Manifesto for a More Spiritualized Art

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I declare and affirm the following as my manifesto:

The Spiritual Purpose of Art

The higher purpose of art is spiritual - the integration of spirit or consciousness into matter or ignorance. This idea is not new, but the time is ripe for the idea to be re-affirmed.

The Artist as Shaman

The artist is one who serves as the intermediary between the visible and invisible worlds. By developing skills and consistent practice, the artist earns the honor to perform the transformative work of the shaman. The highest aspiration of the shaman artist is to serve and enlighten others. The shaman artist is the one who is called and who responds with proper intention to seek wisdom for the benefit of the many.

Proper Art

The creation of Proper Art is the goal and great work of the shaman artist. Through the creation of proper art, the shaman artist makes knowledge and wisdom available to all who would see.

Proper art is the unfiltered expression of the aesthetic logos, or internal necessity, in a corporeal form.

Proper art has no application other than to act as a transmitter of the aesthetic idea.

Proper art creates rapture, but not desire, when the viewer sees it.

Proper art is sublime - beautiful beyond personal concepts of beauty.

Form is the resonant structure of proper art, yet only with proper intention does form manifest proper art.

Doug Craft, Lakewood, Colorado, November, 2003

As mentioned in my interview, the ideas in this manifesto are derived from Wassily Kandinsky, James Joyce, Aquinas, and Joseph Campbell. If you are so inclined and would like to add your name to this affirmation, drop me an email.

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