PRISMACOLOR DRAWINGS

In meditation one surrenders 'ego' with faith, hope, love, ...

and "learns to embrace WITNESSING AWARENESS."

MEDITATION IS WITNESSING AWARENESS: "It is living with the awareness that the only constant is perpetual change. It is developing the capacity to observe without needing to react to changing stimuli and impulses. It is learning to stay centered and awake to all possibilities whenever a challenge arises and to choose the best course of action. It is being in touch with one's unchanging soul which experiences the heightened awareness and oneness with the universe as fullness or emptiness." Ariosto Coelho in Yoga or Fullness (2006)

 

MEDITATION AND EMPTINESS: "Emptiness is not nothing, it is everything, everything at once." Red Pine in The Heart Sutra (2004)

 

"Meditative surrender leads to emptiness,

a state of deep humility with 'no knowledge' of oneness.

It is the fullness of life: living and sharing peacefulness."

[Ariosto's reflection on Feb. 16, 2007]

 

MEDITATION AND HEARTFULNESS: "The overall tenor of mindfulness practice is gentle, appreciative and nurturing. Another way to think of it would be 'heartfulness.' A student once said: 'When I was a Buddhist, it drove my parents and friends crazy, but when I am a buddha, nobody is upset at all.'" Jon Kabat-Zinn in Wherever you go, there you are (1994)

 

WHEN YOU "FIND PERFECTION IN IMPERFECTION"

YOUR MEDITATION PRACTICE IS ENLIGHTENED

Shunryu Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970 & 2005)

 

MEDITATION AND SILENCE "When you were in the womb you were silent. Then you were born and began to talk, talk, talk -till the day you are laid in the tomb. Then you will once again be silent. Capture that silence which was there in the womb and will be there in the tomb and even now underlies this interval of noise called life. That SILENCE is your deepest essence." Anthony de Mello in One Minute Nonsense (1992)

 

"The First Circle of Silence:          No Words       AWAKENING

The Second Circle of Silence:    No Thought        BALANCING

The Third Circle of Silence:              No Self        CENTERING

The Fourth Circle of Silence: Embracing All"             DELIGHT

            James O'Connor in Silent Fire (2002)      Coelho (1994)

 

"May our silence be comfortable. In that silence may we experience  the height of intimacy, the depth of communication and  the powerful presence of God’s Spirit of Love. May infinite giving and forgiving flow as a caring and daring expression of truthful and non-violent living. May we take delight in the luminous urge within ourselves to fulfill our role in the cosmic drama with supreme dedication to the Divine Plan gracefully with gratitude." Ariosto Coelho in Heart Moments (2005)

 

"BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD." Psalm 46/10

Integral Art

Infinity Intimacy

Integrity In-harmony

WITH iMPERMANENCE

WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS

Integral Art

If I were to choose a term to describe my art, I’d call it Integral Art. In an effort to understand integral art I draw from the writings of Ingo Swann who, in Cosmic Art (1975. Foreword xviii), describes synthetic art as integral art. His understanding of the various art styles which have dominated the art scene of the last century provide a suitable frame within which to place my art.

During the last century, three kinds of human interests have resulted in three types of dominant styles of art. These interests have been in nature, in man himself, and in beautiful patterns and forms. First, one may identify depictive art, art that is representational, figurative, descriptive (realism, naturalism, classicism, impressionism). Second are the emotive arts, the subjective, emotional, humanistic, and dramatic (romanticism, expressionism, surrealism and "pop"). Third, there would be morphotic art, "morphotic" being from the Greek morphe, meaning "form." These are abstract, geometric, nonfigurative (cubism, nonobjectivism, abstract expressionism, "op," and so forth).

 

According to Swann a fourth type of art can be added, the synthetic art form. "Synthetic" is here used in the constructive sense of characterizing the mental or spiritual and psychic activity of putting together some new individual thing. Its synonym, "integral," likewise characterizes any individual whole in which a variety of components has been suitably harmonized or blended. In synthesis, the integrating creative self combines and makes use of the best of the other three general art sources mentioned above, seeking to construct new orders of awareness itself of the psychic, of the paraphysical, of the cosmic in self and in things. Synthetic or integral art, therefore, is an ordering of forms towards revelation of idea, of awareness, of thought, of experience beyond form where infinity, intimacy and integrity blend in harmony.

 

A similar perspective is offered by Robert Aziz in The Syndetic Paradigm (2007 p. 19) where he holds that all of life is bound together in a highly complex whole through an on-going process of self-organization. I’ve noticed this self-organizing totality evolve in and through my art, especially the mandalas.

 

  Infinity  Intimacy  Integrity  In-harmony

1992 Awakening [18"x24"]

1991 Balancing [18"x24"]

1994 Centering [9"x9"]

1993 Delight [36"x36"]

1993 A Turtle [4.4"x6"]

1993 A Mask [4.4"x6"]

1993 A Hand [4.4"x6"]

1995 Rosebuds [4.4"x6"]

1997 Stanford  [4.4"x6"]

1997 Cosmic Coil [4.4"x6"]

1998 A Dream [4.4"x6"]

1998 A Storm [4.4"x6"]