Art as Manifestation of Spirit
by Kristina Lazar

Kristina Lazar is a local artist who not only shows her work, but also writes with a mind for the esoteric but essentialness of art as a forum for new ideas, new perspectives and a tremendous instrument for integrating concepts and transmitting knowledge. Currently she is featured at Paradise Gallery until 12/4 at 2199 Lee Rd. in Cleveland Heights, CSU People's Art Show on view till 12/10, and the Chagrin Valley Art Center's 33rd Annual Juried Show Valley Art Center, 155 Bell St. in Chagrin Falls till 12/17.

“The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and finally impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended.”
- Wassily Kandinsky from Concerning the Spiritual in Art

The brilliance of our experience in this world is life itself. That seems like such a simplistic solution, idealistic even, with all that is going on in today's society. Despite all of that, we live in a most extraordinary time, for we stand at the axis of history, where all of the world’s cultural narratives, past and present, are available at our fingertips. Never before in human history has it happened to this degree, where information bridges the political, geographical and social gap to network our continents as an amazing new form of Pangaean consciousness. Computers and the Internet have connected people, small businesses, and corporations from across the globe and have fostered communication and learning in children and adults everywhere. However, even the distribution of literature and arts of all genres, the cooperation of international scientific minds in joint efforts in research, and the ability to travel anywhere on our planet have made our little cosmic orb a smaller and more friendlier place.

The goal is that someday everyone will have this access to knowledge and information, to echo the chant of so many others. Education is the great key in understanding and celebrating our wonderful diversities so that we may never have to fear that which we do not know. But, as it is today, we have so many steeped in prejudices and hatred, surrounded by lies, and so many angry at things they cannot change, though they give up their lives in trying. It is a sad state of affairs to find ourselves in this situation, and my heart goes out to the men, women, children, families and friends on both sides of any catastrophe, international, interpersonal or otherwise.

It is in this deepest darkness we find the truest light and perhaps this is humanity’s journey through the dark interiors of the spirit. Mankind has had dark times before, but this time it's different. We now have the tools under our noses to not only find our way clear of the darkness, but also to understand, integrate and transcend beyond it. This is our next step in consciousness evolution, where we all can look at the information around us, and both rationally and intuitively learn from mankind’s past mistakes, gather the wisdom of the ages, and create an informed new dialogue that has its roots in the past but is facing the rising sun. While we absorb the macrocosm of humanity, the microcosm will formulate within and integrate an internal spiritual life, and our external sentience will come naturally as we learn to understand the outside and the inside of our many realities.

This is a time where we all should be receptive to new ideas and new perspectives on how to examine our lives and the environment around us. As an artist, my work deals with an integral spirituality; integral meaning an integration of the life sciences, such as cosmology, particle physics and evolutionary biology, along with history and psychology, into a spirituality cultivated from the garden of world faiths. My art is a pictorial discourse of multiple symbolisms, containing recognizable archetypes and my own interpretations, meditations, or visions. However, the relationships between all the symbols are a new one, bringing into light a different method of interpretation. For example, my newest work is entitled, Big Bang: Awakening the History of God. It layers the embodiments of two histories, both beginning in the center, the original unity of the Kosmos, the great seed from which everything will spring forth. The one is the budding of our universe, the formation of the very basic building blocks of nature, such as quarks and neutrinos, which eventually formed atoms and molecules, in other words, the physical universe in which we exist. The other is the formation of another history, mankind’s conscious creation of God in response to the mystery and wonders of the significance of life. It compares these two beginnings by superimposing them on top of each other as part of the same occurrence, but one is the formation of the external macrocosm and the other the internal microcosm, because you cannot have an outside without having an inside.

This is what I mean by making a new dialogue. It’s somewhat like giving old ideas a facelift, and I also make them appeal to a much wider audience by aesthetically creating something beautiful and pleasing so that even if the viewer doesn’t know the complexities of the symbolisms, and frankly, I really don’t expect most people to; they still walk away with something. That transmission of beauty is achieving the same goal as all the meanings and explanations emotionally, and not so much cognitively. Also, the truth is, people respond to beauty in art more than anything. People like things that are beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to look at and enjoy. This simple equation is such an essential part of the communication I try to achieve. There are two other artists beside myself that I would like to incorporate into the fabric of my discussion. They deal with beauty and the underlying patterns in our realities - like myself - but while the three of us are ultimately saying very similar things with our work, we all have very different perspectives and approaches to that ultimate message. My focus is on integral spirituality and cultivating that internal essence within my viewer to look around them and appreciate life. I have colleagues who concentrate on having audiences re-focus the space they exist in by using her own memory and dreams to render a new logical syntax of patterns. With emphasis on our everyday spaces, it inspires us to inspect even the very tiniest details and see the true beauty that they contain by using symbols as a springboard into our own personal universe of references. Another confrere of mine uses emotions and interpersonal relationships to create a system of patterning to transmit sentiments of tender feelings. They are a physical manifestation of not only interactions with others, it's also a visual kaleidoscope of the very intrinsic exchange between one human being to another. Both artists use their unique personal outlooks to shed light on another perspective for examining our world, by using pattern and beauty to relate to the viewer and to touch that most essential point in all of us that we share in common.

As artists, we each express ourselves from our own spheres of experience and understanding, just as everyone else on this planet has their own from which they function as well. We all have our unique individual experiences in life, yet we all have the ability to relate to one another. It’s as if there is a place where all of our spheres overlap and in that space we all can find common ground. It is this common place we search for in our artwork: in emotional and psychological connectedness as the everyday mechanisms of mind and psyche; or events of the past and sentimental memory influenced by our interactions with space, recreating our current spatial relationships. And in nurturing the internal spirit by connecting it with our external physical world. Essentially, we try to create visual material for that which is ethereal, emotional and internal, thus bringing what is inside outside to find the collective field where others can bring in their own references and relate to it.

For myself and my colleauges, our artwork is both a meditative practice and a healing mechanism, using our paintings as a therapeutic vehicle, which allows us to incorporate and transcend our own personal struggles and reach peace with the culmination of the work. We are just as much a part of our artwork as it is a part of us and it is through this vessel we communicate and reach out to people. Our work deals with a harmony in chaos, as in the method we conceive and create it, but more so as a response to the world around us. It is in this harmony that we reach a new viewpoint that we try to reveal to people.

Art is a visual way to connect to people; it shows them something perhaps they’ve never seen before. It is an amazing forum for new ideas and new perspectives and a tremendous instrument for integrating concepts and transmitting knowledge. In this extraordinary time, we all must search for our own light in the darkness and openly receive all with loving kindness. We often fail to see that which is right in front of us and do not realize what is inherently there in our own being. Through our artwork, many other artists like myself, strive to point out the glorious nature of all that is around us, and more importantly, all the glory and pure joy alive within us as well so that we all can foster an appreciation for life through beauty, truth, compassion and love.
from Cool Cleveland reader Kristina Lazarlazer_dragon81@yahoo.com

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