Interview⁸

Mr. Anthony Hixon, interviewer: We’re talking to Ultra Violet, who is an actress and a singer. And she’s here at the Jharna-Kala show. What do you think of the Jharna-Kala show? Do you have any opinions on the paintings?

Ultra Violet: I have lots of opinions about everything. I love art and I love colour and light and I think the show was very clean, very bright and very joyous. And I’m sitting next to a green palm tree. I love green, green is very healing. And I think what the world needs is more healing, more healing.

Mr. Hixon: True, healing, but what manner of healing?

Ultra Violet: There are many forms. You can be sick in the body, in the mind or in the spirit. Actually you have to work on three planes. Some people think there is food for the mind, for the soul and for the body — three different kinds of food, and you need them all in order to be well balanced.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much. You have beautiful green eyes with which to see that green colour.

Ultra Violet: Thank you, I will try.

Mr. Hixon: We’re talking to Mr. Robert Scull, on my right, who is a renowned art collector and Mr. Paul Jenkins, who is a renowned artist. Mr. Scull, is this the ordinary kind of opening for a painter in New York City?

Mr. Scull: Oh no, it’s much more spiritual, much more quiet. The people are really a very charming bunch who I very rarely see at art show openings. I don’t attend too many openings but those that I have been to, have been different from this one. Here everything seems so nice and quiet, so tranquil and spiritual.

Mr. Hixon: Mr. Jenkins, the question is, does this seem to be an ordinary sort of opening to you?

Mr. Jenkins: No, it’s like an after-gathering of one of Sri Chinmoy’s meditations. I feel no different here than I would at the United Nations Chapel or at the little church in Queens. And his disciples have made it so warm, inwardly warm. Another thing is the feeling of abundance. What’s here is an abundance of colours, an abundance of things that come through your mind when you meditate. And I don’t look at these paintings with a tough eye, as an art critic would. I look at them for what they are, for the experience of them, for his joy.

Mr. Hixon: Sri Chinmoy has been able to do ten thousand in three months, which is a phenomenal number of paintings. Do you have any comment on that, on the speed at which he works?

Mr. Scull: It is an incredible output. I think that amount of paintings done in three months must be coming from a deep autobiographical well of feelings and images. I don’t think it can be done any other way. You wouldn’t have a display of such a wide variance of feeling, colour, mood. It’s really an extraordinary thing for someone to put so much into ten thousand paintings in a few months. It’s really hard labour, as well as an act of love. Remarkable.

Mr. Hixon: Now, he’s a beginner. Do you get the sense that he is really a beginner or do you feel that he’s come out of that stage?

Mr. Jenkins: Was Monet a beginner? Was Picasso a beginner when he was about to die? The artist is always rediscovering the child. I don’t mean that he is childish, I mean he finds the child aspect. And we must remember also that Freud said that to be creative is to be prodigious. And that’s one thing that is misunderstood in the art world. Everybody feels that the fewer things you do the better you are. Not from Freud’s standpoint. To be creative means to be prodigious.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much, Mr. Jenkins.

Mr. Hixon: We’re talking to Mr. Donald Keys who is the representative for the World Association of World Federalists at the United Nations. Mr. Keys, what do you think of this show?

Mr. Keys: First of all, it’s pretty staggering. Secondly, I was just thinking that in the traditional religious artistic expressions for many ages, whether the Hindu, Christian or others, the style is very tight, very ceremonial, very crystalised. Here is the expression which is modern religiosity, totally free, more than contemporary. I think it’s very refreshing.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much.

Mr. Keys: You’re welcome.

Mr. Hixon: Sri Chinmoy, you are a spiritual artist. Is there any special message in your work?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I have a very short message to offer to the world at large with regard to my paintings. The Supreme in me, my Inner Pilot, has played the role of aspiration. Now the same Supreme wants to play the role of inspiration in all my brothers and sisters of the world. Inspiration is the seed; aspiration is the tree. Through my surrendered oneness I have become the aspiration-tree. Through the surrendered oneness of my brothers and sisters with the Supreme, they will become the inspiration-seed. I have offered my aspiration-tree at the Feet of the Supreme and I am sure my brothers and sisters will place their inspiration-seed at the Feet of the Supreme also. The seed and the tree must go together. They are inseparable. One is God’s Vision; the other is God’s Reality. Inspiration-seed is God's Vision and aspiration-tree is God’s Reality.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much.

Sri Chinmoy: You’re welcome.

[THE END]