Soul of Light

Book excerpt: The visionary art of Portuguese artist Joma Sipe is all about light-not the ordinary light of day but the light of spiritual illumination, which brilliantly radiates from the over one hundred, full-color images in this stunning book. Sipe thinks of his work as sacred geometry that unites this temporal world with higher planes. Each painting thrills with the dispersion and concentration of light that seems to emanate from every line. Sipe regards it as springing from the heart of the universal Energy that shines forth in everything that exists. According to Sipe, his paintings come completely from inner inspiration. As if by their own volition, the thin silver or gold ink pen he holds will begin to move until the canvas is filled. Sipe then energizes certain points in the drawing with crystals, a process that infuses the work with spiritual intensity. Finally, he adds light and soft-color computer effects to achieve an ethereal quality. Many works in this volume are also accompanied by his mystical poetry. Since childhood, Sipe has been influenced by painters of the late nineteenth-century Symbolist Movement. He feels profoundly connected with early Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky and believes his works “not only provide an image of the nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, they also mirror the laws of nature and the powers latent in humankind.” Sipe has also studied Rudolf Steiner, Eliphas Levy, G. I. Gurdieff, the contemporary Gnostics, and the spirituality of Hindu teacher Paramahansa Yogananda and Eckart Tolle, who in turn led him to A Course in Miracles. His knowledge of occult anatomy and the chakras, meditation, alchemy, and the Kabbalah contributes to the wealth of esoteric wisdom he brings to bear in his art. All helps him reflect on canvas his powerful sense of the sacred that seems to illuminate the very being of the viewer as well as of the artist and his visionary world.