Self-Reflection

"The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face."

William Makepeace Thackeray, an English Novelist from the 1860's wrote this quote, and it has been repeated in many different ways in the years since. In fact it may even be responsible for the current mode of thinking that we see and hear about so often that our "thoughts create our reality". It's like the old saying "what you put out is what you get back". My mosaic shown here called "Self Reflection", is a visual observation of this quote; (Click image to enlarge) showing two faces gazing at each other, or reflecting off of each other. One side connected to the essence of our being (the Soul) and the other, more colorful side, demonstrating aspects of our personality, but both sides are still connected through the heart and both sides are also connect to the universal life force depicted by the mandala above the heads.


It is also an interesting observation that as we get older, our faces start to show the reflection of the kind of life we have lived. Our facial lines, or lack thereof, have more to do with our thoughts and feelings and deeds of a lifetime rather than if we remembered to brush, floss and wash our faces every night and use night cream. If one could study the anatomy of our body you would discover that the human face has over 200 major and minor muscles. The face, when studied by cameras and slowed down to show the slightest movement, reveals an incredible amount of movement that is undetectable when viewed at normal speed. What does that tell us? That our face is a mirror of both our inner and outer world and things that happen to us to cause our face to move--either through speech or eating, and in normal everyday activities no matter what we are doing the face is in perpetual motion from our thoughts.



This is why people who study facial expressions, and bodyworkers who study the anatomy of kinesthetic movement of the body and face, are able to detect restrictions in the body, thereby enabling them to help correct problems. Science has also learned that it is possible to detect micro movements in the face to detect emotions and read a person's energy (or thoughts if you will). The bronze sculpture here is entitled "Dream Weaver" and depicts a person deep in meditation, dreaming a better world.

What does all of this mean? To some people it may mean nothing but a mere observation of fact. But on another level IF it is true, then we need to be aware at all times that our thoughts are not only helping to energetically create our reality but create our bodies and faces as well. It is more important what we think than we think! Thinking happy thoughts, rather than dwelling on the past or sad events in our lives, or "mistakes we think we have made" does no one any good unless we are trying to resolve a painful past memory, or event, and thus come up with a creative solution to remedy it or change it. We all know we can't change the past, but we can heal it. We can also learn from it and move forward to create a much better today!

Most people have very interesting lives and could write a book about themselves if they sat down to think about it. But because time seems to pass so quickly, it is often difficult to remember what we did yesterday, let alone three weeks or three decades ago, but our bodies remember everything, and if you think you don't remember just because you cannot immediately recall the events, you are wrong. Somewhere in our DNA or inside of the massive computer called the brain, are stored the facts of every detail of our life ever since our first breath. We just are not consciously aware of it.

When I was practicing therapeutic and energetic bodywork and Reiki healing energy, we learned to work with somatic illness as a way of helping people to release through bodywork, either energetic or muscular, deep issues both emotional and physical that are stored as pain, deep in the body's muscular layers. I learned that there are 12 layers of pain. From the point at which you first "stored" the painful memory, to the point at which you sought help for the pain, the body has a unique way of referring bodily pain "somatically" from one area to another . It was also amazing to see the way a person looked after a session on the table. Not only did they feel better physically, but their face would look younger and lighter. I learned then and there how much our emotions and feelings affect our faces and bodies.

As an artist, putting emotion and meaning into a work of art, whether it is a portrait or sculpted face of someone, or simply a landscape, there is a great desire on my part to convey something of what I am feeling, in my art. If that emotion conveyed makes someone feel empathy, or compassion, then they will take that with them whenever they see the art. If it depicts joy and humor, the person viewing the art will feel that as well. Often I have looked at paintings by other artists and immediately felt a sense of calm, and order or possibly confusion or disorder! Whether I liked it or not was my own subjective opinion, but the Artist was successful because he or she had derived out of me the response they wanted with their art. "The Angel of Abundance" shown here by this joyful, Angel with child.

If having fine art in your home brings about a sense of joy and peace, and enriches you as a person, then that is a noble cause for art. If it incites you to action, then that also is a noble cause as long as it is "right" action. Because we know so much more today about the body and mind connection, this puts an even greater responsibility on all artists for what we put out there. Some say freedom of expression should mean you can put out what ever you want to put out, but I am not in total agreement with that, especially if what is being put out is harming society.

It is my hope that my artwork will express what is within me, and ALSO express what I think of what is outside of me. Not everyone has to agree with my thoughts but I believe "in a perfect world" or society in which all creative people will seek to convey the highest goals possible through their music, art, film, theater, through speech, both spoken and written, and that all of society will conduct itself better as a result. For as a human race, as we ARE so shall we BE. Just as it is for the inner community of our own bodies....as we ARE...so shall we BE. Each generation lays the groundwork for the next. How do you want your children or grandchildren to find the world? A world with the highest integrity and intelligence or one of desolation and suffering? I believe it is not up to any individual culture or country to demand this from their people but up to each individual person no matter what their culture or upbringing, to find the way to higher mind and demand it of themselves. The good literature is there and fine art is all around us, even in nature, if we choose to seek it.

Many blessings.



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