Description

Art Psalms

Description:

The power of art as a transformative path is the theme of this inspiring collection from internationally known artist Alex Grey. Art Psalms combines poems, artwork, and «mystic rants» that fuse imagination, creativity, and spirituality. Grey’s oracular poetry declares that art, both its creation and its observation, can be a spiritual practice. Many of these writings have been shared at gatherings worldwide, especially at New York City’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a contemporary sacred space co-founded by Alex and Allyson Grey. Selections include «Soul Marriage,» which invites the reader to commit to personal and global transformation; «Guidance for Servants of God,» precepts for life as a sacred path; and «The Plan,» which aligns universal and individual creativity. The entire text of Grey’s spoken word performance, «WorldSpirit,» is included here. Three annotated portfolios, «Meditations on the Divine Feminine,» «Meditations on the Masters,» and «Meditations on Mortality,» explore the connection between drawing and meditation as ways of seeing. Equally meaningful for art lovers, the health and spiritual communities, and anyone seeking to develop their creativity, Art Psalms features over 150 new reproductions of drawings, paintings, and sacred geometry to enrich and awaken the inner artist in each of us.

Author Biography:

Artist and author Alex Grey is best known for his visionary paintings that integrate the anatomical body with the transcendental light of the soul. His work brings together the paths of science, creativity, and spirituality. Grey’s paintings, sculpture, and performances have been honored exhibitions in Sao Paulo Biennial, the Grand Palais in Paris, Venice, and at the American Visionary Art Museum, the New Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Tool, Beastie Boys, Nirvana, SCI, and David Byrne have featured Grey’s work as album art. «WorldSpirit,» a spoken word piece, drew over a thousand people when performed in Oakland, California, and is available as both a CD and DVD. Grey’s artworks are chronicled in the monographs, Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey (published in six languages), Transfigurations, and in his pictorial philosophical text, The Mission of Art.

The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, a long-term exhibition of fifty works of Grey’s transformative art, was co-founded by Allyson and Alex Grey in 2004 in New York City. In 2007 the Greys co-authored CoSM, a photographic book tour of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. It is at CoSM that Grey has shared many of the poems collected now in Art Psalms. Alex lives in New York City with his wife, the painter Allyson Grey, and their daughter, the actress Zena Grey.

Reviews/Endorsements:

“Who says the time of revelations is in the past? Alex Grey’s Art Psalms and his life’s work bear witness to the aliveness of Spirit in our dangerous and decisive times. Read and pray this book and grow your soul!”
—Matthew Fox, author of Original Blessing and Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet

“Grey’s vision of a flawed, but perfectible mankind stands as an antidote to the cynicism and spiritual malaise prevalent in much contemporary art.”
—New York Times

“Alex Grey is one of the great art-mystics of our time.”
—Donald Kuspit, professor of art history and philosophy, SUNY at Stoney Brook, and editor and critic for Artforum

“Whether a believer or non-believer, one could not help but be inspired by the sheer beauty of this volume, and the social heartbeat of this book…. The artwork is eye-grabbing, spirit-quickening, expressive-surrealism in a style uniquely Alex Greys. Reminiscent of Leonardo Da Vincis mastery, his anatomical plotting brings to mind mirrors of astronomical maps, connecting the body, mind and soul to the oneness of all, through synaptically charged points of light. The images pulse with light and life. Each tenderly rendered vision is accompanied by written timeless truths. One is serenaded and lifted by songs of the ages as told by Grey. The verses themselves seem to follow the illuminated body seamlessly, honoring humanity and the universe.”
—Tina Jones, for About.com