I usually read several books at once. I consume them like red vines -- I can never get enough. Once in a while, a book sets off little explosions in my mind, opening new doors, making connections that course electricity through the wires.
The current winner is "Creativity" by Matthew Fox.
It's about the spiritual nature of creativity and its importance in today's world. When things are falling apart, it's easy to let art fall by the wayside. After all, what's the use of painting when bombs are going off?
"The Peace of the World is in My Veins," oil on canvas, 1994
In his book, Fox quotes the philosopher bell hooks, who dreams of an aesthetic revolution that will heal class, race, and culture divides. Putting "imagination to the use of transformation" -- and applying "creativity at the service of justice and compassion." Marginalized people never stop creating -- in fact, their imagination is what creates new movements.
Fox also gives examples of the "demonic" use of creativity in human inventions that kill, destroy, extract, pollute, and harm. He makes the case for pursuing "Divine" creativity: "to move from art for art's sake and art for advertising's sake and art for power's sake to art for compassion's sake. Art for the sake of planetary health and well-being. Art for celebration's sake. Art for building bridges' sake. This constitutes an aesthetic revolution, which is a nonviolent revolution."
I'm also reading one of his other books, "One River, Many Wells." The chapter on creativity talks a lot about the connectedness of all things. The driving force of the entire universe is creative. Even our Milky Way births several new stars each year. The atoms that make up our bodies were created billions of years ago -- they're the same atoms that compose all matter. "One thing contains the whole cosmos...A piece of bread contains sunshine...when you eat a piece of bread, you eat the cloud, you eat the sunshine, you eat the minerals, time, space, everything."
This all resonates so deeply because to me, creativity has always been the way in to whatever "God" is. When I paint my own work, I'm stepping into the shoes of the Great Creator, if only for an hour. It's the best feeling in the world: getting lost in the flow, forgetting time, watching something emerge from my brush that never existed before. I feel part of everything around me. And I feel a bigger energy flow through my cells.
"Sea of Light," oil on canvas, 2016
Whatever that means to each artist is different. Some create for simple enjoyment. Others use their work to advocate for a cause. To me, making art means expressing everything I have inside, in the spirit of service, to heal myself and others, and embody the pure joy of creating. It doesn't always translate into happy images. But it's always driven by the power of love.
That's what I try to convey when I teach students to find their own authentic, heart-centered aesthetic voice. They're not always artists. Sometimes, I guide non-artists to use creative exercises in their emotional healing.
"Safe," a tiny oil painting about me and my brother, who died in 2022.
I could go on for hours about the power of creativity. But I'd love to hear from you. How has your own creativity brought you joy, healing, spiritual connection? If you're not an artists, where are you creative? In gardening, cooking, your work, your kids?
We were all artists when we were children...
Art Heals
I discovered the work of Cuban artist Edel Bordón a few years ago in Galleria Cubana in Provincetown. He honed his aesthetic voice under Castro's regime. Something about his use of color against black and white makes me feel hopeful.
