What if Chicken Little is Mistaken?
Art and the Search for a Centered Self

by Nancy Emeral Haygeman

As I went through my day yesterday I started counting the number of times I heard or saw something that referred to "Wall Street and our failing economy." I stopped at 27 but kept making mental notes of the tone of the conversations and written material–words like "dark uncertainty, dangerous, the bottom, tanking, opportunity for terrorists." Everything I heard and saw was steeped in fear and great anxiety.

The challenges we face at this remarkable time in history are very real–that much is clearly available to see and hear. There is much discussion focusing on how to meet those challenges on a national and global scale. What is not so available is how to meet the challenges on a personal level. Where can the individual find access to internal quiet and peace of mind and heart in the face of deep uncertainty? This is where the human community has need of the artists, and poets…the visionaries that point the way to a greater experience of life beyond that of reaction to the external chaos all around.

I am an artist, and I live from the inside out. I believe that in order to meet all that is going on around us we must be in close contact with our central unified self, our core of personal integrity. If not, we are at risk of having to run, and suffer the gauntlet of the news and happenings of the day in the battering and shattering of the marketplace and global relations. In this country we are currently at war in the Middle East, we are at war in the political arena, and in the marketplace. Where can we find peace? Peace that is not the absence of involvement, but a vivid experience of aliveness emanating from a spacious, central self. We can find access to the deep, personal peace our weary souls are hungering for in and through engaging with art.

I have a life long practice of looking into the nature of things…I am fascinated by the world around me and how it all fits together; the intricacy of a dewy spider web in the early morning; a piece of finely crafted machinery; the dance of our solar system. Looking out from eyes of wonder, I am seeking to understand the meaning and purpose of our existence in time and space, our evolving universe, and the extraordinary connections that exist between all things.

Along the way I have found the natural world to be my greatest teacher. While near the deafening roar of white water in a mountain river or in the midst of a vocal ‘murder’ of crows I find balance and sensibility between order and chaos, as well as creative inspiration and dignity to my questioning mind. In the vastness of nature I find access to explore the spaciousness of my own inner landscape. It is this I attempt to communicate through language and on canvas. In painting I have found a vehicle of expression for my life aspiration–to grapple with the human journey, here and beyond the earthly expression.

I am drawn to and paint abstraction for it gives me the greatest field of opportunity to expand into realms in and beyond our dimension of experience. The abstract form also gives the observer the opportunity to connect to their story before any recognition points them to a ‘known’ reality. What someone sees is their story, their link to a more profound experience of life. As a human community we are equipped with an inner life to meet external challenges. For some, the inner life shows up like a cluttered closet behind a locked door. Spending time in reflection with art is an excellent tool for opening that locked door and sorting through what shows up inside. I know it can be scary at times and it is worthy.

I have had conversations with people whose interior lives were so jammed full of information, meetings, people, and things, that there simply wasn’t any internal space to breath. I believe we are each here to birth our unique self, the self that lives inside the vehicle of our incarnated form–the true being within each of us. A vital piece of birthing ourselves is giving space for the you that lives deep inside. Spending time in reflection with art offers a window into that process, if one can be with and allow all that rises up to do so without judgment. If you can sit with yourself, allowing all that emerges while in reflection, you will find access to one inside, the one you are hungering for, the ‘you’ that the world is hungering for as well.

My art comes from a deep well of internal spaciousness. In that place of deep quiet I connect to an immense life force, intensely powerful yet paradoxically void of the kind of frenetic activity we normally associate with powerful forces in the human world around us. This life force is rich, alive and full while at the same time peaceful, quiet and spacious. I believe this gift is available to all who are willing to briefly suspend their own chattering assessments for the sake of allowing another dimension of their being to emerge. Art is a conduit of that dimension, and is vital for a full experience of what it means to be human.

In spite of the obvious challenges we face today, I am passionately in love with life, right here, right now. I see an amazing opportunity for those who are willing to step into a fuller expression of themselves. The world we are living in is crying out for every one of us to pay attention and live the life we came here to live. The lines are being drawn every day, the chasm between the right and left, the rich and poor…the space is greater than ever before and those of us who will not remain in polarization can inhabit the enlarging gap–the access to the evolution of our species. Art can help you get there.

I dream of a global human community where each member is awake to
and living from, their unique, purposeful self.
I envision an emergence of a new level of human consciousness forming
from the synergy of our diversity and commonality…
Possibly our only real hope for the future generations of our fragile species
on this fragile planet.

To this end I offer the work of my heart, mind, body, and soul…
Images for inquiry into your inner landscape,
A visual point of reference for your journey,
A touchstone to invoke your courage to act as you take up the life you came here to live
for the sake of your individual transformation…
Your awakening joins our evolving and inextricably connected human community.

Nancy Emeral Haygeman has a deeply personal connection to art that began as a small child, occupied her studies at the University of Illinois, and continued on while raising her 4 children. Nancy, who calls her artwork 'Inner Landscapes, Art for Awakening,' feels that it is vital for each of us to connect to our inner world in order to awaken the heart of our passion and unique purpose in life. She can be reached at www.innerlandscapes.us.