Art: My Path of Heart

There is the poet to whom the muse dictates his [sic] chants, there is the artist whose hand is guided by an unknown being using him as an instrument. Their reason cannot impede them, they never struggle, and their work shows no sign of strain. They are not divine and can do without their selves. They are like prolongations of nature, and their works do not pass through the intellect.¹

Robert King

My greatest aspiration as an artist is to allow myself to be used as an instrument for the unknown. Since I was a child I have been fascinated by the process of letting a drawing draw itself.

The drawings you see here were created as illustrations for Arnold Mindell's book, The Shaman's Body. They were inspired by my profound love for the shamanic tradition. Amy's powerful articulations carried my spirit into the core of that love; from there these images emerged. Certain drawings were called forth by specific passages, which I have included. I absolutely loved, hated, despaired, agonized and was monientarily possessed by ecstatic rapture in acting as a conduit for these drawings. My basic creative challenge was to remove my ego so my acquired artistic skills and innate talents could be used in wholehearted service of the spirit. When I was able to drop my personal history, the spirit could express its idiosyncratic visions based on Amy's powerful articulation of the interrelationship between shamanism and Process Work. In other words, I tried to put into practice what he so poetically wrote in his book. "The warrior on the path of heart is like a flute that lets the

wind blow through it, making its own music."²

Now I continue in this direction by inhibiting my urge to explain myself and my work. Through these drawings, I offer you a chance to experience whatever the spirit says to you about the dreaming body and the shamanic path. Let the spirit sing its song in lines and forms. Listen and look. You might feel or catch sight of power.