Forms of Feeling and Forms of Meaning
Pansies in the Field 23”x30” (plus frame & Mat 30”x36”); All images created by the author
“A work of art which isn't based on feeling isn't art at all.”
— Paul Cézanne
Meet artist Elvi Bjorkquist. Elvi is a graduate of the certificate program and a friend of the Cobb Institute. She has been an artist all of her life. She graduated with a BFA degree in art and art history. A lifetime ELCA Lutheran, she graduated with both a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theological Philosophy from Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. When John Cobb taught a class at Iliff, Elvi found and immediately feel in love with process thought. She was the owner of the Elvi Design Group which worked nationally and internationally for many years. Elvi lives in Denver, Colorado and is now painting and showing her artwork. She's a member of the board of the Parker Artist Group.
She was invited to present her thesis, “Andean Originality and Creativity Were Used to Survive and Redefine Selfhood,” at the SARTS Convention in San Antonio in 2016. The paper, titled “Counter-Hegemonic Aesthetics and Spiritual Aesthetics and Spiritual Transformation in the Viceroyalty of Peru,” is presently on Academia.edu here. Also available on Academia.edu is the synthesis & springboard PowerPoint presentation she produced to fulfill the final requirement for the Cobb Institute certificate program, “Process Thought & Universal Art Creating Intertwining Between Cultures,” which you can see here.
Elvi's painting in that project captures the connection between art and the process thought of Alfred North Whitehead. She sees a strong connection between Whitehead and Buddhism, because they both view the world as permeated by “aesthetic qualities." It is these aesthetic qualities that are the content of religious experience within the Whiteheadian and Buddhist process traditions. Whitehead also believes that aesthetic apprehension is complementary to scientific apprehension and helps to complete it. He believes that deeply felt intuitions highlight and illumine nature and that there are multiple ways of knowing that can be jointly affirmed and harmonized.
She is drawn to the idea that thinking is actually a form of feeling; aesthetic wisdom and rational inquiry are complementary. Both can be contexts in which people discover higher ideals in which to live and give a sense for the mystery and beauty of the universe. It becomes a means to the end of cultural transformation. God has given all cultures choices on how to relate and this affects what kind of world we live in. By using process thought and universal art we can help create an ecological change in our world relations.
What medium do you work in?
I am now working with acrylics on canvas, although most of time I will add ink, pastels, colored pencil which is then called mixed media. I have worked in most all mediums in the past and taught advanced drawing at the university level. For many years I worked on the computer designing logos, artwork and layouts for many companies.
What is your creative process like?
Today my work is non-discursive and denotes not facts, but expresses the forms of feeling and forms of meaning that are not able to be objectified in discursive terms or are not “sayable.” An artist creates “an expressive symbol” that is grasped in an act of “intuition. The elements exist in arelational matrix. Each mark is influenced by the last and will influence the future of the painting. Hopefully, each experience can be a positiveprehension of beauty or enjoyment. This form of art expresses feelings and makes those feelings known. Starting with a blank canvas, I let the colors Iam feeling at the moment guide me. After I have laid my base color, I startto create layers of color on top, using my intuition to guide me deeper into developing my feelings toward the piece. This offers the ability to place multiple layers with transparency. I find that I can layer a range of more interesting colors that results in greater depth to the piece. My goal is to represent the world not in a discursive manner but rather a nondiscursive mode. It is a process, letting the layers of colors and marks interact with each other allowing my feelings to express themselves.
Ethereal Mountains 24”x30”
How has process thought affected your approach to art?
From the very first day I was introduced to Process thought I immediately loved it and related it to art as an example of the concepts operating in the world. Art and Process thought work so well together. I am able to explain to people how important abstract art is to the world. So many people don’t understand abstract art because they want everything indiscursive terms. The arts express feelings and don’t need actual objects to understand feelings. I was excellent in drawing and very skillful, but now I feel that abstract art is much more challenging. When you are drawing or painting an object it is a learned skill and you have something to copy. But, when you are making abstract art it is a blank canvas and you have to come up with something out of nothing and make it into a concept.
“Art is your emotions flowing in a river of imagination.”
— Devon, 6th grade
Calm & Peace 24”x30”
World of A Butterfly 24" x 30"
Mountains 24"x24"
You created the logo for the Claremont Process Nexus. What was your inspiration and approach?
I saw Claremont Process Nexus logo as different groups working together to further Process - Relational Philosophy where each group relates toevery other group. Each group has its own area of expertise within this nexus, thus each group is its own entity but together they contribute to the whole. Each entity has it’s own circle and intertwines with the other circles creating and relating to the nexus as a whole. Each entity has two colors of their own and the two colors concrescence shows the process relationships working within their group. Thus, different entities create different areas of expertise to further Process Philosophy, yet maintain their own individuality
Concrescence 36"x48"
24x30
“Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art.”
— Pierre-Auguste Renoir
