When I try to summarize what I’m doing then I feel that I’m producing some kind of ‘cultural-spiritual code’ with my work which I’m spelling out to be read and understood by as many people from as many backgrounds as possible. While Words are my starting point and ultimately main focus, I do like to indulge in the freedom to float seamlessly between both cornerstones of my work: Writing & Drawing. Doing this, embedding Gnosis / Knowledge into Images and Words (Gnosticism), means passing on Encoded Wisdom to be decoded by fellow seekers of Beauty and Truth – according to their  own level of Understanding and Attainment.

In an attempt to pinpoint what subject matter interests me then I think I’d have to say it’s  mostly about People and Reality. Following an inherent quest for Truth and Love, I’ve been to a great deal looking at the world through the lens of Humanistic Psychology and Psychological Astrology. More recently, this lens has eventually zeroed in to be the Great Law of the Cosmos (or Dafa in Chinese), a law encompassing both the Dao and the Buddha School. It is thus, that Cultivation has proven itself to be the true basis of whatever I do – and have been doing all along – and that therefore the Unfathomable and Supernatural, rather than the Tangible and Explicable, is more often than not providing the answers that I’ve been looking for.

In any of my work, I want to delve deep into both the Beauty and Mystery of Human Life and Human Experience and come back to the surface with the Trophies of what I’ve seen and still can see – the Stories, the Images – but at the same time I’m also extremely fascinated by the Darker Side of our Reality and – albeit even scarier – of Ultimate Reality. The behind-the-scene workings of Fate and Destiny, the ‘political’ aspects and psycho-mechanics of human relationships, the intricate power games between men and men, women and women and – on the highest, most subtle and most mysterious level – between women and men. And the ultimate pointlessness of our human suffering and the ludicrous ‘struggle’ for relevance which continue to tear apart our hearts and our planet – essentially just perpetuating the so-called psychological ‘Cycle of Abuse’.

But also Humour is quite an important element of my work.

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Influences:

Li Hongzhi, Hans Kueng, Rabbi Hillel, David Bohm, Eric Berne, Robert Graves, Douglas Reed, Jonathan Franzen, Bret Easton Ellis, Julia Davis, Charles Bukowski, Pauline Reage, Michel Houellebecq, Vladimir Nabokov, Todd Solondz, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luis Bunuel, Lars von Trier, Ingmar Bergman, Alexandro Jodorowski, Trevor Brown, Stu Mead, Ferocius, Moebius, Robert Crumb, Steve Bell, Geoff Darrow, Gottfried Helnwein, Gustav Klimt, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Piet Mondrian, Paul Gaugin, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco de Goya, Leonardo da Vinci, Pieter Breughel, Hieronymus Bosch, Giotto, Medieval Book Illustrations, Egyptian Art, Cave Drawings, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Shakyamuni, Hermes Trimegistos, (to name only a few) …

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reinhard schleining
london, january 2012