John Coltrane + ALCHEMY: Iron, Lead and Silver + Body and Soul
John William Coltrane
Birth date: 09/23/26
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I “see” an image whole
as a visual/flash crossing
the universe of my mind’s eye
at the speed of light,
and then it vanishes.
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I then move to sound/music as a divining rod that
senses the whereabouts of the image that is embedded in my imagination.
The process is like a high diver- all my senses have to be keenly sensitive.
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My listening is like a strobe light and time travel.
I am blinded, as I listen, scanning for resonance, the proximity, the parallel to the visual/flash.
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I become a tuning fork.
The process is exhilarating and exhausting.
I must be completely wide open as I plunge and soar into the unknown.
I search for sound/music that resounds with the nascent visual/flash experience.
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It’s a wild ride- the exploration, swinging back and forth: call and response;
the timing of the identification is critical and random,
I can return to sound/music that earlier I thought was off, yet, later calls me back as a present siren call;
and then the fine tuning: it may be just a few phrases or even a few notes,
or a few notes and the pause before the next phrasing.
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The visual/flash/sound/music fusion is always the rhythm.
I listen and listen until the sound/music finds the lost visual/ flash and sings –
first in a whisper toward a clarion frequency, and then it
breathes the pure rhythm of birth.
The beat.
Beat.
Beat.
Beat.
Primal.
Elegantly raw and true.
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The Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant owns a piece
from the Pine Tree: TE DEUM series.
John Coltrane’s Love Supreme + J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations
was the light, the rhythm
that coaxed the transformation from its visual/flash to its physical presence
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ALCHEMY: Iron, Lead and Silver.
My creative process is a fire in the crucible.
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I bend, transmute my raw psychic/emotional/spiritual/physical experiences into an offering.
My work “knows” before I do. It is a blue print.
It is a litmus test and my truth serum.
In the creation, I drive toward the closest approximation, the threshold, to the visual/flash:
refining, going deeper, stepping back, a repeated and open ended process
until the work arrives and breathes on its own.
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My art demands an actual encounter.
It is not a photograph of a beloved.
It is the beloved.
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What looks simple is complex in my art: it is about paying attention,
attending nuance and subtlety as discernible events.
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In the studio, my state of alert is immense.
I am in the intense blue of the creative flame.
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It is a practice of staying and breathing and announcing ephemera on a physical surface
or breaking silence with the shape and sound of words.
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All is flux- circles, spirals and lines and layers, veils and disclosures
of ecstatic joy to cavernous despair.
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The realm of alchemy is filled with hidden and double meanings.
Just as each element has a physical representation, so too does it have a philosophical meaning in the alchemical school of thought.
It should be noted that the ancient founders of alchemy were avidly loyal to their craft.
So much so, that many of the surviving reference material is quite obscure.
Alchemists shrouded much of their craft to assure the seeker is determined and devoted to learning.
This technique is effective – as once a seeker delves into the world of alchemy;
many are dissuaded by the complexity and obscurity surrounding alchemical meaning.
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Rilke wrote what defines the poet is their desire of the questioning
rather than the comfort of a conventional answer.
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I am working on a new body of work:
dynamic spheres of creation, knowledge, mystery and reconciliation
I am exploring/researching the constructs of the Milky Way galaxy and the martial art of AIKIDO as a fact and a metaphor:
what we do not know is awaiting to be known- the quest to broaden, overturn,
connect and associate disparate thoughts/sounds/visuals in an open-ended dialogue;
break open and break through to new worlds of experiences and sensation;
how perceptions and views are based/filtered/shaped by one’s context and what one has known- lived and imagined;
the courage to venture forward with an open, receptive, awaiting “copper plate” heart and mind;
and learning to stay alive with fortitude, grace and faith as one navigates, shifts, explores,
experiments and improvises when one enters the unknown.
The world that was once declared adamantly flat and the center of the Universe
became…and, so forth.
The convergence, confluence of intellectual, analytical, intuitive coordinates
fueled by questioning the “box” of an answer
is the quest of the artist, scientist- any creative mind in any field of discipline
and of the lover who stays forever young and nimble.
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The working title is BODY + SOUL.
The pieces look like metal plates of iron and lead with etched circles, spirals and lines of silver.
Dynamic spheres.
To view the art requires an actual encounter.
The art experience changes constantly, is in motion,
revealing and veiling depending upon the light and the position of the viewer- like life.
Motion and openness is the compass and lens for new experiences, new perceptions, new truths and a new world.
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All is change.
All is spirit and energy.
Moving forward has multiple meanings -an ambiguous euphemism.
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Moving forward can be an action that is in dissonance
or in resonance with one’s True North.
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Moving forward can be with intention or confusion.
Moving forward as an action is a temporal-spatial motion.
Moving forward with awareness intellectually and emotionally,
developing a vision and committing energy toward the direction, and
experiments, improvisation, starts over anew, falling and rising, experiments, improvisation
and once, slowly and/or suddenly, in a selected and dedicated direction,
moving forward gaining velocity and clarity
becomes a statement.
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Moving forward is the courage to be open and vulnerable and totally present- no right or wrong-
just following the elusive is with passion.
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Iron:
Iron is a most abundant metal, and is believed to be the tenth most abundant element in the universe.
In alchemy, iron is representative of the planet mars in astrology.
As such, iron rules physical strength, and symbolizes predominantly male energy.
It is also noteworthy that the symbol for iron is also one in the same symbol for male.
Philosophically, iron represents a need to temper primal urges while at the same to embracing the fire within.
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Lead:
Lead has a bright luster and is a dense, ductile, very soft, highly malleable, bluish-white metal that has poor electrical conductivity.
This true metal is highly resistant to corrosion.
As an alchemy symbol, lead is the ruler of the dark, lusterless prime matter.
It is governed by Saturn and combined with silverer it is said to create a purified element called the Philosophic Mercury.
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Silver:
Silver is a very ductile and malleable (slightly harder than gold) univalent coinage metal
with a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a high degree of polish.
It has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals, even higher than copper,
but its greater cost has prevented it from being widely used in place of copper for electrical purposes.
In alchemy, silver is one of the three base metals often used as prima material at the inception of a work.
Further, the alchemy symbol of silver is associated with the moon.
As such, silver holds philosophical traits of the feminine persuasion as well as attributes of intuition,
inner wisdom, and contemplation.
Furthermore, profound artistic expression can be harnessed by using silver.
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Sound/music: BODY and SOUL
At this very moment, I am searching/researching the sound/music of Body and Soul as my sound/music divining rods.
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Examples:
Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OFMkCeP6ok
Coleman Hawkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7J4PgrRsY
Anita Baker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du3kE0NqgEw&feature=related
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I await, until I know.
Timing, rhythm, convergence. confluence, research, intuition.
Mystery and trust.
A star is sparked in the depths of the sea and within the deep of night.
Then I follow.
I must.
It is is.
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BODY & SOUL Catherine L. Johnson 2011
CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 