Sunday, May 11, 2014

The Seven Principles of Leonardo da Vinci in Relation to the Emerging Cosmological Model as Applied to Creative Process



Burning Man 2013
As we move out of a global model and into the emerging cosmological model, it is clear that we are living in a learning Universe. It is a Universe which has no concern for how long it takes, and it is not afraid of making mistakes. Experimentation towards refinement and better solutions is the leading edge of all change. The more we live into this evolving story the more we are invited to engage our minds in new ways so that we can respond in new ways. I have found in facilitating creative process, that ENGAGEMENT is the key to developing new pathways of the mind, while at the same time disengaging from patterns of  response that keep us in the same loop. Like so many of the most important adventures of our lifetime, engagement has a wide spectrum of meaning from assuming an obligation for union, as in marriage, to coming into conflict, as in engaging in battle.  

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