Guest blog - "The Alchemy of Art"

This is a guest post written by friend and artist Terry Hinkle whose work can be found on the deviantART website where he is known as ~EroticVisions. The pictures accompanying this blog are examples of his work you can find there, and I recommend them, and the man himself, to you.


The Alchemy of Art

Art is fundamentally a process of Energy. It all begins with a flash of inspiration... the flicker of an idea. It is the intuitive and empowering spark that ignites your artistic passion. This explosion of creative Energy starts the internal process of shaping the ethereal ideas into something substantial and actionable.

This Creative Energy that you are a part of and that is naturally a part of you is not only available for your artistic expression. It is the basis of all matter, and therefore the driving force behind all actions and events in your life. Everything that you do, everything that you see, everything you feel and everything that happens to you are expressions of this one Energy. Every action or change in your physical world always involves Energy; Energy consumed, produced or altered. The Energy is never created nor is it destroyed. Instead, every mental or physical process of change involves converting existing Energy from one form into another. All of your mental processes and the physical forms around you are being shaped and nurtured by this one singular Energy--- The Universal Life Force Energy.

IN THE FLOW

The unending stream of Creative Energy naturally flows through all matter and therefore connects all matter. It has been called many things: the River of Life, the Field, Chi (China), Ki (Japan), Manna (Hawaii), Prana (India) and Nuwati (Cherokee), are just a few of the names humans have attached to this Energy.

I think of it as The Universal Life Force Energy because it is the creator and nurturer of all the things in the Universe. As an artist, you are keenly aware of this connectivity when you are “in the zone” or “in the flow.” This balanced Energy that you are a part of is all knowing, all loving and all giving. The whole of this empowering Energy is neither Male nor Female, positive or negative but an equal balance of both aspects of Energy. This balanced and loving Energy is infinite and available to you and all things in the universe equally and unconditionally. One difference is that ‘creative’ people are gifted with a clearer, and more open connection to the greater flow of the Feminine aspect of Universal Energy. The Feminine aspect of Universal Energy carries with it the benevolent values and higher vibration of love, sensuality, creativity, spontaneity, feeling, instinct, intuition, inclusion, cooperation, wholeness, and natural unity.

THE ALCHEMY

In ancient texts, Alchemy is described as a path of spiritual purification and transformation - the expansion of consciousness and the development of insight and intuition through images. It has been said that to understand the principals of Alchemy is to have the power to alter consciousness and the ability to connect the human soul to the Divine.

To have a better understanding of the Alchemy of Art, you first have to understand that everything in our world is nothing more than different combinations of the two equal and opposite aspects of this Universal Energy. All things that appear material and solid to the human eye are just an Alchemy of vibrating male/female, positive/negative Energy. If you could look closely at a finished piece of your art through a high powered electron microscope, you would see that what appeared to be solid to you before is nothing more than a mix of subatomic particles moving at varying rates of speed with lots of space around them. So, your finished piece of art and all of the other objects around you (that you thought were solid) are really just different forms of vibrating Energy. Up until now you have bought into the illusion that everything that you see is solid and permanent and that you have no power to change what you see in the world. But realize that when you take a tree and turn it into a roll-top desk, a large chunk of marble into a statue, or a pallet of raw paint
and a stretched piece of woven cloth and turn it into a masterful painting... you have mentally and physically altered the world.

Never forget that your thoughts and your intentions are all part of this Energy and that the physical and emotional Energy that you project while creating transfers to your finished work of art. The Energy associated with your love, your excitement and your passion, as well as your frustration, angst, and self-doubt inner-mingle and become part of the Alchemy of Energy that makes up the wood, metal, marble, paper, paint pigment and canvas, or other media that you are working with. Your personal Energy blends with the Energy of your work to boost its intensity or decrease its effectiveness.

CREATING A CHEMICAL RECIPE

As you know, every creative endeavor begins with the Energy of a thought. Your thoughts create emotions that are bundles of Energy whose purpose is to create chemical recipes needed to facilitate the related changes in your body. These chemical changes in your body create the Energy vibration that is sent throughout your body and then out of your body into the world. The vibration of the Energy that comes from you will always effect the Energy in your surrounding world to match the vibration of your energetic emotions and ideas. The Alchemy of Energy that you choose to create and send out will always come back to you in kind. The same is true for the words that you use that are associated with your thoughts. The vibration of your words is also a form of Energy. So choose wisely the words you employ when talking to yourself or to others. Choose equally well the Energy that you surround yourself with while creating.

If your thoughts are about people not liking your artwork or about how people will probably not buy your artwork, you will attract people and situations that will not support you or your work. There is a simple Universal law of attraction; like attracts like. Every thought you have has a certain Energy signature, a vortex and rate at which the particles of Energy that form that thought vibrate. Quantum Physics teaches us that all matter is connected and things that vibrate at the same rate are attracted to each other. So the Energy of your thoughts and words are like magnets that are attracting the people, things and situations that harmonize with their exact Energy vibration. Every time you focus on what you don’t like about your life, your personal situation, or YOUR ART…you are blocking what you do want and attracting more of the same. Remember that because of the Universal Law of Attraction, what you focus on will grow. You can depend on it.

THE MOST POWERFUL ENERGY

Love is the most powerful transformational Energy in the Universe. True love is the purest essence of Universal balanced Energy and the core of The Universal Life Force Energy. But for you to be a powerful creator and to promote more love of your art, you have to first feel true love for yourself and your creations. How can you expect other people to feel great about you and your work or to be attracted to your creations if you do not feel that way yourself? Give yourself permission to be passionate about your art. Choose to love your work and the process that you go through while creating it. Visualize people enjoying your art as much as you. Imagine each of these people being patrons... all wanting to own multiple pieces of your art. When you are in your passion and creating from your heart and not your head... you are “in the flow” of Universal Energy and wonders happen.

My Art

BUILDING THE ENERGY

To build and attract the highest and most productive Energy around my creations, I begin by thinking great thoughts about me, thinking only positive and kind things about me: the artist, the creator, the uniquely talented person. I always start by giving thanks for the gift of my creative ability. I never go into my studio in a bad mood, troubled or emotionally down. I always treat myself with the same respect and love when I’m alone in my studio as when I’m around others. I do not degrade myself or my art in public, even with what seems to be harmless self-deprecating humor or criticism. I know that everything I say and feel about me and my art creates the Energy related to those emotions and attracts to me and my art more of what I am saying and feeling.

CREATING THE INTENTION

Each work of art that I produce resonates with the Alchemy of Energy that I purposefully put into it. My originals and prints continually resonate with the intended inspirational Energy. Every piece is also created with the intention of activating the higher vibration of creative feminine Energy in everyone. This vibration of Energy will assist the viewer with his or her own creative endeavours such as building and maintaining a healthy body, generating greater insight, producing higher levels of mental awareness, sustaining a healthy life, and manifesting his or her greatest desires. The vibration of the higher levels of Feminine Energy brought about by higher emotions helps to transmute the lower human physical Energies into the higher spiritual Energies. The activation of the Feminine Energy helps to give each person who views my art a greater ability to be an Alchemist themselves... to feel their passion, to create, attract, store, and transmute the highest levels of Universal Life Force Energy.