Beauty Calls Forth Higher Consciousness in Humanity

I love the outdoors, particularly the southwest where I live, deserts, high mesas, mountains. I live in beauty. I also love the movies. Some of the movies I've watched in the last few years, like Batman films and The Matrix, show worlds devoid of the natural beauty of nature, particularly The Matrix trilogy of films. Not a single blade of green grass. I have to appreciate that in the story, those humans were hanging onto life and doing their best, but something in me wanted to curl up in grief and pain at the idea of a world without a shred of blue sky, a world without a single blade of green grass, a world without the comforting smell of earth warmed by the sun, mixed with the scent of junipers and pines.

So, I create beauty. While I also believe in art as a political statement, as a process, as a healing journey and the images that could be created that might stir people up and disturb them in some, hopefully productive, way, I believe in creating beauty. Living in the natural beauty of the southwest, my spirit is filled to overflowing with beauty. Like when I take too large a swallow of water and try to get it down, it fills to the point of almost hurting, but in the best way... like if I wanted to I could dissolve and become one with all that beauty.

So many artists have painted these landscapes, imprinting them with their own unique love of the land. Photographers have captured the colors, the shapes, the textures. I have turned my attention inwards, to my own inner landscapes and what the consciousness of beauty can express... hence the name of my Space here, Innervistas. Like the aboriginal people of Australia, animals, trees and other things from nature may appear in my work, in my vintage works and in works to come, but they will carry the energy imprints of what I sense around them. Like the Force in Star Wars, this energy field created by all living things surrounds us, inter-penetrates us and holds the Universe together. We are connected by the very "space" that seems to separate us. We now know it as the quantum field.

So as I contemplate creating, I feel what I'm feeling... I sense what colors the feelings want to express, then see if there are any textures, symbols or forms that take the expression to the level where I am showing what wants to come forth.

Beauty calls forth higher consciousness in humanity. Otherwise, why should we care about saving the environment beyond trying to insure our own survival? Why save the polar bears, the whales? There is something beautiful, inspiring and soul-stirring about the natural world and all the creatures that live in it, particularly those that live wild. Each has lessons to teach us.

The environmental crisis facing humanity and all species now, when I truly let it 'in', takes my breath away in fear and grief. Living on is important yes, but the quality of life has to have some meaning as well. Survival is not enough. Thriving, and the self-actualization or expansion of consciousness that can come to each of us when we thrive is the reaching of the Conscious Living Universe through each individual towards greater and greater freedom of expression.

As I continue through life, I'll continue to create beauty as best I can, and do all I can to preserve the beauty of the natural world that is the foundation for my life, my spirit, and my inspiration. Because quality of life and living is vital to the me that exists and reaches out to know the me that is pure quantum energy and is One with All.