Concept - The Way of the Heart

The Way of the Heart

“What man most passionately wants is his living wholeness and his living unison, not an isolated salvation of his soul. I am part of the sun as my eye is a part of me. That I am part of the earth, my feet know perfectly well, and my blood is part of the sea. There is no thing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself. It is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the water.”
D.H. Lawrence

All human cultures have celebrated the conscious evolution of the soul and all religions strive towards transcendence regardless of specific doctrines or rituals.
The way of the heart lies in the integration of our earthly and spiritual energies. In the very center of our being is who we truly are. Through this path lies the journey towards our own self-renewal and the possibility to unite with our higher selves. Only then can we help shift this world direction to a higher level where love and goodness will find space and time, where space and time will find eternity.
My point of departure is the dynamics of the spiral vortex. Like the symbol of yin and yang in eastern belief, nature’s perfect growing pattern is in spiral form.
This natural spiral form of movement and growth is evident all around us.
Our ancestors seem to have made this vital observation probably because they were close to nature and were in deep union with earth energies and heavenly cosmic forces.
Within each of us these forces are manifested. Finding balance makes the way clear and simple.
The result of this balance is a flame in our center. A center we call ‘heart’. Finding this center within us is the principal goal of all religions and spiritual traditions. When freed from all complexities of dogma, doctrine and confusing distorted belief, the pure essence of this flame can be brought to life and be felt. There is no doubt that closed or open, we all have a heart, a center. And in this passage of space and time we should find it.
Thousands of years ago, before the advent of science, technology and religion, people lived in health and harmony. Signs of this are evident in our temple civilization. A matrifocal society where ‘yin’ and yang’ were in balance, and earth and sky were yielding abundance and glory.
Our mysterious Hypogeum holds secrets that may never be revealed. However the
painted spirals and circles on the walls within the chambers must have held some importance significance to them - and possibly to us thousands of years later. Can it be that the patterns signify a highly evolved state of awareness and levels of consciousness, which may have developed as a result of their thoughts and attitudes and their cyclical worldview of birth, death and rebirth?
Man’s intrinsic nature is made up of body mind and spirit. All three aspects have a specific role towards our natural growth and development. Knowledge comes to us in its unfolding revealing way as does physical growth and spiritual growth spiraling towards our destiny.

In these paintings I have used the spiral as the symbol for dynamic movement brought about by the forces of nature and the cosmos, or the energies of earth and sky. I have used the exact patterns of the ancient spirals painted in the Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum (c.3300 – 3000BC) underground in Tarxien. The spiral is my key symbol to define ‘time’, very much like a clock, a measure of growth recording a time frame between life and death.
Earthly space is defined by the symbol of the square - to signify the earthly realities of the four elements expressed in golden hues and reds to depict mother earth and our world. Our destination is to a higher level beyond our physical and material existence, beyond language and human wisdom and is found through the opening of the heart center. (The link between God and the soul is love). For this abstract dimension, I have used the symbol of the diamond and the colours of violet and magenta, the highest colours of the spectrum to represent the spiritual realm. My aim is to create an abstract interpretation of the balance between earth, humanity and heaven - body, mind spirit - space, time, infinity. “What man most passionately wants is his living wholeness and his living unison” These paintings are intended to bring focus on the boundless universality of the heart, which is the key to discover the way to integrate our earthly human life with a heavenly spiritual existence.“During most of human history people have found their sacred texts in songs dance and paintings and stone more than writing. What distinguishes sacred art is the window it opens onto another world – a world that is vaster, stronger, more real and more beautiful than the world we normally encounter.” Huston Smith

20 Sep 2001

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