'Vision Crystal' by Alex Grey
I’m a fan of the visionary artist Alex Grey (http://alexgrey.com/).
I came to know of Alex Grey through the music of TOOL (http://www.toolband.com/) and have since collected all his books, purchased his artwork and prints, donated to his project The Chapel Of Sacred Mirrors (http://www.cosm.org/) and am also in the midst of completing an epic back tattoo of his ‘Vision Crystal’ piece (http://www.twitpic.com/grbhp).
Alex Grey talks about the ‘Vision Crystal’ in his book “The Mission of Art“…
I painted the Vision Crystal after seeing it during a meditation. It appeared as a multi-dimensional living crystal, glowing and growing, continuing to sprout facets with eyes seeing in all directions. Each eye in each facet of the Vision Crystal seemed to symbolize a worldview represented by an artist’s work.
The vast history of art opens us to multiple views of self and world, and this transcendental object pointed to Art’s continuing capacity to expand our minds and hearts. In the center of the Vision Crystal is the fulminating energizing sun of universal creativity, the source of all visions manifested as the Eye of God.
Each artist is a facet of God’s unfolding infinite vision, refracting the light of awareness in their own particular way. The shallows and shadows and terrors of life are just as much a part of the Vision Crystal as views of abstract beauty, spiritual heavens and our precious endangered planet.
- Alex Grey
By the time I had come to read “The Mission of Art” it quite surprised me how close my own initial interpretation of the ‘Vision Crystal’ (and the reasoning for getting it done as a tattoo) were to Alex Grey‘s interpretation.
And although Alex Grey has an innate ability to explain the thought processes and intentions behind his art, I actually find his work has no need for explanation and is able to be perceived through all the levels of human experience regardless of cultural, religious or social differences.
The concept of Integral Art is considered to be a bit of a tricky subject to define. The main concern for most people is the basic question of “what is integral art, and how do you know it when you see it?”
Personally I feel that you’ll know Integral Art when you see it (or more aptly, you’ll feel it).
To me for an artist’s work to be considered ‘Integral‘ it must be able to speak to you on a level that transcends any form of linguistic definition.
But much more importantly (to use the AQAL terminology…) the artist themselves should at least be capable of a 2nd-tier level of understanding & awareness.
My feeling is that although an integral ‘being’ may not have the necessary skills to paint like Leonardo da Vinci or Claude Monet, the context of the piece they are working on as well as the meaning and intentions behind the art would justify the title of ‘Integral Art‘ as they would have a wider and more accepting perspective on the experience that they are painting from.
Just because someone can paint like an artist doesn’t mean that ‘what’ they create will have any real substance or integrity (for an explanation on what I mean by “2nd-tier” and any other references I give to Integral Theory and the AQAL framework then please refer to the book “The Integral Vision” by Ken Wilber which is a light introduction to the subject and its concepts).
I’m interested to hear more discussion on this subject and what other people think qualifies as being ‘Integral Art‘ so please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions.