| The Creative Process Fusionart A Journey Towards Oneness through the Splendor and Elegance of Painting in Partnership with Spirit By Yasmin A. Sayyed Editor's Note: Yasmin A. Sayyed is an artist with a Masters in Fine Art. She lives in South Lake Tahoe in California. She is a member of Fusionart and also a member of the Manhattan Arts International Artist Showcase Gallery.
Three years ago, I left my job and career, home and location of employment to move into my cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. There, concurrent to an almost unmatched gratitude for the blissful solitude and opportunities to paint in near uninterrupted focus was a form of community isolation, and a longing for artists of like mindedness in which to commune about the grace and wonder of making art for the: celebration of life, suturing of rupturing global spirits, soothing of nervousness of creative exposure, and smoothing of the business of art to a finely honed and humanistic process. At that time, I didn’t have a name for the art I was creating. My paintings were spontaneous, and fluid. Following meditation and while music played, I stepped into a psychic zone and started painting. I ofttimes wrote poetry to the pieces and ofttimes worked in conceptual series. I painted and showed my work many times with other artists whose work was dramatically different in style and message than that of mine, and therein a kind of unnamed alienation resided. It was in this space, that I remembered Rassouli, an internationally known visual artist, and scholar of ancient mystics, with whom I had taken a class on the Sufi poets, Rumi and Hafiz, when I lived in southern California. I contacted Rassouli hoping, at best, to maybe create for myself an electronic community, and forwarded to him images of some of my newer paintings. Instead, Rassouli told me that he was in the process of gathering about 20 artists to an invitation only meeting. Most of the invitees had studied Fusionart with him, and he felt that my vision and artistic approach would dovetail that of the invited group. Fusionart, what is that I pondered? I started a series of conversations about this Fusionart, this painting with spirit. Six weeks later, I was in Topanga Canyon, where I reconnected with Rassouli and met the group. There we deliberated the possibility of starting a movement of artists who want to paint in the service of propagating love and global unity, while still moving forward with national and international exposure and artistic professionalism. I was immediately hooked on the painting in community with Spirit guiding the paint. I suddenly had a name for what I do, and I had a community in which to so create, exhibit and promulgate art for healing the planet. My soul danced! What does it mean to paint with brushes dipped in the love and force of Spirit, or to manifest art to connect Heaven and Earth into the oneness of being? I think it may mean different things to different people with differing cosmological realities; all fusing a single goal of having their art speak to the unification of humanity. Like the many facets of a crystal with differing angles and energies that together create a spectacular gem, each artist and groups of artists, may have differing lens of perception and differing points of entry into a global call for art as healing, yet speak a common and spectacular gem of a mother tongue of deep affection and hope in the possibility of journeying together in devotion to our highest inner character, or what the Yoruba of west Africa call, iwa rere. It is in the dark that seeds germinate before journeying towards the light and warmth of the sun, and most fusion artists begin with a black or darkened canvas, upon which the artist starts painting with directions from the poetry of one’s heart, as its seeks to express the journey from states of unknowing to states of cosmic understanding and unity. When the heart, the seat of esoteric ecstasy has finished its delineation, the head, the exoteric critic looks for the messages and then makes its form artistically recognizable for an external world. Most Fusionart is thusly, non-representational expressions of sacred internal conversations. This process of traveling from the unknown towards cosmic expressions, from states of unknowing towards emotional and spiritual closeness with Spirit, The Beloved, the divine… has so loosened the tongue of my internal poet, so made sense of what I had once heard Baba Muktananda say many years ago, namely that, “Intellect is only as valuable as it leads to the door of the heart, and the heart, the center of consciousness, is where all healing possibilities exists”, and so informs my soul and attending behaviour on a daily basis. At the core of the newly formed and ever-honing Fusionart International community is art as a cauldron for the promotion of global unity by fusing various cultures, worldviews, and cosmological realities with creative endeavors. Here, the fusing of art and spirit, ofttimes in community, becomes a celebratory process and a projection of hope for the sloughing of the artificial social constructs that divide the human community. Here, the amplified voices of heart and head, of esoteric and exoteric dance together in visual praise songs and supplications for said unity. Having philosophically confluent artists display powerful bodies of work creates an exposure to the goals, as well as, generates public interest, and support for both the art and the spirit of tenderness and love imbued therein --the magnitude of impact of which an individual artist could not make alone. To that end the group has had a couple of major art exhibits in southern California, has recently entered into dialogue with the Heaven and Earth Art Project – (another southern California arts organization) – and hopes to both conduct a conjoint artistic endeavor in the very near future, and provide a format for regional, national and international dialogue about art in the service of healing the ruptures and celebrating the wonders of being human. Recently, I took Fusionart into a local elementary school, where some 200, K-5th grade youngsters were introduced to the concept of listening to and taking directions from the poets of their hearts, and then painting. The school is one of great social and academic needs, where the focus is on raising academic achievement to the unintentional neglect of the children’s soul-songs. Three other local artists and I spent four hours in an, ‘Artists in Action’ day. I had three easels set up, introduced Fusionarts as painting from the soul to several groups, and then let them paint on three of my paintings, completely covering my work to create their own group paintings. Sometimes two and three young artists worked simultaneously on a single painting. I wish you could have seen the stars dancing in their eyes. One left handed painter brought tears to my eyes, as he had his right hand over his heart the entire time he painted to remind himself to listen with his heart. Now, how precious is that! I was utterly energizing by the experience, utterly honoured to share the day and Fusionarts with these budding artists, and my heart was bursting with incredible joyfulness. From that meeting, in Topanga Canyon, some 16 months ago, and everyday thereafter, Fusionart, as a process, has continued to inspire me to contemplate and articulate my points of entry into the world of art-making for the oneness of being, from which veils of knowledge slough and consciousness arises to kiss and remind me of various facets of why I am called to paint with the fusion of artistry and Spirit as my guide. To view more of Yasmin Sayyed's work go to http://www.yasminsayyed.com/ For more information about Fusionart International go to http://fusionartinternational.com Return to Ezine Index | You are in the Manhattan Arts Ezine
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