Cody Saxton, Illuminator

I am an artist, medical doctor and cross-industry creative; a Utopian seeking the path to truth and justice, health and joy for all.

Making art is an act that celebrates the value of people beyond their revenue or servitude. It is distinguished in the process of creation from that of making a commodity or propaganda by the fact that it is solely for the expression of the artist as it is produced, without concern for its marketability or universal legibility. The process is one of ongoing discovery and expression of individual truth, sometimes revealing the meaning in our lives.

I practice and invite others to the practice of automatic drawing. I clear my mind of any plan or critique when sitting to paint, parallel to the practice of meditation. Shutting down my inner critic and agenda allows images to arise, often surprising and bizarre even to me, as though they are not from me at all. Perhaps the images arise as the articulation of my subconscious, or maybe a translation of the universal voice, the zeitgeist, past lives or parallel quantum realities. In this state, all I have to do is pay attention to my little inner voice or intuition and the image seems to already exist in on the surface in front of me—-all I have to do is trust and follow the vision.. I have watched over years the themes that emerge from the non-verbal self.

My media choice of brush and ink nods to a venerable international tradition: uniting past and present in a shared human culture. Without pre-sketching or any content planning, the process shares the immediacy of free-dance, land and street art, and produces a precious, unique snapshot of the beautiful natural chaos of a natural human animal—-an extension of nature and our global ecosystem. It is a reminder that while AI can generate millions of images, it can never generate MY images…or yours. The particular intersection of timing, molecules and electricity has never happened and never will again. This is worth celebrating and recognizing. These are our lives, the days and moments we will only have once.

Founder of Illuminator Omnimedia, a company that produces illustrations, projects and objects as well as Illuminating Workshops: learning space to optimize health and wellbeing, to grow and grow community.

Instagram @coco_copilot LinkedIn @cody-saxton-md