Visual Language Magazine Contemporary Fine Art Vol 3 No 12 December 2014

VL
Barry W. Scharf
The Artist and the Art of Spiritual Practice
By Barry W. Scharf
The devotion of the artist to his or her work has always
been a topic worth pondering on a deeper level.
We all have heard of the suffering artist and the
commitment they make to become serious artists.
Many painters say that painting is a religious experience,
that they compare the process of applying
paint to a meditation.
Today it seems that much is done in the name of
religion, some good and some bad, all to often the
result seems to polarize humanity rather then join us
together. I believe that what most of society longs
for is a need to join together and it is often sought
through religion and prayer.
For the purpose of this writing the concept of prayer
is defined, as saying words of praise, request, and
gratitude to whomever you believe is a higher power
be it external or internal.
As an artist I find that the act of praying in many ways
to be similar to that of painting with painting being the
more productive, at least for me. The artist enters a
meditative state in the act of painting and is often
transported beyond what is being physically and intellectually
expressed to an altered consciousness of
being one with the work.
Parallels to the ritual of praying apply in the form of
the aforementioned above. Praising to acknowledge
the presence of “Oneness” beyond limitations of our
physical flesh, to a deeper soul-self that is part of
every living thing. Requesting or asking for something
we need or desire; and showing gratitude for
the things we now have and how they give us our
health, wellbeing and livelihood.
In as much as I am speaking from personal experience,
I can only assume that this may not be true for
all artists as this topic relies on some form of belief
beyond fact. If you can find some connection to what
I am discussing and base it within your own belief
system it may well be a universal experience regardless
of religious dogma. To the artist that holds no
belief system a concept of spirituality can still apply.
For me this concept begins with praise while stretching
and priming my own canvas, honoring an old
ritual in the creative process and making possible
a place for an unfolding of consciousness to be expressed
and evolve through paint. Choosing the color
palette that will soon set the mood of expression
and prepping the surface of the canvas to the correct
textural bite upon which the brush strokes will fall.
At this point I am holding an intention of gratitude
for my abilities, knowledge and confidence to execute
the task of composition, content, color balance
and emotional expression. Within each stroke of the
brush I express gratitude and in so doing open my
heart to the greater self beyond ego, to be able to
focus on a complexity of what is often of symphonic
proportions while allowing an uninhibited flow of the
creative process to unfold through my painting.
I often paint with some abandonment of intellect, detached
and trusting to that greater self that guides
the brush. It is a process founded in years of study,
ritual practice and training that allows for intuition to
guide what would otherwise be limited by thought
and intellect.
When starting a painting an intention to be available
to a unique consciousness, to a process of watching
as the painting comes together is possible. This sate
of mind is like the ritual prayer found in most every
religion. It is to suspend what is known to what is not
yet known.
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