Art for Earth

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How can we save the planet from ourselves? The opposites that exist within us are the same ones that attract us to art. Connection and transcendence need not be mutually exclusive. They can co-exist and flourish, given the right environment. Art is the neutral, but fertile ground that tolerance grows in. By letting our true nature play itself out through the imagination, maybe we can do ourselves some good and do less harm to the place we call home.

Since it’s Earth Day, maybe it’s time to ask, “Why are humans destroying their environment?” No other animal intentionally destroys its habitat. We’re apt to blame ignorance and greed for the damage done but they are only the agents of a more deep-seated pattern of behavior within our species, one that’s easier to understand if we look at ourselves from the viewpoint of our origins.

If we consider the soul of all life as a band of vibrational energy that the earth floats through as it circles the sun on its way around the universe, and see that human biology has managed to develop the means to attract, catch and temporally confine that energy and turn it into a mechanism for our organism’s survival, then it’s not so hard to imagine that humans would want to hold onto the soul, and at the same time, be possessed by the nature of its naturally free movement. We feel a need to hold onto the soul for our corporal survival, and at the same time, are infused with the soul’s yearning to be let go.

Can the desire for freedom be satisfied without destruction of the environment? Would leaving earth be best for it and ourselves? If we stay, must our soul be destroyed to save the planet? Religion advocates for the acceptance of less, to gain more. Wanting to not want, if practiced by all, promises to bring our world into balance. Science advocates for achievement through research. Anything is possible if we understand everything. Logic will lead to the answers if followed with unwavering discipline. We’ve tried, and continue to try, both approaches, seeking inward and reaching outward. The environment is caught between the differences, to its detriment.

Our species has developed to the point of being aware of our own evolution but not how to direct it in a positive manner. Our brains have outgrown our animal instincts; the ones that kept us in sync with earth’s rhythms for millions of years. We can now think beyond our physicality and that frustration is killing us, and consequently poisoning everything we touch. The earth must now be constantly responding and adjusting to the myriad self-distractions and self-destructions we invent to avoid facing the truth of our situation.

We keep surrendering to the subconscious superstition that the only way for the soul to escape the confinement of being here, is for the earth not to be here. Climate change is the physical manifestation of our psychological urge to be free of constraint. It’s not about going someplace else, it’s to be where there’s no limit to the going. To be ever-expanding is the goal of the soul. 

Since it doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere soon, in the short term due to the pandemic crisis, and in the long term, because we’re inexorably tied to earth, maybe a fresh outlook is in order. Taking Earth’s biome as an example, we can flourish through adaptive living. By concentrating on the availability of food, clothing, shelter, mobility and art for everyone and holding fast to those priorities, the species can find contentment within its confine. We can breathe easy, and allow Earth to do likewise.

Pictured above:
SLATE BAUBLE, sculpture, red & green Vermont slate, Lexel adhesive, 1 meter in diameter, Dummerston, VT, 2017-2018. 

The stormy surface of Jupiter provided inspiration for the bands of color that circle Slate Bauble. The form developed with the aid of a plywood template spun on a central spindle. Chips of stone were trimmed, and fitted in place with a dab of adhesive, throughout the construction, to make a solid, 1,000-pound, completed work.