Room 1-2-3 (4-5)

  Room 1-2-3 (4-5)   Digital design concept

Drawing on influences European, American, and Asian, and occupying the lower half of the Cornfield  ground opposite Chorale,  is the mural  Room 1-2-3 (4-5) .     

A mural of five paintings in oil, Room  features compositional elements in groups of ones, twos, and threes . .  and fours and fives . . and is themed on the Yogic philosophy of the Five Functions of Consciousness.  In addition to the more obvious three functions of Nature - creation, sustenance, and dissolution - there is also the function of grace, wherein you perceive God, Self, or Spirit, both within and without . . . and the function of concealment, in which such knowledge and direct experience of God is hidden or forgotten, the Self as pure Consciousness is yet to be recognized.  

Whatever happens in the Universe - within the world of one's culture, within the body and mind, within relationships to other beings and our environment - manifests as one or more of these five functions.  In this understanding of the Yoga of Knowledge, God plays all the roles in the ultimate game of hide and seek, from the motions of the spheres to our most intimate thoughts and feelings.   There's always  Room  for Consciousness to appear.

The same principles are echoed in  Room's  companion piece, Burning Sheaves.

                                                                                                 Room 1-2-3 (4-5)     48"H  x  23'0"W    oil on linen and wooden panel   

    Jain Painter (creation)       Cornucopia - Blessing of the Corn (grace)         Olympia (sustenance)          Death of the Corn Goddess? (concealment)          Shiva (destruction)

                                                                                                               Above:   Burning Sheaves     48"H  x  66"W    oil on canvas        

                                                                                                                         Burning Sheaves     48"H  x  66"W     oil on canvas  

                                                                                                                                                  Cornfield Storyboard    Plate 3 of 33

                                                                        (Center image:   Bhagavan Nityananda  of Ganeshpuri, India, as a young yogi      Photo credit:  unknown)

                                                                                           "Find that flame,  that love,  that wonderful Man,  who can burn beneath the water.

                           Cornfield: An Artstory   in the round  - Sun Dance

                                                                                                           Artwork and design  © James Nichols 1976-2024    All rights reserved