Seek Truth
Mine is conceptual art. I attempt to convey meaning through symbol. For me, open eyes represent the pursuit of truth, which has always been integral to the human experience.
We live in a time and place of great deception. The media present us with what they refer to as “The News”. They tell us that their job is to dispassionately present what happens in the world. Yet, increasingly, they report in ways that leave us confused, angry and , ultimately, divided. We are shown that which is said to be evidence of truth, presented in a frame of ambiguity. We are given photographs, videos and interviews that obscure more than they elucidate. We are told to choose a side, when the devotees of each side have proven themselves to be deplorable. The practitioners of each ideology display a merciless lack of empathy.
It does not help that AI has suddenly given each of us the capability to create or manipulate visual and audio media in a way that once seemed impossible. With a short series of promts, a picture can be created or changed. When we look at the screen, we can no longer believe our eyes or or our ears. We cannot presume to understand any situation well enough to know that what we preceive is the truth. We can only know what we experience for ourselves, outside of the virtual.
I have no faith in anything that I see on the screen. I do not feel certain that the events that are presented in the news are actual occurences. I do not know which side of an argument is right, or which side is wrong. I am not sure that the sides actually exist, or if they are manufactured as a means of control. I view every personality presented by the media to be nothing more than a character. From my point of view, every reporter, politician, musician, podcaster or athlete is an actor, reading a script and playing a role.
So, in my search for truth, I look outside of the screen. I spend time in nature. I talk to the trees, observe the insects, collect the plants and play with my chickens. Nonetheless, even in nature, it seems that there has been some inexplicable change. Patterns that I once believed to be absolute, are now different from my previous understanding of them.
What I once believed to be true no longer appears to be so.
The sky is not the same color as I remember it to be in my childhood. There have been extreme weather events with names that I had not previously heard. I no longer find bees or mosquitoes in the numbers that I once did. There seems to be a marked increase in the number of once unique astrological events, making them seem far from rare.
I saw what was said to be “The Northern Lights” in Indiana. Did that ever happen before?
Last fall, I was working as a tour guide at a farm. A man came up to me and said that he was told that there was only one corn growing on a stalk. He asked me if that was true. I said that it was not. I believed that each stalk had many fruits. Later, I went into the cornfield by my house and I counted. There was, in fact, only one ear of corn per stalk. Did that change, or had I always been wrong?
I no longer believe that truth can be found on earth. There is too much deception and confusion. We are disoriented, and in our bewilderment, we are pitted against one another. Baffled, we fight each other and we blame one another. We each demand that our personal perspective be viewed as the truth. We fail to recognize that our assertions are slowly chipping away at our compassion. We are losing our humanity.
The chaos of life on earth has caused me to look elsewhere for answers. Perhaps truth lives in spiritual realm. There is, of course, a great deal of disagreement over which spiritual beliefs are superior. Religion has been the basis of endless war and destruction on earth.
Perhaps, if we quiet our minds, release our animosity, and gaze upward, we may find what we have lost.
An unblinking eye.
Searches the heavens.
Seeks truth.
Truth cannot be discovered through force.
None can claim certainty.
It reveals itself quietly.
The world is rife with deception.
Gaze upward.
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