Sunday, November 12, 2006

Artists call together those with a shared vision

Bluelab describes itself as "a new organization for activist artists and visionaries of all kinds who want to develop and build works of art toward the arousal of our shared will — the will to survive, to grow, to flourish, and to love." The site says it is "not affiliated with any other organization and is not limited to any religious or philosophical persuasion." Posts reference Suzie Gablik’s The Re-enchantment of Art and include quotes from Thomas Moore’s books. A recent entry includes a passage from Moore's Meditations:
"Spirit is the most creative, inspiring, and meaning-giving element in all of life, and yet it is also the most dangerous. When spirit visits us, it moves us toward action, commitment, ambition, goals, ideals, vision, and altruism. All of these feed the soul, but they also wound it. To the soul their opposites are equally important—waiting, doubting, retreating, and not going anywhere, not knowing, not seeing, and being absorbed in oneself.

When spirit is not grounded and checked by soul, it quickly moves into literal forms — converting others and becomes blindly and callously ambitious. Its powerful force may turn without conscience into violence, its altruism blackened as intrusion into the freedoms of others. Its creativity becomes unbounded productivity, and its quest for ultimacy transforms into jealous possession of truth."