Art Spirit Village is a sanctuary, a state of mind that exists within all who are compelled to express themselves through art. Michael Scott’s Art Spirit Village is my own safe haven. Here, I am the Butcher, the Baker, The Candlestick Maker and I suppose I am the Mayor as well. This is where I will share my Artistic Transformation, my imagination and my art work, hoping to somehow inspire others to do the same.
I invite YOU to drop in for a visit, stay for a while and come back as often as you wish (PLEASE SUBSCRIBE-It is easy and FREE). Art Spirit Village has an open door policy. It is my hope and intent that the creative world will beat a path to the doorway of Art Spirit Village. Comments, Correspondence and Guest Posts are highly encouraged as long as they support the themes of Imagination, Inspiration and Transformation.
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it” – Albert Einstein
Look around this crazy world of ours with open eyes and you will likely have cause for great concern. Human conflict is certainly nothing new, time and again we have faced seemingly hopeless contention and time and again we have overcome it in spite of the odds. This time however, it’s as if the entire world has become like a tiny dysfunctional town where everybody is into everybody else’s business, the willingness to find a common agenda is rare, greed trumps compassion. We seem to be sitting at a great crossroads, looking hopelessly at all of the routes that we have taken, wondering how in the world we will move forward. Perhaps it is time to step back, think bigger, roll up our sleeves and carve a new path.
“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf is a flower” ~ Albert Camus
So fitting is this quote to this photograph that I had to enlist it, despite the fact that I had no idea who Albert Camus is or was. Annually, I suffer from a bit of sadness this time of year as the trees are stripped bare and the the world around me becomes seemingly void of color. It’s almost cruel how nature saves the most vivid colors for last, only to let them fall to the ground. I find myself wishing that I could rewind the weeks back to spring and start the process over immediately, without waiting through the hardship of winter. Only after the last leaf has perished do I set my sights forward and begin to anticipate winter with eagerness, comforted that a new spring will follow.
As for Albert Camus, my conscience wouldn’t let me complete this post without a google search. Camus was a French author, journalist and philosopher who took home the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1947. He is best known for his contribution to the rise of the philosophy known as Absurdism. Wikipedia says about him, “Camus presents the reader with dualisms such as happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. He emphasizes the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality; for Camus, this is cause for a greater appreciation for life and happiness”.
“Manataka” (place of peace) – Cuchara Pass, Colorado
Full Moon Over the Spanish Peaks and La Veta, Colorado
“Every Artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
There is something powerfully captivating about this land, where high alpine twin peaks stand alone between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. The Ute, Comanche and Apache tribes called these mountains the Huajatolla(breasts of the earth) and considered this aesthetically poetic region to be sacred. Today, these mountains are known as the Spanish Peaks and artists are drawn here from all over the world to become inspired.
It is so easy to give the beauty of this world and this universe a passing glance, occasionally pausing to admire long enough to frame a pretty picture in a camera or in the mind. It is more difficult, yet well worth the effort to look beyond the surface, to access imagination, to search for information that is something closer to the truth.
“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” Nikola Tesla
It might just be true that there is nothing more soothing and tranquil than to sit next to a high mountain stream on a warm summer day, to become one with the rhythm of nature. There is a sensory renewal, a transfer of energy that takes place within me and I find that for those peaceful moments an abundance of fullness that reminds me that Anything is Possible. The human consciousness is likened to a mountain stream. It ebbs and flows through the seasons of life and it has the uncanny ability to re-generate from a quiet frozen drip to a powerful moving torrent, this is the absolute law of the universe.
Every Great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm ~ Emerson
Where was I when they passed out the roadmaps to creative success? If that happened in Art School, I missed it because I was in the other building learning about statistics, debits and credits. I’m not complaining. In fact I feel fortunate that I wasn’t programmed with artistic shortcuts and principles as I was in business school. “Pick one thing that you like, do it well and you will succeed”. The next time somebody hears me give that advise to one of my kids, I hope they slap me because I wouldn’t be walking the talk. At times I feel so scattered, I don’t know what to do next.
As a blogger, I spend a lot of time reading the posts of others, looking for insights and inspiration. Last week I read a post by JoDee Luna, the author of an innovative book called Refrain From The Identical. Almost immediately, I picked up on her description of the “Creative Eclectic” and I knew that she had coined a name for my affliction.
I am a Creative Eclectic. About five years ago, I found myself enthusiastically pursuing a plethora of ambitions that I had neither the training nor the time for. Sketching, painting, writing, producing videos and even making music on garage band began filling my free time and taking priority over getting a good night sleep. Today, as you might gather from a visit to my websites and blogs, I’m like a kid in a candy store. You might also realize that like a confident (or cocky) gambler, I’ve left behind my day job and I’m now “All In”. I do have moments when I catch myself saying out-loud, “Am I Crazy? This is never going to work!” But somehow, some way, I know that it will all come together. After all, the most beautiful symphonies have roots in madness.
As of late, I have a half dozen or so unfinished paintings hanging haphazardly in the studio and I’m excited to finish them. But as life goes, you can only peel one potato at a time, and right now I’m working on my video business. My wife and I together, have created a new blog called The Local Tourist – Colorado. It is all about finding adventure in our own backyard and documenting those adventures through our video production enterprise. We would love it if you would check it out.
“Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other.” Henry David Thoreau
With ease and clarity, I can transport my mind back to a day in the late 1960’s, perhaps 1968. The wheezing of my childhood asthma became almost unbearable and I threw my heavy frame backpack to the ground in the thin Rocky Mountain National Park air. I was angry at the blistering pace that my Dad was setting as we ascended up a seemingly endless set of switchbacks and I wondered why in God’s name we were doing this. I knew that there was no way that we would turn around and go home, for my parents had been planning this maiden backpacking trip for some time.
The moment we arrived at Lake Odessa, all thoughts of the effort that it took to get there vanished. The remainder of that afternoon was spent exploring with my three sisters, fishing, setting up camp and generally having the time of our lives. I didn’t know at the time that my parents had given me a great gift, they had introduced me to an activity that would be repeated enthusiastically throughout my life.
My time in the backcountry of Colorado has made an indelible impression upon my soul. Painting provides me with a channel through which I can express the feelings that have come from those experiences. Just like backpacking, painting is not easy and there are times when I just want to give up. But I keep going, knowing that just around the next corner or over the next hill is a reward worth working for.
It started snowing yesterday, which made it a perfect day for painting winter scenery. I have been working on a series of full moon winter adventure paintings since January and I don’t want to stop. The foot of very wet snow that fell overnight is a blessing for two reasons, we have had an extremely dry winter in the mountains of southern Colorado and I’m not sure how I can justify painting the cool tones of winter once the forest comes to life in an explosion of green and yellow. These spring storms are helping me delay a shift in focus.
Mid May Snow Brings June Flowers
I so much want to share the entire series right now but as you can see, I have not even signed them yet. Most likely I’ll release images of them one by one as they are completed. This painting is called midnight crossing. The mountain the West Spanish Peak, a near “fourteener” that literally is my back yard. The rest of the props come from my imagination and memories of backcountry skiing with friends around Gunnison and Crested Butte, back in the early 80’s.
