Tinker toys, lumber scraps, crayons, pencils, paper, coloring
books, comic books, few playmates, extreme shyness, non-verbal interchanges,
creative isolation, inner-world imagination, no TV, limited radio,
victory gardens, nature in all seasons, collections of colored soil
and stones, cutting patterns in the summer grass or making mazes in
the winter snow are memories of pre-school life. These experiences
or memories are still a source of happiness and are registered as blissful
moments that fuel my 'zinger' experiences with the world. 'Zingers'
are those moments when ego does not exist and I become one with the
universe and totally free.
This is also my experience
when I am in creating mode whether it be a drawing, painting, gardening,
cooking, even chores that allow you to travel in your mind while doing
something else. When I am able to reach this inner space as I am painting
or in any creative action, I have lost contact with time, with the events
of life, and am able to allow my subconscious, and I hope, my unconscious
material to surface. Because I am well grounded artistically in the principles
and elements of design, that part of consciousness seems to be able to
direct the painting. It is as if I have a participation arrangement with
some greater force or information center. I seem to be able to enter
the intuitive state at will. Anything perceived as beautiful can also
trigger a 'zinger' experience: fall colors, the sound, smell, and taste
of the sea, or the emotional connection to a loved one. But it is the
sustained activity of creating that drives me to paint which sets off
the 'zinger' putting me in touch with the universe, something bigger
than me, that I have come to embrace and love.
