Contemporary Artist as Shaman

49
International Society for Shamanistic Research 2009 The Artist as Shaman: an Interdisciplinary & Multicultural Consideration Denita M. Benyshek

description

Presentation at 2010 conference of the International Society of Shamanistic Research, Anchorage, Alaska.

Transcript of Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Page 1: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

International Society for

Shamanistic Research2009

The Artist as Shaman: an Interdisciplinary & Multicultural

Consideration

Denita M. Benyshek

Page 2: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

I meet my spirit animal.

Page 3: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 4: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

We travel north,

parallel to,

but not upon,

a narrow asphalt

highway.

Page 5: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

At this fenceless time in my life,

I don’t have a home.

Page 6: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 7: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

The Institution

Page 8: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

But, I continued forward.

Page 9: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 10: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

I wrote: I am White Horse in the home of my heart.

Page 11: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 12: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

The drum

represents an animal

for riding.

Page 13: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

I would become the prairie.

Page 14: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 15: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

If these routes were charted…

Page 16: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Andy Goldsworthy is “like a modern shaman, traveling the world,

leaving his undeniable mark wherever he goes” (Gibron).

Page 17: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

A shaman:

-Performs community service in response to psychological, social, or spiritual needs.

-Mediates between different states of consciousness.

-Creates connection to “higher powers” in an understood form.

Ruth Inge-Heinze

Page 18: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 19: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

The Calling

Page 20: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Personality Traits

Page 21: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Androgyny

Marcel Duchamp as Rose Selavy

Page 22: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

where two become one

Page 23: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

forming a connection…

an indication of paradise…

another trait shared…

Page 24: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

in/sanity

Page 25: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

How?

Page 26: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

“The gift turned inward, unable to be given,

becomes a heavy burden, even sometimes a kind of poison.”

May Sarton, poet

Page 27: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

A

new

empowered

identity

emerges.

Page 28: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

I come to you because I desire to see.

Page 29: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

The initiate feels cut apart, viewing limbs separated and bones exposed, dying to the former life.

Page 30: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

I felt myself gently open.

Page 31: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

In the spacious studio of my soul, I witnessed the creation of a new me.

Page 32: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Consider the word “remembering”…

Page 33: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Initiation

Page 34: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 35: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Dareyouseeasoulatthewhite heat?

EmilyDickinson

Page 36: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

“A painting is an abyss in which the eye is lost.” Paul Cezanne

Page 37: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

The artist perceives “… cosmic patterns existing beyond Newtonian space and time.”

J. Funk

Page 38: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 39: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 40: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 41: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Did I exist in three realms, past, present, and future, at the same time?

Page 42: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

In The Healing Path, I painted a

child with golden curls.

Page 43: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Later, my golden son is born.

Page 44: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

…the spirit of painting knew my son –

fifteen years before his birth.

Page 45: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

A shaman:

-Performs community service in response to psychological, social, or spiritual needs.

-Mediates between different states of consciousness.

-Creates connection to “higher powers” in an understood form.

Page 46: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

“… it is the individual shaman who translates the sacred into the secular in a language s/he creates along the way.”

Ruth Inge-Heinze

Art is a language.

Page 47: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 48: Contemporary Artist as Shaman
Page 49: Contemporary Artist as Shaman

Denita.Benyshek @ gmail.com www . denitabenyshek . com