity research that there can be a, “flow state during creativity as an almost automatic effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness.” (Kaufman, J. and Baer, J, p90) If the creative act transcends to a high state of consciousness then maybe it can be proposed that this creative act can become a gateway to the high unconscious state suggested by Assagioli’s premise that at that level we connect with the transpersonal self.

Using art as a vehicle for greater Self-understanding may be useful for the coachee when they are re assessing their life. Jung believed that that individuation started at the second half of life and in turn evokes a greater need for purpose and meaning to life in general. This can often manifest in dreams and fantasies. (Coaching People through Life Transitions. Ed. Passmore, J. Garvey, B. p257) By reviewing art in a variety of forms the coach with the coachee can locate metaphors for new directions, touch stones and confirmations of what is supports them now and can signify deeper meaning for the next stage in their lives.

Transpersonal

2011-10-28T21:29:00.002+02:00

Click to Play

Switch

2011-10-27T12:22:00.002+02:00

Click to Play

Truth...what we share

2011-10-10T11:24:00.000+02:00

The Truth is out there...

I have been reflecting while I have been travelling, during the last four days, on the subject of truth and telling the truth. Something about this is worth further comment as I feel that this "idea" has more to be discussed or at least thought about.

I have been reading about the self actualising person and the notion of the good person. Part of this was a suggestion around what people do to become self directed, independent and autonomous. In essence part of the Rogerian attributes to being self actualising. Connected to this people in their culture take action and show initiative to survive within this. No matter as to what culture they live in. The interesting thing here is about the choice people make about chosen values and societal values and the balance or non balance of this, which leads to our understanding and our behaviours about our respect for others.

Further to this Rogers believed in Constructive Social Behaviours and that we may live in multiple personal realities; Assagioli springs to mind here albeit less surface I suppose. This links to our perceptual universes (O' Hara) and that we listen and respect each other's realities care for each other in our own ways. This being seen as a representation of us fully functioning.

This brings me onto what we think and believe about whether people are good and the issue of values, that being in this case, right and wrong.

The case for psychology against philosophy is at hand here. There are views that philosophy is an attempt to define the qualitative approach to life, that being somewhat value based in it's judgement. Then we have psychology which seems to be the content of this..there are many references to this by the way. So in terms of psychology what do we believe when we are faced with lying or something which in some societies is deemed to be wrong. Do we go with what a societal measure or do we go with something more personal at that point in time.

Rogers explored our understanding of being a good person, this triggered the recall of the recent Moodle discussion about telling the truth and its values. To be self actualising, does this infer that we are aspiring to be good people? An interesting issue here is that self actualisation is not about what makes us happy it's about moving towards solving our problems and a more self adaptive personality.

If we have a desire, when we are at our best, to be more prosocial and mindful of each other's best interests then maybe the act of lying may be the most supportive information for another's world in a particular environment and point in time, maybe this therefore can be justified? Does sometimes lying give appropriate information for a person in a particular climate that from our perspective seems supportive? It's just a thought…..

Quantum Sub-personalities

2011-10-04T16:22:00.000+02:00

I am currently thinking about sub atomic particles and their relationship with each other by quantum entanglement. With this in mind I am also interested in a possible thread to Assagioli's sub-personalities as micro constructs of the personality. After all we are biological systems that must operate consciously at sub atomic level.

Chrism

2010-08-20T15:19:00.001+02:00

The point of realisation, The Chrism, The Sacred Mountain.

2 m x 1 m

Mixed media on Canvas

August 2010

Kapala kapala

2010-07-02T18:13:00.001+02:00

The Sanskrit cranial vessel that contained the elixir of immortality.

Like most sacred containers it is the bowl, the vessel, the chalice of life. Ornate or simple. The luminance is in the taking and translation. It is the culmination of becoming at the end point of the Kundalini.

Oil and mixed media on canvas
80cm x 60cm
2010

Jeremy Narby Ayahuasca and Origins of Knowledge

2010-05-13T23:11:00.000+02:00

True Light

2010-05-02T13:33:00.000+02:00

Messengers of the Light have come forth from the True God in order to assist humans in their quest for Gnosis

Oil on Canvas

40 cm x 50 cm

Chrism

2010-04-11T20:39:00.002+02:00

Chrism 2010

Mixed Media: 2.4m x 1.2m

The interplay of the ritual with the spirit. With the spirit and the ritual. Confirming the right of passage.

mšḥ - nṣl - qdyš - mwrwn - byt qwdšʾ
To anoint - to pour - Chrism - Holy - Temple

Ungent Priestess

2010-03-31T19:02:00.000+02:00

When we stood in the treasuries of the true God

The priestess addresses the ungent of God

The priestess senses the ungent of God

The priestess accepts the ungent of God

He gave voice as he eminated the names of the Watchers

Drawing: Graphite on heavy paper

March 2010

The Ritual of God's Ungent

2010-03-29T20:27:00.004+02:00

The Placing of God's Ungent
What rituals existed for the placing of God's ungent?

What and how did placement occur.
How did our senses react..what did we take from this, what became the stories and myths we now are beginning to reveal?

God's Ungent - Tomb

2010-03-28T17:52:00.001+02:00

God's Ungent - Tomb

What do we leave behind; what are the artifacts of our soul?

Photograph 19cm x 28cm

God's Ungent

2010-03-21T02:26:00.001+01:00

God's Ungent

In essence what do we use to help us con nect to the right way of transition, translation or election to the way forward?

I beleive that when God passed on and was translated forward we are still left with the effects of the realm and the resonance of this epoch...the thing is, what do we choose for our own transition when it is time?
What ungent would we choose...what oils, essence of what do we need?

We are all coping with the residue of something we endure and reside in.

What choices have we at the end of our lives is the path to our clarity clear..a moment of clarity.....is beckoning. Do we/should we think about this?

The Rod of Aaron

2010-03-05T12:21:00.006+01:00

Ziggurats of the Rod

Single serpent as against double...

Aaron and Miriam being the single dimensions, Hermes being the double

Parallel Time - Parallel Existence - Parallel Temples

The Rod of God is in the Tomb - the split wave, the seperation of Pingala and Ida

The Null Point is the environment in between

What can travers the Null Point?

Ziggurat

2010-02-28T12:31:00.001+01:00

The Temple Complex is waiting.

One room empty, one room resplendant.

The Tomb of God is full.

Rumination

2010-02-17T09:47:00.001+01:00

To begin with the complex and end with simplicity

Images, possibilities and happenings flow through my fingers with ambiguity and uncertainty

Hard light on soft skin...the sculptural cloth entombs the morning body, resurrection

Transmitting energies on surfaces..that which is sensed on the surface

Floating, emergent truths not formed - a chance to understand

The entire city to an unknown god - a forgotten horizon, worshipping the Lares at the crossroads. Dionysus awakes, psilax and mainomenos abound...echoes from the ziggurat of Babylon.

A white rude shaft of light. I am hanging, inverted and shrouded.

Now I know - I wait

Imbolc

2010-02-02T23:56:00.000+01:00

Imbolc translates as 'in the belly' - the early stirrings of Spring in the womb of the Earth.

The seeds are starting to stir in the ground, despite the cold.

One of the other names for this festival, Oimelc, means 'in milk'

It is a Fire festival but with the emphasis on Light, celebrating it's return as the days grow longer with the return of the Sun.

So what is this for me: My time of the fire and emergent light in my belly, my groin, my oiling of the creative process. to join in making something happen......

Red Lands

2010-01-22T15:31:00.003+01:00

Mixed Media on Canvas
200cm x 150cm
2010

This piece has been somewhat difficult. The colour is sedate and yet the image resonates. Metals - meaning - reaction again.

I think that the picture surface is important, the connectivity happens here as well as the colour references. Red being ritualistic.

As for theme, the meaning I suppose. Well, the intention was to explore how the mundane, the tangible, connects with the greater Spirit... The Red Lands - The egytptian understanding of the external world, external to the self. On a mundane level the area away from the Nile and its fertile black ground.

Squares and triangles make connections and communicate here. The compostion intends to create or suggest some balance.

A conversation with Reza Ben Gazra....The resultant

2010-01-04T23:12:00.007+01:00

and so it goes

.....I was talking to Lenni about what's next for me..and a diptych is up next...I am reminded from my visit to Japan I was struck by the simplicity of materials and natural edges engaging and meeting....that's a very oriental approach.

I am highly critical of the way the planes of my current painting are interacting..tomorrow is a radical step..it has to be done...on the face of it, it will seem somewhat destructive...but it's necessary to bring it all back with enough integrity to the surface quality to hold it all together,,depth of field in the paint, if you get what I mean, it is what's important here...it will hold the viewer in contact with the painting....I am still using the same colour resonance, I think. Gold leaf as well as every other kind of gold paint I can find..I like the old with the new...and the way the play against each other...

The tension between the surface and the depth of field are integral to the painting. ..but it has to be done..there is a lot of that happening in all the gold stuff that I am doing...also the differential with those two conditions and the play with the size of the piece...its getting bigger at the moment...I think it's about my interaction with myself and the physical size of the pieces and how it is made...intention and ... realisation...It's also about how I need to be immersed in the frame and plane of the gold...to step in and out of the creation..moment...happening.

All my work is quite spritual and this is part of the journey maybe...the creator and the created...knowing and knowledge....time and engagement to make things happen...what to do and what is more important what not to do...does this make sense?

.....it's important what lies beneath.. to give the metallic layers their depth and support...some of this is seen, some of it not and what is not seen is critical to how it got there anyway....layers and meaning and sub meanings...scale and surface qualities...anyway that's it for now.... a bit of a cathartic blast dwindling into a rambling don't know what....

Nat

Dreaming - making - dreaming

2010-01-02T23:03:00.000+01:00

A thought:

From time immemorial artistic insights have been revealed to artists in their sleep and in dreams, so that at all times they ardently desired them. - Paracelsus

I am often inspired by my dreams. I feel that ,as Paracelsus suggests, that this is the drug to the venture.

Hard to encapsulate what is experienced though.....

Nat

Other dimensional beings

2009-12-31T18:06:00.003+01:00

A Question posed to me recently about Angels or other dimensional beings - Do you feel that you have had contact with "something else" in your life and if so has it had any influence on you?

“In short, yes, it is difficult to articulate what this feels like. At best I can say it feels like ‘they’ are behind me, like a shadow (this is not meant to infer any malevolence). A free willed consciousness I am in conversation with. As a boy it was more like a body of others...now it is more intimate with perhaps, I believe, two. When I am aware of their presence I feel that I am looking through my eyes as more than one. I am thinking as a multifunction, in a dialogue of shape, colour and touch...no sound as I can recall. They also evoke emotions within me. These sometimes have to come out particularly when something needs to be said. I'm not sure of my self control in this aspect of it all really.

I have been connected to "others" since my early childhood. These are memories now, faded and recalled as thin reflections, transient and dreamlike. Recently I have been aware of these feelings again. Stronger more tangible I think. These recent encounters have found themselves in my drawings, scribbling and now my paintings and three dimensional work.
At the moment these ideas are “grand” in materials and geometric construct; defined symbolically located from my internal ruminations and reference material that attracts me.

Am I aware of these others".

I am spiritual not religious. I often say that the idea of religion and religious activities offend me. They do, I struggle with ideas that control people and I understand religion doing this therefore constricting personal growth. Choice and freewill are victims of this by religion fear of loss and lack of control. Therefore, primary ideas form religions and beliefs have become politically distorted and have lost their way. However, it is now that I am able to start to understand why.

I think that religion has been useful for people to explore what it is about life they understand and their place within it. In the past, archaic and more recent, it has acted as a scientific and philosophical release to understand our position in life and our relationship with the intangible. So I am often found saying, “Magic, what is magic? Well it is science not yet best explained.”

I am easily attracted to icons and symbols, usually arcane, as starting points to explore my relationship with the self....external and internal. In all of this I am aware of "others"...these are beings that permeate through all religious cultures and have connections in animistic, scientific and spiritual realms and understandings. My research and reading is centred on all of this."

Metals, resonance and energies

2009-12-30T17:34:00.005+01:00

I am currently attracted to and have low resistance not to work with metals.

There is a peculiar quality to metallic materials. They are, to me, colourless. They cannot be blended or worked to create new colours.

They resist.

Yet they are conduits, medicine, sacred and profane rigid and malleable in plastic reality and thought. The spirit of the stuff - Animistic

They are loaded with allusion/s...so, what does it add to the result what does it represent? Gold features heavily at the moment. In return I am mindful of representation and what I am trying to convey. So what not to represent, what not to do is important here as the painting evolves.

Working with spiritual ideas has its limitations. What to use as a metaphor is about what not to use. Again this is about discipline and meditation on the conversation within and with the painting.

Squares and triangles.
Mountains and temples.
Spaces, planes and shapes

What is our relationship with what is there and what is our reaction to the experience?

In progress Dec 09....

2009-12-28T19:17:00.000+01:00

Here is something in progess December 09

Untitled as yet......2m by 1.5m

3 views

1. Top left the piece as whole
2. Top right, the upper section
3. Bottom, the whole lower section

errr....usual typos..have to correct them.

2009-12-28T18:54:00.002+01:00

December 28th 2009

Spelling corrections

conversations

geometric

Actually - I think it's about measurement and human connectivity..we're moving into another year.

Flow!

....what are we aware of this year?

....what will we have learned at the end?

Presence again...

2009-12-28T18:46:00.002+01:00

December 28th 2009

Okay it's been an odd day....been painting and aware of some kind of presence.

Sometimes it's probably my own internal conversaions but I'm sure, at times, that it is a conversation with someone/thing else.

It's not like they are telling me what to do. More like they are showing me stuff I need to paint. I need to know such things I'm sure.

All coded, geometric....spaced. Links with geomatric undersatnding and nature...measurement again....time will tell.

Lots done....filthy stuff working with metallic materials...washing my hands afterwards is an act in itself...cleansing.

Salvation

2009-12-24T17:11:00.000+01:00

...the perfume was the purest of spikenard. she poured it on his feet and wiped his feet with her hair.

Medium: Oil paint, spirit based paint on canvas

Size: 90cm x 60cm
Year: 2009

Ungent

2009-12-24T16:56:00.000+01:00

She hath done what she could -

In ancient Egypt ungents were used for embalming and cosmetics. Tombs contained jars filled with ungents. These were used by the royal families and high priests in cosmetics, massage oils, and medicines. The wealthy would put solid cones of ungent on their heads, which, as it melted, covered their bodies with perfume.

Medium: Oil paint, spirit based paint on canvas
Size: 60cm x 90cm
Year: 2009

Morning Star

2009-12-24T16:38:00.001+01:00

Helel Ben-Shachar -

"It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels prostrate to Adam, and they prostrate; not so Iblis (Lucifer); He refused to be of those who prostrate."

(Allah) said: "What prevented thee from prostrating when I commanded thee?" He said: "I am better than he: Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay." - Qur'an 7:11-12

Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat:
ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum,
Christus Filius tuus qui,regressus ab inferis,humano generi serenus illuxit,
et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever

Medium: Oil paint and acrylic on canvas
Size: 60cm x 90cm
Year: 2008

Aniontment

2009-12-24T16:29:00.004+01:00

What with and how do we connect with the creator/s. By the act of anointment we consciously make a personal commitment to that link.

What ancient rituals now remain?

Today we anoint ourselves as a way of connecting with society,using lotions, potions and all manner of ungents. With these we believe we are more acceptable, attractive and aligned to the common behaviours and beliefs of the environment we belong to..

Medium: Oil paint, spirit based paints and gold leaf
Size: 50cm x 60cm
Year: 2009

Null Point

2009-12-24T16:20:00.004+01:00

The absence and fullness of time

According to researchers in contemporary physics, the parallel universes have the concept of no time dimension and time can become negative in that environment. The time dimension that allows time as negative value makes strange things happen. One can literally fabricate the future in that environment from the past and them come to the present.

Medium: Graphite
Size: 90cm x 60cm
Year: 2008

Conversation with Zophiel

2009-12-24T16:17:00.004+01:00

What have the Elohim taught us?

Once for a period of time I had the opportunity to communicate with something-someone who made me feel that I understood something about an ancient knowledge. That of measurement, human connections with a creator and maybe a time of happenings grand and potent.

Medium: Oil paint, spiritt based paints, gold leaf
Size: 250cm x 150cm
Year: 2009

Temple

2009-12-24T16:07:00.003+01:00

What sound was heard as the creator left the Temple of Jerusalem before its demise?
What did we lose as a results of these acts?
What have we retained and can we locate this ancient knowledge?

Medium: Oil paint
Size: 150cm x 100cm
Year: 2009

Art - Painting and Thinking

2009-12-23T19:52:00.000+01:00

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I am going to use this to keep track of my art process and what I am involved with.

This is a new venture for me. I will mamange the content of this blog with my personal assistant Barbara Chiavarino.

Nat Clegg December 2009