I've shied around the question and evaded directly answering the inquiries in increasingly vague kinds of ways. It's been about deflection and misdirection.
What, they always ask, inspires your art?
I've responded that I'm inspired by dreams and fairy tales (like Alice in Wonderland).
If they persisted in asking, I tend to respond that I approach art as a type of therapy. When working on a piece of art, the world just falls away, leaving me and the art work. Quiet. Calm. Zen.
But like my other responses, these are only half truths. I've been reflecting lately on truth and transparency. I thought it diplomatic or tactful to reveal partial truths because I am the Queen of Walls although I am learning that walls imprison my essential self more than they protect it. I suspect that it's long since time that I come out of the proverbial broom closet. I've been slowly weaving the threads of who I am back into a greater whole.
I make weird art for weird people, but I also read the Tarot. I meditate. I write poetry. I explore dreams and shamanic journeying. My art isn't about dream work. At least, that isn't the complete truth. My dream work is an essential part of my spiritual practice just as my art is an essential part of my spiritual path; as is my poetry, my Tarot reading and my shamanic journeys.
Almost everything that I invest time and dedication to is part of my spiritual practice.
The Universe is a complex and infinite place. We are part of the Universe just as it is part of us. We are an essential part of the eternal truth as we are literally made of star stuff. We are the Universe. It flows in and around us. We are it and it is us.
As greater thinkers than I have said, we are the Universe becoming conscious of itself.
As I try to find my path forward one step at a time, I think of my spiritual practice as a means of trying to connect and communicate with the divine as defined as Universe. I look for symbols and sign posts in my dreams and shamanic journeys. My Tarot readings serve a similar purpose. I am trying to learn to weave the different threads together even as I seek the unknown path before me.
I am many things, many different versions of myself, but they are all me. All of them are seeking to go deeper and learn more and, always, to evolve into a better version of myself.
My art is spiritual practice just as I am an eternal seeker toward a greater truth.
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