Presentation
Speaking in a general way about my work, first of all, to highlight that they have a detailed and meticulous dimension, both in their elaboration and in their essence and secondly in the presence of an eternal repetition of small elements as if it were an obsession and that covers the entire surface of pictures, drawings or more three-dimensional pieces. I make textures that arise as a consequence of work processes that keep a certain component of controlled randomness, and that can be observed in the fluidity of the evolutions of his compositions and in small deformations and irregularities that emanate from the manual execution itself. Thus, in successive stages of construction and growth, an “ordered chaotic naturalness” arises that responds to a logic that emanates from the work and in turn finds a correlation with systems and organizations that occur in nature or in the cosmos, of a character rhizomatic or fractal.
Beginnings in meditation and yoga
For nine years I have been practicing meditation and yoga on a more or less regular basis. During this time I have been getting more and more into its practice, also in related reading that has helped me to know its origins and its underlying philosophy. I have also attended meditation classes at Buddhist and mindfulness centers to perfect my breathing techniques and body posture. It made me see that there was a world of great wisdom that made me perceive reality with greater serenity and clarity. The recitation of mantras, the focusing of the mind and the process of calming the incessant stream of thought is something that I have incorporated not only in my daily life, also during the time of work in my work. It was then that repetitions of lines or points or small elements that overlapped forming sequences and textures began to appear in my work in a not very premeditated way. These repetitions and the sobriety of visual resources, was a general trend that somehow responded to a way of expressing the need to connect with the original and profound simplicity of things and myself. Then I realized that the effects they produced on me at a physical and mental level were very similar, both those that occurred both in the practice of meditation and those that occurred at certain times during long hours of work.
Investigation
What arose intuitively I began to write down and that allowed me to objectify it. It resulted in extensive research with a special focus on drawing. I drew relationships with other artistic currents, thus emerging defined methodologies for their practice. In my research, I made comparisons with meditative and spiritual traditions of different roots; with different esoteric traditions and mediumistic artists; with new scientific research on the benefits of mindfulness; and with art therapy. I came to the conclusion that all these studies have a common link and that is to delve into consciousness and its different states. And this is something that connects a lot with my way of understanding art in general and my way of proceeding.
Meditative Elements in Drawing
What are the Meditative Elements in Drawing? What is it about?
To make an initial definition about it, I will say that it is all meditative mental state that occurs while we draw and that can be searched or not. These meditative states occur in a more or less autonomous way. They can be produced in two ways, the first sometimes occurs spontaneously and in others it is caused by a specific drawing process that brings you closer to it. In no case is it produced by causing it directly. In both cases, they provide benefits similar to traditional meditation by providing body relaxation, calm and mental focus. For better differences between these two ways, in the first it manifests spontaneously I have called it Meditation in Drawing or MD and the second way is where we have a certain attitude before drawing and that in some way we promote the meditative state helped by some guidelines previous ones and I have called it Meditative Drawing or DM.
The MD, emerged after many years making drawings of different scales but above all on a medium and large scale, I could observe that sometimes altered states of perception and consciousness related to repetitive tasks during long working hours arose. Perception was sharpened, reaching to perceive nuances that at first I was unable to see and consciousness was clarified as the flow of thoughts calmed down and that this experience generated a very evident enjoyment in me. Realizing it was not something that occurred immediately, rather it was something gradual, gradual and that over time was when I began to understand clearly that it was something much deeper than simple.simply a state of enjoyment for drawing. These drawings did not have a meditative intention, rather meditative states arose in their process without my wanting it. The MD can be given with any motif that we draw. When we are imbued with our drawing and we feel a full enjoyment of what we are doing, a state of meditation can additionally arise. In my opinion, it would be a form of meditation of less depth. The focal point would be outside our physical corporeity, we are not attentive to our breathing, we would not follow a body rhythm of repetitions with the line. At that moment we do not fully consciously look at how we hold our pencil and what energy we allow to flow through our hand. This would not happen. We would only be concentrating on the shapes we make with the strokes.
The other way called Meditative Drawing or DM, where if we become aware of our breathing, posture, way of holding the pencil and the shape of the strokes as a whole. I developed the DM later, and unlike the previous one, it requires a prior attitude, a determined organization of the workspace, an awareness of the space that surrounds us and the blank sheet in front of us, a determined and stable posture, the breathing exercises are incorporated in a decisive way, specific exercises and drawing patterns are carried out to achieve this end. Among them is the one that I call “Corporidas” where we draw in a loose and rhythmic way we become aware of our body and movements, or the exercise-asceticism that he called “Blind” where we begin to draw with closed eyes visualizing in our mind the lines that we perform on paper. The different processes are much more patterned, controlled and complex. It allows us to delve into a much deeper meditative state and the result of the drawing does not necessarily have an aesthetic purpose, although sometimes I am surprised by the great expressiveness of some results.
When we do DM, there is usually an intention to make art, to make a drawing with an artistic purpose and which we will keep for the public’s enjoyment, but when doing DM all of the above is irrelevant. In the first place, the DM is not carried out with an artistic intention, it is not intended to follow the parameters, so it is understood that an artistic drawing should follow, tell something specific, as Chantall Maillar would say, follow a balance between what is told and the form as it counts. It would not be like that. Nor would it necessarily be intended to be hung in an exhibition space for the enjoyment of a specific public. That is not the intention. The DM sheds all of that, which is why it is an extremely austere manifestation of drawing. Although for an artist it can be interesting as a way to explore other possibilities, it requires a shedding of said identity as an artist, there would be no difference between the person who considers himself an artist and the person who is not. If it is true, that after performing these exercises-ascesis of DM can help me as a starting point for a later artistic work.
The different techniques for performing Meditative Drawing related to mindfulness are well known. They are playful formulas for relaxation and free expressiveness. There are numerous books that teach you to do meditative drawing from this perspective. But I want to go one step further. The DM delves into a manifestation of drawing that is recognized as artistic but is born without the intention of being so and that uses the minimum visual elements to make itself present.
Ecstatic hallucinations are mental states closely related to the mystical dimension, which due to different factors, according to Angel Gonzales García in his book “Painting without having a clue and other essays on art”, two orders can be framed, one chemical and the other physical. Within the physical order there are triggers of a harmful nature, such as fasting, flogging or bleeding, and non-harmful ones such as meditation, self-hypnosis and rhythmic activity. I am going to focus on these three triggers as methods that generate “special” states of being in the world and perceiving it as they are closely related to DM and DM.
Certain tasks that I have been developing in my artistic process have a lot of rhythmic repetition that involves the whole body together with the need for maximum precision in execution, in painting, drawing, sculpture … etc. I demand a maximum concentration to carry it out, and to be completely imbued, which is ultimately to be very “present” in what is done. This is very analogous to meditation.
Automatic drawings, which had a great boom during the surrealist period, require a numbing of consciousness for unconsciousness to flow freely. They followed techniques very close to hypnosis or used psychotropics. In general, particular processes emerge from them (meditative, hypnotic and rhythmic) that are reflected in a kind of ornamental forms from small motifs, where factors such as depth, for example, are not present, giving rise to planimetric works with a strong sense of “tapestry”. This type of work requires a repetitive, monotonous, very hard and demanding elaboration; they are equally exhausting as the dance or the chanting of a shaman that induces an ecstatic trance. That is why I consider my drawing work as the result of a process that does not develop by superposition, but by grouping and progression and that in some way is related to everything explained above. My works become a sensation of “travel” for me, a sensation that somehow revives those who contemplate the result of the work. It is a process where the concept of “speed” does not exist and time acquires another value or is simply suspended.
The experience lived by the viewer in front of the work is of great importance to me. I am interested in the spectator’s ability to project himself since, almost inevitably, by experimenting with abstract and ambiguous forms, they create connections with reality or established signs and symbols. In this sense, my pieces act as a sounding board that allows the viewer to contemplate and listen to his own thoughts and see himself recognized and immersed in a sensory and meditative experience.
Javier León Pérez