Weightless Phenomena Frozen In the Maelstrom of Substantiality Painting

In order to effect not writing any more weighty essays and not creating meaning-burdened paintings, I decided to draw spontaneous cartoons as I had in the past. And than maybe if I particularly liked one, I would, with a relaxed attitude, turn it into a painting. So then a couple of months ago I drew three cartoons in less than an hour, one of them being “Cuisine-Art.” So far so good, but even before I had finished turning it into a painting, the title had indicatively transformed into the ponderous Weightless Phenomena Frozen In the Maelstrom of Substantiality, not a good sign. I’m not sure whether even spontaneously my mind gravitates toward these heavy themes or whether it’s more that I read these meanings into any image. It’s the same idea I’ve been harping on for awhile, but now I feel I’ll be able to present it more clearly than ever before. Here it is again: even though we think otherwise, we have no direct access or contact with substantiality or anything physical and that it might be good to examine this. Even something as extreme and seemingly undeniably physical as getting stabbed or hit by a car, if looked at closely instant by instant, consists of nothing but mental sensations, unsubstantial phenomena. The appearance of physicality arises as a logical deduction, and explanation of these mental phenomena by placing them in a context of some mental narrative, coming up with the why and the how. The “maelstrom” in the title comes from the circularity of these logical deductions and narratives both causing and reinforced by the strong feelings produced. We are so bamboozled by the whirlwind of our fears and repulsions on the one hand and our desires and cravings on the other that we can no longer see through the narrative of substantiality to its underlying mental-phenomenal nature, or only by making great effort. These narratives and the maelstrom of emotions that they prompt require vast expenditure of energy to power, and thus it would seem easy to just shut them down. But I think we have become addicted to the excitement of squandering such a vast amount of energy. And it’s like with other addictions. Let’s take smoking. Even though it costs a lot of money, one may know it’s damaging and shortens one’s life, one may be forced to frequently trek out of the place where one works, or even ones home, to endure various forms of bad weather to smoke outside, so that it should, with so much negative motivation, be the easiest thing in the world to just stop. But we know mostly, it isn’t. So since it’s difficult to stop, and if one doesn’t mind squandering the energy, is there any other good reason to discontinue mistaking mental phenomena as substantial. Let me set up another metaphor. Let’s try hard to imagine as vividly as possible being on a quiet dark street at night. You are walking alone in a neighborhood that appears a little seedy and looking around you don’t see a single soul. But then you hear a noise behind you and you find, though you can’t see his face, a tall sinister-looking man following behind you. Maybe you are just imagining he is following you, though he is definitely getting closer, but when you abruptly cross the street, he crosses too. Now you are certain something bad is going to happen. Would you be afraid in this situation? If this situation would frighten you, then death, whatever you try to pretend, will frighten you a hundred times more. This man probably will steal some things from you, maybe hurt you, but death definitely takes every penny, every possession, nothing is left. Death is going to strip you of every hope, every interest, every relationship, everything you think of as you or yours. This isn’t my own pessimistic philosophy I’m presenting here. What I’m presenting is the actual logical conclusion of a belief in the material, of substantiality. Though I, too, am emotionally and psychologically stuck in these beliefs, having examined carefully each instant as it shows up in reality, I at least logically and intellectually see that there is actually no contact of any kind possible with substantiality. So I believe there is something death has no sway over and if we tried we could recognize this. Doing so would mean not only wouldn’t we have to be afraid at that extreme moment that we think of as death, we could remain tranquil at night on the dark street or at any time that from our perspective now appears stressful and frightening. So acquiescing to this normal interpretation that there is true substantiality makes us feel very precious and valuable, as though we were pieces in a museum, but unfortunately this turns out to be a museum that is located inside the bowl of a high-powered blender for which there is already a finger reaching to press the button for pureed.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:24 W x 32 H x 1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.