UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #84

“Rejoice” (Satsang Series)

 (Acrylic) 

Size:  90x120cm

THE IDEA BEHIND THE PAINTING:

People often think that meditation is sitting like a statue of Buddha.  While sitting is a training for meditation, meditation is really a lifelong discipline and one cannot sit like Buddha all your life.  Life goes on... and on.  Meditation is being aware in the Now.  Sitting like Buddha is a device to train one in meditation.  Meditation is a discipline of life.

There are many different ways of teaching meditation and some people may not agree with what I say nevertheless this is my knowing of meditation.  I was fortunate to spend time in India where meditation is a major focus.  There are probably many other readers who have spent a life time in monasteries and ashrams and have different approaches.  However we all have to follow our own truth.  My truth is being present in the Now and stilling the mind.  This is my meditation where I can function in life in awareness and stillness.

There are many devices to facilitate one to get a “taste” of meditation, but the end result is paradoxically, very simple but difficult to achieve as are most profound truths. 

On a continuum, the Western world functions at the far extreme from what would be regarded as a meditative life.  The West likes to think, think and think.  There is very little heart activity – it is all in the head.  The internet feeds this obsession.  But who knows, this obsession may in itself lead to meditation.  Computer scientist, Jaron Lanier is a pioneer in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran.  He raises provocative questions regarding consciousness.  Here is an excerpt from his book “You are not a Gadget” (2010).   

“You can propose that consciousness is an illusion, but by definition consciousness is the one thing that isn’t reduced if it is an illusion.

There’s a way that consciousness and time are bound together.  If you try to remove any potential hint of mysteriousness from consciousness you end up mystifying time in an absurd way.

Consciousness is situated in time, because you can’t experience a lack of time, and you can’t experience the future.  If consciousness isn’t anything but a false thought in the computer that is your brain, or the universe, then what exactly is it that is situated in time?  The present moment, the only other thing that could be situated in time, must in that case be a freestanding object, independent of the way it is experienced.

The present moment is a rough concept, from a scientific point of view, because of relativity and the latency of thoughts moving in the brain.    We have no means of defining either a single global physical present moment or a precise cognitive present moment.  Nonetheless, there must be some anchor, perhaps a very fuzzy one, somewhere, somehow, for it to be possible to even speak of it.

Maybe you could imagine the present moment as a metaphysical marker travelling through a timeless version of reality, in which the past and the future are already frozen in place, like a recording head moving across a hard disk...”.  (from “You are not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, p.42, 43).

He goes on to articulate his experience when he is in a fully realized immersive virtual reality experiment.  “The body and the rest of reality no longer have a prescribed boundary.  So what are you at this point?  You are floating in there, as a centre of experience.  You notice you exist, because what else could be going on?  I think of Virtual Reality as a consciousness-noticing machine”.  (from “You are not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, p.187).

Wow!  We are on the verge of a new world and I am here for the ride – not to make predictions.

“Rejoice” represents my focus of experience where thoughts (which are shown as undefined shapes) float in the rose coloured sea of my consciousness.  I observe them without judgement and let them go.  Thoughts are a natural phenomenon.  Eventually the mind stills.  That does not mean I don’t think.  Of course when I have to complete a task my mind is focused on the task.  That is natural.  It’s the conscious awareness that is important.

Art Techniques used to achieve this:

The genre of this painting is Spiritual (or perhaps even Esoteric).  In Western art history, the Religious genre in paintings took up a vast swath from early Christianity until the philosophical period called the Enlightenment.

(not to be confused with the word Enlightenment used in meditation.).  Religious paintings were used by the early Christian church as a form of educational propaganda when most of the masses were illiterate.  In India, Hindu painting and sculpture are still richly appreciated and hold a central position in the Indian ethos.  Buddhist art is celebrated as strongly today as in past times in parts of S.E. Asia and India.  However religious, spiritual and esoteric art in the Western world tends to be almost nonexistent today.

The style of “Rejoice” is abstract expressionism.  Its composition is not complex but arbitrary.  The overall  painting is balanced with no major points of focus.  This gives a sense of timelessness.  It’s form is flat with a sense of space. The tone is low.  The palette is complimentary – red and green.  The rosiness of the predominant colour echos the uplifting meaning of its title.   The painting is not signed and can be hung any way.  The title is relevant to the subject.

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UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #46

Title:   “Grok” 

(Acrylic)

90x90cm

THE IDEA BEHIND THE PAINTING

The word “Grok” is new.  It was invented by the author Robert Heinlein.  It means to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity.  According to Wikipedia grokking is the intermingling of intelligence that necessarily affects the observer and the observed.  This painting is about networks and networking and its social affects.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

The advent of computer technology has not made the human race any happier.  In fact it seems to have restricted human qualities such as communication, relationship and love.  It is based on the binary system of mathematics, and I would predict, as humanity evolves the human brain will develop with a bias to extreme thinking – the human race will develop a “binary brain”.   All nuances in the spectrum between the two poles of any continuum will disappear leaving just the two extremes.  This will be reflected throughout all levels of life, ie. religion, wealth distribution, political ideologies etc.  It is happening now.

In this painting I used a wide variation of colour on the spectrum Blue/Orange.  There are many variation of Phthalo Blue used.  Also I used an Orange made from a blend of Fluoro Orange and Vermillion. 

I intentionally made the Orange constant and flat to contrast with the dynamics seen in the abstract subject which is the point of focus. This abstract subject is what represents the networking as per the internet.  The Orange “hybrid” colour is derived from two colour types, which gives the painting its intense impact and adds to its edginess.   Orange and Blue are complimentary opposites and are meant to have this effect.  They are extremes on a spectrum of opposites, just as Black and White are extremes.

White is used in this painting to get the Aqua but Black is not used.  Alizarin Crimson is mixed with Prussian Blue to get the Blackish colour.  

The concept of “connectivity” as implied by the title “Grok” is considered and examined throughout the process of creating this piece.

There is no right way to hang this painting.  I leave that to each individual’s taste.  The painting is technically balanced but also poses a sense of imbalance with the main subject disappearing off the canvas.  This imbalance creates tension which was my intent for this painting.  I do not feel that modern technology has created balance and harmony – in fact I feel that it has increased edginess.

The defused plane of Tan colour that obscures part of the main point of focus represent the future which is uncertain and cloudy.

There is no way a viewer could ignore this painting.  It is meant to be “in your face” through the colours used and its composition.  It is about the “Brave New World” of our future.  However I do not necessarily see the future in a pessimistic way.  Nevertheless, we all need to be consciously aware in the moment and not assign our individual responsibility to others who seek “control” of our hearts and minds through advertising and the mass media which includes the internet.  It is used as the banner for this blog.

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