Exploring the past to know the present

horses on Chauvet Cave wall

I have been keeping myself busy in my studio making needle felted sculptures for the Madison County Historical Society Craft Days in September and for FaerieCon in November, so the blog has been quieter than I like.  However, last night, during a bought of insomnia, I used my time to consider the role myth plays in my art and decided to share some preliminary thoughts on the subject here.  I believe, as I explore this subject further, that I'll have much more to share.  Here's the start...

On my birthday I saw the film Cave of Forgotten dreams, a documentary by Werner Herzog. The director was where he was granted limited access to Chauvet Cave in France that holds in it the oldest cave art ever found, some work dating back 30,000 years! The film was absolutely amazing and really got my mind spinning and creative juices flowing.

Much of my art is inspired by ancient myth, as well as nature. The artwork in the caves were spectacular examples of nature mythified. There was great power in the representations of charging horses and cave lions circling a chamber where a bison-woman drawn on a stalactite suspended in the center of the space. Even in the medium of film, I could sense the intense sacredness and power of such a place.  The artwork was created over thousands of years, early man used the cave and it was used several thousand years later by later humans.  The span of time involved is dizzying to comprehend.  In the midst of the artwork was evidence of the cave being used by cave bear, wolves and other animals, which, to me, united the connection of the artwork to the natural world.

pride of lions on Chauvet Cave wall

When I explore myth through my art, I am always searching for where it intersects with nature. I ask, how can I explore ancient myths in a way that makes them relevant to us now? I could follow the stories as they have been told and retold over centuries, but this doesn't interest me. It has been done and I doubt we truly can know the truths that gave rise to the myths.  Most everything is speculation now, because our lives are so vastly different to those who lived with the myths. Our world has changed since then, our relationships to nature has changed. While the psychological processes may still be relevant, how we can tap into those processes may be different now.

However, after watching this documentary, I suspect the change has not been too tremendous. I can look at the cave art and feel an inner transformation struggling to take place. This art wants to take you somewhere, it wants to help the viewer transcend. The question might be to what? The early humans might have wanted one to transform to a hunter, or unite with nature in some way.  Or, maybe it is a completely different kind of transformation that we have yet to consider.  It may seem like some kind of hocus pocus, fantasy thinking, but in the film, it is clear that even the scientists who studied the cave felt this. One scientist found his whole life change as a result of this time in the cave, redirecting his life to one that incorporated more stillness and involvement with nature.  That is quite a transformation!

Joseph Campbell has said that modern living myth can only be created by the artists and writers of today. We are living in a very soulless time, for we have no living myths to build our lives around. We, as a society, have no sacred rituals that guide us through life's transitions. We are just thrust unto the world and with a pat on the back (if we're lucky), we are left to fend for ourselves. "May the best man or woman win!" seems to be the prevailing attitude.  It may seem that some fare better than others, but I think we all suffer together as a result of the lack of the sacred and of ritual.

How does one make modern myth? I am not sure, honestly.  Our world is changing so fast now that having any kind of perspective is nearly impossible. Campbell looked to outer space as our new frontier, the new dark forest that hides our fears and our potential. However, access to space seems ever more difficult to reach with the ending of the shuttle program. We are left to stare upward through lenses and computers and speculate ever more.

For me, looking back to ancient myth is a starting point. Ancient Irish myths have always fascinated me with their Neolithic structures and symbols. They too looked to space for guidance, what they gleaned from their observations is unclear, but what is clear is that they were very aware of the patterns and cycles of the heavens. So few of us even pay attention to the stars above, and those that do, must gaze through a haze of pollution that blocks out most of what the ancients saw.

Now, the paleolithic is calling to me, pulling me further back in time, where even less is known. What truths can I discover that might inform our lives today and into tomorrow? The stories are lost to us, yet somehow the energy remains. Might I find a way to channel truths this way? Or will what I "discover" just be my own stories superimposed. Can truth be channeled through energy patterns, like digital information is sent over the wireless airwaves?

This is what I am exploring through my art now.  Ancient truths, explored in a modern context.  Perhaps it is good that I cannot really know the actual stories from the ancient myths, perhaps it will allow me to be open to what the universe can teach (whether that universe is the cosmos or the inner worlds).  Will my art contribute to the future of a living mythic tradition?  I am not sure I have the hubris to allow myself to think so, but perhaps it will become part of the fabric, a thread, of a much larger and greater mythic structure that is yet to evolve.  Time will tell...

DoAn
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Defining My Mission

One of the benefits of being at a painting residency, besides having ample time to work on my art, is that I have the freedom from distractions to ponder on why I paint what I paint. Of course, I had a general idea already, but I never really tried to articulate a coherent reason for what I do. This first week at the residency got me really thinking about my art and why I do it.

I have had a long history with art, starting out as a child. I was fascinated with animals and nature. I remember as an adolescent spending days and days of my summer exploring the outdoors and painting watercolors of birds and animals. Writing also started to interest me then and I wrote and illustrated stories about animals and fantasy worlds that curious children could access through strange means: like a hole in the ground, a secret door in an attic or through a hidden cave.

My undergraduate and graduate years ended up being devoted to writing. As a philosophy major I found myself interested in the idea of writing moral fiction. I started graduate school with the goal that I would write fiction focusing on issues of morality. I wanted to write fiction that taught lessons and contributed something beneficial to society. This led me to fairy tale literature and to the fascinating world of cultural history, subversion of authority, oppression, gender issues and mythology.

Midway through graduate school the need to paint resurfaced. This need has grown more insistent with each passing year. Writing still has a place in my life, but it holds second place to visual art. Writing often holds a framework for my art, but visual art is true expression for me.

I feel like I have come nearly full circle in relation to my art. I started out fascinated by nature and drawing birds and animals. I was curious about exploring other worlds, those secret worlds that were often just out of reach from the world we knew. Then I went off in other directions for a while exploring other traditions or forms of art like fashion design, sewing, ceramics, jewelry making, digital art, and Asian brush art, to name a few. Only to return again to nature and my curiosity of exploring other worlds.

In Buddhism there was a teaching that said when you start out you see that a Mountain is a Mountain, then you observe that a Mountain is not a Mountain, but in the end you learn that a Mountain is a Mountain again. I have returned to artwork about nature, but it is through a different way of seeing and being in the world.

Myth has become an important influence, as is the current situation with human society and the natural world. I believe reconnecting both to myth and the cycles and rhythms of the natural world are keys to a healthy society and planet. Understanding that there are realms of being that are beyond our collectively accepted reality is also important for our well-being. I think having lost touch with this knowledge has left us wandering around in the dark, clumsily destroying nearly everything in our path, fumbling in search of a light with which to see again.

I understand the purpose of my art is to explore myth and nature and the interplay of the two. I hope to revitalize myth and create an interest in a renewed relationship to myth and the natural world. Through the use of research, observation, vision-work and meditation I create my art. I am not interested in illustrating myth, nor do I want to simply replicate or attempt to restore the myth to some non-existent original. Rather I try to connect to the living essence of a myth and paint from that source.

I don’t believe that there is a true original version of a particular mythic archetype. I think that a myth forms and evolves from archetypal matrices, which are then built and constructed with symbols of a particular culture and the natural world. I find most “restored” myths empty and drained of life. A true enlivening of a myth comes from tapping into the universal source and is ignited by imagination and fueled by symbolism.

I focus primarily on Celtic and pre-Celtic mythology, mainly due to an ancestral connection, but I believe I will eventually explore myths of other cultures in my work. When I work on a piece, I meditate on or follow a vision influenced by a particular mythic figure for symbol. I often use a natural object like a rock, tree, ripples on water, rust on metal, etc. as a vehicle to tap into the energy or consciousness related to the myth.

The first result is usually an abstract piece--which reflects energy over form. Often the myth still speaks strongly to me, so I develop another piece focusing more on symbolism, (personal, cultural and universal symbols) this work is usually more representational.

As my art continues to develop, I hope that my skills and ability will be sufficient to share my discoveries of the world of myth and teach of the necessities of a balanced relationship with nature. I believe ultimately that the artist’s role is to provide a service, to guide and to teach something about the world we live in or could be living in. That is my hope and wish for the art that I bring into the world.

DoAn

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DoAn Art is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of DoAn Art must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. 


All artwork and text © Copyright 2005-2011 DoAn Art (Antony Galbraith) unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Antony Galbraith.