The Awakening Artist

Madness and Spiritual Awakening in Art

By Patrick Howe

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2012 Patrick Howe
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78099-645-5

Contents

Foreword...................................................................xiiiIntroduction...............................................................1Definition of Terms........................................................4Part 1: Awakening..........................................................11Chapter 1..................................................................Chapter 2..................................................................Chapter 3..................................................................Part 2: Madness and Awakening in the Past 51...............................Chapter 4..................................................................Chapter 5..................................................................Chapter 6..................................................................Chapter 7..................................................................Chapter 8..................................................................Part 3: Madness and Awakening in the Present 179...........................Chapter 9..................................................................Chapter 10.................................................................Chapter 11.................................................................Chapter 12.................................................................Chapter 13.................................................................Afterword..................................................................Notes......................................................................245

CHAPTER 1

The Awakening Artist

What I wish to convey to you is that your artistic creativity is anexpression of the same creative force that created the universe.The ideas that I am about to present are not based upon intellectualconjecture. Nor are they based on New Age 'woo-woo'ideas about some alien force from outer space that is trying to getinside of you to control you and your creativity. On the otherhand, if Buddhist concepts, Zen, modern psychology, commonsense, and the word 'spiritual' are 'woo-woo' to you, then thisbook may offer you the opportunity to examine those assumptions,and to discover a new way of understanding humancreativity.

Simply put, spiritual terminology has been used by art historiansand scholars to describe and explain art for centuriesbecause so much of the world's art has been influenced by theworld's religions. I use spiritual terminology throughout thisbook, too, but not in a narrowly religious or extremist way. I useit metaphorically. As mythologist Joseph Campbell noted, whenwords are understood metaphorically, they may evoke deepmeanings. However, when they are merely perceived literally,they block and flatten the deeper meanings. For example, takeShakespeare's metaphor "All the world's a stage". A literal,'flattened', interpretation of the phrase would be that the earth isa theatrical platform because that is what the phrase literallystates. On the other hand, if we understand Shakespeare's phrasemetaphorically, it invites us to see those around us as actorsperforming on the stage of their lives. We are invited to observethem 'performing' their lives with all the joys and sorrows theybring. To witness humanity around us in such a way is atremendous thing because it may inspire empathy within us. Aliteral interpretation cannot do that.

I am using the word spiritual as a metaphor to signify thecreative force that animates life. The Taoists use the work "chi"to mean the same thing. If a reader would prefer a more secularmetaphor, simply think of 'spiritual' as the evolutionary impulse,for it too describes an energy that animates life.

Spiritual vs. Religious

Until the mid nineteenth century the history of art was filledmore with religious themes than anything else. This book is notan examination of religious art, nor of a 'religious' experiencewhile making art, though a religious person might describe itthat way. Instead, we are exploring a knowing of the spiritual inthe creative act. This goes beyond the traditional structures ofany of the world's religions.

Being religious has to do with belonging to an organizedinstitution that holds as true certain theological concepts aboutspirituality that members of the institution are expected tobelieve. Therefore, religious art would promote those concepts.Spirituality on the other hand, describes an individual's owninner, intuitive experience of the transcendent without needingto belong to an organized religious institution, or hold andbelieve in set theological concepts. This is why a religious personmay not be spiritual, and a spiritual person may not be religious.Also, I am using the word "transcendent" as another word toindicate that the spiritual experience is beyond mental comprehensionand categorization. After all, if the spiritual dimensioncould be described, measured, weighed, and analyzed therewould be nothing transcendent about it. It would be just anothermental structure. The spiritual dimension is beyond mentalcomprehension, so we have to accept it as an unknowable,mysterious, incomprehensible something that is beyond us. It istranscendent. All religions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam,Buddhism, Taoism, Vedanta (Hinduism) and so forth—arereligious because they offer theological systems of concepts tobelieve in. The spiritual, on the other hand, describes a personalrelationship with the something-or-other about which religionshave formed concepts. Zen Buddhism, interestingly, is sometimesconsidered spiritual, but not religious because it de-emphasizes abelief in theological systems, and emphasizes personalexperience of the transcendent. It is in this sense that theawakening artist explores the relationship between the innerspiritual dimension and creativity. He allows the spiritualdimension, that can only be sensed but not known directly, toflow into creative expression, into form.

Creativity

Creativity is always neutral; it is neither a good thing nor a badthing, though humans have used their creativity to do both harmand good. Creativity has been used to make weapons to harmpeople, and creativity has been used to make medicines to healpeople. Is creativity spiritual? Yes, it can be, when a spiritualperson is being creative. Creative action is neutral, but it alwaysreflects the state of consciousness of the person expressingcreatively.

Many artists throughout history have recognized arelationship between their creativity and what they believed wasa transcendent source of their creativity. Michelangelo, forexample, believed that God was working through him. In recentcenturies many artists have sensed a creative source that wasbeyond them that is also within them, and have desired to allowit expression through them. Artist Wassily Kandinsky sought tofill his...