What Does “Higher Consciousness” Have To Do With Art? And getting into a gallery?
“Truth Seeker" Mixed Media, oil on panel, 48 x 40, 2022
The term higher consciousness may seem quite broad, in fact, I spent the better part of the week debating in my head how to better narrow it down for this blog post. I want to have a conversation about that feeling we all have of being in the “zone” when either witnessing great works of art or creating art for ourselves.
When coming up with a title for this post, I entertained a few others that touch on the raising of vibration through art.
“The Essentialism of Art”
“Experiencing Oneness Through Art”
In the end, I decided to stick to consciousness tweaking and dive straight into what propelled this abyss of thought in the first place.
And that was a podcast a client shared with me entitled, Spirituality & Art. You can listen to it HERE. The podcast is a conversation between two spiritual teachers who are also artists: ceramicist Rupert Spira, and poet Henry Shuckman. Both devoted truth-seekers and teachers. The subject discussed was riveting and had to do with the intersection between time, presence, and art.
When I use the phrase “higher consciousness” I am referring to an ever-increasing awareness that life can exist beyond the duality of separateness and of self/other. Or, as Spira and Shuckman call it, object and subject. Art has the ability to assist us in having the experience of oneness and this type of art is in fact essential!
Spira claims
“Art in a culture where people often struggle to survive to earn a living or bring up a family, one would think that art would be the first casualty of such a society and that art would be considered superfluous. This is not the case. We can see that most primitive societies were actually highly developed artistically. There are stories from concentration camps where people made art in the most terrible circumstances. Why didn’t these activities disappear in favor of the more urgent activities of simply surviving? It’s because art is something that is absolutely fundamental to us as human beings. It is a means by which we explore and express the nature of reality. It uses all our senses, not just communication of conceptual powers, but entails the power of perception, transporting the viewer (or maker) to what is eternal.”
Art has the capacity to move us beyond dualistic ways of perceiving (self/object) and envelop us, humans, in a totally visceral sensation. Art can be a powerful interruption of linear time that has the ability to propel us into a portal where glimpses of boundlessness are possible. Many of us have most likely experienced touching upon this concept at some point. It can’t be explained by logic alone, either as a witness or a participant. Time seems to stop and one becomes a cohort, a merger with and beyond the self.
When this happens, I believe we are glimpsing our ultimate potential. It’s visceral and surreal.
It’s what Spira so eloquently describes as “an interruption in our linear horizontal dimension of time that plunges us into the vertical dimension of our being.”
A momentary awareness of collapsing of the subject/object and self/other. Revealing the very nature of reality where separation is the illusion, not the other way around.
So back to the point of why I bring this all up…
I believe we can practice staying in these higher states of consciousness more consistently in our lives. It starts with noticing and paying attention. Not necessarily when we are in the zone of experiencing oneness, although that helps, but more in the practice of noticing when we are not.
These moments start when we hold ourselves back when we compare ourselves to others or berate ourselves or give authority over our own sovereignty.
An example of this is when I recently invited an art director I did not know very well to visit my studio. For all you artists out there, this is an invitation into your sacred space to witness the baring of your soul. You are naked.
For those that don’t spend copious amounts of time creating, it’s a bit like speed dating. You get to assess what of yourself you want to share as you decide if the other is worthy of your time or not. The connection between the director and me was not what I hoped for.
Instead of taking the speed dating attitude of assessing another’s worthiness to observe my process, I witnessed myself in slow motion handing over my authority one moment at a time. I experienced a separation from my own self, a draining of my personal power, and disconnection.
The good news is this was fleeting. I quickly recovered. I caught myself.
This is a practice. A practice of not separating from the self first and foremost.
A really smart friend said to me as I was retelling my story, “why would you let the stranger in your driveway dictate the intelligence of your soul?”
It’s almost as if I have been conditioned out of habit to create experiences of separation. This is why I began this post on higher consciousness by simply noticing. You might observe yourself while you’re creating. Notice when you're in the flow and when you’re not.
Try it! The next time you feel your power draining away from your center, see if you can catch it. This one action begins to open the floodgates to more of the yumminess of life! Intersecting that horizontal frame of reference into a vertical axis of connection. This kind of connection transmutes our physicality into an awareness of all that is.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.
Have you ever experienced this intersection when viewing works of art and or in making art?
COMMENT BELOW!