The Transcendence of Memory

60” x 37” Acrylic Paint on Canvas

The Transcendence of Memory

60” x 37”

Acrylic on Canvas

When a person releases their granite strong grip on life, when made to let go of memories, hurts, traumas, dramas, glories, triumphs, and even the need to remain alive at all, the creative force of the universe will radiate not only from the core of their being, but from all that they cast their gaze upon!

Love is not a transaction, it is the common thread that connects us all!

(No A.I was used in the production of this work. Only the Creative Intelligence.)

Lighthearted

38” x 69”

Acrylic on Canvas

Surrender your mind and be free!

Apart

18”x 24”

Acrylic and Graphite

120 lb watercolour paper

Prints at Jaridchampagne.com

Let go of worry and observe the veil of negativism lifting from your life. Not to be confused with the “power of positive thinking” (which, let’s face it, is a costume that denial wears), this abandonment of fear, is truly better described as acceptance. Acceptance of challenge, acceptance of the chainsaw, the chisel, the file, and the sandpaper that has the ability to sculpt our lives, reducing us down to our very essence, if that is, we have the humility and courage to trust life.

When what was once considered unacceptable is met with acceptance in its many forms, the open heart and quiet mind are flooded by the true nature of life itself.

Never have I derived such joy from this work

Sea Monster

Acrylic on Chuck Taylor High Street Allstars

Lantern Idea

Lantern Idea

18”x 24”

Acrylic and Pencil

140lb Watercolour Paper

At some point, or even at several points in life, we all experience the ass-kicking that comes when our material attachments are broken. As we pass through challenging circumstances, we say to ourselves that we’ll “pick up the pieces” and carry on.

“Lantern Idea” seems to suggest that those pieces are nothing more than a fragile silhouette by which we define ourselves. Where there is the humility to discard those pieces, to do away with the fear that pretends to be prescient, the light of intuition is free to shine forth! The poet Rumi wrote that the cracks are where the light enters us, but in my experience the cracks are where light emerges from within!!

One by one as provisional pieces are let go of, love, creativity, insight, and courage are allowed to flow freely and unobscured. Illuminating the path forward, acting as a beacon for all that we come into contact with, the Lantern no longer clings to it’s own light!

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18”x24”

Acrylic and Pencil

140lb Watercolour Paper

Let go.

Notes

18×24

Acrylic and Pencil

140lb watercolour paper

This piece is frankly what we would call ‘not good’. Now When I say that, rest assured I’m not searching for some bullshit pat on the back; I’m completely satisfied with this shoddy result. Satisfied because I know after a decade plus of trial and error that the really good work can’t exist without the bad, that the light cannot be glimpsed without the dark, and that from this drudgery has sprouted a new way of working that a ‘successful’ piece has not the power to yield. Such is life!

🤷🏻‍♂️ Maybe it’s not so bad after all!

Fisherman

18”x 24”

Acrylic and Pencil

140lb Watercolour Paper

Whereas on the surface it seems that the Artist is a conceiver of ideas, the truth is that he is more fisherman than magician. Baiting his hook with experience and patience, and then casting that hook into the silent and invisible depths of the unmanifested, faithfully the Artist waits for an idea to sacrifice it’s unlimited formlessness so that his cosmic role may be fulfilled.

Similarly I ask: Will you bait your own hook with courage and cast it into the vastness of the unknown?

This work is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Peter Starchuk, who recently returned to freedom!

From the Depths

From the Depths

18”x24”

Acrylic on Watercolour paper

What is sought in the stressful arranging of circumstances, in wrongs “righted”, or in the temporary fulfilment of a question answered, can only truly be discovered through the complete acceptance of circumstances as they are.

Each time that we convince ourselves that we have the piece that will complete the puzzle, the puzzle itself changes shape and we find ourselves caught in the frustration of trying to fit pieces where they do not belong. Upon the realization that all things and events are a just moving parts of the entirety, it becomes plain to see that all of the segmented and separated puzzle pieces were always an illusion.

Just as a flame converts it’s fuel into light, unconditional acceptance is the transmogrifier by which our inmost fears and anxieties are lovingly reshaped into inner peace and uninhibited joy!

Carpenter

18”x 24”

Acrylic Paint and Pencil

140lb Watercolour Paper

As the once powerful words printed on the yellowed, dog eared, and bookmarked pages of spiritual works lose their impact, it becomes clear that while those words temporarily guide their reader to freedom, they ultimately will have to be let go of in order to be fully realized. The fact is that many a spiritual teaching has been distorted into something that can be held on to and used as a vehicle for identity; something to be defended.

It is therefore my hope that one day this work and others like it, will be nothing more than something peculiar to hang on the wall, it’s symbolism a relic of a time before humanity touched it’s indwelling light.