Being an artist – what it means to me
This was written in July 2013 for THE SOUL OF THE AMERICAN ACTOR
An online publication dedicated to the art of creativity and living life to your fullest!
There are many secrets to life. Being artistic and creative allows us to tap into the unseen powers of the universe. As artists of any kind we tap into a way of being that allows us to reach outside of the confines of the three-dimensional world. Artists somehow know how to shift their perceptions, their way of feeling inside of their body, and adapt a wavelike sensation inside of them to tap into that other inspirational world.
This shift in perception can be felt as an internal vibrancy, becoming more present in oneself as a current that is invisible, rising, pulsating, connecting us to a larger greater field of What – Is.
When people ask me when I started getting in touch with wanting to be artistic in a more formal sense, and when I started opening to that OTHER way of being, and when it was that I started being in touch with an invisible current, I have to answer that it came to me in stages.
As a child I was taught to listen to the silence of the woods. It set the stage for me to be artistic in a deepest sense.
But as far as a creative form or expression as we know it, then what first comes to my mind is a friend of our family who played guitar and sang songs, who inspired me. I started to learn how to play guitar at age 10 and started composing my own songs at age 12: Songs of social protest, as was popular in the 70s.
I was always drawn to introspection, loving to write, to draw and to journal. Even to this date I recall what inspired me mostly. It was the moments I spent floating on my walks through the wheat fields and the woods, which I took by myself as a teenager often. There I practiced sensing the energy of nature. I remember noticing seeing and feeling the fields of life that existed between the trees in the forest. Most people would only see the trees, but I started watching the languid light wash through the trees, or across the wheat fields in the autumn evenings sunlight.
Perception for artists and inspiration starts at the intersecting points of being conscious and where we touch into the ephemeral. Staying aware and awake at that special point of intersecting states of consciousness, when we starts to expand or even float allows us to walk through the inner portals into the realms of the immortals
Artists learn how to shift from the left side of the brain to the right side of the brain, using a different way of perceiving reality. This shift allows the artist as well as the mystic to ascend to the ever-expanding ocean of heightened state of frequencies.
This was something that I began to practice in my teenage years, in those years I spent walking silently in nature. I believe this essential quietness, which expands beyond the horizon of the palpable was the true beginning point of my artistic soul, and still is the basis for artistic expression in me.
Later on, through hours of meditation, I learned how to navigate and to reach into higher and finer world of frequencies. The closer I come to the point of touching the eternal Oneness, the greater is my inspiration, the greater becomes my ability to creatively interface with time-space at large.
Art is not just poetry, writing books, music or painting. Artistic, creative living for me has become a whole-body experience, realizing now that my entire REALITY has become the CANVAS on which I paint with my CONSCIOUSNESS.
In my early teenage years, music and art gave me a way to express this wavelike motion that I longed to occupy, and loved so well. From these inner, expanded dimension I had insights that were beyond my years. This expanded inner way of being gave me a depth of feeling and enriched my life beyond normal ideas of pleasure.
The quest to explore these inner creative dimensions lead me to go beyond the confines of our modern-day perception which mostly utilize a linear type of perception. Rather than focusing our five senses on the objective world, we can reach into the creative universe by opening our multidimensional senses, and by being directed towards our subjective and inner dimensions.
We all know those moments when we take time to notice all that is beautiful, moments to move us inward and upward. I love sitting still and simply noticing the cool tiles under my feet in the hot sunshine, to see the leaves wave in the wind, to notice the impeccable beauty of a flower, to feel the breeze of air touch my skin, the candle burning, seeing the cup of tea steaming by my side.
This becoming mindful to the beauty in the moment moves us to become firstly aware of seeing or noticing reality around us as if in a slow- motion effect. And secondly, we start actually opening our heart at the sight of all that is beautiful. Thirdly, it moves us from seeing a thing as an object, towards feeling connected to what we are seeing, or looking at. And as a result a great feeling of stillness and gratitude tends to envelop our hearts and soul. Eventually this exercise can move us to become aware of the many layers of reality of consciousness.
The path of creativity in my teenage years led me onto the path of stillness, and then to meditation. Turning inward, quieting my mind, I eventually started learning to see outside of the proverbial cave of Plato, once I had learned to accustom my perceptions to the lofty worlds, to the world of Ideas, the world of creative IS-ness. Here I realized that it is our CONSCIOUSNESS which is the ARTIST.
Playing flute or the harp, which I took up later in my 20s, and still continue to this day, allowed me a way of expressing that ephemeral inner dimension and transporting visions and sensations and of the infinite to anybody who had ears to hear. Playing music I am transported to a larger universe, where my soul shows me levels of reality that escape the rational mind.
Through writing first in my journals in my teenage years, and all the many endless letters to my Beloveds, and later on in my 30s, in my early adult years, writing books, I was able to express my insights about the power of the infinite inner dimensions, and help people access the creative power hidden within their subconscious mind, the non-literal mind, so that they too could learn to reshape their inner landscape in order to create a more beautiful outside landscape in their physical lives.
Writing is at once a tool to share and inspire, as well as a tool to give expression, shape and form to that which remains wordless and silent, but that which is full and alive, which I experienced in the many hours of inner listening to the cosmos.
In my teenage years I keenly became aware of the desire to be artistic, as well as to teach access to these creative realms. Art to me was a way to be and a tool to teach at the same time.
As such then, words, as well as music, became a tool which transported myself, as well as the reader or listener, to a higher ground.
However, all of the forms of art which I pursued in my life, developed as an expression out of the wellspring of my inner silence. It is when we allow ourselves to revel in stillness, which takes us on an upward spiraling journey to touch the heavens and eventually the face of God, if we go deep enough, that inspires us and truly gives us the artistic power that then touches those who seek inspiration from the art that we deliver.
Most people are caught in a 9 AM to 5 PM routine, having followed the dictate of our society to remain focused on that which is visible and palpable. Those people rely on the other 20% of the civilization to tap into the unseen, who allow themselves deep moments of silence, and who have practiced the capacity to shift into another world, a wavelike perception, from where they can bring back morsels of inspiration, which then reminds the other 80% of the population of the eternal with themselves.
Artistic expression shifts the artist and the viewer alike from a particle perception and a linear mindset towards a wavelike perception. Artists and mystics alike live within a more fluid world. Because of the many facets and many layers and levels to be found in this upward journey, that which is expressed is equally manifold. Like there a many stores in a house, there are many levels to the inner landscape of consciousness. And therefore there are many ways of expressing art and being artistic, to express the many layers of heaven.
Art to me now is related to touching the invisible, to touching the face of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the source of all it is, the One. To experience this inner stillness and then to express those states, in order to inspire others to take the journey back home, is my greatest joy.
Art comes out of the stillness and imbues us with authenticity. So in order to create I first ascend to that inner most points of reality that I can reach. Some may call it soul, some may call it God; some may call it simply the stillness.
The nature of my creative mind then desires to move this inspiration into form and dress it into clothes, in order to share this upward motion with others.
Being artistic is highly related to being a mystic to me. Art is a way towards discovering and expressing that which is divine.
Ilona Selke is an international author, seminar leader, lecturer, and musician. She has inspired thousands of people to co-create reality, to discover the power of a spiritual mind, in a practical way, and to live and manifest their dreams.