Shiloh Sophia’s Temple painting in process
Red Thread Letter #887
The Artist and The Erotic
The Artist and The Erotic
The artist has agreed
to be a co-creator,
and in that agreement
becomes engorged
with potentials:
symbols, sounds, senses,
and image-incantations
that flood the psyche and
make the body full.
The power to make
according to
what they know, feel,
sense, experience
and wonder about.
Moving thought across
the veil of form
through the hands,
the feet and the body
is our sensual education.
From the energy of idea
into the matter of form,
this is life made manifest
through the causative
prowess of the artist.
Mind is often the last
of the faculties needed
and only then
to organize the raw materials
into shapes that correspond
to the invisible vision made
manifest by the artist
performing their intimate craft.
Oh yes, it is a craft.
Not a spell to bind, however.
An artist,
unbinds the bonded,
setting free the
birds lodged
in the house of constraint.
Both their own
and that of the collective
which throttles like a pulse
against the consciousness
of the artist.
At times the artist must
draw a boundary in
white chalk around their territory
to defend the ground
that is often so crowded
with the unmet needs
of the many seeking expression.
The artist has summoned
the contents of their
consciousness
into the art itself which
takes the shape of
the artist’s heart.
The art which is an artifact
of the artist conjuring from
themselves in collaboration
with creation and the natural
divinity all around them.
We do not seek to extract,
consume, denude or destruct.
Not those of us who work
with the intention of co-creation.
We seek to expound, identify,
amplify, uplift, express,
contribute, and make.
And in what we make,
to find and share beauty.
The artist is not fond of
being thought of as one
who pursues a hobby,
a skill, a side-gig or
a frivolity assigned to either
the very poor or the very rich.
We treat art and artist as
if they are not that important
meanwhile the establishment
grinds out our ideas
for the commodification
of the masses and
mass production,
art-by-the-pound,
hoping the homeopathic
doses of simulated beauty
will pass like formula
instead of breast milk,
just close enough but
not as life-giving as we need.
Many crave to consume
what the artist has,
but cannot give enough
to satisfy the craving.
Only through the making
of one’s own art can we find
what we seek.
Which is why artists who are loving
seek to invite other artists to life.
We will not hide what we know
for the sake of mystery,
we will give what we know
for the sake of beauty.
We know the artists exist and yet
we know not their deeper
function in the fabric
of every society
since the start of this experiment.
The artists have crafted the
revolutions by hand, you know.
You don’t quite notice them
as they move
about the quiet neighborhood
or busy streets, looking quite
disheveled or quite glamorous
in a jaunty hat and sunglasses.
Pockets stuffed with poetry
and necklaces of shell and bone.
Or pinstriped suits and cowgirl
boots, you never can be sure.
Yet sure as the day is long,
I tell you this:
Artists are healers,
weaving the world together
with the threads of longing.
The threads discarded
by those who claim
to be too busy and
too important to
divine the needs of the day
from a drawing board
or potting wheel or pot of soup.
Too busy to make with intention.
Yet to make without it,
is disastrous for all.
So we shall go forward,
both seen and unseen,
ministering to the sick of heart,
the confused of story,
and those hungry for meaning.
Setting caged birds free
at every turn of the wheel.
For an artist makes every
attempt to inhabit the vessel
of self they are given
to care for,
in full sensuality.
For that vessel of
stardust blood is the
alchemical chamber
from which creation
springs forth onto the
scenes of life.
The artist makes use
of the erotic, bursting
forth their potentials
into shapes, sounds,
symbols, vessels,
songs, bowls, stories
and bounty to share with all.
Every village needs artists
for without them
the true vision is lost.
A village without a vision
soon loses trees and shade
in favor of parking lots
and blinding lights.
We must nurture those
who envision the future
that make it possible
to find the way forward.
Artists tell the stories
that become legends.
They don’t just report on
what has already happened,
rather they bring to life
what could be, might be.
Our studios are sanctuaries
studded with stars
and swelling with promise.
The artist makes use of
the erotic every time
we create.
Every time we create,
life flows forth.
~ Shiloh Sophia
For today’s Red Thread Letter, I wanted to share my most recent writing and painting that comes from the work we do with Intentional Creativity.
This writing arose from my Temple Painting in Process and PRISMA’s teaching on Connection. In Temple we have been exploring all things erotic, sensual and inviting our whole body to guide us. It has been an incredible journey!
Part of the work we teach is to experience the fullness of who we are and how to express it in our lives through intentional, loving acts of creativity. I am so grateful to have this beautiful gift in my life to walk beside me through the best and darkest of times…
I would love for you to join me this Sunday for some powerful storytelling in circle, and to explore joining us for Legend 2022 – our most popular course known to turn lives into Legends and give you access to your own voice.
Wherever this finds you today, know that I am thinking of you and sending love along the red thread.
“The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire.” ~ Audre Lorde
