Images reveal themselves on different levels.
The basis is the intuitive realization: the picture tells me something or not.
When I think: “The picture has something!”, it is an invitation to go one layer deeper – and to explore it.
I immerse myself in the web of the picture, its references, energies, colors, shapes and emotions.
This leads me through a complex field of observables.
Once I have gone through it, I reach the point where the picture arrives in my heart and I develop a feeling for it.
The intuitive realization is triggered.
This process takes some time and attention. Patience perhaps, and love.
In my struggle for visibility on Instagram and Tiktok, I quickly come to the realization that many do not allow themselves this time and attention for a multi-stage process of unfolding a work.
The question also arises for me: should I use simple effects that attract attention simply, quickly and effectively and can be understood and checked off even faster?
Do I feel inadequate in the face of this desire for uncomplicated consumption?
Do I do as Kalil Gibran does in his poem “Defeat” and powerfully defy this desire?
„Defeat, my Defeat, my shining sword and shield,
In your eyes I have read
That to be enthroned is to be enslaved,
And to be understood is to be leveled down,
And to be grasped is but to reach one’s fullness
And like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed.“
I don’t know.
There is something about the desire for simplicity.
It is as if this attitude – often hastily dismissed by intellectuals – wants to lead me to a core, just as a picture leads to its core through its complex references.
If I feel into this attitude, I recognize two paths:
One clumsily follows the numbing roar of the most intense sensory stimulus.
In the other, I sense a longing for simplicity and clarity in the world. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world were simple, glistening in golden light, overflowing with love?
I understand this longing and even if a post that flares up quickly and effectively cannot satisfy it, I value it as a wish and a will.
It is the will to arrive in the world that is now dawning.
A new world – shining in the golden splendor of divine love.
Take the time for this world.
It is already shimmering through everywhere.