The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth

personal to the universal. I was amazed to see that art has such a mysterious power to reach people’s souls and that something in Junko’s art unlocks the hearts even of strangers. Married people learn from each other whether they want to or not. In those early years, Junko would sit with me on our couch and we would look together at reproductions of art works she admired. she would show me drawings by Rembrandt, and call my attention to the brush strokes, the “breathing,” and how each work could be “read.” she did the same with paintings she admired by klee, by Rouault, by de kooning, and others, showing me how honest their lines were to their inner worlds. Then she showed me masterworks of Japanese art, and showed me how to look at them. This was not by any means a systematic course in art appreciation, but it was the kind of steady teaching, administered in small doses by a loved one, that makes the deepest change in the student. Just as they say that drops of water can melt stone if they are sustained over a period of time, in that way my own identity as one who had no interest in art was melted away and I began to be interested in art and to identify myself as someone who was interested in it. at the same time, I began to find a way into my own inner world. I decided to leave the computer business as a lifework and to devote myself to law—which I saw then as a more direct way of helping people and affirming eternal values. But I am jumping ahead of myself: it was before these things, when we came into contact with a spiritual and psychic teacher in Japan, that both Junko’s attitude toward her art and my attitude toward her art and my own life underwent a transformation. This is discussed more fully in Chapter Two. Before he ever saw Junko or any reproductions of her art, this teacher told an acquaintance of Junko’s that he saw Junko’s art psychically and that God was painting through her. The acquaintance relayed this information to us and both of us were surprised and mystified. “Why on earth does God need to paint?” Junko whispered. she intended this as a slightly humorous way of asking, What is essentially important about art? forword p. 3

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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