For what purpose does art exist? For the creator, or for the viewer? Does it's essence lay in the act of manifestation, or in the power of the final result? How new is the concept of art as commerce? Can art be an honest transmutation of joy or grief, and still be a product? Certainly if conceptual ideas can be commodified then so can ritual objects. But perhaps this thought is wandering off its path...
Human grief is real, and art (or rather: the creative act) is an action to use this powerful energy and transform (transmute) it into something tangeable and temporal. Surely we can look to the German Expressionists or Picasso's Guernica as historic comments on pain witnessed in the external world. And yet, when the pain is more personal, we can look to the art of children who witnessed massacres, and use art as therapy to process their pain. As the Buddha said: Life is suffering. We can either sit and meditate till we are untouched by the ups an downs of life, or we can use the energy of suffering in more of a tantric way, and channel it into a focused point through the act of creativity.
Recently I went thru a major grief moment in my life, and did my best to transform the waterfall that was crashing upon my heart into the stillness of snowflakes spinning on my finger. Does the viewer need to know the story behind creation? No, I think not. We each bring our own understanding to what we experience, based on who we are and how we feel and think. Creation is just happening around us all the time, to us, by us, and through us.
This instillation I made at the Sacred Door Gallery in Venice Beach (LA), CA is partially inspired by the mysterious buried ceramic artifacts found in Mexico and Central America (which I had been influenced by during my time in those regions at the end of 2012), and partially by something personal.
The show runs May 4 - July 1st, 2013. Contact enterthesacreddoor@gmail.com or 310.396.4242 to schedule a visit and for price list.
