Art is our oldest and richest form of environmental awareness. The earliest artistic expressions we know (the great paleolithic cave paintings and neolithic ceremonial sites) are celebrations of natural wonder. Long before science, art, and religion were viewed as separate realms, these works constellated the keenest knowledge our ancestors possessed of the heavens and the Earth. In environmental affairs, we rarely hear from artists. Artists themselves often prefer to let their work speak for them. So the discussion of environmental issues tends to be monopolized by scientists, economists, and political activists. Yet one of the values that all agree is most at stake is natural beauty, which one major modern psychotherapist, Rollo May, identified as a primary human need. If May is right, then environmentalists have more to work with than they realize. And where can we expect to learn more about beauty than from the artists and especially from the movement that critic and scholar Suzi Gablik has called the re-enchantment of art? For this issue of Ecopsychology On-Line, we asked Christopher Castle, our arts editor, and the New Mexico painter Colleen Kelley to tell us how they view the fate of the Earth. Their statements may seem very different from the language of science and politics; certainly their words are far more personal and subjective. In what they think, see, and say, artists trust to their emotional convictions. But precisely because they speak as ecologists of the heart, their work may have a greater power to change our values and our behavior than facts, figures, and technical analysis. Here is certainly one place that ecopsychology can look for a new, environmentally-grounded standard of sanity.

Retrieving an Ancient Ecology Christopher Castle

AS WE MOVE from mindless exploitation of the physical world to a more awakened ecological understanding based on unity and interconnection, we do well to have at least one eye on the 115k image ancient past. Archaeology has revealed that patterns and symbols of prehistoric peoples enfold in their layers of meaning a perception of the world which, though of another context, has deep significance for our way forward.          Patterns previously reduced and approximated to "decoration" or "primitive," in light of new science and systems theory, now can be seen to offer forms of consciousness that demonstrate precisely the kind of wholistic thinking that is required today. Concentric circles on a stone from Neolithic Ireland no longer merely represent an arcane significance beyond our knowledge. Rather, they are specific to their location and express an awareness of the energetic ontology of that place. Neolithic stone circles are receptacles of a vanished cosmology linking people to place and the cycles of time. Such sites gather the influences in the land around them and focus the subtle networks of connections in the region: geographical, mythological, geological, biological, meteorological, astronomical. This awareness, however, presupposes a profound sensitivity on the part of the observer or participant in the location. It is also identical to contemporary ecological understanding of place.

With electricity pulsing in the wiring of our houses, electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths, visible and invisible, permeating the space in which we live our lives, and all the other less subtle forms of interference intruding, it is little wonder our senses no longer respond and interact with the subtle energies our ancestors could feel.         Through my work I actively seek to develop my senses and engage the world in a kind of conversation. I am not an observer; my part is as a player, yet science forms the base from which I explore intuitively and emotionally.          The interpersonal and environmental become one at the level of sensitivity I am referring to here. Interdependence is not a theoretical idea, but a living, dynamic experience. Wonder at nature is not a romantic fantasy but a renewal of the ancient, polytheistic, pagan vision, a healthy involvement of the heart and mind in the processes of life of which we are a part. My work spans several media. All are utilized as a means to awaken, first in myself, then later in my viewer or audience, this ancient experience of an integral world.          Drawing is (unfashionably) at the heart of my visual work. My studies of the physical and metaphysical structure of trees gave rise to a series of large scale charcoal drawings. Utilizing the transient, even entropic forms of tree life, the carbon of charcoal, the series on the redwood tree of California sprang to life. From leaf to the full canopy of the tree, from an architectural study of the pine cone to an aerial vista of a full forest, the exploration was conceived of as a whole and led eventually to including the cellular structure of the tree's root. Perceptual shifts inspire changes of medium. In this case the voice of the tree became audible when the rhythmic pattern became visible.          My recent musical compositions are living maps of terrain at many scales. Specific land forms, cellular structure, animal tracks, stellar geometries, and human statistics are some of the systems for which I am finding visual and musical equivalents. The merging of visual and musical modes effects an engagement of human perception and emotion in the particulars of place. This represents a renewal of our covenant with the patterns of life encoded in the forms and processes of nature, and especially with the depths and details of our locale.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART Colleen Kelley

This issue of Ecopsychology On-Line features the art of Colleen Kelley, a New Mexico painter whose work is deeply ecological in spirit and content. She is one of the creators of The Box, a fine arts and crafts project that is intended to school the ecological sensibilities, and a co-founder of Living Systems Training, an educational initiative that works with corporations and other institutions to develop a greater sense of environmental responsibility. This is her response to a request from Ecopsychology On-Line for a statement about her art.

I FEEL MY art has always been influenced by world mythologies and 149k image archetypal symbols that arise from deep parts of the human psyche. As a child who converted to Roman Catholicism, my room was layered with images of the saints and angels and I built very elaborate shrines. Even after leaving these formative roots, in art school I found myself creating images influenced by my early spiritual impressions. My work has taught me to see into the mysteries of life and contact that realm from which symbols arise and has helped me to unveil a wisdom contained in some familiar yet mysterious realm. My work is always ahead of me,leading me where I must go. It is like a personal revelation from deeper layers of my being not accessed in any other way.

Since my spiritual path has led me to a perception of the preciousness of all life and how it informs us, I am drawn to create icons of subjects that have been de-souled by our rationalist and mechanistic perception of the world. As I work with these images, I seek to heal misperceptions and wounds and to restore a spiritual view of all things.         In my most recent work, I am exploring more deeply the mysterious nature of the world and more directly experiencing my heart-felt response to the energy of the moment. I want my work to beckon the observer into a "dialogue" with the image and thereby discover or remember some essential truth.         James Hillman, the Jungian psychotherapist, has stated that the language of the heart is a symbolic one, so through my work I seek to engage in this dialogue with the viewer. Colleen Kelley Térma Box 5495 Santa Fe, NM 87502

Back to the Eco-Psy Homepage

© 1997 The Ecopsychology Institute