Occult and spiritual art by Arjan Winkelaar
Magnetic Fields
Where magick meets intuition to become spiritual art
Intuitive and occult art
The feeling tracing lines on pieces paper is more magnetic then things made with paint can be. Drawing is the best way to be guided by your intuition or subconscious. Automatic drawing is the way, my way.
/ Hand-drawn on paper
/ Process guided by the spirit/deity/subconscious
/ Infused with divine energy and intention
Deities and altar pieces
Made from materials found in thrift stores and clay from the earth. Brought to life under my hands, guided by the spirits that will inhabit them. Ritually infused with divine energy and intention.
/ Made from thrifted items
/ Process guided by the spirit/deity
/ Infused with divine energy and intention
ARJAN WINKELAAR
Intuitive draftsman – Surrealist – Chaos magick – Spiritual artist
W hy Magnetic fields?
In 1919 André Breton and Philippe Soupault wrote the book ‘Les Champs magnétiques’ (the Magnetic fields) which was published the year after. For many this was a pivotal moment in art history, as it is considered the actual birth of the Surrealist movement.
The Magnetic fields was written in one frenzied week in a hotel room. As an experiment in writing, without revising and agreed by the authors to just write. Through the use of automatic writing they suppressed their conscious control over the process and tapped directly into their subconscious. The result was a dreamlike text, full of disjoined prose and poetic imagery. A genuine exploration of the subconscious mind.
Automatic writing is also seen as a way to tap into the spirit world. A means of communicating with spirits and deities that was particularly popular in the Western world of the late nineteen and early twentieth century. This occult practice of automatic writing has a long history. In China there is a extensive history of ‘Spirit writing’, known as Fuij. Spanish Kabbalists engaged in automatic writing, as a method that may have been used to produce the ‘Zohar’. And in the sixteenh century John Dee and Edward Kelley received the Enochian language through automatic writing.
The practice was always present and the Surrealist movement was drenched in spiritualism, magic and the occult. Being a surrealist was more then tapping into dream states. It was being in touch with the spirit world and the occult. The place were our subconscious meets dreams of the Gods.
W ho is Arjan Winkelaar?
Born between shards of glass and dusty relics, Arjan Winkelaar encountered the world with a fresh pair of eyes. For him, it was filled with magical things, monsters, ghosts and everything his mind could conjure. He grew up in a small village, but for him it was a forest filled with wonder and adventures.
From the moment he could hold a pencil he started drawing. Like most children do he drew without conscious thought. Letting his hands be guided by the lines and not trying to make sense of what it became. This practice never left him and as soon as he discovered the world of the Surreal all things magical found a permanent home. It was from that moment that he knew, the world around us, is also what’s within us.
Occultism and magick soon followed. First through the writings of Aleister Crowley and the drawings of Austin Osman Spare. And later through the practice of Chaos Magick and deeper dives in the world of occult writings.
In his art, magick and spiritism were always present. Sometimes as a tiny speck, a flicker, other times clear and present as daylight. These days his art is more then just ‘art’. They are portals to the spirit world. Windows to the unseen and occult. Spiritually infused representations of the universal energy. Arjan Winkelaar has gone back to the true spirit of the original Surrealists, making visions of dreams and our subconscious.
