As much as we endorse a consciousness in our processes, we have learnt that there is nothing more mindful than accepting the body’s roll in expression.

The most dynamic outcomes that I get from painting are the result of what happens in spite of what I plan, and the paradox that these serendipitous mistakes are always completely congruent with what I ultimately want to express.

If you could imagine a painter trying to capture the natural flow of a serpentine river that has carved its way through a mountainscape: He swashes the twists and turns of the river onto the canvas with washed out wet paint, because, well, a wet brush just seems right, and he wants his tactile experience to echo the subject. His hand shakes, he falters, the paint runs, he tips the canvas and the river of paint changes direction. He instinctively grabs an old scuffed brush and uses it to roughly redirect the running paint, which it splatters like water smashing rock. The runoff is either absorbed, or it seeps into damp eddies and swirling tributaries. Taking a step back he realises that what he has is rough, but has captured the essence of his subject.

Does his brilliance lie in his ability to replicate what he sees, or is it in his capacity to make mistakes at just the right time and in just the right way?

Gaining any kind of awareness, let alone control over a process to which you are a catalyst but not a cause is extremely difficult. I was lucky enough not only to find a vehicle to realise this truth, but also an environment that equipped me and my team with an ongoing learning and philosophy that has helped shape our work. If you had asked me five years ago if I would find myself using boxing-sparring to be a better artist, I would have laughed it off.

At the Crazy Monkey gym in Jozi, internalizing the above process and effectively replicating it is termed “somatic intelligence”. Rodney King who runs the gym we train at has progressively dealt with the idea of somatic intelligence and the expression thereof since the beginnings of his internationally acclaimed Crazy Monkey Defence System. Rodney and head coach Nuno De Gouveia have adopted a training philosophy to functional Martial Arts, which has resulted in a dynamic template for learning and growth in all aspects of life. “Crazy Monkey” refers to a combat defence technique that primarily teaches mental fortitude but also serves as the foundation for the practical application of concepts like “somatic intelligence.”

I was once told that a cricket player facing a fast bowler will be swinging his bat (and sometimes closing his eyes) before the ball has left the bowlers hand – Surely this tells us that reactions are somehow naturally pre-emptive. In the same sense, the physical and mental immediacy of sparring motivates the development of a pre-programmed inclination to seize opportunity the moment it arises – this provides me with more than just a point of reference for my endeavours – it is more like upgrading my minds RAM with a new graphics card.

In art, members of the Expressionist movement, which arose at the turn of the 19th century, did not actually refer to themselves as Expressionists. However, their approach to art which involved capturing immediacy and ‘nowness’, sparked a new mode of expression for which these artists are so well known, and also inspired a great deal of debate about the conduits of creativity. These ideas spread into the realms of spirituality and philosophy – indeed, Nietzsche himself saw the dichotomy between ordered thinking and chaotic thinking as the origins of creativity – somehow though, the idea of training the physicality of expression seems to have scarcely been explored. 

Sparring has taught us that you cannot contrive reactivity – but you can exploit it. For us, it is the beginning of what we now call phlow. There is a wonderful cyclic pattern born of this process physiologically. It is difficult to tell if this is the mind being activated by the body, or vice versa, or perhaps even an indefinable overlap of mind and body, but I understand from Rodney that this is something that is actively being studied by physiologists.

It is interesting to note that the word ‘soma’, of Greek origin and meaning ‘body’, is also used to define the ‘body’ of a biological cell. Very often, the word somatic when used to describe cellular activity implies a division between physical processes and mental or synaptic processes. This too is a great paradox to ponder, in that during the state of somatic expression, you are probably the most together you will ever be!

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