System Definitions

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Within this work, myth does not mean fiction, invention, or falsehood.

It refers to a symbolic mode of expression through which real experience, deep pattern, and lived truth may be carried in narrative form.

Myth is the language through which certain realities become communicable when ordinary descriptive language is insufficient.

It preserves meaning that is experiential, archetypal, and structural at once.

In this context, myth does not move away from truth.

It moves toward a form capable of holding truth at greater depth. 

Within this work, cosmology does not refer simply to a general theory of the universe.

It refers to a structured interpretation of relationships revealed across lived experience, long-term observation, archive material, symbolic pattern, and interaction with a living Earth.

Cosmology is the layer in which recurring elements become intelligible as part of a larger system.

It does not replace the archive.

It reads the archive.

It does not invent the field.

It articulates the structure of the field as it becomes visible through continuity, duration, and recognition.

In this body of work, cosmology is therefore not abstract speculation.

It is interpretive structure emerging from the documented process itself.
 

Excerpt from Message From the Artist 

"Joseph Campbell once wrote,...."The images of myth are reflections of the spiritual potentialities of every one of us. Through contemplating these, we evoke their powers in our own lives".

In contemplating ancient myths and archetypes in the creations of many of the gallery's images and writings, their powers were evoked and reflected the spiritual relationships and potentialities within my own life. I have found the re-discovery of cosmic myths to be a spiritual process. Many answers about our existence lie in mythology. 

Author of the "Solarian Legacy", by Paul Von Ward writes,...

"A myth may include a veiled explanation of an enduring truth, as in Plato's allegory of the cave or Jesus's parable of the mustard seed. Humanity needs a new "human-in-the-cosmos myth", a new description of our Solarian Legacy , one that is powerful enough to encompass believable explanations of our stellar past, includes theories for things unseen, and leads to significant behavioral choices. It will deal with such profound issues as the creation of the universe and it's creatures, evolution of social institutions, and human relationships with nature and other beings. It's recitation will connect seemingly disconnected events to reveal their inner meanings. Such a myth for the twenty-first century will recall the perennial wisdom of the past, consolidate and integrate the lessons of many cultures, and take advantage of the insights of science that can be validated through human experience.

Perhaps in some way, the gallery's collective work, along with the work of many others as we enter a new millennium, helps to plant a seed for this "new human-in-the-cosmos-myth" intended to serve humanity in a new era of time to come. 

A contemporary "Mythic Naturalist" artist Jonathon Earl Bowser writes;

" A myth is any enduring story that engages the mystery of existence, and thereby seeks to relate the human experience to the divine. It is the expression of the irresistible human need to touch and comprehend in this touching-some sacredness that we feel around us. In our modern technological world, myth has become a pejorative term; when we say something is mythical, we mean that it is fictitious-not real. This is a tragic corruption of it's original meaning. A myth is not something that is out there in the world that is waiting to be revealed through archaeological revelation. It is not any kind of phenomenal truth that can be apprehended by the senses. A myth lives in the shadow world of the unconscious; it is a Noumenal Truth: Like Love, it is a real-world, real Truth, that can never be proven to exist; it can only be apprehended by the mind. The enlightenment of wisdom and awareness are hidden, waiting to be retrieved from the forbidding labyrinth of the universal dreamscape-the mind itself."

The SunSpirit: A Myth, an artform, an enduring vision of the underlying spirit that is contained in all things seen,.....and unseen. Even if a myth cannot ever be proven, or apprehended by the senses (as we know them), it is a part of a collective consciousness. Perhaps it is the re-emergence of a "sixth sense", or the development of multi-dimensionality, that will connect and serve as a link to our ancient past, while blazing a brand new path to our future. Spirituality to me is in relationships. That inter-connectedness between humans, nature, the cosmos, each other, ourselves, and with God. It is the hope and intent of this work, to express this fusion of "connectivity" by demonstrating spiritual relationships in cultures, religions, sciences, and myths.,..through art.

I have learned much about the realm of "SunSpirit" while creating this work,...some of which I am still learning and re-membering. But primarily, I have come to learn of this "Spirit of the Sun" as the connection, or the union of "Spirit" with the " higher self", in each of us, as one with the creator of Heaven and Earth and all that exists in between."

"Veiled in the romance between all things that are separate and apart, awaits the enlightenment of completion in unity".

End Excerpt