Today’s topic is something that I’m very passionate about. It begins with a belief I have about all humans being beautiful artists. I’m passionate about this topic because I believe it stands upon a beautifully fragile and vulnerable filter which is our lovely ego. When balance is introduced to the ego a clear perspective is placed. This clear perspective I believe is the key to unlocking our individual creative process and is the birth of true originality. It is also creative freedom, which is the very pit of my passion in this life.
“Lemon Juice” by Djuno Tomsni
“The ego could be defined simply in this way: a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
Examples of these dysfunctional moments can be found in distortion art pieces. Such as:
Artist Unknown
“When Silence happens in the Marketplace”-Artist Melinda Matyas
Artist Harrietta Harris
We create everyday. Every moment. Every frame of our flickering eyes existence was but a thought just a moment ago. Before I started physically typing these words, I continuously thought of what I was going to write first. So are the actions of our days. Whether they’re micro or macro, passive or active, automatic or worked for, each idea was brought about through, what I like to call, a portal of imagination. So this is the first step; to first use our imagination to bring about an idea.
“There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do.” -Anais Nin
Now when I talk about the ego, it’s not in a way with which I believe it to be described as cocky or delirious. To me it is much more simple than that. To me the ego is the compilation of the ideas and beliefs that are accepted either by inheritance or adoption. This frame with which we watch our reality play out is built from the pure material of belief and acceptance, and is the glass with which our light of an idea goes through before reaching the final stages to physical manifestation. I think what Eckhart Tolle was saying was that the ego is the acceptance of false beliefs, and those false beliefs get in the way of a true and clear perspective.
***I would like to point out that the practice of a balanced mind and clear perspective is a life practice, and a personal journey within itself. It is wise for us to remember, it is the ego that separates and judges, and if we’re still judging our impurities then we probably are still in need of some more practice <3
In Betty Edwards 1979 college textbook Drawing on the right side of the brain, she talks about utilizing the right hemisphere of our brain to access a clear and whole perspective. She explains that our left brain controls the right side of our body and is linked to our vocabulary, analytical skills, and has a linear time structure. I think because the left brain is so tangible it has made our society very much a left brained dominated one. The right side of the brain however is spatial. It has no words and uses images and emotions to express itself. Someone who understood the imbalance in societal culture was Roger W. Sperry a psychobiologist and Nobel Prize winner for his research on the individual functions of the cerebral hemispheres.
“The new way of thinking, spawned by the cognitive revolution, shows strong promise … Reversing previous doctrine in science, the new paradigm affirms that the world we live in is driven not solely by mindless physical forces but, more crucially, by subjective human values. Human values become the underlying key to world change.” -Roger W. Sperry
I truly believe that lifting the “ego” to a true original perspective matched with our own personalized technique is how our world is going to unlock a motion for change. Transference from an unbalanced analytical one to a wholly connected one. I think we could apply this process to all our daily verbs and art would be in every motion. Romance would be in the way we create our lives. Art will live and breathe in every materialization and then originality could become non threatening and be celebrated.
Physical Manifestation is the last step in creation and sometimes the hardest hurdle for us. I think it has a lot of pressure put on it because it sometimes get confused that it is the first step. Too many times do I see art that is “technically” good but lacks soul. The reason this occurs is because the individual has begun physical manifestation before becoming self knowing. Too many artists these days jump the gun. This is why I tend to sway towards the underground and amateur artists. Their art, though not “technically right”, is full of self knowledge and therefore has something original to say. That is where true creation begins.
So there you are. Imagination to ideas. Original ideas brought about by true perspective and filtered through our one of a kind creative process. End with physical manifestation and you are now a conscious artist. These can be applied to any creations and is available to anyone. It can sometimes be hard and is most days a battle for us but like in Kahlil Gibrans poem “On Reason and Passion”, he truly demonstrates the practice of balancing ones “ego”. Reason to me, in this poem, is the left brain hemisphere, and Passion is the right.
On Reason and Passion:
“And the priestess spoke again and said:
“Speak to us of Reason and Passion.”
And he answered saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath In God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.”
