purpose of art (图)

The circumstance of existence, in and of itself, is disheartening. That is why it is necessary to do art. Art is an essential response to the conditions of existence, a means by which limitations are transcended, Reality is Realized, Truth is Realized, Light is found. Without that activity ?there is nothing but this intrusion of changes and death. Participation in an art form should be at least as great as that art form. Art should change you. That is the whole purpose of it. True art heals. True art restores equanimity. Art must regenerate the sense of well-being. That is its true purpose. When art is really useful, it serves this ultimate process of healing, well-being, higher sympathy, and Spiritual Awakening. ---Avatar Adi Da Samraj [art: Alex Grey's esoteric portrait of Adi Da Samraj]

[LTG]

Adi Da Samraj's bio. on his page:


Born on Long Island in 1939, Adi Da describes his early years as being focused in two fundamental activities: investigating how to realize truth, and developing the ability to communicate that truth through artistic means (both visual and literary).

Adi Da graduated from Columbia College in 1961, with a B.A. in philosophy, and from Stanford University, obtaining his M.A. in 1966, with an MA in English literature. His master’s thesis, a study of core issues in modernism, focused on Gertrude Stein and painters of the same period.

In 1964, he began a period of practice under a succession of spiritual masters in the United States and India. Six years later, he experienced a spontaneous awakening that signaled the end of his spiritual quest. As an expression of the import of this awakening, he eventually took the name "Da," the fundamental meaning of which (in various languages) is "the giver." Understood esoterically, it is a reference to the Divine as the Giver of sound and light—that is, the Giver of the entire realm of manifest existence.

In the years since, Adi Da has created a large body of spiritual writings—over 60 published books—and is widely recognized as one of the most significant spiritual masters living today. In the early 70s, Alan Watts, writer of numerous books on religion and philosophy, acknowledged Adi Da as "a rare being," adding, "It is obvious, from all sorts of subtle details, that he knows what IT’s all about." In the late 90s, poet Robert Lax said of Adi Da’s innovative novel, The Mummery,” Living and working as a writer for many decades, I have not encountered a book like this, that mysteriously and unselfconsciously conveys so much of the Unspeakable Reality."

Adi Da began his first serious work in the photographic medium in the early 60s. During the mid-60s to mid-90s, he also produced a body of drawings and paintings. In 1998, he turned to the medium of photography as what he wanted to intensively develop. In the four and a half years since that time, he has created a body of work that presently numbers over 50,000 images.

Many of Adi Da’s images are complex multiple exposures, typically involving more than two (and even as many as ten or more) superimposed layers. He creates these multiple-exposed images entirely in camera. No manipulation in the darkroom (or by digital means) is used. This "method," essential to achieve the visual result he intends, demands not only artistry but also highly developed powers of visual memory.

Adi Da is not a "photographer," as such. Rather, he creates large-scale works of "light-imagery," using photographic (and also videographic) technology. He relates to his photographic negatives as "blueprints," using them as the basis for making "monumental fabrications." To date, these fabrications include pigmented inks on canvas, plasma screen installations, and multi-media screen-projected performance events—with additional forms of fabrication planned for the future. These fabricated works frequently involve the grouping of multiple images in specific combinations and configurations. He designs his fabrications to be larger in size than the human body so that the viewing of them engages the entire body and mind, not merely the eye and head. His avowed intention as an artist is to offer a visual communication of spiritual truth by "allowing reality to manifest itself."

[by水滴]

Very rich and powerful images, at least to me!

It remind me a phrase "Radiant Shekhinah" ( God's presence in the created world)

Who is Adi Da Samraj?

What is the bigger head (in the upper center) represent?

Really likes the quotaion, especially "Art must regenerate the sense of well-being. That is its true purpose. When art is really useful, it serves this ultimate process of healing, well-being, higher sympathy, and Spiritual Awakening."

Thanks again for the sharing.