Blake wrote of seeing “not with but through the eye.”
And that is how I look at every sufferer. From my Deep Self through my eye, then into and through his eye to his Deep Self. By this process I Know his Soul. And that he may through his eye enter through mine to my Soul.
“[A] happy Abstract, known by all his Friends as the most innocent forgetter of his own Interests.”
— Blake writing of his young friend Johnny Johnson
A happy Abstract – what a wonderful phrase for an altruist!
Of all the paintings and poetry I have ever examined, Blake’s have by far the highest Life Energy, because of his devotion to the realm of the Spirit. As Catherine, his wife, said of him: “I have very little of Mr. Blake’s company; for he is always in Paradise.”
He was an emissary of the Spirit World.
Read Blake, behold Blake – and have now an Intimation of Paradise, an Instance of God. Know in your heart his Inspiration, the Spirit that Inspired him.
Now look anywhere, at anything, at anyone, and Know it too.
For Blake’s message is that all is Spirit. His role was to help us see It everywhere – and to live accordingly.
My purpose on earth, I believe, is to teach that all is an Instance of God.
And my teaching must start with myself.
Why did Blake write?
Because so was he Guided.
To paint from the Soul,
not the mind,
is to paint for the viewer
to find his Soul.
“There are reasons of the heart of which Reason knows nothing.”
— Pascal
Why did I paint just that, just there, just then? I don’t know. (And the less representational a painting is, the less superficial the explanation for it.)
There are reasons of the Soul of which my mind knows nothing.
You might think that Jackson Pollock’s movements when flinging the paint would be awkward – even violent. But look at the films of him in action: he’s dancing! There is rhythm and flow; there is grace.
My canvas is much, much smaller – no room for my body to dance – but when I look at it, my hand always is.
I love to fling and drip the paint, thanks to Jackson Pollock. But there is a problem with that technique, which perhaps was his personal problem. He rarely actually touched the canvas with his stick or brush. No actual contact, no intimacy. Perhaps he painted that way to avoid the intimacy, but I miss it.
