An idea is generated. It is manifested within the individual and is projected into the ethers. Emotions become involved. Thought is accordingly revised or continues its same cycle, individually and communally. They say timing is everything and in the world of ideas, when a Truth has its time, the new thought generates cultural and evolutionary change. The artistic styles of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom; Archaic, Golden, Hellenistic; Early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic; Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo; and re-visitation through Neo-Classic, Romantic, and all the various Academic art periods of our modern age, follow (or lead, depending upon how closely you inquire) science and technological innovations. We are and have been providing the decadence and destruction necessary to produce a New Idea. The time has come and the cycle is begun. We have the science and technology. We have the emotional impetus. This time, however, instead of re-visiting (again and yet again) we must know that the war is not of the earthly plane. The war is within. Do YOUR work. YOU are responsible for YOUR cell. Change YOUR cell and YOU contribute to change in the direction of humanity.

Halley’s comet is “a forlorn mass of rock and ice, a few miles across, caught in endless revolution around our sun. Now an object, not an omen, it is the source not of panic but of curiosity,” wrote Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post, December 13, 1985 before the comet’s appearance in 1986.  He goes on to say, “”This is the first time in history that Halley’s will bring wonder unalloyed with fear. Halley’s has turned into a celebration, a scientific romance.”

My point is, everything in life is in rhythm. We should not be fear based on the decadent times we live in. We should embrace the opportunity of the times we live in. We should prepare ourselves and push the change that is possible forward. We have the tools.  Nourish yourself.  Your pranayama, kriya, mantra, and meditation will help you to do so.  Your practice can help you create a Happy, Healthy and Holy individual that will function as a Happy, Healthy and Holy cell for your global being.

A self-portrait can mend, amend, discard, and disregard. It can be healing. It can be directive. When an artist concentrates on a subject, self or otherwise, the mind begins to make associations. It begins to open, to relax, and to move into higher frequencies that bypass normal thought pathways. It begins to create new links, new associations, and offer new considerations for inspiration of expression. Fresh perception equals a new mirror for reflection, preparation, intervention.

The self-portrait differs from artistic meditation. Meditation goes beyond bypassing personal interstates of thought patterns that engage the creative mind. Meditation clears and reprograms. There need be no association, no past, present, or future; there is just heightened sensitivity and expanded perceptual experience. As with any artistic investigation, the self-portrait can uplift energetic field to connect with expanded consciousness. The creation of a self-portrait, no matter how revealing, does not naturally lead to a meditative state. But, with a bit of Grace and clear focus, it just might!

Exploring the creative process in art highlights the idea that nothing is ‘finished’ and nothing ‘begins’.  Life is a continuum.  History is a continuum.  Consciousness is always evolving.  Cyclically, individual growth retraces, reworks, and resurfaces with new awareness.  You are ‘in process’.  ‘Relax, enjoy the journey, and move forward’ is a preferred motto for today’s lifestyle.  Series pieces, the ability to view art retrospectively, and the interest in how a work is achieved offers transparency to this concept.

The following portrays the ‘process’ of the CMale image on the Crucian Contemporary poster.  From a simple line drawing, to exploration of color ways, to the final painting.  I arranged the original image into a repeat pattern using tracing paper, played with watercolor and color pencil color variations, reworked it through computer graphics, and had it printed out on polished cotton as dining room curtains for Adrianne and Michael Brooks’ home in St. Croix, USVI.  The design was then reworked again on the computer and printed on canvas. The final over painting in acrylic and stitching with metallic thread causes “Integrity” to glisten and dance with the rhythm of the original drawing playing in pink and green through the recesses of the over painted landscape.

The third image “Ah a We Ah One” was over painted on CMale CAD fabric originally designed from the beautiful kitchen tiles at Connie and Jim Arena’s home, St. Croix, USVI.  The top half of the picture was designed and printed on Hercules fabric sized to fit the Arena’s refrigerator /freezer doors. It was then sized down and printed on a polished cotton for the kitchen love seat. The bottom portion of this picture shows a detail of “Ah A We Are One” a painting ‘on top of’ the Arena tile composition. This same fabric can be seen on the ZemiZen yoga body warmer..

Vermeer’s paintings captured segments in time and space of everyday life; a kitchen maid pouring milk, a lady writing a letter, a lady reading a letter, a woman making lace, individuals who have transcended their surroundings, their agenda, their yesterdays, their tomorrows. They are deep in the moment of the stitch. Pulling the needle away from the cloth, pushing the needle into the cloth.  Again and again. The rhythm of the movement.  The dance between the cloth and the needle worker.  Turning the fabric.  Holding it up to appraise progress. STAND UP if you have created a stitch in a simple piece of fabric, repairing it, embellishing it, securing it, or resizing it. Surgery performed by the commoner. Next time you are making your mark in your ordinary  world, waxing your car, ironing, sweeping, cleaning, stop and observe yourself, Be with your breath. Be with your moment.  Capture it in your mental camera. Know that your collective everyday activities offer seeds for another.  Allow boredom, depression or negativity to fall away as you continue your dance deep into the moment of your stitch.

Science and mathematics examine this type of “spiritual truth” through global behavior, in concepts of self-similar shapes, strange attractors, bifurcation of energy, and complex shapes.  The American abstract expressionists explored this same region through their interest in complexity, ambiguity, scale, self-similarity, and a common underlying form, force, or energy.  During this period of art production, paintings grew to enormous scale.  The work set precedence for paintings as large as ten feet wide or more.  Predominately, artists have executed this scale of work historically as murals.  The artists’ stretched canvases focused on this as a working principle of design.  The size of the work became a statement.  The use of scale to diminish the viewer can be found in Chinese landscape paintings and 18th century seascapes.  These paintings place the human being “within” the spirit of nature.  So, too, does Chaos Theory.  We are part of the whole.  These oversized paintings also intended to involve the viewer.  The elaboration of this concept was realized in later years as performance, installation, and earth art.  The viewer as an element in the work relates to Chaos Theory in that the human being is now recognized and considered on a more ‘global’ level, and as such, has privilege to a broader view of ‘truth.’  We, as individuals, are artists, creators, and we are part of the whole work of art, our natural world.  We are an element, a line, a color.  How we behave iterates rapidly and can change the entire composition of our global existence.

The ambiguity of the “glimpse” shots in the movie Joe relates to the use of the ‘glimpse’ as content by artist Mark Tobey.   Johnson in American Artists on Art, with regard to Tobey’s Edge of August, stated, “Content is a glimpse of something, an encounter like a flash.”²  The mystical, dense, textured matter of Edge of August gives the work a sense of intelligent energy.  The repetitive brush strokes give this painting ambiguous, complex space whether the viewer is close to the work or standing as far away as the construction of the room allows.  This complexity offers the painting, as it does in life, stability.

Joe finds stability through his intuitive visions.  In a world of political, social, and economic chaos, our strength lies in our stability.  The intuitive power that accesses inner strength can be found through raised conscious awareness accessed by the creative endeavor. Art and Kundalini yoga are two great ways to access, explore, and harness our creative energy.

If a person studies art history, the path of this ascension of the human race is clear.  Ken Wilber explains it quite well in his book, “Up From Eden”.   The historical significance of works of art, when viewed referencing human consciousness, are even more amazing than ever.  My Art and Consciousness workshop engages participants not only with pranayama, kundalini yoga (the yoga of self awareness and creativity), guided meditation, art, but also art history.  The idea is for the individual to recognize, use, and find direction to continue a program for expressing individual divine creativity.  Again, this word divine embodies ‘spiritual’ but it is, in reality, accessing that part of oneself that will reach other aspects of what it is to be human.  It is so very exciting.

I keep saying, the world cannot be changed politically, economically, or socially.  Michael Jackson was so right on when he said it begins with “the man in the mirror”.   I practice art making and kundalini yoga so that I might be one more person to attain a different life style from the inside out.  I want to be one more person to make a difference in the quantum leap of human consciousness.  Thus, Cindy Male, Nano Now.  I am reaching, through my daily practice, towards that nano level energy that permeates all things.

I keep coming back to the old Mick Jagger line, “You don’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need.”
If a person does not have the motivation to be responsible for personal needs, that is, he/she is waiting around for someone or some entity other than ‘self’ to provide food, clothing, and shelter, then that person really does not NEED anything.  Those who are providing are in need.  But if a person assumes responsibility for his/her own life style, there is a vibration, physical, mental, and spiritual, that stimulates creative energy and fulfills the needs proportionately to the assumed responsibility. Responsibility is nothing more than an affirmation of the I AM.  And so it goes that when a person begins to be responsible within his/her family and community, opportunities for gifting create need, and personal awareness of prosperity increases as needs for ‘others’ AS WELL AS for ‘self’ are manifested.  Prosperity is nothing more than the flow of goodness through the I AM. And when an individual is moving in flux with the Universal Flow of prosperity, the vibrational level increases yet again and that individual is ultimately aware of the ‘self’ as a conduit for goodness.  There is no ‘need’ and there is no ‘want’.  There is only opportunity for the exchange of goodness.  Need is nothing more than lack of awareness of I AM.  Need is nothing more than nonparticipation in the flow of universal goodness by making the choice to refuse responsibility for self enlightenment.  Why would an individual allow anyone or any entity to strip the desire for self enlightenment, thus blocking the flow of universal goodness.  Why would anyone or any entity want to strip an individual of the opportunity to become aware of self enlightenment?  Take back your birthright.  Take time in your life to affirm your I AM.  Ask for what you need to access your highest good and offer up your best gifts, not what you want for personal satisfaction. If you get what you need, what you want will quite naturally follow.