Art is mystical shit

Stuart Davis is an artist who kind of defies categorization: he’s a [kick-ass] musician, painter, potty-mouthed mystic, and a bunch of other shit. He wrote:

I was conversing with this intelligent presence (no body, no form) which was fluent in Is (the language I’m constructing). It was quizzing me, basically, saying "au-VAIH-sool, what does that word mean? do you remember?" I was like…

au-VAIH-sool would be more like Insight-Eureka-Enmorphature (?), a subject released from a bind or chimera (physical / emotional blocks, mental patterns, spiritual limits) by dying into its next-self-birth (the one slightly bigger, slightly more inclusive). It’s perception at new depth, discovering anatomy which was previously undetected (due to insufficient awareness), and this newly accessed item facilitates un-stuckness (the difference between dhukka, or stuck-wheel, and sukkha, or un-stuck wheel). But the critical thing here is that the Insight-Eureka-Enmorphature is never repeated, never duplicated, so even though the subject arrives at a deeper depth, a higher level of being through au-VAIH-sool, one cannot simply repeat the formula at the next level of course.

I don’t want to jack his entire post on the subject, so go finish reading it, paying particular attention to the sentence about the safe. Then think about how this applies to making art. It’s short and worth it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.