2016 Art

Julie Irmer - 2016

My thinking is being shaped by 2 writers- Eckhart Tolle and his book THE NEW EARTH; and Richard Rohr the NAKED NOW.

Both speak of true spirituality or the true self as union with the Divine right NOW. Letting go of ego (Tolle) to be present to what is now, good, bad or ugly, without judgement and letting it transform us/you/me.

Ego wants to control and feeds us with fear and judgment – I AM RIGHT and YOU ARE WRONG. Explaining why we so often have to have someone/something to PUSH against. - to feed our ego and it's need to be right, to be BETTER than.

Letting go of ego and listening in stillness without mental commentary will transform us. IT'S NOT ABOUT ME.

Through accepting the experience of NOW you become whole – you become vast, spacious. Your true nature emerges, which is one with the nature of the CREATOR.- the breath of LIFE.

There is a (ZEN?) story, about a man whose horse ran away. The neighbors came and said how sorry they were and what a bad thing to happen. The man said “maybe, maybe not”. Then his horse came back and brought a herd with him. The neighbors came and said what good forturne. The man again said, “maybe, maybe not”. His son was trying to break one of the horses and fell and broke his leg. The neighbors came and said what a bad thing and how sorry they were. Again the man said, “maybe, maybe not”. A few days later the army came through town taking recruits. The son was passed over. Was it good fortune or bad? Maybe, maybe not.

The point being our attitude towards what happens to us is what's important!

How does this affect my paintings? Everything is connected. The colors, the shapes, the figures. Look at the artwork of Susan Point in the book “Works on Paper” and of Algredo Arreguin “Patterns of Dreams and Nature”. Both have deep imprints on what I am doing.

May you find the “maybe, maybe not” point in your life.