Tunnel

For me, spirituality is the recognition that the sacred and the mundane are one, and is an embodied experiencing of presence. Presence with what is, presence with timelessness, presence through the senses, presence with beauty or awe, presence with the unknown, presence with one’s perspective, presence with the inclusivity of everything, everyone, and all that is experience.

Sometimes presence itself provokes me as an impulse to make art that is impossible not to act on. And when that impulse is not present, making art, for as long as I can remember, brings me into a focused presence that feeds my soul. When making art for arts sake, it helps me process the emotions that I experience. These pieces may or may not evoke similar emotions in the viewer. When making art with the intention of publishing it, I may get inspired by the world around me, or by a creative impulse. The pieces that are inspired by the impulse to create tend to be the most provocative.

How someone who views or experiences the art that comes through me is not something I consider when creating a piece, or think about once complete. (though it is exciting to see the responses from those I show them to) What someone brings to the experience of viewing a piece of art determines their response. It is a subjective experience that can evoke feelings associated with their definition of spiritual or not.

The collage entitled Tunnel, came as an impulse. I walked into my home with bags of groceries when the impulse arrived. I asked my adult daughter who happened to be home at that time to put the groceries way for me, and went directly to my stacks of National Geographic magazines and began the process of creating.