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Arts & Letters
Conversations with Artists: Michael Montfort Meditates with Paint
Montfort shares his courage "to believe in everyday miracles."
By Jason N. Kamalie
Posted on Mar 4, 2005 |
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| "Tree of Life," painting by Michael Montfort |
Part I
Pony-tailed, clean-shaven and bespectacled, gentle and polite in speech and manners, the Mountain View, California artist and wearer of a single hoop earring is Michael Montfort. What sets him apart from so many other artists and painters in the area is that he happens to have that rare proclivity for capturing your attention and dispelling time itself—in person, and through his painting. In fact, it's difficult to say what's more interesting—listening to the painter describe any given piece or surveying the art flowing from him via, according to his description, a "spiritual rhythm." The man believes in a universal connectivity or spirituality binding everybody and everything. Naturally, the artist in the man tries to visually manifest that principle again and again in paintings recent and past. It has become the theme of his life, and his painting.
It's hard to imagine Michael as a soldier who fought in the Vietnam War. He regards you so warmly, explains his ideas and images so precisely that it's evident his energy, all of his essence really, is consumed by art when he paints. This Michael Montfort, the friendly artist of the here and now, must be far-removed from the Michael of his military youth fighting under unimaginable circumstances. He speaks softly, laughs loudly, fiercely loves painting, and finds a spiritual rhythm not many people can plug into. Yet, looking at a few of his paintings, one wonders if Vietnam's darkness helped shape Montfort and his work. At least in one series of paintings, Michael manipulates the dark, and the stark.
In a painting called "River of Life," (and other similar pieces in the series) Michael uses a large black canvas as the backdrop for colorful outbursts and patterns seeming to merge chaos and progression along a meandering figurative stream. The few colors—bold silvers, bright pinks, blues and gold—are intensely amplified by the midnight canvas. They literally shine and sparkle like jewels, seeming even to jump out at viewers from the black. The frenzied energy of these pieces, derived from the balance of bright on dark, is of that shifty, mirage-like quality which invites the viewer to stare longer and longer, to repeatedly return in efforts to attain the "real picture," to understand the whispered message of each piece. Quite simply, Michael's "River of Life" really seems to flow. You practically hear it.
Another piece called "The Beast," or "The Dragon" features a surreal, elongated pink menace seeming to devour people or objects surrounding it against the backdrop. The intensity of the struggle, the familiar symbols and colorful patterns particular to his style, and Montfort's recurring theme of universal connectivity all intersect with unique resonance in this piece. Small people are depicted standing around the dragon holding hands and otherwise waiting to be devoured. Nobody comes to the assistance of any other, so all are doomed, waiting to be consumed alive because they were neither sympathetic nor cooperative with each other, although utterly connected to one another. The piece seems to reminds us of the futility of man's ever-increasing capacity to misunderstand his fellow man while descending into ego, detachment, and violence.
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| "Wind Spirit," painting by Michael Montfort |
Yet, perhaps chiefly unique and worthy of attention concerning Montfort's painting is his technique. Forsaking brush strokes in the application of paint to canvas, Montfort opts to manipulate gravity instead. In his most recent and recognizable pieces his technique is to apply the colorful paints to canvas in patterns and images of his choosing, directly from the tubes or bottles without using brushes, shaping the path each drip takes by manipulating the canvas and the paint to his desired effect. The results are engaging, fresh, and sometimes, startling.
Not surprisingly, it's hard to classify an artist like Montfort—and he'd probably tell you it's especially difficult to fit his painting cleanly under one genre or other. But if push comes to shove, Michael is a kind of abstract-impressionist—and he pushes the envelope of his genre in creative ways since he's more concerned about the message he wants to convey than meeting the technicalities of genre. He paints symbols, patterns, order, progress, and chaos—he matches these together in varied combinations against backdrop canvasses which range from colorful, to bright, to bland, to pitch black. If the effect of these elements, working together in any given piece, is to attract or mesmerize viewers, to invite their contemplation of the piece on many levels, or entice them to seek the importance or message of the painting, then Michael Montfort has achieved much of what he wanted. In the end, a viewer's departure, even if only momentary, from the material world and its concerns while embracing the ethereal is Michael's way of introducing a little spirituality into our midst. He shows his paintings regularly from his studio and venues throughout the Palo Alto/Mountain View area and admission is by invitation only. For those lucky enough to catch a show, viewing Montfort's paintings could well be the start of a wholesale change in perception and spiritual motivation if they have the courage to believe in everyday miracles.
Part II
Art and the Transcendental Moment:Painting as Meditation by Jason N. Kamalie
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| "Moses," painting by Michael Montfort |
Michael Montfort, a Mountain View artist, is known for his bold painting style and intriguing images. In a painting genre difficult to classify, Montfort orchestrates color, canvas, patterns, and even gravity to create thematic paintings that captivate viewers and encourage them to depart this material world, however momentarily, for a glimpse into the ethereal or spiritual one. He's been painting long enough to know that, for him, the meditative-spiritual realm pulses with a creative heartbeat—an energetic rhythm that doesn't simply inspire his work, but actually directs it. Montfort describes this painting process as working within a "spiritual rhythm." But, what does this mean exactly—at what point, or under which circumstances, does creating art become meditation?
Montfort explains, first, that painting within his spiritual rhythm is not a form of trance or self-hypnosis. While he prepares mentally before painting each piece, this preparation deals with the practical artistic considerations of scale, layout, theme, etc. While working, he remains alert, responsive, and provides no external indication that he has, in fact, tapped into that vital spirituality driving his efforts. Montfort explains that, while it's not the type of mental state achieved through yoga and other transcendental means, this spiritual rhythm, this creative pulse does have a meditative quality about it. It is a sort of artistic concentration that allows him to "discover" each painting as it should be rendered on canvas or silk. His mind concentrates exclusively on the image that's waiting to be—then the details come in a sort of stream. While he mentally prepares the practical considerations of each piece—theme, style, content, scale, etc.—it is only when he finds this calm rhythm that he sees the picture he wants to paint. In this creative state, the images unfold for him in his mind's eye during the course of each painting.
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| Three Wise Men," painting by Michael Montfort |
Is Montfort's spiritual rhythm a meditative state? It's useless trying to define such a complex issue as meditation— thousands of books have been written with just that goal in mind. Yet, if "meditation" is, at its core, a calm, clear mental state where the conscious and subconscious minds coexist in thought, Montfort's creative state, his spiritual rhythm seems to qualify as meditative. Technical considerations aside, Montfort taps into something spiritual, something that requires his complete attention for a glimpse of the painting to be, a snippet of the final product.
Tuning into that mental pulse requires Montfort to clear his mind and concentrate on the painting process. Somewhere along the way he finds the stillness. When he begins to paint in this state of mind, the details of each piece unveil themselves in a sort of visual pulse that beats toward completion. All of this occurs in a space of time that is as variable as each piece. For Michael Montfort, concentration and stillness of mind provide the revelation of each finished, extraordinary piece. Perhaps this is the very soul of art.
It's certainly possible many of the greatest artists throughout the ages have tapped into a type of this spiritual rhythm to best express their visions—even if they weren't aware of it. Maybe it's happening every day with artists around the planet. The importance of such an enlightened spiritual state to artistic expression is found in the finished pieces originating from, and nourished by, the meditative rhythm of each artist. Each painting or other work of art, created while in the ebb and flow of a rhythm like that described by Montfort, provides the finished material realization of the meditative moment.
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| "Last Supper," painting by Michael Montfort |
Concerning his sculpture of David, Michelangelo explained that he did not create the piece but rather discovered David within the block of stone from which he sculpted. Is this a possible example of the artistic spiritual rhythm at work inside one of the world's greatest artists? Could be. That creative stillness Montfort speaks of is a powerful phenomenon that has been guiding him for some time now. It's a phenomenon that may have influenced countless pieces of art throughout the ages—meditation at its creative apex.
Let's not forget about the viewers—the audience who look at and contemplate the art. Montfort's goal has always been for viewers to leave their concerns of this material world, however briefly, so as to touch the spiritual realm while examining his art. When the viewer surveys any given piece with an uncluttered mind, concentrating only on the images before him, he merges with the spiritual rhythm linking artist and viewer. Montfort effectively invites viewers to join his form of meditation in order to "discover" the painting before them. No hidden meanings or secret translations in Montfort's paintings—only the invitation to lay down the troubles of daily life for a few moments of contemplation, and maybe, meditation as well.
Text Copyright ©2005 by Jason Kamalie, all rights reserved.
Image Copyrights ©2005 by Michael Montfort, all rights reserved.
Use by permission only.
You may write to Jason Kamalie or Michael Montfort c/o of publisher at westbynorthwest.org
© Copyright 2000-2004 by West By Northwest.org
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