Lucien Dante
Lazar

My art practice is multivalent and is informed by the work of Rudolf Steiner (1863-1925), an Austrian polyglot who contributed profound insights to economics, social reform, art, architecture, music, education, agriculture, and the list goes on. I began studying Anthroposophy, the spiritual philosophy Rudolf Steiner founded, in January of 2019. My engagement with this consciousness radically shifted my practice and birthed what I call my Passage work.

My Passages utilize art objects as tools for experiences permeated with and informed by my spiritual orientation, namely that of Anthroposophy. Coupled with these art objects, I sing unique compositions that are intrinsically related to the artworks they are created out of. This mergence of art, philosophy, music and spiritual consciousness engenders the Passages into expressions of metamorphosis, both in terms of their intention as well as the process I engage in while creating them.

The materials I utilize in my work come from my upbringing which was deeply influenced by Waldorf education—a wholistic developmental approach to education in which the arts, sciences and humanities are taught in tandem with one another. In Waldorf schools, natural materials and craft work is central. Students learn felting, knitting, crocheting, woodworking, metalworking, and stone carving, as well as gardening and animal care. The impact that Waldorf education as well as my home life, which emulated it, had on me can be witnessed in the emphasis on craft and natural materials in my artwork. Waldorf education’s influence on my practice as a whole can also be perceived in the integrated approach to making that I utilize and value—an approach that is both highly conceptual, multi-dimensional and trans-disciplinary.

I have thus far created one fully realized Passage , entitled Singing Through Joan of Arc . This Passage was the birth of my current art practice and informed what I am currently working on for my MFA exhibition (which was canceled due to Covid-19). I am, nonetheless, still working on this project titled Therapeutic Passion.

The way in which Therapeutic Passion differs from Singing Through Joan of Arc , lies it its heightened social orientation. From August to December 2019, I provided therapeutic sessions with faculty and staff from my graduate program. In these sessions I utilized various modes of therapy intended for healing, such as reiki, art therapy, massage, psychic healing, and talk therapy. Throughout these sessions, I collected gestural drawings made by both myself and the individuals with whom I worked. Out of these drawings, I created music which I intend to sing while engaging in a large structure made of wood, hand felted sheep wool tapestries with the drawings from the sessions felted into them, as well as hand spun silk.

The purpose of Therapeutic Passion is to create an expression of metamorphosis through various mediums—such as psychology, therapy, art, music, poetry and philosophy—and offer this creative experience to individuals through the event of the Passage . My hope is that through my Passage work, human beings may be welcomed into an opportunity to experience a personal feeling permeated with vulnerability, empowerment, and perhaps even self-transcendence.