art and language and transcendence [in process]
For a while when I had writers’ block I used art/painting…abstract and conceptual art making… as a way to take a break from writing, move past or through the block, escape from language. Is art…color, form, texture of paint for example, a type of language, a different language of color etc.? Or is it just an object, or series of objects we make for a variety of reasons, but is not itself a form of language? As such can be an escape unless we are asked to explain the art with words. But even if we aren’t are we not seeing the art with the lens of language…red, blue, abstract, at least as a container for our experience of the art. This object we make, even now words are used to separate the painting from the rock or tree we find, something “creative”. The car is designed…made…like a painting but labeled as functional…to an extent. Some people might find a Jeep more functional than a Ferrari. Art has many functions maybe, or none…again a subjective thing.
Recently I had this insight, that if God or something divine is possible, of any gender, meaning something not of this apparent physical world, then anything is possible. Once you are open to something beyond, a transcendent, then anything really, chakras, all kinds of metaphysics, energy work, anything. That does not mean it’s all true or valid for everyone but there is something beyond, maybe a lot, more than this obvious physical world, once you open up that door.
I grew up with a father who did not believe any of it and an unstable, alcoholic mother who believed a whole lot of stuff. As I dabbled in crystals and other new age stuff in my late teens I was less skeptical but not grounded. As I went further “out there” I became like my mother and after getting sober I was even more cautious about anything spiritual especially if it seemed wuwu at all. Tarot, yoga, anything.
Over time as in years I have become grounded enough in my life to be open to exploring more. And this recent insight helps and is part of that. I guess I am more interested in what might or could be, what is possible vs what is. As in what is obvious…this bed, the table. What might be is a type of being, certainly. One type of Being — the what is possible. And in this sense also that might be is also outside of time, perhaps, non-linear, non temporal even. What is is usually defined at now, and this What is possible or might be goes outside of that even, concepts of past and future also. But in physics time seems to be relative but always linear, so that’s a tough one.
