The Cloud Gallery - Artist Tony Schaefer - Articles

Another body of work has been formulating lately. It is continuing with my exploration of Sound, Light and Colour but I’m using the frequency of 432 Hertz along with it's a relationship to Light as seen by the physical eye and the specific tone when played or sung. I am looking more at the idea of 432Hz as a tuning rather than the actual frequency itself, which relates specifically to the note of A Major and the colour range of "orange".

I have started by building 5 stretchers within the golden ratio, dimensions of 432 X 689mm. I enjoy finding correlations and symbolic relationships that appear as I am delving into an idea. There has been a lot of stuff tying the number 9 with this as well. You can look up all the symbolism that is associated with the number nine but I am more interested in the idea that 432Hz is often referred to as the frequency of the universe. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories about how and why the main musical key was changed from 432Hz to 440Hz and once again I am more interested in the sound itself and it's a relationship to colour and visual art.

Remember that I am dealing with ideas and symbols, which try to represent and go beyond the form of thing being seen/heard. I find myself in an interesting place at the moment. Can I take my spiritual experience and somehow translate it, through my artwork? After all, the concepts of A Course In Miracles and the practice that it necessitates offers a far deeper experience if you are willing to go past the actual text. For instance, in lesson 132 it plainly states 5 times "there is no world". It is, in fact, the central thought the Course attempts to teach. As a spiritual concept, this is not such a new idea but as someone who is attempting to extend the message of my awakening through a visual medium, it's problematic. After all, the idea of white paint on a white canvas has been done and I feel it was more to do with the intention of the artist as opposed to provoking the viewer into questioning the state of their reality.

This series of 5 paintings (5 objects create 4 spaces - 9) all have a colour scheme that corresponds with a note within the musical scale. A sound file will accompany each piece. I started with a completely abstract background, to symbolise that the nature of Mind is pure abstraction. From there I am building with symbols of communication and frequency and layering in meanings within these references, i.e. the number of circles and the number rings within these circles. It's subtle because I am trying to uncover how best to express these ideas, as I go along.

Once again I have an oversimplified figure so as to give the viewer a way into the painting, similar to the way Boyd would add an animal or figure as "witness" to the scene. I want to use musical notation as a sort of path as well as being an interesting compositional device and angles (45 degrees - 4+5 + 9) tied to verticals. In my earlier versions I wanted to flatten the space as a reference to the spiritual artists of the 1900s, some of whom attempted to express the 4th dimension by taking any depth out of the picture, but with this next group, I feel more depth or the illusion of it will start to find it's way back into the picture.

The thing that I struggle with, creatively and as a teacher of A Course In Miracles, is to include the activity of creating while attempting to communicate a broader message of the unreality of this place (time and space) and expose the viewer to a question about what else might be available. Until you question the nature of your purpose, as a human being, then you simply require more time.

My purpose is to expose the illusory nature of time and space and attempt to elicit some sort of engagement that promotes an internal conversation, within each individual. You know, it’s a lot simpler than all that, and words can be quite “clunky” as well...but I still have to do it. While I enjoy the activity and the process I maintain an internal dialogue, a conscious contact, as a type of request for guidance, that is ongoing whether I am washing the dishes or painting a picture.

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