Neurotika – Ritual Scars.

Let me speak of the Primitive.  It is not a term referring to an artistic style -but to a way of life.  In the primitive -we live as citizens of a country that has no name.  In the primitive -we recover our roots and the piece of us -that was taken before.  In Outsider art -the term refers to an evocation of the dark and eerie thing -we call the ‘Other’  This is the part that is not us -the thing we are most afraid of. The Other is the shadow of the soul -and it is the reflection we see on the waters of the unconscious mind.  It is the most hated thing in our life – yet in art -we seek to find it.  Without knowing why or how we express the infernal twin of our spirit.  The lost portion of our power is stolen back somehow in a process of self-discovery.  The other is the primitive -and the savage forces of nature. We go out into the wilderness -and sit by the fire.  We stare at the flames until we see the Truth.  We then come out of the forest -and return to the village -what was dreamed becomes real.
The primitive is the secret journey through the dark land.  You could call this the ‘land of the dead’ or the ‘fairy kingdom;.  We walk alone and unafraid in this nightshade realm.  We come to know the answer -that fear is the addiction.  Fear is the only thing we must cut out like a cancer inside us.  Fear is the enemy of art -and free expression.  Hesitancy is the death of the creative spark.  In the primitive world -we have ritual scars on our face.  This is to show what we are -it is marked there by our society to inform us to what role we are to play in the community.  In this way we find our destiny -and arrive at a solution to the problem of life.  Mental illness is a thing that happens when we are blocked by the denying voices of reason.  Mental illness is not a disease -but a situation.  It is the crisis point -where we either grow or die.  In the primitive we express the chaos and madness that lives beyond the borders of our minds.  To expand is to die in some way.  To be enlarged results in the destruction of the self -and the resultant integration of something larger.
Just like Job -I have experienced deep despair -and just like Job I was faced with the terrible voice in the whirlwind.  I was taken out of the narcissism of shallow spirituality -and given a deeper source of renewal.  I tore the mask off the face of God -and saw in front of me -mystery.  As a mystical artist I grow to see such an enigma as a possibility.  In the primitive -we purify our tools.  We hone the blade of our intellect -we sharpen it against the stone of difficulties.  It is true that you cannot have a solution without a problem.  A time of crisis is needed -for the soul to evolve.  In this way we are damned and saved -but only on our own power.  It takes clarity and self-knowledge to save our own life.  We dismantle our world and then rearrange it into a new design.  We learn to conquer matter and bend reality to our will. We have faith to move mountains.   Ritual scars are what we accept with pride as we show them to the community.  Ritual scars are the stamp of our name and character.  They are the signature of our souls.
I do not kneel to the flag of manifest destiny.  I am a primitive -because I am deeply connected to the land.  My art and my poetry are both a thing of such a relationship.  Manifest destiny is the philosophy of environmental desolation.  I am a primitive because I am of the forest -and I am the voice of the planet.  My voice is a thing ‘crying in the wilderness’  as I try to teach my own point of view.  I cannot be separated from nature -body and soul are at one.  There is no paradox here -unlike the facts that are considered by the light of day.  All is complimentary and not contradictory in the world of the primitive.  Paradox is a thing of the outer world.  Inside the heart -all is resolved and reconciled.  All things become one.  All primitives have one thing in common -they all have a deep undying love for beauty.  This is what we call ‘the face of the beloved.’  This is what the ‘other’ is after we lose the fear of the darkness.  The thing outside us is transformed into that which is inside us.  The primitive is the recovery of childhood -and our senses are opened in this way.  We are now at one with what we see.