Art as a Place of Knowing
Art, any Art, is -- or should be -- an expression of the Artist’s conscious and sincere quest to remember and rejoice in Creator’s love for all life.
Therefore, there is nothing as important as Art in the world of human beings, for it is life-giving, life-sustaining – feeding and stimulating physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually,
At the easel, I am enroute -- in flight -- to a higher state the moment I pick up my brushes. I believe that there is purity in that state, and -- for me -- that state is true living: the state of at-one-ment, or, more accurately, as-one-ment.
I want to paint like someone standing on top of a mountain at Sunrise, singing strong-heart songs – songs of gratitude and love for all the world.
I believe that Art – any Art – comes from our primal selves. The part of our “selves” that remembers when we were Human Beings, not just people, with the name of the star that gave us life still on our lips and in our heart – a time when we still found wonder and beauty in the simple natural life around us.
When we come to a place of knowing and nurturing the Artist within us all, then every person will know, nurture, and enrich “the ALL” – all things, all life, all being.
I have found that there is, in Life and Art, great weakness in pretending to know more than one actually knows, or in offering less than that which one is capable.
It’s my desire to paint as if the play of light on my subject is the most graceful and beautiful thing in the world. I want my Art to be like a footprint left in the snow -- where I walked with courage, with great happiness, and with much gratitude.
JP
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A big shout out to Bonnie Rowell for the photo from our Missouri River float trip! Chi Miigwetch!
