The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth

And this brings me back to the question with which Junko and I struggled so hard for so many years: Why on earth does God need to paint? Each of us has arrived at an answer—but you will not be surprised to hear that our answers are slightly different. For me, the answer comes with the observation that Junko’s studio is another athanor all by itself. In her centripetal art, all the things I have spoken of in this book—the memories, the cultural influences, the psychological, philosophical, and religious ideas, the narratives, the courage, and the altered states of the mystic—all are thrown together, and transformed and refined, and out come the art works. This I would say is an authentic process of creation similar to God’s own process, and this, I think, is why God has to paint. His creation is not and never was the making of something out of nothing, but it is rather the process of encountering the world in utter honesty, and transforming it by making it manifest to us.7 This process is never complete: God requires our participation to complete it.8 And centripetal art is one of the highest forms of participation. For Junko, this participation is something that happens between the artist and the viewer. As she has written, Art has the power to help penetrate and crumble down the viewer’s own defensive wall, to help him become a whole person and to step even further towards the divine presence in himself. What is required of the artist here is not to create “religious figures” or “mythological symbols.” Instead the artist dives into his or her deepest personal abyss—to the depth where the most personal thing has become the most universal. If the artist succeeds in going through this most difficult, dangerous process truthfully, only then, encountering the art, the viewer might follow a journey to his or her own transcending. God needs to use this deepest personal abyss where the most personal thing has become the most universal because this is the mystery of art. It is through this mystery that God reveals Himself at the center of each of us. May this book move you to ask this question for yourself, and to formulate the answer that is most convincing to you. part two // chapter 7 The Role and Mission of the Artist p. 295

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth

PREFACE

-Definition of Centripetal Art -Its Place In Art History: After the Postmodern Period -Introducing the Subject Matter: One Centripetal Artist's Journey -The Relationship With Multiculturalism -After the Death of God and of Art

FOREWORD

-How the Author's Connection With His Wife's Art Grew More Intimate Over the Years -Learning In Marriage -"Why Does God Need To Paint?" [Section One] Individual Visitants -Dead Flowers and Root -Lungs and Rib Cage

CHAPTER FOUR - A Vital Spirituality

-Why This Art Could Not Have Been Created Earlier -Echoes of the Spiritual Arts of the Early 20th Century -The Impact of the Atomic Bomb; Ecological Concerns -Markers for Spirituality -Centripetal Art Overflows the Studio: Therapy

CHAPTER SIX - A Complex Spirituality

-Spirituality of the 21st Century

AFTERWORD - THE FURNACE

-Polytheism and Monotheism in Art -Goethe’s Aphorism -Marriage and the Alchemist’s Furnace Themes In Series

PREFACE

(Page I) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth - -Definition of Centripetal Art (Page II) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth - -The Relationship With Multiculturalism (Page III) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth - -After the Death of God and of Art (Page IV) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth -

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