A Translator Of Visions – The Art of Martina Hoffmann
” “In the collapse of history, which is the end, the archaic, the beginning is all that remains: Ouroboros once again. Whereas history is built on temporal ephemera, the contents of the archaic are embedded in the self-renewing cosmic experience that transcends time.”
Arguelles, The Transpersonal Vision, pg 278
German-born painter and sculptor Martina Hoffmann has exhibited internationally as well as being published in books, calendars and magazines such as Illuminatus, Drinking Lightning, Craftsman House, One Source, Sacred Journeys, Markowitz Publishers,The Return Of The Great Goddess, Shambhala Publishing, Celebrating Womens Spirituality, The Crossing Press, Magical Blend, Expose and Nexus.
Martina intersperses her life of creating art with giving painting technique workshops with Venosa at such institutes as The Skyros Institute on the island of Skyros in Greece, Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and the CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies), as well as private workshops in Boulder, Colorado and on the Big Island in Hawaii.
In her latest work Hoffmann uses her inner visions as a guide and the inspiration for her paintings. She primarily sees herself as a translator for these visions.
Caught in the Web by Martina Hoffmann
The transformation toward transpersonal awareness beyond historical constructs is what defines the times and the themes of contemporary visionary art : the emergence of a humanity that experiences its existence through cosmic and gaian relatedness, which exists in the ever renewing cyclical time of cosmic play, beyond the socially constructed dialectic of linear technological progress.
A trans-historical condition is emerging, the awareness that we are more than our social categories within a particular date on the Gregorian calendar. This is not just 2005, this is a moment within a vast and primordial mystery, a cosmic play of energy. We humans are timeless life forms in an infinite universe beyond comprehension, flame-like vortices of consciousness in a mysterious cosmos that vastly predates the language we use to describe it.
The visionary art of Martina Hoffman explicates this territory of expanded, transpersonal, spiritual, shamanic awareness, that leads the witness of the art into experiencing wonder and an inexplicable familiarity, through archetypal resonance with these images. When receptively witnessed, these images serve to take the mind outside of the conventional historical narrative and into the realms of the primordial.
In the shamanic visionary experience, the self is unfolded through a dance of pattern and meaning, and this synergy of ‘abstract’ and ‘figurative’ is found represented in the transpersonal-based art of many different cultures. Such images reflect the nebulous ‘web without a weaver’, the jewelled, interdependent realm of spirit that we ultimately are, and chose to evolve out of, into the fractal realms of biogenesis and experience of personality.
The universe is a hierophany of luminous and evolving intricacy. It is this richness of form and diversity of experience that demonstrates the fullness, fertility and abundance of Spirit. This abundance is unbounded. Martina’s artistic praxis does not reduce, clip or flinch from this transcendent generative complexity but rather opens to this infinity. Martina describes how she trusts in being a open in the flow of transformations and pattern of relations that is matter, life and mind.
Martina demonstrates the richness of our cosmic heritage through images full of wonder and created through alignment with the creative unfolding of the universal process, as it moves through as spontaneous living creative expression.
Daniel :
Your work has that connection to the ahistorical realm.
Martina :
Yes, my visionary work is a direct channel of those otherworldly realities that are impossible to describe in words, as their language is one of colour and form and the message is encoded therein.
Daniel :
I have a lot of respect for your work in the transmission of knowledge on painting methods such as the mische technique that yourself and Venosa are passing onto your students. Why don’t they teach techniques like this in art school any more?
Martina :
The art world would be a richer place if the Mische Technique were still taught in art schools. But most artists are not taking the time anymore, to spend months and months on a single canvas. Creating art as part of a meditation has been mostly lost in a goal oriented materialistic world view.
During our painting workshop Robert and I teach the Mische Technique. This technique is unbeatable when it comes to creating detail, luminosity of color as well as translucency. We teach this approach within the context of Visionary art and we encourage our students to reach deeply within their souls and spirits to express their own inner landscapes. Also during the workshops we present several slide shows to conceptualize visionary art today and to illustrate its long history. This workshop is for people who dare to express and play in the medium of oil, in an inspirational setting that cant be beat, together with a group of international artists, while living two weeks of true Spanish life.
Daniel :
Why did you choose to initiate the artists workshops from Cadaques ?
Martina :
Cadaques is our true home and was very instrumental in both of our creative developments. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful small villages in Spain, if not on the entire Mediterranean. The energy is powerful due to its location between the mountains and the sea. The culture (Catalan) is as independent as the Basque and very different from the rest of Spain. Catalans are gutsy people, opinionated and rightfully very proud of their rich heritage. Beauty is abundant in nature and in the people that this place attracts. Dalis presence brought most everybody of artistic as well as intellectual notoriety to this town and has made Cadaques a place of pilgrimage. So no better place for a painting workshop and the setting for our event is quite spectacular also. The workshop takes place on a private island just a stones throw away form the main land and allows us to have the luxury of a beautiful old villa to create and live in while having easy access to a vibrant town with a well developed local and typical nightlife. During these two weeks we have the opportunity to create or own world and to weave and live within our own special creative matrix.
Daniel :
How did the painting Cusp come about?
Martina :
To answer this question properly I will have to explain how I work. Most of my images are largely unplanned. The inspiration for a new piece might get sparked by a specific experience, visual or otherwise, and there might be a central figure. But often I will start a canvas in a very immediate way by laying out colour in a purely emotional fashion, just following my instincts. Later on I will then proceed to detail and bring out those forms that call out strongest to me. In this way the canvas will act as a mirror for my subconscious or for my higher self, and reflect deeply situated feelings, and/or visions obtained in heightened states of consciousness made conscious and manifest in this way. I trust this process explicitly as it is the most immediate. And the meaning of my paintings becomes clearer to me once the pieces have been executed. Inner dialog with the piece, reflection as well as the viewers reactions, will then help me decode the deeper layers and meaning in time.
Cusp was created much in this way. The central figure portraying the archetype of the spiritual female warrior, as many of my paintings do, came first, and the image developed from the center outward. This warrior princess remains present and centered in the midst of duality, and has attained perfect balance herein. This balance has allowed her to build a bridge to the state of transcendence and helped her to create permanent peace in her heart. Many different cultural elements are represented in this painting, and merged into one coherent piece, to represent the numerous traditions that brought us to this place in time. I guess to put it all into one line; this painting is about finding and maintaining balance.
Daniel :
It sounds like you create a kind of stochastic, creative chaos from which a deeper realm of psyche can find expression. This reminds me of Max Ernsts comments about being witness at the birth of an art. Rather than calculating and plotting a composition, we trust that as we come from this ancient and beautiful universe, we are one with its creative unfolding. These primordial realms will come through the artist and their medium if a space of unformedness and evolving possibilities is held.
Martina :
Your read on my answers is pretty accurate. Max Ernst has certainly used a large array of wonderful methods that allowed deep exploration of the unconscious for creative purposes. To guaranty the successful portrayal of otherworldly realties we have to become the ultimate opened vessel as artists.
Daniel :
It reminds me of the entheogenic process, where deep shifts occur in the emotional body, and the process of integration of these powerful energies occurs through archetypal, primordial, hieroglyphic transpersonal symbology.
Your paintings, such as Caught in the Web remind me of these journeys of occasionally challenging, sometimes overwhelming experiences of holistic learning and integration brought about by holotropic techniques. The inspiration from such shamanic journeys is obviously a major force in your work.
Martina :
Shamanic journeys are certainly a major inspiration for my very visionary work as they are so very powerful and allow me to glean such brightly coloured realms of cosmic code. But I also derive much information and material from my meditations, the dream state as well as during the hypnogogic state before I fall asleep at night. The latter provides me with a very rich and powerful source of insights and this portal is especially active during the days leading up to the full moon. The visual language I perceived in all above-mentioned states of higher awareness are very similar to me but vary in intensity, meaning that they may be more or less pronounced. So really, there are many ways of exploring, and it depends on our comfort level as to how vivid we wish them to be. And I find that any technique used with diligence and skill may produce powerful results.
Daniel :
Your work, as well as somehow being birthed from the visionary realm, also includes in much of its imagery symbols of gestation, germination and fertility. This is especially true of the ‘Goddess Triangle’. I would love to hear something about this powerful work and how it was created.
Martina :
This piece is very special to me because it deals with everything that lies at the heart of a womans being. I created this multi-media installation piece over the course of several years, letting it grow organically as it demanded. My first inspiration was several women friends in Cadaques, all pregnant at the same time. Needless to say, this potent presence of fertility demanded artistic expression as well as interpretation. The Goddess Triangle started out with three large canvases of pregnant nudes and over time turned into a 20″ x 10″ structure. It is my altar to the feminine principle and wants to express gratitude to the women who have offered so much of themselves to ensure our existence today. It means to honour womens special gift and to remind us of the Goddess whose worship for millennia was based on living in harmony with the earth before male doctrine forced itself on the planet and made warring for survival the status quo.
More details on the art and workshop training of Martina Hoffmann can be found at www.martinahoffmann.com
This work is amazing ! thx for sharing peace