 |
| Burning Man 2013 |
The model of
the Universe is outside of our established common sense. It is even outside of
the reach of our intuition, until we have assembled essential information. We
are called regularly to embrace dichotomy and seeming contradiction, as any
physicist will tell you. Frequently the creative process is also an engagement
in conflict with promise of unique integration, sometimes in the picture plane,
often in the psyche. Even though in painting circle we are not making products
and do not use qualitative analysis, participants are seeking some measure of
success. The only benchmark that I can give them is engagement. Plain and
simple, the degree to which you are engaged, is the degree of your success.
Engagement here is being fully into the process. This is true even
when the activity or results are not pleasing or comfortable. Yet if you
are engaged through the process you will be led consistently to new discoveries
and integration. This kind of creative involvement is practice for broader
engagements that are being required of us in this age.
To begin to
use our minds in new ways, we first need to see at how we are everyday
being used by the mind. The mind,
because its major function has been for our physical survival, is concerned
with immediate safety and comfort, that is, it is fear-based. It is a
cybernetic mechanism, designed to identify and solve problems, and does so at
all times, in every way imaginable. It attempts to solve problems in our
dreams, in our business proposals, in our personal lives. We need to recognize
this natural process and ensure that it is appropriately focused on those
issues, concerns, or creative processes that will yield the best benefit to the
organism, we need to “consciously” engage. Quieting the mind is required for
engagement in creative process, as well, as the various other intelligences,
like emotional or ethical intelligence, that are eschewed by past trauma and contracted
vision.
The mind, as
it has developed, is constantly scanning in a relentless mental focus,
habitually obscuring new possibilities. There are many models of men and women
who have used their minds beyond their cultural bias, Leonardo da Vinci in
particular embodied the seemingly polarity of art and science. In How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, The Seven
Steps to Genius, Michael Gelb gives us a model in how to use our mind
differently from our trained everyday thinking. Da Vinci was a master at
whole-brain thinking. His principle of arte/scienza, engages left
and right brain thinking in a complimentary way. He did not so as scientist AND
artist but brought art into science and science into art. He also developed connessione,
or system thinking, which on a public scale we are just beginning to understand.
The recent science of ecology and family dynamics in psychology shows how long
we have enjoyed the tidy compartmentalizing of the pieces, ignoring how each
part is dependent on the whole. Both of these principles are essential in the
creative process.
In Transformation
Painting circles it takes practice to view the whole composition, and even
longer to be able to hold it without judgment. With practice you begin to
notice how the smallest mark changes the overall dynamic. It requires trusting
the broader intelligence to respond without goals of comfort or instant
gratification. It is obvious how our cultural training is imbalanced in the
direction of analytical and rational framework, the critical voice has free
range. This is not supportive to the early phases of creative process. It takes
careful nurturance of the intuitive, whole systems and experimental thinking to
exercise creativity. Although both kinds of thinking are necessary and prove
effective when considered in painting circle dialogue, most of us are polarized
in our perceptions and skill sets, when working alone.
The emerging
cosmological mythology demands that art and science be intimately merged, which
brings us to the da Vincian principle Sfumato, smoke or mist.
Sfumato engages the uncertainty, paradox or ambiguity of life. It is important
to know what is knowable and what is not. Just as we have to embrace so much
mystery in the scientific model of the Universe, so we engage that mystery in
the creative process. You cannot be sure what will arise out of a poem or
painting because in the whole brain model you do not control it. If you engage Sfumato,
the truth finds its way and it is often a surprise when it is revealed. To
engage the process in a way that is open ended also reflects the evolutionary
process of the Universe and supports pure science where the directive is
curiosity, the next da Vincian principle. Curiositá, is a strong
impetus in creative process. What happens if I put oil stick over acrylics or
let the paint half dry and wipe it off? You don’t know until you try and the
answer is subject to hundreds variables. Poets and philosophers have encouraged
us to love the questions. Once again our enculturation determines the questions
we are habitually asking Engaging the mind in a new way is to initiate a new
kind of inquiry, which artists are constantly working with by opening
themselves to journey through unchartered territory.
I will end
with the most obvious engagement and that is sensazione, the
senses, the way of using the intelligence of the whole person with corporaita,
embodiment into an expansive and integrative consciousness. Awareness of the
senses as a meditative approach to mindfulness calls forth engagement through
presence. The last definition of engagement is to be drawn into and to “lock
onto” the target. The mindfulness meditation training focuses on the
sensations, which again engages the mind in ways that brings you to the ore of
your being is so alien to our cultural values that we need workshops merely to
introduce and practice it. Science has shown how unconscious thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors can undermine emotional, physical and spiritual health. By the
same token, mindfulness, through focus on the senses has been demonstrated to
relieve stress and pain. Even though we are familiar with all of these
principles, to engage them continually as a practice of the mind can have far
reaching results on how we perceive and interact with the world, offering each
of us a more robust and creative response to our lives, relationships and art.
Majio
