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PRAXIS
Victoria Musson

The link between art and spirituality has oft been both mysterious yet palpable. The Praxis project is an effort to make the historically ethereal connection between these themes more tangible by inviting artists to describe how the two interrelate within their work. We reached out to artists and proposed to them a question: How would you define the role of spirituality within your art practice and how do you feel this affects your artwork?

Here you will find their answers.

 “The connection with the soil is a spiritual experience.”

 

For an artist or crafts person, the act of creation and the formation of ideas into existence is a spiritual journey. To make and bring to life art is to manifest a form by alchemy into a visual configuration for the world to see. To impress or repulse the eyes of another is all part of the spiritual experience of the creator. Art transcends boundaries of language, belief and culture and reveals without restriction. Inspiration and ideas for original creations are to be found in both the mundane and the extraordinary levels of existence. The artist is but a vessel that translates in a visual form for others. The journey is not always a simple process and can take on many challenges.  When one creates, one is a God, for one manifests being into existence. Spirituality is not religion, it is free from boundaries and a mover of both heart and soul. Our senses and bodies work better with visual and auditory stimulation. Music and dance have the power to instantly evoke emotion; visual art also. Spirituality is something that we feel with immense passion in our very souls. When an artist creates, they let a power flow out and it fuses into a magical manifested form.

Harvest Home, the Last Cut © Victoria Musson

“The landscape is alive and breathing.”

 

My own individual creations are born into this world by the passion that is in my head, hands and heart. I use natural fibre that is grown upon ancient land. My ancestors are buried in this soil and so I feel a connection to a power that manifests itself creatively. The landscape is alive and breathing. My art can take up to nine months to grow and mature, on land that family members have toiled upon in all seasons for centuries. This plant growing season mimics the time for human life to grow in the womb.

I am a simple daughter of the earth as my father is a son of the soil and so I have a duty to be a guardian to the genius Loci of my land. The change of season and the power of the elements both foul and fair are amalgamated in my fecund creations. I watch patiently and walk repetitively upon the land throughout each season as I see energy and potential art growing in the fields. I hand reap each grain and stalk of cereal crop at the optimal time. I connect with past generations as I hand harvest. The connection with the soil is a spiritual experience. Modern machinery has replaced the old power upon the land and the job can be accomplished within days as opposed to weeks of incredible backbreaking toil. To be physically in a field and listening to the response of the crop as it is hand reaped is not only magical but otherworldly and deeply spiritual. I am truly at home when I am totally alone as the sun goes down in a large landscape and I smell the sweet smell of summer earth and cultivated crops. The gentle breezes passing through each cereal head, the deer jumping, foxes or hares running through and raptors’ cries high above the fields is my form of heaven on earth. This is my home and where my spirit belongs.

Field Offerings, Red Earth © Victoria Musson

“Art transcends boundaries of language, belief and culture and reveals without restriction.”

Dark Harvest Spirits © Victoria Musson

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