Art and meditation

The force is with(in) you

Creativity comes from a source in which we are connected to the universe inside ourselves. I can truly never say if it was "my" idea, or if the idea was just floating around out there and I happened to be in a state open and aware enough to capture it. A lot of my art creates itself on the way during the process. Some of the idea's just stream in massively when I go to the "creative space" in my mind. Or soul. Or what the hell you should call it.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

It is the source of all true art and science."

- Albert Einstein

Do I go sit in lotus position every day and wait for inspiration to hit me? Euhm, no. I have to disappoint you there. The way my connection with the universe works is slightly less complicated. I just "tune in". Like you would turn the frequency of your radiostation. This can happen while I bike, write, paint, dance, cook... at any given time where I am in full connection with my joy. But true, years of meditation went by before I had this in hands. And there are still times where I feel like meditating in a shamanic way or by visualization.

This installation I made, called "Oneness" is created as an expression of one of my often visualized meditations.

This is how the meditation goes:

You see a point. This point is you: you are a bunch of molecules, so small the physical eye can't see it. And then you expand.. the point turns in a circle, that grows, beyond your cells, beyond your body, beyond your town, country, the earth, the solarsystem, until you find there are no boundaries and you see dissolving the circle into molecules; as the universe is made of that, and so are you. At this point the circle increases again. From outer space you slowly return to the size of the earth, your country, into your body, your cells, until you are again that molecule within you, that is part of the universe and of you. Practising this will increase your awareness of oneness with all living being. It might bring you a certain humility, and will make you feel carried by all that is and part of creation.

Art as meditation

Often I feel meditation is nothing more or less as a state of true consciousness, void of interpretation or analysing my thoughts, feelings or actions. When I paint, sculpt or dance, my mind is at peace. My emotions are at rest, I am fully focused, in a present state of being. Similar to meditation, art provides a possibility to tap into a deeper and more quiet part of ourselves. By creating we enter into a state of flow and awareness.

“All true artists, whether they know it or not,

create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness,”

- Eckhart Tolle

A healing power

“Art is a guarantee to sanity,” said Louise Bourgeois, a French-American artist who died in 2010 at the age of 98. She even went on to add, “…This is the most important thing I have said.” For Bourgeois, making art was a tool for coping with overwhelming emotion.

Perhaps we need to redefine what we consider to be happiness. I believe it to be less a matter of experiencing sharp highs often followed by deep lows. To truly experience happiness it is more a matter of nurturing a space that provides stability and a constant connection to our true selves. With as a way to do so, art. Or meditation. Or both. ;-)