Connecting Knowledge and Experience

Connecting knowledge and experience….
But why go back to school? Simple, and I don’t mean it in a simplistic way insinuating it will be a breeze. I know I am in for some serious mental stretching, self-analysis, challenges, doubts, uncertainties, victories and defeats. Nevertheless, the process feels like a grand adventure.
So why? I am an artist first and foremost. I don’t think of myself as a scholar, but I love to study. In fact, I have always maintained a personal view regarding that special connection between theory and practice, the creation of art and the study of life, called discipleship. That special connection is an inseparable bond between knowledge and experience, especially when building on the foundation stones of other masters, a bond that has grown out of favour in our contemporary age. Or, to put it in more prosaic terms, “to follow in the footsteps of masters,” which has been my credo for over 46 years, since first enrolling as a young art student in September of 1964, at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD University) in Toronto, and validated 5 years later when during our honeymoon, I stood in front of Michelangelo’s work in Florence, Italy. Since then, my aim has been to focus my life on following in the footsteps of masters, including to find through writing of epic poetry, the “city not built with human hands,” or as Augustine called it, “the City of God,” the essential fabric of a living tapestry called the Kingdom of God.