I try to personalize religion by creating
things that are not just dogma, but that 'burn' for me. For example,
my favorite and most challenging time of the year is between Passover
and Easter. Every year at Passover, I reflect on the concept of 'freedom
from bondage', but not as something that happened to people thousands
of years ago, but things that I am doing myself to hold myself back.
I reflect on my attitudes and habits and then pick one that I will no
longer do during the coming year. Sometimes I can easily remove a self-limiting
attitude or habit, but more often, I require a few years to remove the
limitation. |
During Passover I find and remove a self-limiting
attitude or habit. Then at Easter, no longer being limited by that attitude
or habit, I am resurrected into a new year, without my self-limitation.
I am resurrected into a new life, unlimited by that habit. When the early
morning sunrise warms my face, I feel the sun's energy that will propel
me in the coming year. I know this sounds funny, but try it. I'm sure
you'll be amazed at what you find about yourself and how easy it is to
remove or reduce self-limiting attitudes and habits. |
My
artisitc views of Re-Creationism developed out of a year's Passover
and Easter reflections. For years, I have been teaching Adobe Photoshop
to artists and found many completed art pieces that I felt were no
ready to be shown. During that year's reflection, I realized that they
were the established artists and that I know nothing of what I thought.
I could have likes or dislikes, but about art, they knew what they
were doing and I had no idea. |
It all begins with Awareness |
So for that year's attitude removal, I decided
to put my art critic out to pasture and borrow the critical way these
artists viewed a piece of art. I began to look at works like, what story
is it telling, how does it move my eye, how do I respond to the colors,
and other means that I found had greatly increased my enjoyment of viewing
art. |
I
also realized that I could do this also. Although I can not draw a
stick figure, I could use Adobe Photoshop to use existing art images
put together in new ways to re-create a new image that tells a new
story. |
One of my favorite projects has been re-working
the stories of the Bible. Imagine if instead of an Old Testament wrathful
God, there was a merciful and beneficial God. Instead of a God who looks
down and sees too many bad people and decides to get rid of
these mistakes with a Great Flood, God sees how good people have become
and decides to reinforce good behavior with good things. Or, the story of Cain and
Able. Able falls on hard time and Cain, his brother, helps him out. Having
the 'Mark of Cain' would be a good thing. |
Re-Creationism uses existing familiar art
images in new combinations that tell new stories. |
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Attitudes and Actions determine Altitude |
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