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.)

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!

Divine

Divine

18” x 24”

Acrylic and Pencil

140lb Watercolour Paper

Amidst the chaos of liberation, there is the feeling of losing ones marbles. This is the point of the spiritual journey. When the noise of marbles (thoughts) ping-ponging around in a persons mind subsides, all that is left is the immutable silence of nature. In that quiet, reality rises to the surface. In that quiet, a human being emerges from the darkness where difficulty is sewn, into the light that dissolves all complication. We are that light!!

Unbridled

Unbridled

18″x 24″

Pencil and acrylic on 140lb paper

………..(silent stillness)………..

Prairie Landscape No.1

Prairie Landscape No.1

17″x 11″

Mixed Media

In the beginning, I thought this piece was about time. As it turns out, it was really about patience, which is something separate from time. Often confused with a sort of optimistic waiting, true patience is really more of an act of focused allowing, or just plain blind faith.

Do you have the patience to cast your web of faith and allow life to flow through its meshes?

Do you have the courage to stand sentry over that web and to be still in the midst of both joy and pain?

Do you have the vision to decipher life’s subtle poetry, and can you accept its profound lessons without judgement?

Do you have the resolve to let go of all that you believe yourself to be and all that you want so that you may be free?

Look, I don’t give three fifths of a fuck what a person has faith in, but it is in the patient extension of faith, and ONLY in the patient extension of faith, that we can ever experience an authentic life. All else is just recycling.

The greatest act of faith, is to stop thinking altogether.

The Dealer and The Dealt

Pencil and Ink on Paper

8.5″ x 11″

While there are a great many benefits to the human minds parrot like ability to replicate the actions of our co-humans, we are at a point in evolution where what once was a useful tool for the advancement of our species has become a hollow echo of what was once beneficial but is no more.

From the moment we are able to absorb information, we face an unceasing stream of advice, recommendations, if I were you’s, what are you going to do’s, and so on and so on. Unable to sort through the bullshit during our formative years, we begin to build the house of cards that is our persona, not from the hand of the universe that created us, but from cards that have been dealt to us from other peoples hands. Often times we cling to the cards that are handed to us and are unable to cope when one is stripped away without our permission. In this clinging we become lost in the superficial, unable to dance with the creative force of life.

What I am presenting in “The Dealer and The Dealt” is the idea that if we can see past the masterful card trick that is being presented as our circumstance, a view into the infinite is readily accessible to all who have the courage to lay down their hand!

The Shift

Identifying with circumstance, we create a persona that consists of limitations. Each piece of the ‘me’ puzzle is constructed to respond to everything that happens with a formulaic reactivity that accords with a particular puzzle piece.

It isn’t difficult to see the puzzle for its pieces, whatever you react strongly to represents a segment. It is the unfolding of a formula, the components of which are everything that you’ve been told that you should strive to be and are, the sum of which is your persona, none of which, is truly you!

Don’t Stop

“Don’t Stop”

8.5″x 11″

Pencil on paper

Maybe the most overtly or intentionally sexual piece I’ve ever done. Sexuality is an important consideration of any spiritual practice. Certainly it’s not a subject to be ashamed or scared of, and I think that as long as it isn’t used as a piece of the identity puzzle, that it is a beautiful means of expression.

Unplanned Life

Each of us, from the time we emerge into this world (and to a degree before we emerge) are handed, piece by piece, a roadmap that is intended to set us upon the path to fulfilment. Only the cartographers that are piecing it together are basing it on information transmitted through the filter of others. My point here is that to follow in the empty footsteps of the unfulfilled expecting to emerge triumphantly is a fools errand. Unwinding the complicated tapestry of thoughts and opinions that are handed to you, you begin to realize that the value of the map was only ever relative, and that beneath your opinion is something much more powerful than anything that can be taught. End of rambling.

Several Additional Drawings

Happiness is a practice. Not the practice of being happy, or the practice of positive thinking. Those things are derailed with ease by the thought based ‘you’. Happiness comes naturally with the practice of quieting the mind. With that in mind (or out of mind as it were), I give you a few drawings that I hope inspire you to peace.