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Archive for the ‘ART the sacred act’ Category

Desperate Uncertainty of the Artist

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

Creating art is like sending a message in a bottle from a deserted island… Will any fucker ever receive it, and if so, will it be in time for rescue? Creating can feel like a repeated call sent out into the night with no response, echoing forward into time and beyond the limits of our own lifetime. And we make this call completely alone. And this is our work.

As artists, we seek an inner vision that is as pure a reflection of our own experience as possible. Often, this means separating from the “tribe” in order to more clearly distinguish our own inner voice from all of those around us. Once we create from this pure place, the eagerness to now share our personal work with the tribe can be very strong indeed, and can even feel like an emotional need.

We all know the disappointment that results from not getting a response we desire. Sometimes we’re not noticed at all, and sometimes a response is completely wrong. Motherfuckers may attempt to shut down our spirit or diminish our inner light and love. This can be so disorienting that we may even attempt to cater to these lesser tastes, and diminish our inner voice ourselves in hopes of better reception from others!

Truly, we must come to terms with the process of creation as an end in itself, regardless of the existence of feedback. At it’s worst, this can feel like pure terror… crying out in the dark with every fear, hope, heartbreak, and desire that makes up our heart… Speaking with the voice of a person we believe ourselves to be, but are still never sure… Vulnerably suspending ourselves without footing, adrift in the water without a shore upon which to set foot… Wanting to grab onto anything to keep us afloat, and then knowing that we cannot hold onto these anchors, and must let them pass.

But in this process, we come to sense ourselves as we never have before. Completely independent, unbound, unencumbered, weightless, free. Once we are in this place, the voice we use is clear, crisp, from our core, and represents our singular essence. We are ourselves, and that is all that is required of us. The voice we now use to create our work truly reflects our soul.

The challenge is to soothe our sensitive souls through this process of suspension and uncertainty, and yet still encourage ourselves to speak and create. It is faith that allows us to continue with this work: Faith that someday we will achieve a type of homecoming or safe harbor, even if it does not feel that way now. Continue to envision, express, and manifest a world of your own. Eventually, you will arrive upon it’s very shore.

Voices under Fire: the role of the Artist during crisis

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

When the community undergoes a transformation like the current recession, the values of the old consumer world are tested. How disorienting to let go of that old world & the old identity & purpose that grounded us within it! It demands nothing less than a shift in consciousness, with trust and the ability to wholly let go. Now especially, mankind is more integrated than ever before, with the media and online communication affecting us all on a larger, more holistic level. It means we are all experiencing together.

In such a time of darkness, it is easy to falter and become stagnant. What is needed are clear visions for our future to inspire us toward action and creation once again.

This is where the artist must heed the call of creative duty. One must be brave, go inward, summon the power of their unique vision, and share it clearly for all the world to see. The life of an artist requires the spiritual devotion of a monastic buddha: protecting oneself, creating an inner sanctuary, and honoring it’s truth above the noisy demands of the modern consumer world. It demands great sensitivity, and the expression of unconditional love (at least for self) in the face of this often-times repressed and disconnected culture.

These visions shall illuminate, as if voices of the angels, providing light in the darkest of hours; offering hope, initiating movement, and providing new values toward which we may transform into a more promising, integrated human race. Choose the values you wish to see embodied tomorrow- love? unity? peace? creativity? hope? Now, in the darkness, call these words out so that we may begin feeling our way toward one another. Now is the time of change when any dream or possibility can come true. Believe, and express your truest self.

With love, gather all people.
xoxo, gabe

Creators vs. Consumers

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

In today’s consumer world, the promise of spiritual growth & inner harmony is pre-packaged and readily available to anyone. It is easy to forget that this pathway can only be found within. It is the result of tuning into our own unique core and remaining there with stillness. The voices of spiritual leaders may assist in guiding us there, but it is ultimately a place that only we can find and inhabit. Living in this place generates in us it’s own language that distinguishes our essence from anyone else’s.

When we act as consumers, we seek this language of knowledge as a product that another has created. Acting out of fear, we run from ourselves and prefer to be spoon-fed teachings by someone who feels & lives on our behalf. But true feeling is a product that only we can create for ourselves.

As creators, we must accept responsibility for developing our own VISION of self and sanctuary. We must be brave to separate from all the language of others, look within, be alone. We must also refuse to carry and spoon-feed other consumers who cling & insist on doubting their own inner source. Separating from them with compassion will encourage them to look within, as well.

Once our unique experience is more fully realized, it will float it’s own language out that we may speak as true words of our own unique soul. Then, we may partake again as consumers, simultaneously, exchanging ideas instead of relying upon them, and receiving INSPIRATION in the same way that we may now offer it.

Knowing our unique visions, as people, as artists, is the first step in truly being present, with love, here on Earth.

I, the vigilante

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

I live outside the laws… of reality.

I live within my own vision.  And it is beautiful.

All ye talented ones…

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Gather ye all, who seek to create…

It is a better self we seek, and when we create it, we shall have a better world.

Give the human race space enough to believe; in themselves!! And, then, we will be able to believe in a better world, and our souls shall pass through the gate of evolution.
For evolution is a gate through which we pass into future thinking, future feeling; into the future of life itself, and what we experience in it.

You have the opportunity to give yourself the greatest gift anyone could give another: life itself.  Now, what will we make of it?

This here ends the passage, xoxo, gabe

Sit in the Fire

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

I am going to heaven.

But, ah, death can be HELL!  What will your after-life experience be like?

Life is an opportunity to use our bodies to negotiate our inner worlds.  We can soothe our soul now in a way we cannot when it is unattached from the body.  Seeking freedom now creates a liberated tone for our soul to carry forth into the next world.  It is the only work we must do!  Seek freedom, it is your only job; and the soul of your after-life will not be bound by hellish torment.

Burn now– Sit in the fire, take the sensory throne of flame.  Feel your inner world ignite, burn off restrictions, loosen the soul and feel life itself rage in red and gold around your crown…  Die.  Face death, and feel where it will take you.

We are channels!

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Energy is constantly flowing in and out of us.  It carries with it, like a river, debris.  This debris becomes lodged within our body and spirit, like build-up against a net placed within the current of the river.  We are channels, like the open space through which the river flows, and must allow this debris to liberate itself from us so that we are “clean”…  A “clean” soul is one who can most fully receive the new flow of water that courses through the river.

In order to be “free”, the body and mind must release their “dams” and allow for the evacuation of build-up water and debris.  This discharge of energy, consciousness, blood, sex, infinity, filth, spirit, evil… is called ART.  Art is the by-product of our liberating these energies, the document of us evacuating that which restrains our constant flow of self & light.

EXIST!  You are an art work all your own.  Liberate these energies in everything you do.