I often wonder about the deeper why of making art. Not just the technical or aesthetic reasons, but the spiritual ones. What role does the artist really play in society? Lately, I’ve been thinking about Joseph Beuys and his idea of the artist as a kind of shaman, a healer who channels energy and meaning through materials and action.

Beuys spoke of social sculpture, the notion that everything we do can be art, that society itself is a material to be shaped. He wrapped himself in myth, used fat and felt like sacred tools, and insisted that creativity wasn’t a luxury. It was essential for transformation.

This stirs something in me. When I work on a kinetic sculpture or automaton, I sometimes slip into a trance-like state, focused and quiet, as if something wants to emerge through my hands. What if I embraced that more consciously? What if the thing I’m building is more than a whimsical mechanism? It could be a charm, a small ritual, a spell.

As I’m building, I could ask a question: What spiritual energy is this piece trying to express or carry into the world?

Recently I’ve started imagining my art-making as ceremony. Not just the result, but the process. When I cut, glue, paint, or wire something, I try to be present, deliberate. I’ve even considered putting on a sort of “studio costume,” in my case medical scrubs that I got a couple months ago at Discount Fabrics.  I recite a line of poetry before I begin.

Small gestures, but they change how I enter the work. They remind me that this isn’t just about output. It’s about attention.

In collage, I’m experimenting with layers that build intuitively. Letting the subconscious drive. Letting repeated symbols echo like visual chants. Sometimes I don’t understand what I’ve made until later. That, too, feels like a kind of magic.

I’m also drawn to the idea that viewers might participate in this ritual. That by turning a crank, setting a piece in motion, reading a tiny haiku printed on the side, they too become part of the spell.

I’m not sure where all of this will lead. But I know I want to keep walking this path. To let art be not just something I make, but something I step into. Something I offer. Something that conveys or expresses spiritual energy.