God is in the details

FULL MOON IN PISCES-SATURDAY AUGUST 29 2015 @ 2:35 PM EDT.

This weekend’s full moon makes me think of the boat builder who finally gets to bring his boat on the ocean to see how it will sail. What happens once he goes out and launches his boat on the big open waters? Well first of all, there is an element of surrendering.  After the work is done, each step carefully followed: stem. keel, moulds, battens, timbers, and planking, the builder is relying on his faith.  Faith in his work, faith in the techniques used and the knowledge passed down from generations. Something else is at work here, and even though the boat builder is a skilled artisan, ultimately once he puts his boat on the water it doesn’t matter how much he knows about buoyancy because the ocean has the last word.

Aran Islanders, Martin Driscoll

How does an object of art comes to be born?

It starts with a flash of insight, a vague image, a sensation of the shape to come. Inspiration, like the ocean has its own will. It is not controlled easily and in order for the artist to create, he must surrender to the process. The role of the artist is to translate the vision into form. We all have access to the realm of the intangible through our imagination, at night through dreams or through artificial paradise. But to bring back these visions and put them into forms takes a lot of hard work!

Sometime you look at a painting and you say:  ”I could of totally painted that!” Why is this artist getting praise for something that is seamingly so easy to do?

Well the answer is simple:  Because he did it and not you.  He took the vision and brought it into  form. It’s a very simple idea but the hardest step, because it takes practice. To materialise, to pull out the dream, out of the void and make something tangible you need to do it often. To be good at something you need to do it every day.  In order to actually materialise the vision, you must try and try again, day after day until it becomes like a second nature. Until you become a passage for the dream to pass through.  Until you become the voice for the soul of the world, a translator of the intangible: that is the role of the artist.

I really like this quote from Terence McKenna:

“The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas.”

Fritz Hegenbart

This weekend’s full moon is illuminating the paradox between our imagination and reality. Between what we would like our life to be and the daily rituals we do to get there. What you do, day after day and how it shapes your destiny. The master piece is your life and the balance between surrendering to it and shaping it takes skills. You don’t want to be a total control freak,  but you also know that drifting aimlessly is a sure way to feel sorry for yourself. Go with the flow but where is the flow going?

God is in the details expresses the idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly. When you pay attention to the details, the whole becomes a masterpiece. What you do with your days, how you fill them, the work, the habits, the rituals is how you shape your life.

So what are you creating?

★

Go to the spring where the fairy lives

Fill your cup with the magical waters

and sing with them in praise of the absolute

And when you come back to the city

where the cynical man dwells

remember the song that filled you with joy

and sing it.

Art by Forest Rogers