Before starting a painting visualizing the outcome is key. I grab my pad to make some drawings, mainly just to catch the idea before it flees, I then begin the process by trying to follow it through, without being too precise or overly meticulous.
Recently, my approach has taken a different route in the in-between stages of making, by choosing to rather trust my body, in particular my hands to act intuitively on the canvas, allowing the mind to remain absent and free from interfering and perhaps from over speculating on method.
Practicing the philosophy of embodied action through art practice; an immersive and integrated approach to making, where the body, mind and environment, so as, physicality, perception and emotion become inseparable from the work. In that sense the materials, tools and gestures, transform into an interconnected extension of the body’s lived experience thus shifting the focus from the individual to a more holistic system, celebrating relativity.
The Embodiment theory developed by philosophers like Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Dewey in the early 20th century, rejects the Cartesian view that the mind exists independently from the body. Instead, it proposes that our cognition is influenced and shaped by our bodily experiences and actions. This view suggests that the body is not just a passive instrument for the mind, but an active participant in forming our thoughts and conscious experiences. By emphasizing the body's role in perception and interaction with the world, embodiment theory challenges the traditional notion of the mind as separate and superior, asserting instead that our understanding of the world is deeply rooted in our physical presence and engagement with it.
Could this innate creative performance, be a sort of converged expression from the conscious, subconscious and the superconscious fields?
The theory suggests that when we are fully embodied, aware of and connected to the sensations and processes of our body, we are better able to access these transcendent states of awareness, where the boundaries between the conscious self and the collective consciousness may blur.
Approaching a painting as a poem
To begin with, I believe the answer lies partially in the art of noticing, the brushstrokes, the textures, shapes, the color-use and how these make our bodies feel, is it an aerie feeling, an indifference, inducing a vibrant movement, a melancholy or a kind of grief? or is there something new and unexpected aligning with our field?
Do they activate certain memories and emotions connected to past events, in a way that feels personal and collective at the same time?
With the right “ingredients" the art works themselves have an ability to tap into collective memory.
Sensing the world beyond the physical
The empathetic nature of a spectator can read the emanating energy of the artwork from within its embodied-aesthetics; a language of imbued rhythm and stillness.
In co-creating meaning we participate, therefore, our perception organs have the capacity to open up by simply viewing an art piece.
The Image above is my own version of philosopher John Goldie’s original drawing ‘Paraselene’ in 1892.
