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Fabuloous quote from the Lo-Fi podcast by John Wentz, interviewing Ricardo Santos (https://www.instagram.com/ricardosaga/): "Why do I do art? It's the source of my happiness right now, it's my engine in life. It's like going to a place where suddenly you become god, you can change everything at your own will and everything is OK. You need nothing, just to be there." "For me creating art is about the fun and how I feel when I'm doing it. In the moment of putting the paint and how things build, when before there was nothing. That's a beautiful thing to experience as a creator. That's creation for me... whatever you can say about your art...for me it's about the moment of creation" Check out the fascinating art podcast from John Wentz: On Youtube or Apple, or on any podcast streaming platforms.

How dare I step into the religious realm or domain to even entertain a notion that this type of witnessing process might be a sacred practice? Yet, here are a few thoughts emerging from the powerful resonance inside me when I heard a fellow filming practitioner use that word (see here for a Zoom edit of fellow filming practitioners relating their experience of the filming practice). Clearing away the practical stresses and efforts needed to get a film together, not to mention the technical elements of the filming equipment and configurations, plus the often long editing process...the golden thread of what we are doing here having a sacred label to it brings an incredible sense of clarity, reassure and confirmation. I'm using an image from Hilma af Klint, since this is the artists referred to by a recent filming subject who also referred to 'thank you for creating this sacred space [of silence / witnessing]". It is by coincidence the same image on the cover of one of the most important books in my life, Sex, Ecology and Spirituality by Ken Wilber. (Image rights labeled for non-commercial re-use: Photo: Albin Dahlström/Moderna Museet)

With might be seen as an oblique connection to the witnessing filming process, but pointing to a direction I am embarking on to evolve my work, Marker is an essential inspiration, ushering in the style of the non-linear film essay. Marker (1921 - 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983) - meditation on the nature of human memory, showing the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory, and how, as a result, the perception of personal and global histories is affected. Friend and collaborator Alain Resnais called him "the prototype of the twenty-first-century man."

Fun time tagging/signifying 45 minutes of silence from a recent shoot. I found I in the end placed lots of tags, with things like 'raising eyebrow'; 'slight stretch to the left'; 'rolling of the head'. Aiming for a 3 min edit, but perhaps I'll post the full version for paying members on my website, a new meditation app! This connects to the interest I have in witnessing subtle energy, as described in action by David Deida in the workshop in Ken Wilber's loft here (reproduced with permission from Integral Life).

Loving this book by JF Martel, Co-host of the excellent Weird Studies podcast. P69 speaks to how "the transmutation of signs into symbols is achieved through framing" which I see as being the silence practice in my filming. Nice to make the analogy of an artist's canvas or a theatre stage, with the simple fact of sitting with someone in silence as the "framing".