Blog Posts - Patrick Howe-Post Personalism

The Post Personal Project, in Seattle, July 6, 2017, 5-8 pm

6/16/2017

I am thrilled to announce my art exhibition at Magnuson Park Gallery/Space Gallery, in Seattle. Please join my friends and I at the opening reception on July 6, 2017, 5-8 pm.

I also offered a gallery talk (Here) on the strange and wonderful topic of Post Personalism on Saturday, July 15, at 1 pm.

Rothko's Pocket of Silence

6/1/2017

"Many of us who are driven by this life, are desperately searching for pockets of silence where we can root and grow. We must all hope we find them". --Mark Rothko

Similar to Rothko, Edward Hopper once commented that he loved quite, empty places, like the interior of empty rooms. I also think Rothko’s “pocket of silence” relates to French philosopher Blaise Pascal’s saying “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Perhaps if Rothko had known the pocket of silence more deeply, his life might not have ended so tragically. Some people have said that Rothko’s art is very spiritual. and I think it is. His paintings are like “pockets of silence”. There is even a Rothko Chapel where people can sit and meditate in a space filled with his paintings on the walls. It is unfortunate that Rothko could offer the pocket of silence to others but was unable to fully know it for himself.

Jacob Lawrence

5/29/2017

My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develop a philosophy about life. Then he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas.
Jacob Lawrence

I love Lawrence's statement because it is suggest that the deeper artist asks deeper questions and is not merely applying an aesthetic affectation to the canvas.

Coffee At Zoka in Tangletown

5/6/2017

I'm drawing in my sketchbook at Zoka Coffee House right now. I am overhearing four people (in their 30s?) at the next table talking about "how cool it would be to share one consciousness, and to be one with everyone". Just an ordinary conversation these days, apparently.

Georges Braque: "Art Is A Wound That Turns To Light"

5/6/2017

Georges Braque (1882-1963)

"Art is a wound that turns into light." - Georges Braque

Art is a wound because it documents human suffering. It reveal humanity’s psychological pain. Art—the wound, turns into light when it enables us to see the pain. Once we see the pain, healing begins.

The "light" symbolizes a new state of consciousness that transcends the old wounded state. Another way of saying it is that out of suffering comes beauty, like the pains of birth, I am told. This was true in Van Gogh's case. His life was apparently full of suffering and yet we are in awe of the beauty of his artwork.

The wound is an opening, like a door, or a gash that opens into light. We have to go through the wound to reach the light beyond. We do not evolve if we do not face our wounds then move beyond them.

James Joyce said the same thing as Braque but in a slightly different way: "History is the nightmare from which I am trying to awake." Contained in history is the record of human insanity and suffering. But when we finally awaken, we realize that our awakening was brought about by our suffering.

Theodore Wolff Speaking about Morris Graves

10/15/2016

Art critic Theodore Wolff (Died 2012)

"A clearly defined, if subtle, line separates Graves' art from most of his contemporaries. He is one of the very few twentieth-century artists for whom the creation of art is an act of reverence and perhaps the only one of stature for whom it is largely a means of lovingly (but persistently) reaching upward, outward, and inward toward greater and simpler dimensions of being. Here he stands quite alone."

Excerpt taken from essay by Theodore F. Wolff

Morris Graves

Alan Watts

10/15/2016

"You are something the whole universe is doing." - Alan Watts

If that is true then the making of art must be something the whole universe is doing too. -ph

An Attempt at Mesostic Prose / Rhyme

10/15/2016

I did this typographical collage inspired by John Cage's interest in mesostic prose and Zen, and combined it with David Hockney's declaration of the now and my interest is Eckhart Tolle's teachings on presence.

(Coming soon. A list of talks in which Eckhart Tolle discusses presence in relation to artistic creativity)

"You are Not Your Name"

10/13/2016

This piece was added to my Current Works portfolio. Titled "You Are Not Your Name". It is composed of photos I took of my signature on signature screens in neighborhood coffee shops. Then I merged six of them together in a photo editing program.

Signiture Works

10/11/2016

My on-screen signature when buying a chicken burger at Diggity Dog this afternoon in Tangletown, Seattle. (Not touched up in Photoshop, if you were wondering). It's part of a photo-collage piece I am working on.

Jolly Good Fellow

8/16/2016

Chade-Meng Tan was hired by Google to be the company's official Jolly Good Fellow (That is his formal job description). His job is to "spread compassion, good will and world peace throughout the company". In this 15 minute video Chade-Meng Tan talks about compassion as the true source of business success. I found it relevant to the post personal project in so many ways. One is that compassion could also be a true source of artistic inspiration. Making me wonder, how would an artist express compassion through art?

https://www.ted.com/talks/chade_meng_tan_everyday_compassion_at_google?language=en#t-32844

The Fire in the Heart

8/13/2016

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

The true artist has a faith in what he or she is doing that is so strong it doesn’t matter if anyone has a negative opinion about it.

This was true of the Impressionists. It was true of Van Gogh.

If great artists of the past had stopped creating art the moment someone said an unpleasant thing about it then we would not be speaking off them today.

Genius moves forward regardless of personal inadequacies. It never stops. It persists regardless of any deficiencies in skill, precision or talent.

Many of the greatest artist of the world were never talented. They just never gave up. It is because of their audacity and passion regardless of their limitations that we are able to be inspired by them today.

That doesn't mean a person should never accept advice or criticism, it just means that advice and criticism will not stop you.

Some may say, Yes, what you say may be true of a genius, or some great artist, but certainly not me.

The only difference between you and a truly great artists is that the truly great artist doesn’t think about himself; how he's measuring up. Instead, he is busy applying 100% of his attention to his creativity.

Internal criticism is the worst. If you believe in your negative opinions about yourself, they will crush you. But why be crushed?

Believing you are either great or inadequate if for amateurs. If you have a fire in your heart then let it burn through your life and into the world. The rest will take care of itself.
—ph

True Self-Interest

8/13/2016

"True self-interest is alway in the true self-interest of others." —ph

Be The Change You Want to See

8/1/2016

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"Be the change you want to see in the world." —Mahatma Gandhi

If that same inspiration could be applied to the art world then we could say "Be the change you want to see in the art world".

If you have a passion to make beautiful, truthful and meaningful art in an art world that sometimes seems superficial and self-centric, then you are the one to bring the change that you want to see.
-ph

Our Magnificent Endowment

8/1/2016

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

Great artists of the past, such as Vincent Van Gogh, gave their lives passionately to their art while believing that their effort was somehow spiritually valuable to themselves and to all of humanity.

But if we artists today are merely focused on amassing wealth and celebrity then their profound effort, spiritual depth and passion will have been wasted and misunderstood.

The degree of superficiality in the art world today implies that the soulful struggle of artists of the past is now irrelevant. Who cares about substance, depth, honorable purpose or a profound connection to nature and humanity when achieving immediate popularity feels so much better?

Let us not squander the magnificent endowment bequeathed to us by Van Gogh and so many other ancestor artists.

Some Van Gogh quotes
“Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on Earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that it becomes a spiritual calling.”

[Today we might say "vocation" instead of "profession". Vocation indicates that an activity is a heartfelt calling, not merely a means of earning an income. -ph]

“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”

“If you hear a voice within you saying, ‘You are not an artist,’ then by all means make art . . . and that voice will be silenced, but only by working.”

“The sun itself cannot make the world bright without souls to feel its light.”

Thinking Outside the Self

7/28/2016

There is the saying "Think outside the box". In the post personal project there is the saying "Think outside the self". Today the self is the new box.
—ph

Great Art is an Escape From Personality

7/28/2016

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."
-T.S. Eliot

Excerpt from Morris Graves' Artist Statment

7/28/2016

Morris Graves Self Portrait (1910-2001)

" . . . I have learned that art and nature are mind's Environment within which we can detect the essence of man's Being and Purpose, and from which we can draw clues to guide our journey from partial consciousness to full consciousness."

"I paint to evolve a changing language of symbols and language with which to remark upon the qualities of our mysterious capacities which direct us toward ultimate reality."
—Morris Graves

Essay on Morris Graves (excerpt)

7/28/2016

Painting by Morris Graves

"A clearly defined, if subtle, line separates Graves' art from most of his contemporaries. He is one of the very few twentieth century artists for whom the creation of art is an act of reverence and perhaps the only one of stature for whom it is largely a means of lovingly (but persistently) reaching upward, outward, and inward toward greater and simpler dimensions of being and evidence of the divine. Here he stands quite alone."

Excerpt taken from essay by Theodore F. Wolff

The last sentence of the above states "Here he stands quite alone." A post personal artist would respond: "Not any more."

Being Before Stardom - Sting

7/28/2016

Sting

“For real musicians there is a spiritual component to what they do thats got nothing to with worldly success. Their music is much more of an inner journey. Any other success is just frosting on the cake. There is the idea you can go on American idol and suddenly become a star, but if you bypass that spiritual work your success will be wafer thin."

—Sting speaking in the documentary “Twenty Feet from Stardom”, 2013 (at 1:11:00)

Keith Haring and Post Personalism

6/7/2016

Keith Haring (1958-1990)

"When it is working, you completely go into another place, you're tapping into things that are totally universal, completely beyond your ego and your own self. That's what it's all about. " -Keith Haring

(To be clear, Haring was not talking about Post Personalism specifically. He made that comment many years ago but it nevertheless aligns with the post personal project point of view today).

John Lennon and Post Personalism

6/7/2016

John Lennon's lyrics from "Instant karma" resonate with Post Personalism:

Better recognize your brothers
Ev'ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you're ev'rywhere

Who in the hell d'you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev'ryone come on

Kandinsky and the Upward Moving Pyramid

6/7/2016

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

As stated in Concerning the Spiritual In Art :
Kandinsky felt that an authentic artist creates art from "an internal necessity" that inhabits the tip of an upward-moving pyramid. This progressing pyramid is penetrating and proceeding into the future.

What Kandinsky is suggesting that what we thought was strange or inconceivable yesterday is commonplace today. What is avant guard today (and understood only by the few) will be common knowledge tomorrow. The modern artist–prophet stands alone at the apex of the pyramid, according to Kandinsky. There, the artist makes new discoveries and ushers in tomorrow's reality.

How do Kandinsky's comments relate to Post Personalism? Kandinsky was speaking in the language of his time. In our present time however, the "tip of the upward-moving pyramid" would be to say "the forefront of the evolution of human consciousness." It's the same thing. In other words, the new avant guard are those awakening to the reality of oneness.