Self Portrait of Spiritual Awareness

Exposition

The theme

The self portrait of the artist defines characteristics for the portrait of art and for being an artist. I am the archer who draws back the arch, which shoots the brand name, which embodies the introversion of the spirit and expresses the outburst of creation, which reflects the striving towards a goal as an expression of purpose, which concludes at the moment of death and continues thereafter. Therefore, art as an objective is a relative implementation of the absolute purpose.

Color scheme (RGB model)

Red » Force. Green » Direction. Deep yellow » A combination of force and direction, meaning a vector or a tendency; a controlled but slightly impulsive action. Blue » Introversion of spiritual awareness, concentration. Cyan » Critical analysis and dissection as a product of spiritual introversion intended towards the work’s subject. White » Force + direction + concentration, meaning a conscious spiritual exertion, which leads to the enlightenment of the mind and the absolute spiritual awareness. Black » Atrophy; lack of spiritual awareness. Gray » Neutral.

Portrait’s composition

Analytical, tidy, meticulous, uncompromising and fixated; Impulsive, instinctual, turbulent, wild, charismatic and unbound. Possesses intense passion for life and artistic creation. Engaged in a spiritual endeavor stained by pride and in controlled creation stained by impulsiveness. Ambition governs all.
Note » stop reading if you wish to decipher the rest by yourself.

The Quadrangle of Creation
(The four divisions of the creative process)

Center

Inspiration derives from concentration, which is in turn, introversion and collection of the mind’s energy into the point of assembly – the object of concentration. Inspiration cannot flow out of a chaotic, dulled and impulse-awash frame of mind. Inspiration gives birth to an idea or an insight and then subsides. The center is open towards the infinite, the source and origin of all the governing and creative forces. Also, additional emphasis was applied to the center, for this retreat towards the source of creativity is only a fractional appearance or a side effect of a spiritual process, which constitutes the essence and nature of art in general and the purpose of life itself.

The palette of emotions

Symbolizes a spontaneous outburst of the colors and hues of instincts and desires. Emotion replaces inspiration, molds the newborn idea into a raw work of art by applying to it a unique style and character, exhausts itself and subsides.

Forms and directs the colors of emotions, updates and refines the work, alters, adds or subtracts according to different associations and perceptions which are accumulated in the memory and guide the thought patterns. I believe that rationalist people will subconsciously tend to emphasize the intellectual phase of the creative process, as I do, while as more impulsive or sentimental people will tend to emphasize the emotional phase of the creative process. In the level of composition, this phase is open towards the head.

The scalpel of criticism

As this very one is, puts the work in its totality, into all depths and including all facets, to the test. The analyzing or dissecting criticism is a mental state of deepened introvert thinking, which does not resemble the usual extrovert thought patterns, which are fueled by past blind conditioning. Critical thinking is an expression and reflection of resting within a natural and inactive state of mind and it includes heightened alertness to the deeper thought mechanisms. The guiding line of the critical thinking is a conscious instruction to focus on the object of thought, and in this case the logical-rational structure and/or the content-formative cohesiveness of the artwork. Nevertheless, ignorance might taint such an analysis, for only a very fine line separates self criticism which derives from objective and compassionate self-observation from self-hatred and fear.

Governing motion

States of non-linear movement between the different phases of the creative process, or a counter-flow of the diagram may probably occur as well. At the end of the creative process there is an opening towards other works of art or perhaps towards the freedom from the creative process all together, who knows….

Spiritual elements

Meditation » Usually, out of a meditative state occurs in my mind’s eye a thematic verbal idea, which a moment later wears a general visual formation which contains the main work’s elements, their functions and characteristics, along with the architecture of the composition. After the implementation of these basics, which also includes alternate movements between the emotional, intellectual and critical phases of the creative process, I retreat to meditate on the current state of the work. In this meditative state of mind, the spiritual awareness penetrates deeper into the theme of the specific artwork and elaborates it, and so forth.

Acquaintance » You might say that this process resembles the acquaintance with a stranger on the train or with a new city – the creative process is the acquaintance with something which already exists in its totality of infinite nuances – revealed, implied and secretive – within the depths of my sub-conscious, just as any other phenomenon of nature. Only I decide when is it that I no longer have patience or interest to further deepen my familiarity with the subject, or on the other hand discover that my acquaintance with the subject has utilized itself to the fullest and that the time has come to move on.

“Resting in the true nature of the work of art” »

This would perhaps be the most adequate description to the stage in which occurs the deepening into the acquaintance with the artwork. The motivation of the mind is towards the state of meditation, but since fragments of it are unwillingly occupied with the artwork, a natural side effect occurs, which involves reflexive random appearances of ideological, thematic and formative branching, relating to the current work’s situation.

In summary

If so, the creative process begins with introversion and from there it flows through the phases which I described until the analysis and dissection of the work*. These different phases pass by and merge into each other in an infinite dynamics and within intervals ranging from a single moment to months. In each such rotation deepens the spiritual awareness of the artist into his work in the emotional, logical and content-related aspects and illuminates flaws and failures in the structure of composition, in the formation of its different elements and in the color scheme, as well as in the credibility and accuracy of all those in terms of serving the purpose of conveying a certain message.

Thus the work increasingly consolidates into a purified, homogeneous, harmonious and precise entity, which serves the intention of the artist in each and every criteria he placed for himself and reflects his spiritual awareness to all depths and facets. That is how, I think, the work becomes spontaneous yet not coincidental. An artistic creation is the realization of the creator’s naturally abstract mind contents into the level of a visual display, and is therefore a narrowed form of Creation. There cannot be a Creation without complete spiritual awareness to the created.

*Generally, every explanation of the work which is beyond the definition of the primal idea at its basis, finds its way to that work only during the catharsis pauses, following each conclusion stage during the creative process. The explanation is subject to the work and not vice versa, although this rule also has its exceptions.

The Triangle of Spirituality
(The three divisions of the spiritual process)

Preface

I feel that the spiritual process requires another kind of energy than that of the creative process, an energy which is less manneristic and more sincere. The energy of high spiritual awareness is not merely an expression of emotions and thought patterns as in the superficial awareness.

Note » the term ‘Ego’ within the following context refers to its absolute meaning as it is regarded in Buddhism or other monotheistic beliefs, rather than it’s narrow and limited Freudian definition.

II

The dual consciousness. As a rule, most people who write in Latin letters will not write the word “I” with a non capital letter. To me, that’s a symbol of the primal ego instinct, which consolidated over time into an archetypical perception that the “I” is extremely important and that it needs to be glorified and polished constantly in the eyes of others. Therefore, the red letter represents the active energy of the self-aware rational being, while as the opposite black letter represents the lack of spiritual awareness to self-importance and self-image, hence the blind slavery to the capriciousness of the Ego.

I?

The investigating consciousness, the penetrating spiritual awareness. A symbol of one’s honest investigation of the “I” concept and the illusion it webs. The barrier of unawareness to the slavery of self-importance and self-image is getting broken and the true essence of the ego is gradually revealed.

In the formative aspect, the dual consciousness is depicted in smaller scale than that of the investigating consciousness, in order to symbolize that one who is undergoing an active spiritual process is greater and nobler than the one which remains a slave to his limitless appetite for the illusion of self-image. The sharpening spiritual awareness of the spiritual striver allows humility to pierce through due to one’s direct experience of his futility facing these mighty forces, which bind him to his self-image and self-importance.

i

The liberated mind, the non-dual consciousness, free from conditioning, conceptions and charged emotions, meaning free from ego and the lava of instinctual desires it fuels and which defines its existence. Such a mind no longer needs to glorify itself by artificial means, hence the non-conformist depiction of the “I” with a non capital letter – a symbol of such an enlightened awareness. The striving for such a state of spiritual awareness is the essence of life. That significance is therefore depicted by its position in the triangle and its formational weight, as well as by the aspiration of the vertex towards the infinite white beyond.

Governing motion

Cyclic movement between the different states of spiritual awareness happens naturally, for that is the nature of any spiritual process – you don’t “just get there” all at once. Nevertheless, a mind which does not explore, investigate and purify itself (by meditative means, I might add), is not open to the possibility of the infinite spiritual awareness and therefore there is no direct passage from the dual state of existence to the absolute awareness, but only vice-versa. I also believe that from the state of absolute awareness, there could occur a breakthrough of no-return out of the boundaries of the i, however the path leading to that stage of maturity is still very long.

I, Sagittarius the archer

Primitively expressive. The head and the hands help the archer to direct his arrows. The eyes symbolize his intentions – the good eye and the bad eye – and reflect the structure of the mind. The palm which actually draws back the string of the arch is the force executing the plan.

Now, It isn’t hard to see how much energies I invest into putting others down in order to raise myself up and into defending against any criticism I might be tackled with, concerning whether I befit the definition of an “artist”, as well as whether my works befit the definitions of “art”. So, when in war, strike and defend. The active force of my ignorance and fears is the fortress in which I hide from criticism, ridicule, condescendence and plain stupidity which is so typical of this shallow era. Nevertheless, in light of my awareness to that wretched habit of mine, my shield allows cracks of concentration, directed upon constructive self-criticism and love.

findigart arch

findigart, as a brand name embodying and representing spiritual art, or art as an expression of spiritual awareness, is the arrow of purpose being shot towards the target of conveying a message. In this case, the message is simple: “Welcome”. The direction of the purpose of art is identical to the direction of the ambition depicted by the position of the portrait, symbolizing that findigart is in fact me. The connecting element between the archer and the arch is the executing force, meaning the palm.

Other symbols

The crown of spiritual awareness

As mentioned earlier, the white which is a product of the creative process is different in its essence from the white which contains the entire work and which symbolizes the infinite divine radiance, from which a stream of light stretches inside and serves as a crown to my head, symbolizing heightened spiritual awareness. The black skull is my death – I am still a part of the infinite circle of life, death and rebirth (in Buddhism: Samsara), all under the providence of the infinite.
I am striving towards enlightenment, but I am currently still light years away from that goal. My efforts are clumsy, coarse and fragmented in comparison to the complete and undisrupted focus of the saints and sages of the past. Unlike me, they indeed where worthy of the meticulous attribute above their heads.

The hair

Coarse and undisciplined like my sub-conscious, meaning the places within me which I have yet to enlighten with the radiance of spiritual awareness. According to Buddhism, the hair and fingernails are the less pure parts of the body, even in the cases of those who attained full enlightenment, which purifies the corporeal body to the extent of luminance. …luckily, I actually have black hair, so you might say that symbolism and I got along on this one.

Question marks

The eyes project the contents of the mind. Pretension, condescendence and extrovert self-esteem are merely the characteristics of my own fears and doubts. Could it be that certainty is merely an outcome of arrogance? Is it possible that faith is fear undercover? And perhaps doubt after all, isn’t only the devils way to deviate us from the right path, but is actually substantial as reality itself… Doubts pertaining to the spiritual path itself or to the importance of spirituality in general, as well as doubts pertaining to doubt itself, are an inevitable outcome of a sincere practice of any spiritual path.

I!

The exclamation of pride. “I” as a symbol for the self-image and conceited ego-bound mind and the exclamation mark as a symbol for the belligerent declaration of that “I”. Arrogance indeed highly befits the constitution of the bristles of my unshaved beard, for it is coarse, prickling and unpleasant to the gentle touch. But with all my knowledge of that and all my awareness to that knowledge, arrogance is still my disposition or at least a considerable portion of my everyday social personality; it is the defense mechanism, it is the flag of victory gloriously waving on top of the bunker of fear in which hides, hunched and trembling, the small dictator.

Feet

Symbolize my behavior patterns and aspirations. One foot faces the uncharted path of spirituality, which encompasses the erosion of habitual patterns of thought and emotion, while as the other one faces the known route of arrogance. Conscience and morality guide my footsteps.

The compass of morality

Takes into consideration the inherent polarity of good and evil and the fine borderlines between them, and guides the way to the only source which can beget the right decision in any situation: the introversion of the mind and as far as I’m concerned, meditation.

Captions

humanly meaningful

In the corporeal world and within the common frame of perception prevailing in this day and age, this creation has an enormous importance. The feelings of satisfaction which derive from achieving, building and accumulating are the driving force of individuals and as a result, of humanity as a whole.

divinely insignificant

But however important and monumental the enterprise of man may be, be it in the eyes of himself only or even in the eyes of all humanity, eventually the end is the only significant matter. Death confronts us all with the certainty of uncertainty and completely minimizes our materialistic achievements in this corporeal world. Ultimately, there is only one thing which bears a true substantial essence: God.