Emotion and Art: Mastering the Artist's Path

by John Ruskan

In this highly original work, John Ruskan explores the intricacies of feeling-oriented art. He presents radical insights about the nature of the art process that explain exactly what it is that artists do, how they can do it better, and how to make art an essential route to enlightenment through revealing and integrating the personal unconscious. He demystifies artistic manic-depressiveness, clarifying in remarkably simple terms how it forms and how it may be handled and reversed. His original three stages of art provide a road map for those traveling the glorious yet often perilous path of the artist, revealing those perils and how to avoid them. He will enable you to experience art, either as a viewer or creator, as a vital part of your evolutionary advancement.

Genres: Art

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

John's life-long personal experience on the spiritual - higher consciousness path began in 1968 at the age of 26 when he was initiated into a major yoga tradition. Almost 30 years later, in 1994, he self-published Emotional Clearing, a guide for releasing suppressed negative feelings by means of an inner meditative technique.

John has worked for the last 25 years as a holistic psychotherapist. He regards intellectual probing into psychological dysfunction to be limited at best. His work is completely focused on a right-brain, feeling-based, mystical approach to inner psychological healing. Accordingly, he is fundamentally at odds with mainstream left-brain cognitive therapies, and also tends to discount the current neuroscience craze as a mostly materialistic dead-end distraction from genuine inner soul healing, even though he is quite articulate about Western psychology and has incorporated key humanistic psychological principles into his work.

John began his career with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University (1964), but quickly abandoned that life-style for that of the artist. He was a working musician - singer-songwriter - recording artist - recording studio owner in NYC until reinventing himself as an Emotional Clearing Facilitator in 1994. He feels that his experience as an artist was instrumental in developing the right-brain intuitive skills that have enabled him to formulate his vision and to empathize deeply with others.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its so well written that even if I disagree with some of the perspectives that the book draws from, its still immensely useful