CHELSEA ART: The New Thirty-Something Block ... - ARTisSpectrum

continued from pg. 17Moon (Broken Art)Your life and my life flow into eachother as wave flows into wave, andunless there is peace and joy andfreedom for you, there can be no realpeace or joy or freedom for me. Tosee reality--not as we expect it tobe but as it is--is to see that unlesswe live for each other and in andthrough each other, we do not reallylive very satisfactorily; that there canreally be life only where there reallyis, in just this sense, love.- Frederick Buechner (b. 1926)People with MS often feel as though they have let their familyand close friends down, and that they are somehow responsiblefor developing the disease. Particularly vulnerable are youngmothers (the group most commonly diagnosed with MS) whooften feel a tremendous sense of guilt for not being able tocarryout their usual work within the family. Although, I haveno children it is still mistakenly easy to feel a profound sense ofculpability for having MS.My artwork is about bringing unity to myself. It is about listeningto instead of shouting at reality. It is also about triggering mymind’s unconscious thought processes toward healing--by payingattention to and making sense of the normally silent, repressedand often time distant elements within myself. Because I am alsotrained as a neuroscientist and believe that the mind plays a rolein healing the body, I am approaching my art as an experiment.It begs the question do we have more control over our healththan we appreciate? And if so, how might a person harness thatcontrol? Perhaps, by letting go of control entirely--the paradox ofcombating chronic stress and depression?There are presently thirty-four abstract (non-representation)paintings on BrokenArtGallery.com, but I will discuss threebriefly (with sister images) so that you might better understand“Wakeful Dreaming” --my invented “Healing Ritual” ofunplanned creativity and imagination. Often times my analysisis personal and would only have significance to me, but thesethree paintings (and sister images) can be understood on severaldifferent levels.but in a broad sense I now have come to understand the painting asthe moment when human life begins--the act of fertilization (eggand sperm), two genotypes discovering one another and settinginto motion the algorithm of a human life. I decided to name thepainting “Discovery” after a famous quotation by Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986) who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology andMedicine in 1937. My paintings are about ideas and questions, notnecessarily answers--how might the viewer interpret the painting“Discovery?” Does it convey the importance of a scientificdiscovery--perhaps a cure for the disease MS brought about byfetal stem cell research? Or, does “Discovery” convey faith andthe recognition of a human life begun? My wakeful dreams allowme to communicate with another part of myself, but I also hopethat my finished paintings may make viewers think about someof the same questions and ideas. The painting “Discovery” causesme to think deeper on the question of stem cell research andethical concerns. Certainly, fetal stem cell research may benefitpeople with MS tremendously, but it also raises ethical questionsthat we must confront together as a society and as individuals.Regardless, stem cell research is a very timely topic with regardto healing and one that I believe my unconscious psyche hasgiven some thought to.Rainforest (original painting and digital painting)“The point is that nobody knows. Things like the weather are so subtle, and what effectthe rainforest has on any of that stuff - oxygen, all the things that you hear about, the bigscares - it’s not known. But as long as it’s not known, it’s not a good idea to rip them upand tear them down, you know what I mean?”- Jerry Garcia (1942 - 1995)Discovery (original painting and digital painting)“Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no oneelse has thought.”- Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986), 1937 Nobel Laureate in Medicine1) The painting “Discovery” is an abstraction that I created withoutplanned conscious symbolic intent (as are all my paintings),2) Once again, created without planned intent, I interpret thepainting “Rainforest” as the global act of deforestation--thecutting, burning and irretrievable extinction of our planet’s mostvaluable and underappreciated resource, biological diversity. Weare losing medicinal plants, insects and other species that mayultimately hold the cures for diseases like MS at an unprecedentedpace. As a scientist who is also afflicted with an incurable disease,this issue is very close to me. I see the deforestation of the world’srainforests (and loss of biological diversity) as the single mostimportant environmental issue of our time, and I feel symbolicallylinked to global deforestation and the burning rainforests withevery passing day through the demyelination of nerve cells thatis continuing unabated within my own body--someone shouldlisten. I named this painting “Rainforest” after a relativelyobscure quotation by Jerry Garcia (1942 - 1995) an AmericanSongwriter and Musician who formed the Grateful Dead band.36 ArtisSpectrum