By Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the importance of the arts and humanities and how this project resonates with you. Thou Art. I am art, you are art, All is art. We create and are thus re-created in the Unfolding Image as we reveal and are re revealed by the human camera—our inner eye—a living lens…rolling, focusing, capturing and re-membering the moving picture. Images that move us. Images and impressions which leave their imprint, which spark the imagination and nurture the spirit of expression. We are, after all, a shining miracle, a mirror with a memory. We share the same DNA with stars—the stuff that dreams are made of.

I find traces of myself (and you) in all things. I collect and am collected. I photograph, I document, I write, I paint. Mostly, I try to remember. I like to believe that you are not unlike me. That you take delight in the belief that we, a celluloid world, are forever coated with a thin translucent film of stardust—that magic is our sacred inheritance, radiant knowledge—our legacy. What is film or any image if not energy from light,--the transference of a memory projected onto a blank space. That out of darkness, light, however slight, obscure dispersed or fragmented, has the possibility of connecting us to one another in the bigger picture. That we, who both suffer and exalt in the human condition, may recognize ourselves on the canvas or widescreen of Collective Consciousness. Not unlike music or poetry, art is but a key that opens a portal to the unconscious, so we may understand life on some level without fully comprehending it; because art, not unlike life, remains a mystery.

What was the inspiration for your creative work? The many faces of womankind.

Tell us something about the natural world that you love and don’t wish to lose. What are your thoughts on the kind of world we are leaving for the next generation? The world without and within is imbued with Light. Light that shines from above as in the stars with which we share the same DNA...light of knowledge, of hope, the light of love. All is reflected in the natural world--the sun in the morning and the moon at night. The light of truth and memory. I should not wish to forget or lose anything that i can see or hear or sense in the natural world. All is meaningful to me. Images--imagination and that which inspires. As the world turns, so do we. With every good turn we are created as we create. It is in our kind deeds that we leave the more meaningful legacy. We must not lose our sacred water, nor the bees which help to sustain us. But, also we must let our voices be heard in defense of climate change--whether through the spoken or written word or any of the many varied art forms. We must put our good intentions into action to save our good planet and insure the quality of life for the generations that follow. The meaning of life is to give our lives meaning

Photo credit: collage by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Would you like to take part in a collective artwork?:

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko is the Writer/Poet in Residence for The Creative Process and the Poet in Residence for SpokenWord Paris. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and a former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, she is widely published. Her work has appeared in (among others) Jazz and Literature, XXI Century World Literature (which she represents France) and Maintenant : Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Her collages have been exhibited in galleries, the DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation for Aids) Showhouse in San Francisco and featured in Home and Garden Magazine. Her selected poems On the Way to Invisible published by Opiate Books is now available.