Neurotika Blog – Liberation.

To reduce everything to their essentials -is a form of liberation.  To cast aside the inconvenient things that stand between us and our work -is to let loose the weight.

To be top-heavy is to lurch from side to side -like a drunkard.  We surround ourselves with the chains of security -and allow ourselves to be complacent.  How we are afraid of too much freedom -we are disturbed from our place in life.  To liberate our souls -from consequences of Heaven and Hell.  How we seek reward as well as punishment  -to expect an answer to our questions.  But there is no answer -only a sort of disregard.  We are kept in isolation by our contentions.  We face the unknown -with a sort of anticipation.   But the freedom that comes is a thing of provocation.  It disturbs our peace -and draws out of us the latent energies.  How we begin to understand -that we must stream-line the baggage of confused thoughts.  We must lose the unbalanced energies -that cause our restlessness.
To be obsessed is a thing that tips the scales.  We move to one direction and then to another. We walk into walls and then are stopped.  We stand in a place and then say. ‘Here I am.’  We open the book and quote the Prophets -waiting for redemption -but it is true that the only thing that redeems us is our art.  We are realized by the process of elimination -we throw away anything that chokes our creativity. In this way -we are resolute -even if the entire world pushes us down.   We walk in the machinery -but are not in it -or of it.   It’s just a matter of fake and flat scenery -in a play of absurdity.  We are kept so clean and alone.  It is said that we cannot be truly free if we are in a society.  But the reverse is true -liberation is only felt in relationships.  We find ourselves in others.  We are drinking from the same pool that others drink from.
To be liberated -is to be a part of something larger than ourselves.  We are cells coming together with other cells -to make a cluster.  We are caught in a subtle osmosis where we are made into helpful citizens.  We are absorbed into the system -to become one with the blood-stream.  We are measured by those who love us -and care for us.  In our art as people with the stigma of mental illness -we make it known that we are caring individuals -and not demented criminals.  In our art -we arrive at a solution of putting down our honest emotions.  We risk being the fool -and being vulnerable to those who would scorn us.  We accept the uncertainty of our expression -and also the judgement of critics.  Our craft is an open nerve -that feels every emotion as naked truth -and every touch as a healing.   We let out the antenna of knowledge -and reveal what was hidden.
Art is not a narcissistic pursuit -it is the reality that binds all of us together.  It is only done -in relation to the world we are a part of.  We are reaching out -every time we choose to create.  We are seeking union in the lives of the invisible crowd.  The audience is a nebulous thing -but we are made aware of our art with the dissatisfaction of detachment.  We search for inspiration in the existential anxiety of apartness -and thereby we know what we’ve missed.  We only find completeness in the root of culture itself -made by other artists.  We are involved in shaping relationships -as well as our art.  With every stroke of the brush and every line of poetry -we are generating connections.
Art is the glue that keeps the community together.  It is spontaneous yet forceful and direct. The realm of creation is the sacred expression -and everything else is theology.   Truth is a deeply regenerative thing -it is volatile and reactive.  When Jesus gave the loaves and fishes to the crowd -he was showing the nature of wisdom.  It’s nature is of transformation and a deeply vital response.  As the loaves and fishes are divided then offered -so is art and culture.  Truth is a release of energies whereby we are purified -as we give of ourselves.  How the creative man replicates himself in what he does.  How he translates a foreign language into his own process.   How he hears the voices of the dead and offers up his inspiration.  He interprets and improvises -all in the hunger for beauty -and liberation. He knows he is only free’d by what he does -not what he thinks.