Our world has a resplendent depth. One of the great goals of sacred art of all ages, it to bring the transcendental and magical perspective into the matrix of mundane, utilitarian culture, thereby realizing culture as a natural, universal, spiritual form, rather than a happen-stance of strictly human priorities and agendas. Visionary art, similarly to visionary medicine, prayer and annunciation, breaks us out of the culture-bound historicism which conditions and limits our view. Such art attempts to symbolically depict experienced numinous realities, pointing the way, and acting as a vehicle for further gnosis.

In the depiction of spiritual, endogenous and mythic realities, Kuba’s work aims beyond the limits of mundane history itself, toward the ‘verschollener Stil’, ‘hidden prime of styles’ as Fuchs calls it, which occupies the rubric of timeless ’sacred’ or ‘holy’ art. The emergence of skillful artists such as Kuba are re-kindling the flame that lights up from within the sacred arts of the divine.

- Daniel Mirante September 2008

Interview with Kuba

Kuba :
I was born in 1982 in Melbourne and am of Polish descent. My parents had just arrived in Australia after living in Austria for 3 years and wanted to start fresh. My father was an artist, he sold small drawings of surreal insects on the streets in Vienna and earned enough for the flight down here. My mother is a devout Catholic. I grew up making art from an early age, interested in archeology, collecting things, nature and the unexplained.

When i was around 12 i had a series of powerful dreams which had a profound effect on me. I encountered God the Father, Ancient Eternal One in the form of the all seeing eye. I was awe struck. Art became a tool to try to translate the ripples left by this experience.

Sometime around 1999 i started making intricate pen drawings as well as writing poetry and music. The unconscious strired and needed to be emptied. I searched online to see if anyone else was making similar work. I discovered the work of Kim Evans which led me to Phil Rubinov Jacobson and this whole Visionary Art Movement. I met Jon Beinart who was organizing group shows at events called Angel Circus.

Daniel Mirante :
And then you worked with Ernst Fuchs ?

Kuba :
Yes. Early 2007 i had saved up enough to go overseas for what was originally to be a three month trip. I wanted to find out about the origins of western classical art as well as learn about my own family background. I travelled to Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris, London all these magic places to discover the art i had only seen in books. I arrived in Vienna the city of my conception, then synchronicity stepped in. I met an american artist Amanda Sage who had been living there for 10 years. Amanda introduced me to many of the fantastic artists living in Vienna as well as introducing me to the Mische technique.

Another ‘peak experience’ followed this time with the aid of a entheogen. I saw visions of unification, the world as one body. I saw past, present and future merge and i ‘woke up’ from the dream. My world was shattered, my sense of self obliverated. I saw creation as a game of make believe played out between the masculine/feminine aspects of God. The artwork ‘Illusion of Death’ was painted while in this state. Two days later, the day the ‘ Fire on the Grid’ event was happening i was on the train to Klagenfurt with Amanda to meet Professor Ernst Fuchs. I ended up staying with the Professor for 6 months working as his assistant on the Apocalypse Chapel, in Monaco and Vienna.

My first European winter was spent living in the Fuchs Museum. Fuchs is a remarkable man i many regards, it was an honor to spend so much time with him. He taught me about service, absolute certainty, about life being one great improvisation.

While in Klagenfurt i did a ritual to forgive and unify the mother and father within my psyche. My heart opened and i felt a wave of love go out towards collective humanity. I realized that all is love and love is the motivating factor behind all events/actions. Love or lack of love is all there is.

Daniel Mirante :
So how do you go about making art ?

Kuba :
When i begin painting i make myself a coffee, put my favorite cd on and just get into it. Usually i don’t start with any pre-conceived idea in mind , just allow the images to slowly develop. Its a sort of improvisation where the rational and intuitive faculties both play an equal part. Time seems to fade and i forget about its passing. I listen to music which triggers different emotions and states of mind, i try to translate the rhythms into visual images.

Sometimes i play my guitar or flute while taking a break, this somehow helps the process. I always know a picture’s title after i’ve completed it.

I paint in oils, acrylic and tempera paints and sometimes with a combination of these. I like drawing with inks and ball point pem. Usually I work on 6-10 paintings simultaneously, going from one to another until i feel they are finished. After finishing something i forget about it and move on to the next one. Im really motivated by the belief that the imagination can be limitless or limited only by the constraints we wish to adopt.

Daniel Mirante :
Your work carries an unusual energy of strange familiarity and enchantment, as if one were witnessing glimpses into secret and profound realms that are usually hidden from view. It would be very interesting to hear something of your relationship to such forms and symbols and where you feel they arise from.

Kuba:
There is so much more to reality than we can ever hope to imagine, what we accept as reality is one of many possibilities. Much artwork is channelled by various beings and energies, often artists are not very aware of it. Artists can develop their abilities and ask to be guided to ever clearer visions of universal truth. Im sure that the artists of past epochs are ever willing to assist us in creating the work that needs to take form within our specific time.

Inspiration is the flow of divine influx. It can flow from different realms: subconscious, ancestral, angelic, demonic, earthy, celestial etc. Art is creative flow playing itself out in the 2d and 3d realms. Artists work in present moment awareness, each gesture and mark being recorded upon a 2D or 3D plane. The tools are: the range of the visible color spectrum, the laws of contrast, vibration, plurality, proportion, perspective. When on the rare occasion all the various factors are balanced, harmony is achieved. At times symbols and meanings appear as if of their own accord.

Daniel Mirante :
Art is a rainbow bridge taking us beyond history into the profound intimacies of the human experience and further into the eternal realms of Spirit. What do you feel the future of Holy or Sacred Art is within the new global community and Western world ?

Kuba :
In the Western tradition art has for thousands of years been a great vehicle for the expression of Divine revelations, beliefs and traditions. Consider the beautiful Greek sculptures of deities, the craftsmanship of the Egyptians, the intricate illuminated manuscripts of ascetic monks.
Out of these influences the Renaissance was spawned and with it the many successive movements since.

Modernism moved us towards a more secular art freed from the restraints of doctrine. It opened up new areas for expression and broke down the barriers artists had to work around.
On the downside it seems to have severed it’s own roots rejecting its original purpose and function. There is a great hunger for spirituality which is visible not only in art but also in many aspects of society.

The spirit of the times seems to be one of evolution. Many people today are experiencing shifts on different levels as things become more hectic. Can you feel the subtle tension in the air? There is a returning to the Source which is happening as we individually and collectively move towards some kind of climactic point.

Teilhard de Chardin called it the Omega Point, Terence Mckenna spoke of the Zero Point, others call it the Singularity or Ascension. It could be the birth of humanity as a collective entity or perhaps a wave of mass enlightenment, who knows what’s around the corner.

Art and culture has an important role to play. Knowledge regarding sacred geometry, divine order etc, which was once kept secret is now coming out and becoming available to the masses. When these teachings begin to be incorporated into the sciences and the arts our culture will be transformed. Many are feeling a need to return to a more earth-conscious tribal mentality, acknowledging their connection with respect for nature.

Christianity is really important, its profound implications upon culture and the whole progression of humanity’s ongoing drama. All things are restored in Christ who is the bridge between humanity and divinity. The realization arises that there exists a benevolent divine order, that we are free to choose to be in alignment with it or not. Interesting things happen when we surrender our will to the Divine Plan. Each individual realizing it’s a precious and important part of the whole, a fragment of God’s essence. In freewill we can accept the invitation to be a Co-Creator.