jeff hogue/ bluelab art org

Finish what you've started here
You make your move
just once a year
In the city
in the town
Your happy home
is never found
Second hand
was never planned
The birth was over,
the baby banned
She fled the place
at such a pace
She never even saw your face
So go with me
Inside
Believe
You have so much to give

Switch the light off,
have a go
Force the only one you know
To leave this place
without a trace
A pity
I had seen your face
Where do you think
I will find
This party girl
who was so kind?
Raven hair
and skin so fair
Sadness
never visits there
So go with me
Inside
Believe
You have so much to give

the Delgados
Make Your Move

We didn't sleep too late.
There was a fire in the yard.
All of the tress were in light.
They had no faces to show.
I saw a sign in the sky:
Seven swans,
seven swans,
seven swans.
I heard a voice in my mind:
I will try, I will try, I will try. I will try, I will try, I will try.
We saw the dragon move down.
My father burned into coal.
My mother saw it from far.
She took her purse to the bed.
I saw a sign in the sky:
Seven horns, seven horns, seven horns.
I heard a voice in my mind:
I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord.
He said: I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord.
He said: I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord.
He will take you.
If you run,
He will chase you.
He will take you.
If you run,
He will chase you
'cause He is the Lord.
'Cause He is the Lord...
Seven swans, seven swans, seven swans, seven swans, seven swans...

Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans

“The question is no longer how did we get here, and why? But, where can we possibly go, and how? We live in a society that has drastically narrowed our sensitivity to moral and spiritual issues; the problem we face is how to deal with a belief structure that has blocked both psychological and spiritual development. If there is a new agenda, a new vision now emerging within our society, how might one help put it into practice?”
Suzi Gablik

...bluelab is being developed upon the issue first posed by Einstein, "a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness in which it was created.” It has become evident to many that in order to meet the problems we face as a species we must embrace a radical revision of our beliefs and our behaviors.

bluelab functions upon the strong presumption that artists likely figure significantly into the revisioning of a new world—and the invention of ways to communicate our discoveries. As we all learn more and more about our essential interconnectedness it also becomes increasingly evident that artists can’t function in a social vacuum. The label of “artist” is a problematic one and only used as a signifier of persons with specific media skills and training who are fluent in creative processes and who have some professional link to art. We are working to deconstruct as much as possible the binary--"us vs. them" mentality that still pervades the high art world. It seems to us that consistent with new paradigmatic shifts taking placethroughout all fields--there is a need to reconsider our accepted definitions of "artist" and "audience" all together. bluelab is constructed to offer pathways into higher levels of inclusivity. It is only through true inclusion that we can hope to make work that is deeply inviting and that offers an atmosphere of true love and trust and safety to all.

In terms of the way bluelab will in fact function, we are working to develop a sound and effective approach to community building which relies heavily upon time tested processes that are well understood and are seeking the help of people who are expert in these processes. On practical levels, the sharing and cross fertilization of specific areas of expertise allows for rich and complex works which through communal process are fused unselfconsiously and intuitively making of an organic whole.

Why all the talk of “community”?It is our firm belief that by building works in a heightened communal space we will in fact be building works potent with transformational energies. Jung talked about the distinctions between “liminal”or
transformative space and “liminoid”, or works that are simply entertaining. With a hard look at where we are at as a species and planet—it seems like simple math that we must link art making to the real task at hand—that of saving the earth.

Jesus pushes it back to the edge. Can you even see the image of Christ in the least of the brothers and sisters? He uses that as his only description of the final judgement. Nothing about commandments, nothing about church attendance, nothing about papal infallibility: simply a matter of our ability to see. Can we see Christ in the people, the nobodies who can't play our game of success? They smell. They're a nuisance. They're on welfare. They are a drain on our tax money. If we can, then we are really seeing.

He pushes it even further than that. He says we have to love and recognize the divine image even in our enemies. He teaches what they thought a religious leader could never demand of his followers: love of the enemy. Logically that makes no sense. Soulfully it makes absolute sense, because in terms of the soul, it really is all or nothing. Either we see the divine image in all created things or we don't see it at all. Once we see it, we're trapped. We see it once and the circle keeps moving out. If we still try to exclude some: sick people, blacks, people on welfare, gays (or whomever we've decided to hate), we're not there. We don't understand. If the world is a temple, then our enemies are sacred, too. The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing. ...

Everything becomes enchanting...

Richard Rohr Everything Belongs

“[Suzi] Gablik speaks of the previous paradigm of the Enlightenment period and what it has meant to artists: ‘Individualism, freedom and self-expression are the great modernist buzz words.’ The notion that art could serve collective cultural needs rather than a personal quest for self-expression seems almost ‘presumptuous’ in that worldview. Yet this assumption lies at the base of a paradigm shift in art, a shift ‘from objects to relationships.’ Gablik challenges her coworkers not to settle for abstract theorizing in making this paradigm shift. She personalizes and therefore grounds the transformations that must be undergone when she insists that ‘the way to prepare the ground for a new paradigm shift is to make changes in one’s own life.’ Spirituality is about praxis, she is saying, not just theory.”
Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work

Is it possible to create new spiritual structures for collaborative art making and to implement such toward community building with a depth of conviction, courage and inspiration that might move participants beyond self-interest toward truly new possibilities? Is it possible that with rigorous and focused processes artists could joyously make work engaging meaningfully with the specter of our global challenges while together exploring the uncharted territory of their souls? Can community building processes readily pour into art making wherein something meaningful and healing might evolve? Is it possible that these discoveries might be transmitted to the public at large through various new media shedding fresh light upon human potentials? Is it possible that all of this could dovetail with the efforts of important organizations such as The Global Justice Movement, Environmental Defense and Amnesty International toward a healthier and happier planet?

We say hopefully, yes.

What if artists were offered stipends, room and board allowing them to come together and to work intensively and without distraction for substantial blocks of time on film, music and real time performance collaborations? What if artists and thinkers could explore important issues in depth leading to transformational theater, installation, film and music? What if these artists were guided by experts through a structured community building process prior to beginning to create their projects? What if artists were given opportunity to work with and interact with some of the leaders of our time in the fields of art, science, and philosophy? What if these artists were given all the production equipment and technical assistance they might need to produce global quality shows? What if supporters and friends of our organization were given intimate amphitheater access to segments of our artists’ processes as well as early rehearsals, scheduled meals, activities and fellowship? What if the productions could be built and performed with some eventually touring the US and the world?

bluelab has been founded and created out of a perceived need to reconsider art making and professional collaborative art practice proceeding boldly from visionary prerogatives. We don’t find fault with the many artists who will not be drawn to what we are doing—for spiritual practice and its interface with collaborative art making are not for everyone.

In light of our present global endgame scenario it seems frivolous at best to argue over rhetorical issues. bluelab is intended for the “Great Work”--that of joining leaders of many fields worldwide who are engaged in the work of saving the earth. We believe that perhaps the only way to meet our present challenges is to deeply transform ourselves which implies the support of a real community and structured spiritual practice to be determined by each member for her or himself.

When serious professional artists are willing to embrace the rigors of authentic spiritual practice, the work of community building and heightened artistic collaboration will undoubtedly fall quickly into place.

The abundance of quotes from Sufi teachers have been included simply because they are part of my daily practice and do not infer a direct link between bluelab and Sufism. In point of fact, any serious spiritual practitioner must see that there can be no schism between the teachings of true Sufism and any sincere humanitarian interest. In the interest of those who may fear some sort of covert Islamic link, Sufism as it’s practiced and defined by and large in the West is Universalist in its orientation and in fact many Sufi’s roots are Christian and Jewish.

"Emptiness feels empty not because there is nothing present, but because whatever it is we're doing has no egotistic interference. The subtle arteries have no ego plaque in them, nothing to resist the smooth flow of the soul. Without our getting in the way, the life of the soul is rich and full, though unpredictable. But it isn't easy to trust strong desire and the life that keeps pouring into us. We always think we know better what should be and how it should all turn out. That is why the death principle --avoiding, worrying, being moralistic--is so popular." Thomas Moore The Soul's Religion

All through Erikson’s work is the implication that the creative adult (the generative adult) is precisely the person who can infuse his life with play;…the great cultural synthesizers—the religious, political and cultural geniuses such as Luther, Freud and Gandhi—were supreme in their playfulness, especially in their work. Their great words of synthesis were personal attempts to restore the active mastery of their egos in the context of the tensions and dichotomies of their personal and public historical situations. All great historical syntheses are as much play as they are work. They are work because they are indeed attentive to the real contradictions and tensions that most people of a given historical period both sense and suffer. They are a result of play because the creative genius does not simply conform to, adjust to, and accommodate to these tensions. Instead, he bends and reshapes these tensions until they submit to a new synthesis which not only enlivens and activates him but which also enlivens and activates a whole people and an entire era.

“Some renaissance theologians worked hard at reconciling paganism with Judaism and Christianity. We have yet to achieve this détente that is essential to the life of the soul. Fragments of our hearts and minds are located in the garden of Gethsemane and in the garden of Epicurus, on the zodiac of the Apostles and on the zodiac of the animals, in the wine of Dionysus and in the wine of the Eucharist, in the psalms of David and in the hymns of Homer.

It is not a matter of belonging to a religion or professing one’s faith, it is a matter of orientation in life and participation in its mysteries.

We can all be pagan in our affirmation of all of life, Christian in our affirmation of communal love, Jewish in our affirmation of the sacredness of family, [Islamic in our affirmation of self-sacrifice,] [Hindu in our affirmation of the multiplicity of God's expression], Buddhist in our affirmation of emptiness, and Taoist in our affirmation of paradox.

The new monk wears invisible robes. Thomas Merton travels across the globe, and in the home of Eastern monks, dies. Isn’t this a myth for our time and about the resurrection of the monastic spirit!”

“Vulnerability, then, is not only the ability to risk being wounded but is most often made manifest by revealing our woundedness: our brokenness, our crippledness, our weaknesses, our failures and inadequacies. I do not think that Jesus walked vulnerably among the outcasts and crippled of the world purely as a sacrificial act. To the contrary, I suspect he did so because he preferred their company. It is only among the overtly imperfect that we can find community and only among the overtly imperfect nations of the world that we can find peace. Our imperfections are among the few things we human beings have in common….Indeed, only honest people can play a healing role in the world.”
M.Scott Peck, M.D., A Different Drum

"In the very first chapter Thomas (Berry) lays before us 'The Great Work.' In each historical epoch, he says, people are given a “Great Work” to do—in one age, the settling of new lands, in another the building of great cathedrals, the creation of artistic, philosophical, religious or scientific works, or the shaping of political structures and ideas. The Great Works of prior periods are seen in such things as the movement of the first people out of Africa in the Paleolithic Period; the creation of language, rituals and social structures in hunter-gatherer communities; the establishment of agriculture communities in the Neolithic Period; the development of the great classical civilizations; and, in the modern period, advances in technology, urban civilization, new
ideals of government and human rights, the modern business enterprise and globalism.

Our Great Work is not something we choose, Thomas says. It is something we find ourselves thrown into by virtue only of being born in a certain time and place. The task may seem
overwhelming, one coming in response to some huge historical difficulty, but, he observes, just as we are given our historical task by some power beyond ourselves, we must also believe we are given the abilities to fulfill this task.
The Great Work into which we and our children are born, Thomas says, comes in response to
the devastation of the planet caused by human activity. We are facing a breakdown in the life
systems that can only be understood by comparison with events that marked the great transitions in the geo-biological eras of Earth’s history, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs and countless other species when the Mesozoic Era ended and our present Cenozoic Era began. Our task is to move from our modern industrial civilization with its devastating impact to that of benign presence. It is an arduous and overwhelming task, one exceeding in its complexity that ever offered to humans, for it is not simply one of adjustment to disturbance of human life patterns, as, for example, that occasioned by the Great Depression or the recent World Wars, but one of dealing with the disruption and termination of the geo-biological system that has governed the functioning of the planet in the 67 million year reign of the Cenozoic Era in the history of the planet Earth."

Ten Sufi Thoughts

from The Way of Illumination by Hazrat Inayat Khan

There are ten principal Sufi thoughts which comprise all the important subjects with which the inner life of man is concerned:
1) There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save God.
2) There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the light.
3) There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens all readers.
4) There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life's purpose of every soul.
5) There is one Law, the law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6) There is one human Brotherhood, the Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood (/Motherhood) of God.
7) There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8) There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9) There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
10) There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.

The following are shared objectives for bluelab and were first articulated as such by Hazrat Inayat Khan who is credited as the first to bring Sufism to the West--in the early 20th century.

The objectives of the Sufi path:

1) To realize and spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and all hatred caused by distinctions and differences may be rooted out.

2) To discover the light and power latent in man, the secret of all religion, the power of mysticism, and the essence of philosophy, without interfering with customs or belief.

3) To help to bring the world's two opposite poles, East and West, closer together by the interchange of thought and ideals that the Universal Brotherhood may form of itself and man may see with man beyond the narrow national and racial boundaries.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Date:	Mon, 22 May 2006 09:32:59 -0700 (PDT)
From:	"Jeff Hogue"
Subject:	Re: Building Community
To:	"Jon Gregg"

Jon,

With all due respect, "ideas and theory" are part of what separate us from animals that often albeit innocently eat their own excrement. Trungpa wrote and spoke reams of "ideas and theories" and while it may be important to keep things simple and to focus on action over theory and idea--without some amount of the latter, the former is directionless, chaotic, and ineffectual. A river is a river by it's banks. Certainly "community" relies heavily upon communication--and communication upon ideas.

I noticed your charisma when I first saw you 16 years ago and am amazed and humbled by your accomplishments--but don't look down your nose at me over them.

You say that Trungpa taught generosity--yet surely you would agree that true generosity asks nothing of the other--and to make such a pointed response in your email seems vain at best.

I too am a visionary. I too have made sacrifices. I have had deep, exhilirating and devastating spiritual experiences and have paid dearly for what knowledge and understanding I enjoy today--as all of us surely have.

I think a lot of VSC and obviously you must be credited with much of the success there-but to revel in yourself as a "bull in a china closet" or whatever reminds me more of Machiavelli than Trungpa. (and perhaps more than a little of myself.) Sometimes those of us who are called to leadership are prone to such abuses...but I have learned that our abuses are seldom if ever without consequence.

I have spent years and years in relative obscurity. Many famous people have picked up on my vibe or whatever and have taken interest in me--yet my ship has yet to come in. I keep working on the "ideas and theories" because elucidating such is perhaps the only way to organize and to communicate the pressing need for artists to shift from passe' modernistic attitudes and values which continue to ultimate an "us vs. them" mentality and keep art out of the reach of the general public--who remain uninitiated and baffled for the most part--and fetishize the art object conferring rarity and commiserate comodified value to the power elite.

To the extent that artists play this game consciously--they do so at the risk of their souls.

This would of course mean less if we were not facing the likelihood of global annihilation in the coming days if we don't make sweeping changes.

I feel a burning desire to follow my heart--my vision to the best of my ability. You have a multi-million dollar enterprise going there. I doubt that anyone knows the pains you have taken to get where you find yourself--or the pains you continue to take. I applaud you.

I have similar instincts, gifts, and a lot of I believe practical and profound ideas about how to build collaborative productions working with artists and visionaries of various disciplines--not to replace the age-old solitude and sanctity of traditional studio practices--but to augment them. Artists would continue to make objects on their own. Triage would be a way for artists to make occaisional work together in ways that would nourish them and sustain them in whatever else they are doing and instill hope that perhaps they are touching people's hearts and making a difference in the world using their gifts.

Most artists-- I believe are struggling mightily from day to day life--living somewhere in the chasm between the old world they know to be empty and the uncreated one we all yearn for.

I could use your help. I am worthy. It's up to you.

Sincerely, Jeff Hogue

Jeff,
Sorry but I don't recall ever receiving your stuff . Yes I've been a
student of Trungpa's for 35 years. As such I'm committed to his
practice of Meditation In Action and try to avoid ideas and
theory. One person per month contacts me about their long time
desire to create a community incorporating their "ideas" about art
and spirituality , and since I feel that that's akin to having
"ideas" about meditation rather than entering into the practice of
meditation I respond as follows:

Due to the number of requests such as yours which are made each year,
in order to have an efficient productive discussion please send the
following:

1. A one page description of your proposed community
2. A proposed annual operating budget
3. 10 specific questions you have about particular operational issues.
4. As Everyone who wishes to undertake an endeavor of this kind does
so for the highest of intentions, please do not present philosophical
ideas which may be taken as
a given. However please do send a one paragraph statement as to
your personal reasons for wanting to undertake this project.

Another of Trungpa's main teachings is on generosity, and in that
spirit, here's a tip based on 23 years of building VSC. Always focus
on what you can do for your supporters whether they are supporting
you with donations of dollars, insights, professional consulting
( lawyers/accountants/engineers etc ) rather than what they can do
for you. Every other non profit wants their dollars, insights and
consultancy to so you need to make it more "fun " for them to help
you than all the others. And so in this case you say you know I'm "
busy and have many commitments" and one of the main ones now is
training and fundraising for this ride, so I will tell you that your
request for my time to review , contemplate and correspond about
your ideas would have gone down alot better if it had been
accompanied by a donation rather than a "perhaps in the near future
I can make an offer for a contribution" .
It could have been $10.00 with a statement that this is all I can
afford, but the generosity of spirit would have been manifest,
instead of the conditional "perhaps " and an "offer of a
contribution" which is a further conditional .
Jon

>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Jeff Hogue
>> Date: May 15, 2006 4:07:59 PM EDT
>> To: Jon Gregg
>> Subject: Re: What Bike Ride?
>>
>> Dear Jon, I got your emails and perhaps in the near future I can
>> make an offer for a contribution. I am a proud and grateful alum
>> of your wonderful center (Summer of 1993) and think of you and
>> Louse and the VSC staff and place with great affection and joy. I
>> have been working on some parallel ideas for years, and perhaps
>> you remember meeting me when I was there and my telling you that I
>> identified with you in that I had a similar vision to yours. I
>> have sent you stuff over the years but never heard back.
>>
>> Can we correspond? I know you are busy and have many commitments,
>> but I have toiled for a long time to shape the ideas I want to
>> present to you and would humbly ask that you at least glance at
>> them and contemplate them. Does my memory serve me that you are a
>> long time student of Trungpa and that Louise is a student of Pir
>> Vallayet Khan? I am an ordained Cherag in the SIRS lineage. I
>> would love to talk with you about the ideas I have been exploring
>> around the intersections between community, art making, spiritual
>> practice, and transformation. Jeff Hogue
>>
>> Jon Gregg wrote:
>>
>> Dear Jeff,
>>
>> I'm riding my bike from Oregon to Vermont trying to raise $100,000
>> to fund VSC Residencies for artists and writers in wheel chairs,
>> and would truly appreciate your contribution. See < >> www.vermontstudiocenter.org/bicycle >
>> The email below, which I recently received from VSC Alum Deborah
>> Hosking, indicates that I've been too subtle, something I've
>> rarely been called .... steamroller, yes... bull in a china shop,
>> yes ....but subtle? So, the above sentence is an attempt to be as
>> direct as possible . I hope you will make an online donation to
>> this worthwhile event cause at:
>> <>
>> Thanks,
>> Jon Gregg
>>
>> • • • • • • • • • • • •
>> "Dear Jon,
>> When I first rec'd the e-mail about your bike ride , I didn't get
>> that it was a fundraising letter. Actually, I wasn't quite sure
>> what it was -- just news, an invitation to bike -- which is out of
>> the question so I didn't spend much time reading it carefully. If
>> the purpose of the communication is to raise funds, then that
>> should be spelled out very clearly on the "front" page. It's
>> impossible to be too obvious. You have to tell people what to do
>> with or about your message or they will usually ignore it or not
>> get it. The passive voice works in literature, but in advertising
>> the imperative is the verb tense of choice. (That's why it often
>> feels like they are shouting at you.) The idea is make it
>> unmistakable at first glance that you are seeking contributions.
>> And why.
>> Another thing that I've seen done in fundraising is a follow-up
>> communication with a higher level of urgency. Something like, "I'm
>> leaving in three weeks and have reached just 80%
>> of the goal. Contribute now, and help us meet the Christopher
>> Reeve Challenge and support wheelchair artists in 2008." This is
>> in hopes of getting the attention of people who might have missed
>> or ignored the first communication.
>> Regards,
>> Deborah"
>>
>>