Tag Archives: Art

The Moon is Made Out of Cheese!

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This is just a whimsical notion I’ve tossed around for years to illustrate lunacy. And our imagination is a myriad of whimsical notions some of which are occasionally more outrageous than that one. This dimension of the human heart is the birthplace of everything that makes up the world, everything from the wheel to bread-ties. Without the capacity to imagine we never would have even made it to the Stone Age.  And, yes one is free to imagine that the moon is out of cheese but hopefully the notion would not find lodging in too many minds!

My mind/heart is now teeming with these whimsical notions as I have taken giant strides towards escaping the linear logic of the “literallew” of my youth. And, I feel that these whimsies are fine as they are just that—“whimsies.” But, some of them aren’t so nice…to put it mildly…and fortunately I have the “faculty of judgment” available which empowers me to not pay any attention to them. And if our imagination is in play, there will be a myriad of fancies that flutter past our mind’s eye and we cannot be dismayed by the unpleasant ones.

History is the tale of visionaries who have dared to imagine the impossible. One simple example is that unknown soul who dared to imagine that the earth was not flat back in the 16th century. Whoever he or she was must have been hesitant to share this “crazy notion” and when it was first shared the outcome was certainly not pleasant. The “tyranny of the way things are” holds us captive and it takes bold individuals to dare and question that “psychopathology of everyday life.”

I think religion should have a role in challenging this “tyranny” and does on occasion though usually the insight of the challengers is quickly co-opted and turned into dogma. Scientists are often earth-shakers as they are willing to think outside of the box and bring new dimensions to our consciousness. And art provides my favorite “earth-shakers,” people who are not only able to think outside of the box but at times outside of the box that the box is in!!!

The imagination is very much related to the body. One whose imagination finds the freedom to flow will be in touch with his/her physicality and will be comfortable with it. The unconscious, the gut-level dimension of the heart, will be allowed to speak its truths some of which are occasionally very dark at first glance. As Ranier Rilke put it, “The heart has its beastly little treasures.”

“The Beast in the Human, and Vice Versa”

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For nearly four decades I’ve been intrigued with Karl Jung’s notion of the shadow and discourse here about the subject often. The “shadow” was the term Jung used to refer to the forbidden dimensions of the human heart which we all have but mercifully are filtered out for most of us. The dilemma, however, according to Jung, is that sometimes the filter is too rigid and leads to compulsive denial of this shadow side leading inevitably to projection on other people.

Creative people are the voices of this forbidden region, giving a voice to our brothers and sisters whose “filter” has not been so successful and whose lives have been hampered or even devastated by these forbidden haunts. One contemporary artist who was featured today in the New York Times is South African artist Jane Alexander whose art is now on display at a Catholic Church in New York City, St. John the Divine. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/arts/design/jane-alexanders-work-at-st-john-the-divine.html?_r=0) Her sculptures depict the grotesque, the misshapen, the ugly and I’m impressed that this church is giving expression to that macabre dimension of the human heart. And, of course, this church is not glorifying that dimension but merely recognizing it and announcing, “Here it is, people. This is you. And some of our brothers and sisters articulate this ugliness for us in their daily lives.” And when we are willing to recognize this truth, and embrace it in our own hearts, we can be a bit more forgiving and understanding for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

The article concludes with a description of one gripping sculptured image from the display and then concludes about the image and Ms. Alexander’s work, “In Ms. Alexander’s art there are no good final answers, no clear comforts. What there is is moral gravity — political, poetic — and a deep, peculiar beauty that doggedly clings to margins, where the mysteries are, and soars.”

the “glib and oily art”

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In his play, King Lear, Shakespeare noted the “glib and oily art, to speak and purpose not.”  Words are usually trotted out….yes, glibly…and that is fine.  Words are the currency of any particular culture.  If we had to sit down and ponder re the meaning of what we were about to say, then our culture would quickly disintegrate into a morass of self-contemplation, “navel gazing.”  But the problem is that often people never into their entire life get beyond “the glib speech of habit, well-worn words and ready phrases that build comfortable walls against the wilderness.”   (Conrad Aiken).  We are often verbal auto-matons, offering the appropriate “words and phrases” for the various circumstances in our life.  We then fail to ever offer an authentic word, a word spoken from the heart.  We fail to acknowledge the wisdom of Shakespeare in the concluding lines of King Lear, “The weight of this sad time we must obey, speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”  It is sad to realize that many people…..most people…never speak an authentic “feeling” word.  Even more so it is so sad to realize that our culture is set up to prevent authenticity, it depends on people trotting out those “well worn words and ready phrases.”  We are fortunate to live in a culture where there is some freedom to individual expression, in spite of the weight of socio-economic pressure, in spite of social regimentation.