The Visionary Artist

by Alex Grey

Anyone who attempts self-expression through art has touched the "secret power of vision" from which all great art flowers. The artist Alex Grey, who has evoked awe, rapture, and controversy over the past 20 years, is our preeminent explorer of this deep realm where creativity and divinity merge. On The Visionary Artist, Grey's first work on audio, he personally guides us to these mystical places through a full curriculum of intensive, mind-expanding visualizations. A longtime student of meditation, shamanism, and transpersonal psychology, Grey leads listeners up and down the ladder of consciousness to retrieve the transcendental visions our souls are constantly painting. From exercises on form, color, and imagery-to the energetic structures of reality-to the universal source of all creation, Grey's system for artistic exploration guides us along the sacred path of art, while dissolving the boundaries of reality along the way. Artists in virtually any discipline will appreciate Grey's view of art as a revelatory and healing force. The Visionary Artist plunges us into a mystery that is at least 40,000 years old: the true mission of art in human experience.

Genres: Art

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953 (Sagittarius), the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son’s drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture. Alex went to the Columbus College of Art and Design on full scholarship from 1971-3. Grey dropped out of art school and painted billboards for Columbus Outdoor Advertising, 1973-4. Grey then moved to Boston to study with and work as studio assistant for conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1974-5. At the Museum School, Alex met his life-long partner, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. At their meeting in 1975, an entheogenically induced mystical experience transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple continued to take “sacramental journeys” on LSD. For five years, Alex worked in the Anatomy department at Harvard Medical School preparing cadavers for dissection while he studied the body on his own. He later worked for Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko as a research technologist at Harvard’s department of Mind/Body Medicine, conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex’s anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (see below) and for working as a medical illustrator. Doctors at Harvard saw images of his Sacred Mirrors, and hired Alex for illustration work.

Grey instructed Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and has taught the Visionary Art Intensive and other art workshops with Allyson at The New York Open Center, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. The couple now teach MAGI workshops (Mystic Artists Guild International) at CoSM in Wappinger, New York. In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. In a major performance entitled WorldSpirit, spoken word poetry in musical collaboration with Kenji Williams was released in 2004 as a DVD.

Grey’s unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. Begun in 1979, the series took a period of ten years to complete. It was during this period that Alex developed depictions of the human body that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spiritual forces. After painting the Sacred Mirrors, he applied this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as praying, meditation, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, nursing and dying. Grey’s recent work explores the subject of consciousness from the perspective of “universal beings” whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls.

Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere express appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Countless teachers and spiritual leaders, including Deepak Choprah, incorporate Alex’s art in their power point presentations. Grey’s paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of TOOL, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Time and Newsweek magazines, the Discovery Chan

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audio book is so nice to listen to. It's really something that can be listened to several times. It includes meditations and beautiful psalms by Alex Grey. I enjoyed it.

[Jennifer Kwok · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always resonated with Alex Grey’s writings. Now I know he’s also a wonderful meditation facilitator. Powerful and unique meditation + drawing practices that stretches your imagination. My complaint is that the very first exercise, with very little warning, is a shamanic spiritual journey, which is not what everyone is ready for or comfortable doing...

[Gabriella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made a lot of bookmarks in this book - a number of quotes and excerpts I hope to come back to, jot down, and really sit with and absorb. This is a book I would like to reread soon, I think it would be better the second time around, and to return to the journeys and complete each of them.

[Joe Vigil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book particularly because Alex Grey was involved 100%. The first 2 discs were excellent insights and interviews. The last 2 discs contain visualization exercises for artists. It's like he is sitting there with you, guiding you along.