The Work of Art
Life is a Festival #47: Amanda Sage
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“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Visionary Art is a style popular in the festival world that depicts mystical realms often touched first through psychedelic journeys, But what’s the difference between work that truly transports the viewer into hitherto unimagined vistas, and rainbow vomit? It is the dedication to craft and the difficult work of persistent creation.
Amanda Sage is one of the luminaries of the visionary art world. Trained in Vienna under the enigmatic Ernst Fuchs, Amanda is deeply studied in the style of Mischtechnik, layering paint and using different substances to create works of art. In addition to her prolific body of work and her transformational painting workshops, Amanda’s deep passion today is called the Vision Train, a collaborative art project to imagine our collective future.
On the podcast Amanda and I discuss the artistic rigor necessary to bring your vision into the world. We talk about internal resistance to creative work, how to get started, collaborating with others, and how to know when a piece of art is complete. We are both former Waldorf School students and chat about founder Rudolf Steiner’s mysticism. We also discuss the pitfalls of creating mythology out of psychedelic revelation and the language we use to describe our encounters with the ineffable.
Get aboard the Vision Train my friends and let’s do the work to create the world that we’ve imagined.
A special thank you to Adam St. Simons, my Medici supporter on Patreon. If you have the means and the vibe, consider visiting Life is a Festival on Patreon and dropping a coin in the fountain.
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TIMESTAMPS
:12 How does one start the creative journey? Sit down and draw a leaf!
:15 Trick your mind into doing the work by collaborating with others
:24 When is a painting complete?
:28 Waldorf School and the mysticism of Rudolf Steiner
:38 Intellectual rigor vs psychedelic masturbation
:50 Rituals to let creativity flow through
:55 The externalities of trying to change the world
1:01 The Vision Train: a collaborative art project to imagine our collective future
1:11 Creativity in the era of personal brands
1:18 Playing with the muse
1:25 Psychedelics and creativity
1:34 Ayahuasca and the work necessary to create sacred space.
1:50 How’d the podcast go?
Graphics Designed by Andy McErlean
Theme song ““Peculiar Colors” [Manjumasi]“ by dj atish