Patricia Robin Woodruff, an artist who’s inspiration and creativity is rooted in the mountains, nature and spirituality. She came to the artistic mecca of Floyd, VA drawn by its art, music and creative kindred spirits. When she needs solitude, she retreats to her homestead in the Appalachian mountains of PA, which is a geodesic dome run off of solar power, deep in the woods. Her goal is to create art that goes beyond the visual, to connect with the viewers mind and soul.
You can see more of her work at:
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We Are Co-creators of the Universe
In the book, “The Mission of Art”, Alex Grey goes on to say that “the artist brings the infinite into finite form...” “An artist’s divine imagination, their soul, links the infinite presence of God with the finite physical world where the artist brings spirit to form.”
This understanding of my art merges with my current understanding of my spiritual beliefs. As Inigo Montoya says in the movie, The Princess Bride, “Let me explain…no, there is too much. Let me sum up...”
Imagine the beginnings of the Universe... Everything condensed into one single point, which exploded outward filling the emptiness with matter. All the matter/energy of the Universe, forming and coalescing into suns and planets. Our tiny planet spinning and transforming. The energy solidifying into matter becoming water and land and living things. Single-celled creatures mutating and transforming into more and more complex forms. Complex living things in the ocean, moving onto land, transforming and changing. Such a wonder of variety... fish, insects, birds, mammals and people. Green things transforming the energy of the sun into itself. Animals eating the plants/sun-energy and transforming it into itself. We are all made of “star stuff.” We are matter. We are energy. Other names that have been used to identify this energy can be Spirit, Magic or God. We have that God-force within us and are continuing the process of creation. We imagine things and then we turn that energy solid; into art, relationships, writing or inventions.
Science tells us that very element heavier than hydrogen has been forged in the heart of a star. In the television show, Babylon-5, J. Michael Straczynski stated through the wise character of Delenn the perspective that all living beings are created from the same elements that make up the Babylon-5 space station and the stars (ie. nitrogen, iron, hydrogen, etc). Delenn states, “We are star stuff. We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out.”
Different thinkers have come to the same conclusion and have been able to verbalize it in different ways... Ann Kent Rush stated, “Creativity is really the structuring of magic.” Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali mystic stated “ The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day, runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass, and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.” Stephen Nachmanovitch, a musician, author and computer artist said, “The imagination is our true self, and is in fact the living creating God within us.”
In everything we do, we are channeling that energy. Our drive to have children is channeling that creative force. The artist with their paintbrush, the poet and writer with their pen, the computer programmer turning numbers into webpages, all are tapping into that creative force. Rumi said, "Hundreds of thousands of impressions from the invisible world are eagerly wanting to come through you. I get dizzy with the abundance." How do *you* co-create with the Universe?