Advanced Life Drawing : Dancing

This piece was inspired by an existential panic attack.

I don’t believe in souls in the traditional sense. I grew up Catholic, so “eternal life” was something that was always heavily talked about; though our body was temporary, or soul was supposed to be eternal. However, I knew from psychology that a large amount of our mind was physical; emotions were a result of chemicals in the brain, talents and personality traits could oftentimes be explained by genetic makeup, intelligence was dictated by the development of brain matter. The soul was described to me as an “essence”—which, in my opinion, was an indirect way of saying: “we haven’t the slightest clue what it is, but we think it’s there because it feels right.” In my early teen years, I became intrigued with the idea that there was a rational explanation for eternal life, and therefore, a more concrete description of the soul.

Two things—according to science—are supposed to be “eternal”: energy and mass. Energy, according to the law of the conservation of energy, cannot be created nor destroyed and mass, according to the law of the conservation of mass, will remain constant over the course of a reaction.

Both of these laws can be evidenced in death. When an animal dies, the ground where that animal died takes the nutrients from its body, and grows plants in its place. As the animal’s body decays, the plants grow larger. There is a transfer of the mass. Similarly, the energy that powered that animal is transferred through the passing on of the nutrients.

Since the physical body is a mass, the more intangible “essence” that brings that mass to life (energy) is the soul.

I was always perfectly happy with this definition. But, I’ve recently fallen—pardon the cliché—head over heels in love.

So, after fretting about whether or not our energy would power neighboring stars or wolves of the same pack; I was calmed by both the boo, and by the other boo (Aristotle.) According to the philosopher, “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” So since we are of the same soul, the same energy, we are bound to be alive together.

Since we are the same soul, I wanted my piece to include physical depictions of both of us. Both of our bodies are included in the piece, and they are seamless with the living, breathing world around us. We are mountains, we are trees, we are surrounded by fog. These are places that we have been together. We are all that has provided us with refuge and care, and we will, eventually be reunited with the earth.

All of this is framed by poetry written by my love. Since our souls cannot take our minds along once we have left our current bodies, they act as a representation of our physical selves. The words, the descriptions, are relative to our corporeal selves. They are the frame-work for our current relationship; abstract thoughts colliding together, creating explosions while bonding our energy together.