What is 'Muse-Energy-Art'?
'Over the years as after I made a transition from my design career, I worked as a Transpersonal Therapist, meaning that I worked in non-traditional therapy paradigms with integral methods/means that consider a person’s issues are not just problems contexted by societal standard to be fixed, but rather as expressed challenges of the Soul wanting to individuate and creatively grow with a focus on integrating, understanding, growing, healing, aligning experientially and energetically the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual issues and facets to root of the person and Being. It is my belief that ‘the Soul’ has its own unique independent form of spirituality beyond religions based on the language of symbolism and there is an energetic dimension, expression and reality that can be manifested once the Soul is aligned to the personality, body and mind. I believe that the Soul has its own subconscious vocabulary (or access to) compiled over its life experiences, memories, senses especially colours, smells and subjects that are translated meaningful symbols to each person as well as collective associations as proposed by Jungian Psychology. However my work has a more embodied and energetic focus and I believe and had seen that there is an underlying subconscious intuitive creative intelligence that some spirituality or contexts would consider as the Higher Self. This is the aspect of each person that has a creative power, spirituality to overcome, transform and transcend towards a higher form of evolved experiential Beingness that is in its own unique essence. Intelligently and intuitively the Higher Self organises and arranges information and experiences with symbols (especially in Dreams as Jungian Psychology have deeply explored) and colours in such a way that helps with a form of integral self-organisation that balances all the different aspects of the person, like the CEO of the system or company that oversees the main operations with the access to many details that are also ‘compartmentalised' in the subconscious and is able to use it in a creative way to reorganise, balance, learn, grow and enhance itself in intelligence and growth that is not just intellectual but emotional, intuitive and spiritual that eventually affects the physical reality. This organization process happens subconsciously ‘faster’ or can be ‘ catalyzed in an integrative way' with an understanding of the language (or grammar) used by the Soul like a chord in harmony made with different notes on a musical scale as there is a mathematical resonance with each othe. This usually happens overtime in certain therapeutic or healing processes and in my case with my artwork are the symbols and colours that I chose to work with amongst other aspects like movements etc. This is very much like when a therapist holds a very clean and clear 'listening space’ or a form of ‘ Deep Presence’ without interruption beyond his/her own mental world/judgement whilst being in tune and have access to their own Higher Self qualities such as compassion/empathy/acceptance/trust/spontaneity/the unknown that are aspects of the HigherSelf qualities. When a person becomes a sense of ’ BEING Presence’ to a person sharing or ‘talking’ about their current life issues, over time the space and the energies of the ‘presence space’ allows them to suddenly understand and help them discover their own intuitive healing solution in the form of an insight or realization as they speak over the process of being listened to in that specific held way. Sometimes this happens between people or even friends in certain types of environment spontaneously. Somehow the Higher Self of one person (Subconscious Intuitive Creative Intelligence) can resonate with the therapist's clear ‘Presence of Being’ to pierce through the limited perception held by the emotional/life issue in the experienced dimension, and this aspect of them uses its own resources and access to those hidden resources sometimes creativity, intelligently and intuitively beyond his own history, to self-correct or self-heal and rebalance him/herself. This is I believe how and why Art Therapy and many other type of relational and mirroring or somatic type of facilitated works that has a guided by open relational dynamics and is extremely powerful, because it bypasses the conscious mind and imagination as well as their own resources (not new or outside) are used as a tool as well as the mediator or interface to ‘zoom out’ and see the bigger picture as well as its own resources to self-correct and align. To me, the ideal role of a therapist or healer can play out is actually in the form of a Spiritual Muse exist personally with or from the main 'author' (in this case the person/client/viewer of art), where he or she is inspired intuitively, spiritually, creatively, and energetically by their own Higher Self. As I noticed many famous portrait photographers, their models become their muse that always seem to carry a touch of the photographer's own muse's essence, by which one can recognize their work with a sense of their signature... so perhaps the Muse is a personal projection of the photographer/artist's Higher Self that goes beyond usually, artistically and creatively the artist's own boundary in that moment in time, otherwise the inspiration would not be spontenous and the nature of the Muse would be lost as a creative identity.
In my Muse-Energy-Art (Originally called Self-Illuminating-Art because of its illumination symbolic philosophy), when I create each piece, I create them by holding myself in a few different ‘inner spaces’ where one has the very same intuitive ‘listening’ space and with my own ways to access my sense of presence which is really a form of ‘energetic pose’ that I had learnt over the years. Apart from that as well as holding an inner form of paradox that I also consider to be another key to accessing the Subconscious Creative Intelligence as the Higher Self actually can work with and embraces seeming paradoxes, rather than rejecting opposites which usually many life's challenges or dimensions demands some form of balancing or integration with, it somehow knows how to use everything to its advantages through a form of creative re-organization and integration. I have many people and clients who purchased my art having immediate, spontaneous and sometimes a guided emotional transformative experience and resonance with the piece creatively as they see it and gain some form of ‘inspired insight’ that is very new to them suddenly, and they learnt to use and work with it as a tool, like a Muse, where their own creative imaginative intelligence interact with the artwork and experience different types and levels of expansions, insights, creativity and problem solving with their existing life challenges over time even after they had acquired the art piece. So it really becomes like a Spiritual or Creative Muse for them upon engagement. For this reason also I like to get to know each client who is interested or buys my work because I can further give suggestions to open up even deeper dimensions for them using the art. In terms of the Muse, I guess I can also credit two of my personal passions for ‘revealing the Muse space' in my art also. The first one being the Argentinian Tango Dance which is an improvisation dance where the male leader has to hold the physical, mental, emotional axis/posture/structure and most importantly space whilst listening intently to the two bodies, 3 axis, movements, environment and music for both himself and his partner to ‘improvise’ the dance in a creative way whilst being in sync with that 3 minute of each song. The second passion being portrait photography that i had also done for the past few years as I learnt to reveal or bring out the Muse when I work with a model or subject and that space that is beyond their own personality and mine which is a magical happening to me every time. I cannot really explain just yet but I somehow knew how to embed it into each piece of the "Self-Illuminating-Art-Muse”. I guess a lot of Jazz musicians do it all the time as they somehow ‘set-up’ a certain space by using certain lines, rhythms, notes and ‘space’ itself for the other musician to dive into with a subtle template that is slightly guided but still open to allow for an individuated essence to flower. The closest thing I can think of is how some people can clearly energetically infuse a sense of Spirit, Soul or Essence into a space, object or place (which artist do most of the time really), or like a priest who can consecrate an object so that it becomes sacred with spiritual energy that feels alive with presence, I recognised that my Soul or Higher Self somehow knew how to do that and was revealed to me as I was working as a healer and therapist over the years, and now I translate that into my art.
There is a very clear intention of a kind of psycho/spiritual/emotional ergonomics that I try to cater for in supporting both the child consciousness (logic), the subconscious and Higher Self working with the symbolisms and colours using the compositions and aesthetics and finally, infusing that Muse energy space into each piece energetically as mentioned before.
It is not new to me or many people that Art is supposed to serve as a mirror for the Soul, and it is, but when I create these works, I ask myself the question:
‘which aspect, dimension and qualities so that it goes to the core and it can become intelligent and self-aware for the viewer to access to their own Muse?'
Because to me the Soul is like a muse that makes turns one into a lover inspiring one to be creative, courageous, intelligent with the force of the Eros that exceeds its own limitations.”
Ken
