The emphasis on technology and rationalization in one’s modern world has occluded one from the experience of the world as it is. We see the world through layers and layers of concepts. Our minds are filled with dead concepts. It has laden our minds with the weight of stagnant categories, that we cannot think fresh nor see the new. We are bored because the dead concepts block us from seeing the new in the everyday. No longer are we able to wonder at the miracles and mysteries of life or be original to meet the challenges of the new Ideas Economy.

The art of Ontography is the art and process of unlearning towards spontaneous creativity. It is the art of “drawing” from and of Wonder. The word, “Ontography” come from the Greek word, “onta” which means “being”, and “graphy” which means trace or drawing. Ontography is the art of “drawing from one’s creative being”. It is to draw from the creative original in us. To be “original” means to go back to the origin. The origin is you. The origin-al mind is one’s creative mind before preconceptions set in. Ontography is the art of drawing without thinking. It is drawing from the source.

Ontography seek to “draw out” the ability to Wonder in each one of us. Wonder is the way to weaken the stronghold of stagnant conceptual thoughts. Wonder will enable one to appreciate the world as it is, to be creative again, and to meet the challenges of the new Ideas Economy that values creativity. Through Wonder, Aliveness in mind and body is stimulated. Aliveness cannot be conceptualized nor represented. Aliveness is the flowing groundless ground of Being. It is both energy and life force. It just IS.

The art works presented are done without preconception, allowing the “free-mind aliveness” of the artist to flow. The works are about “provoking creative aliveness through wonder.” To explore the possibility that these works might speak to the audience in ways other than a one-to-one correspondence of meaning, to go beyond one’s preconceived notions, stimulating their sense of wonder, towards a rekindling of their creative imagination.

I invite you to begin the journey of going back to your “origin”, your preconceptual self towards Creative living in the New Idea Economy. The re-enchantment of life begins with the ability to Wonder.

Ontography - The Art of Drawing Wonder ©   Hokiat 2004