QUIET the mind...open the HEART

"Meditation speaks. It speaks in silence. It reveals. It reveals to the aspirant that matter and spirit are one, quantity and quality are one, the immanent and the transcendent are one."

Sri Chinmoy

Sanctuary

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/sanctuary-lianne-schneider.html

In the last post, I spoke about the first steps towards listening to your heart and I mentioned that in this post, I'd talk a little bit about meditation and introduce you to a guided meditation to open your heart. Steve Mueller, author of the "Personal Development Blog Gone Wild" on his Planet of Success blogsite lists a number of steps for beginning the practice of meditation that I'm going to share with you here:

1. Sit down in a comfortable upright position
2. Make sure that your spine is straight
3. Focus your attention on your respiratory organs
4. Feel the natural flow of air entering and leaving your body
5. Allow your mind to calm down, while you focus on breathing
6. [Optional] Begin to vocalize the mantra of your choice
7. Watch as your mind begins to ease, enjoy the inner peace
8. Enjoy the tranquility and go with what feels natural to you
9. If a thought begins to arise, think and contemplate about it
10. If a certain scenario/day-dream begins to unfold, follow it
11. Remain in the meditative state as long as it feels right

All of those steps are important and they sound easy enough, but I suspect that for most of us it's a bit more difficult than this. I'm reminded of a scene from Eat, Pray, Love, where Julia Roberts is attempting to discipline herself to meditate. She's living in an ashram and the discipline involves getting up at 4 a.m. and spending several hours in the meditation room in the lotus position. But the harder she tries, the more impossible it is. Her mind races, fills with inconsequential thoughts and distractions and she begins to question herself. "Why can't I do this right?" "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Now she's angry and frustrated and a long way from the inner peace meditation is supposed to bring! I can sympathize. My first attempts at even a guided meditation were dismal "failures" for the same reasons and I would say to my instructor again and again, "I can't do this right."

To prepare myself for meditation, I like to listen to the sound of trickling water - a personal tabletop waterfall is just the thing. But what helped me the most apart from having settled on a mantra with which I could be comfortable, was to really focus on step 3 above...paying attention to the breath. I mean consciously following your breath in and out with a predetermined intention to breathe IN peace and breathe OUT negative feelings, energy, thoughts. Breathe in through the nose, deeply, and in your mind's eye follow the air into your lungs and more importantly, into your heart. See your breath as if it were light - filling your body - your arms, legs, torso but centering in the heart. When you breathe back out, do so through your mouth but expel the air slowly. Do this by pursing your lips, shaping them as if you were going to whistle or blow up a balloon and feel the resistance through which the air has to pass. At the same time pull in your tummy and contract your diaphragm. Slow deep breaths keep you from hyperventilating, slow your heart rate and oxygenate and refresh the body. At first, you may find it difficult to pair this breathing practice with repeating a mantra but eventually you will find a rhythm that breathes in on the first syllable or part of the syllable and out on the second part. For example, if you are using the traditional Om mantra (pronounced approximately Oh-um but without the clear syllabification) you would breathe in deeply through your nose on "Oh," hold it for a second or two and breathe out slowly, compressing the diaphragm on "um." Likewise if you use the word "Abba" - in on "Ab" and out on "ba."

After about 10 breaths, and with twice daily or even once daily practice for a week, the breathing/mantra combination will feel very natural and in the manner of "self-hypnosis" will get you to a very relaxed and receptive state in which you can begin to open and listen to your heart - steps 7 through 11 in Mueller's list.

Below you'll find a very simple guided meditation to open the heart chakra (a chakra is an energy center in the body that we may talk about in a later post). This is only eight minutes long but it introduces you to three methods of locating and opening your heart chakra. 

From EnergyFundamentals.org

There are many wonderful sites online where you can listen to various kinds of meditation, experience guided meditations geared toward specific purposes and even download some of them for repeated use. I have dozens of these in my files as well as some meditation systems I've paid for which I personally find helpful but think they are an unnecessary expense in most cases. Online, one of my favorite sites for guided meditations is http://www.tarabrach.com/new-to-meditation.html where you will find some very helpful introductory exercises and then some really beautiful longer meditations. That's where I go when I cannot meditate without a guide - and for me, that's most of the time. 

Next post - the remaining steps to listening to the heart. Beginning next Wednesday, I will be offline and unable to post for several weeks although I am going to try to write a post or two in advance and schedule them to post when I am away. 

Digital Painting and the question of value - continued

"Nowadays, people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Oscar Wilde

Mum's Mum

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/mums-mum-lianne-schneider.html

The question of value - the price that digital art commands in the art marketplace - is a complicated one. Few would argue the point that a traditional painting is a one of a kind possession while digital art is purposely made for duplication. Yet most traditional artists today have their work professionally photographed in order to produce at least limited edition prints of their "masterpiece." Museums sell prints, posters and art cards of famous works. Yet none of this activity reduces the value of the original work. I contend that the digital artist's original work was often as time consuming and difficult to produce as the painter's. [As I said in my short rant the other day, in some cases I suspect that it is MORE time consuming and difficult. How many "Oneness" paintings do you think Newman could have created in a day if they are similar to that one? Several I'm sure - yet it takes me two weeks full time to do most of my digital paintings.] And it is certainly possible that a digital artist could, if he/she wished to, limit the number of prints, or restrict the reproductions to giclee on canvas in order to increase the value of those reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity might also reassure buyers that there is intrinsic value in a print or canvas of a digital work. But even employing those methods, could a digital artist expect to command the kind of price for even a large limited edition print than prints of an original oil or acrylic would get? 

I don't think so. In an article back in 2008, the TUTS website posted on its Design and Illustration division "54 Mind-Blowing Digital Paintings." Virtually ALL of them were Manga comics, fantasy figures, game figures, or illustrations - all brilliant yes - but none that looked like traditional paintings and all designed for digital viewing, gaming or animation. None commanded a $44 million price tag either. That has changed very little in the past six years - traditional digital painting seldom makes it into these lists and fractal art virtually never. Fantasy art and 3D continue to command the most attention and the highest prices for digital art because these forms are essential to video gaming, animation and interactive web designs. 

There IS some hope, however, whether you are a traditional digital painter or a digital abstract artist. The "hope" comes in the form of an article in Vulture by Jerry Saltz that is something of a "swan song" for the traditional gallery show. Decrying the fact that art shows go up but "without much consequence except for sales or no sales," Saltz says that internet sites now offer "high end sales" and online art auctions and that such sites are proliferating at an amazing pace. This means "art is about nothing but commerce" which is not what the gallery venue was; it was a place to engage with other artists, critics and students of art, a place for conversation and thought. He complains, "When so much art is sold online and at art fairs, it's great for the lucky artists who make money but it leaves out everyone who isn't already a brand." Art dealer, Kenny Schachter goes a step further, noting that "the higher and higher prices are for fewer and fewer artists." 

Dealing an additional blow to the gallery show, auction houses like Christie's are now providing a venue for emerging artists "unrepresented by galleries," and in this way making that art available only to collectors, not the general public. This again, is a great thing for the few lucky artists selected by such auction houses (physical auctions or online auction houses like ArtSpace) but such art remains the possession of the wealthy, and the very process, says Saltz, "makes being around art less special. Too many buyers keep their purchases in storage, in crates, awaiting resale. Mediocre Chinese photorealism has become a tradeable packaged good." 

So the narrow thread of "hope" offered by the death of the physical gallery show still offers little enough in the way of value and acceptance to the digital artist. I see "high end art" on a site I belong to and I've no idea how it was selected to be on that "high end" page. Most of the items offer a high priced original oil or acrylic, however, so I personally do not consider that traditional digital painting. These pieces were created as traditional art works initially and THEN digitized for much lower priced prints. Digital art, BY DEFINITION, is art created originally with digital tools and digital techniques. My own painting above is certainly no Georgia O'Keefe, nor does it pretend to be but it was hand-painted digitally stroke by stroke (in this case pointillist dot by pointillist dot) just as O'Keefe did her flowers. 

I am represented by a small gallery in upstate New York but sales in this gallery tend to be original photography or original oil/acrylic works, sculpture and jewelry and that is primarily who is represented by this gallery - photographers and traditional artists. There are exceptions, of course, but they are rare. I have friends whose photographic art (photographs altered by applying textures or recomposing several photographic images) is licensed by high volume publishers and while I consider their work to be art in the truest sense of the word, and I'm incredibly happy for each of them that their artwork is popular enough to make a living from it, that is not the case for most of us who are digital artists and digital painters. Saltz ponders the question of the future of medium sized and small galleries by asking, "I wonder if a much bigger shakeout is about to happen, one that makes art resemble any mainstream business." And if it's just business, is it art? 

The question of value then is multifaceted. Does a piece have value because it's in a traditional medium, because the critics like it, because a gallery is willing to show it, an auction house willing to auction it...or is its value based solely on market forces. Can a digital work even begin to compete and if so, how will the value of such easily reproducible art be maintained or even increased? If I were to license and sell 20,000 copies of the digital painting above would that make it more or less valuable as a work of art? If I master the business tools of social media, online art sites, self-promotion, looking at trends, checking out decor magazines for hot colors, do I do that at the cost of the actual artistic merits of my work? Or am I just smart enough to realize that digital art and digital painting are not meant to be measured by the same standards as an original oil and that its very accessibility and availability to the average person who loves what they see and can actually afford to own it makes it more valuable? I think the day is coming when a person will look at a digital painting and say, "I love that painting...Oh good, it's digital - and that means I can own it!"  Value is really not so much in the medium as in the eye of the beholder as well as in the heart of the artist who created it. 

Letting the thought simmer...

In the great artist you see daring bound by discipline and discipline stretched by daring. 

(Robert Brault) from
http://artquotes.robertgenn.com

As Time Goes By (inspired by the song of the same name)

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/as-time-goes-by-lianne-schneider.html

People have often asked me why I write...why I picked up a pen to write poetry at the age of 60 when I'd done very little writing before that. And I have some pretty articulate answers (I hope) I've shared in my volumes of poetry and will share here too. But very few people have ever asked me HOW I write - the creative process behind any given poem. So I'd like to talk about that today as well. I'm fairly certain that the process is not unlike that most artists go through but it is a bit different for me from how I create an artwork.

Let me tackle the why first. People have told me that my poetry is very personal, intimate or evocative, maybe even that it exposes too much of who I am or what circumstances have shaped my life. Perhaps that's true - but as I said the other day, there is great freedom in letting down the walls of pretense and allowing oneself to be vulnerable. I can be exactly who I am. Still I don’t write or create just to “emote” or have some kind of catharsis. I create in order to share something of myself, yes, but something I hope that has universal application, something that will “help” another person make sense out of life. I like to think that my own experiences - painful, joyful or introspective - have some universal application and like artists in other genres, hope that as a poet I share where my own journey has taken me in a quest to answer the great mythic questions of who we are as both physical and spiritual beings, how we should live with one another, what we can learn from suffering or loss, and what our own individual purpose might be as part of the connected whole.

I often write or create from what seems to be a dark place, from grief or sorrow, heartbreak or illness, but I almost always wind up with hope or with an expression of something extremely positive gained from even the worst of experiences. For me the bottom line is love…period. Love conquers all, redeems all, renews all, and I am convinced that love is the divine light within each and every one of us if only we would lift our eyes, open our hearts and uncover/recover what we have hidden from ourselves out of fear. I try to remind myself constantly that “everything but love is a lie.”

So that pretty much covers the why; now for the how. If there were any factor in my background aside from an almost idyllic childhood spent in the country that played a role in how I work and think as an artist/writer today, it would be my teaching career. For me, teaching wasn’t a job…it wasn’t even something I “did.” From the very first moment I set foot in a classroom, I knew that teacher was who I AM not what I DO. And I gave it my all – every ounce of creativity I possessed went into my planning, my instruction…and what I learned from that that is still essential to both my writing and my art was that there were many different ways to say the same thing, teach the same principle and what was important was to find the way or ways that each of my students could relate to, a way to translate my own “story” into something more universal. I could write a book – should have – on how that works.

But I also bring the same kind of “discipline” to my writing and my art that I did to my teaching – lots of preparation, lots of editing to find a better way to say it, lots of continuing study for myself to learn how to be an even better creator/teacher, a more informed person. My students respected that in me – that I was always prepared, always willing to try again another way, that I worked as hard or harder than I expected them to work. I guess I think of my art and writing as one more “lesson plan” so to speak, and I want to be sure it expresses what I believe is an “essential element” in the course of life.

Specifically, my preparation involves a number of steps beginning with an openness to what sparks that creative urge to write - perhaps it's a song lyric, a line from a novel that I'm reading, a storm or a natural event, the change of seasons. I keep prolific notes in a little notebook I carry with me everywhere. There I record whole paragraphs from inspirational books that I find meaningful, or just a single phrase that occurred to me while I was driving somewhere. Next, I might actually research an idea so that I don't wander too far afield  - for example, I've a poem called The Observer Effect which I'll post in a day or so for which I spent weeks studying to understand the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I took reams of notes, even diagrams, and read about Schrodinger's cat and the debate over this fairly recent principle in quantum physics.

What do I do with all those notes? I make a point to reread everything I've put in my notebook every day and I pick one idea to play with, writing a line or two on which I might be able to build a new poem. Then I do the most important thing...I leave it alone for a bit. I move these bits and pieces, these lines and phrases into a file that I call "my simmering pot." And I let the ideas slow simmer for days, weeks, maybe even months. It's always in the back of my mind and some new idea or experience, something I've heard in a lecture, read in a book, may connect with what's gone before and trigger a few more lines. When I've got the bare bones or the framework for a poem, I move it to another file I call "building blocks." These are the pieces I work on every morning - trying to expand and refine what I've already got finished. From building block to finished poem might take a day or a year...and I've no way to predict that. Some poems have been sitting unfinished in my files for years now and some internal roadblock keeps me from being able to edit them or rewrite them. Maybe because they are too personal or maybe just the opposite...they aren't fully truthful. I find I cannot finish a poem if it doesn't honestly reflect what I truly feel. The idea might have sounded good at first but if it isn't me, it doesn't get written. Occasionally, as with the poem and image I posted a couple of days ago, I don't post a poem until I've created an artwork to go with it because the words alone don't say everything I want to say. 

So that's the why and the how of it - I'm not sure any of that is helpful to other artists, whether we're talking visual or written arts. But for myself, I apply much the same process to visual arts so I have so many "works in progress" that it would take the rest of my life to complete them. That accounts for my limited number of posts - I have something like 148 images to show for the three years I've been on Fine Art America and fewer than that on other sites. 

If you've been having trouble with inspiration lately or you feel as if you're stuck in a rut in terms of style or subject matter, perhaps it would help to let your ideas "simmer" for a while before trying to finish it. There's no rush, is there? Great work takes time and discipline.  

Are you a visionary??

To be a visionary, and thus have a higher level of inner power to change and create the world around you, one must learn to live at the level of vision. 

Michael Skye - founder of Vision Force Academy

Brave New World

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/brave-new-world-lianne-schneider.html

My horoscope today said this:

"Luckily, you're on a roll and you are able to coordinate all the pieces to make things happen just as you envision it. But remember that logic will only take you so far; imagination, on the other hand, inspires others and carries you anywhere you want to go. Don't stop believing; if you can dream it with enough clarity, you can make it real." (Rick Levine at Tarot.com)

Mr. Levine has made a common mistake here in equating dreams and imagination with vision and they are really vastly different. Corporations that stress leadership, team building, staff development and goal setting know the difference - employees are not asked to write or create a "dream statement" but are often expected to craft a "vision statement" for the company or department. Dreams are actually pretty ordinary and we all have them whether night dreams or daydreams. We fantasize or creatively imagine hypothetical scenarios. Waking or sleeping, we often participate in imaginative thinking...perhaps not quite as adventurously as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - but imaginative just the same. The problem is that a dream has no power to fulfill itself...it's "wishful" thinking, "what if" thinking, "wouldn't it be grand if" thinking.

According to Michael Skye, founder of Vision Force Academy and creator of proprietary software called "iStand" which is used in his leadership training courses, a vision on the other hand is, "What you see when you look to the future without hypothesizing, wishing or imagining." A vision is the reality you fully EXPECT for your future, not what you wish for. A vision arises from an inner sight and inner light rather than from the rational mind - what those engaged in Chakra-based meditation call the "third eye." To convert a dream or imaginary scenario into reality, one must become a visionary.  A visionary lives out of his/her vision  and, "To the extent that we can take control of our vision - or live at the level of vision - we can have much more power to lead our lives and create what we want in life and with others - as visionaries," says Skye.

Skye seems to think that one can become a visionary through practice and he's not alone. Lots of spiritual leaders these days speak of the power of vision - Ram Dass, Sri Chinmoy, Pema Chodron, Neale Donald Walsch, among others. And many motivational and self-help gurus say much the same thing - Wayne Dyer, Gregg Braden, Carolyn Myss, Deepak Chopra, and Marianne Williamson to name just a few popular figures in this field. 

Do you have a clear vision of yourself as an artist/writer, know without conscious thought where you want to go and what you want to express as an artist/writer? Are you living and creating from that inner sight?  With practice and intention, those with a vision turn their imagination into reality. I'm going to give it a try...how about you? To quote a remarkable visionary:

A blatant promo for a gallery with heart!

Trillium Gallery - "the little gallery with the big heart."

http://www.trilliumgallery.com/

***Full disclosure - I am a member of both the online and the physical gallery so I'm indulging in a bit of shameless promotion. I'm incredibly proud to be a member along with some of the most talented artists anywhere. And I'm doubly proud that some of my work is hanging in the physical gallery as well as shown online. Curator Maureen Maliha describes the gallery this way on the homepage:

"Trillium Gallery is located in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of New York State, less than a 2 1/2 hour drive North of NYC, and less than an hour from Albany, NY. A train leaves from NYC to Rhinecliff, NY, arriving in less than two hours, and we are less than a half hour drive from the train station."  

We began with an idea more than five years ago, and now are proud to share the art of members from around the world in both our physical and online galleries. Our 'Always' Exhibition features the art of our web members, and their work will always be the heart of what we care most about- the heart in the art. Their art will always be available. We offer original and reproduction art, as well as art books, music, jewelry and sculptures, and we now offer family portraits."

The new physical gallery has been open only a month and already there have been numerous events - a grand opening celebration, an introduction to the Soundpainting workshops and an young artist exhibition. This unique gallery is supported and supplied with art primarily from members of the online gallery at http://www.trilliumgallery.com/. Both galleries are involved in the production of a monthly art magazine, Trillium Magazine, whose Fifth Edition has just been released through Lulu.com. This just might be one of the best art magazines on the market today for the money. Beautifully edited, the magazine includes not only stunning full page or two page art spreads but artist articles, interviews, tutorials, poetry and artist tips. 

What's different about Trillium from other online and physical galleries? Several things - first membership is small and very select. and members have come to think of themselves as family. There really IS just as much heart as art involved at Trillium. You are welcome to apply to join by contacting the curator at trillium@post.com and submitting samples of your work or online access to your portfolio. There's another way you can become a member though - enter one of Trillium Gallery's open competitions where the top prizes include membership, magazine cover exposure and an invitation to display a work at the physical gallery. At the moment, Trillium has issued an "artist call for entries" for a juried competition with the theme "Human Essence" and the competition is open to non-members as well. You can get the guidelines, awards, and entry information here:

http://www.trilliumgallery.com/trillium-gallery-in-saugerties.html

Spring time is a great time to visit the Catskills and stop in at the Gallery, located at 228 Main Street in quaint Saugerties, NY.  Browse the beautiful work displayed and choose a piece that fills your heart and your environment with joy.

Still broken...but authentically me

"Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are."

Brené Brown

In Remembrance of Things Past

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-remembrance-of-things-past-lianne-schneider.html

Perhaps I'll never really exhaust the subject of brokenness because it's part of understanding who I really am and what the process was of becoming me. I promise, however, not to dwell too long on the broken parts...but rather more often on the good that comes of them. I know that there are people who would prefer not to explore the idea of being broken...let alone admit it out loud. The question for me today is what do we gain by being vulnerable, by acknowledging the broken bits and pieces, by accepting our imperfections? 

And for me the answer is authenticity. If I can muster the courage to admit how cracked and broken and mended I am, if I can expose what most would perceive as weakness and allow myself to be vulnerable, then what I gain is the freedom to be truly and authentically myself. I don't have to pretend to be someone else. I don't have to keep trying to be who others expect me to be. For years and years, I was the "rock," the "strong one," the "crisis handler," the "responsible get it all done well" one. I didn't let a soul see how shattered I was at times, how much struggle there was to pretend to a strength I didn't feel. 

My own perception of vulnerability was character weakness. My version of relationship was to be the one in control, the giver, the do-er, the rational and seldom emotional spouse or partner or friend. "Big Girls Don't Cry" should have been my theme song...or alternatively, "Lean on Me." I didn't often let anyone offer me a shoulder to cry on. I never admitted that sometimes the burden was just too heavy and I needed someone to share it with me. If I had a problem - or you did - I could analyze it to death coming up with just the right advice or course of action. But I didn't very often acknowledge how I actually FELT about any of it. What I THOUGHT, yes, but what I FELT, no. The brain could be trusted - the heart with its messy feelings could not.

I could, I thought, prove that. When I fell in love late in my life after the death of my husband, I couldn't seem to help myself from opening the door to all those "feelings." Irrationality was the special of the day and for once, my heart ruled my head. And then...I had my heart totally shattered. One would think, wouldn't you, that I'd fall back on old habits - go back to pretense, to rationality, to cover up? But that's not what happened...once the door to a feeling heart was open, I couldn't close it again. And I realized that broken or not, I didn't want to go back to that inauthentic person I'd been. So it is that I learned this most valuable lesson: (I post this for a dear new friend - you'll know who you are!!)

HEARTS WERE MEANT TO BREAK

Hearts were meant to break

Love…requited…bursts them wide open

expanding them ever outward with the

awesome power of the big bang,

photon upon photon of love light -

an endless grace, that energy moving toward

the sacred consummation of intimate union.

And when stars cavort and gaily pour

the glittering dust of diamonds

into the space that love has opened

to receive it, a heart so fills with light

that it must split asunder to make room

for the more of love, the overflowing

river of it, the numinous, luminous constellations

of love light dancing through the cosmos.

Love…unrequited…breaks it open wider still…

transforming brokenness into beatitudes,

slivers of past sorrows that now sparkle

like shards of glass catching moonlight.

But the shattered heart remembers,

with deepening gratitude, its shattering,

having tried with such determination

to share its rounded fullness with another

and found it breaking on the hard, square edges

of someone’s heart not open yet.

There is no way to put it back together.

Now broken, it moves ever outward

like the universe,  which is itself

Love’s energy radiant with grace.

© 2013 Lianne Schneider 

So, I can say truthfully, that though I'm a mended (or mending) version of who I was, I think I was blessed to be mended with gold as I said the other day. Admitting that I'm always vulnerable now, that I can be hurt, that I feel things not only lets me be authentically who I am without pretense...but strangely enough my vulnerability gives the people I love the courage to be vulnerable too and it's there, in that shared vulnerability, that true and honest and loving and joyful relationships are born.