Brandon Locher is a multimedia artist and music producer who at the moment lives and works in New York, NY. Since 2006, he’s had greater than 60 releases underneath varied names and inventive media, together with audio recordings, visible artwork, multimedia artwork, and sound artwork. He’s been working towards the Transcendental Meditation approach for the previous two years. Right here’s what we realized about his artistic work and the way his TM follow enriches his life.
What are your passions? What does a typical day in your week appear like?
One of my greatest passions in life is just course of. I’m typically reminded of a passage from “Confessions of a Mountain Climber” by the artist Agnes Denes. “I’m a mountain climber, and there’s no approach out however up. Not for the height–I’ve lengthy since understood about that–however for the mountain. You create the mountain, and you then climb it. Not for the ultimate peak; the problem is the method and the journey, and the unattainable solutions are the lure.”
This assertion has all the time resonated with me as a result of I really feel course of is totally important to every thing in life. I’ve found I benefit from the fruitful outcomes extra profoundly once I take time having fun with the method and journey to completion. Course of is in regards to the right here and now and waking as much as this very second.
I’ve been taking part in piano, studying books, and watching movies for leisure currently. Usually, I’m engaged on music or art work in my studio for no less than 6-Eight hours a day. I’ve discovered it very useful and useful to construction my day however to permit tons of selection inside all of the totally different parts. Day-to-day I’ll be making radically totally different music, consuming totally different meals, and experiencing inspiration and sweetness in unknown locations.
Do you see your self as anyone who took a leap of religion to dwell a extra artistic life or do you assume it variety of simply occurred?
Fortunately, it simply occurred
I’ve all the time been eager about self-education, mainly gaining extra data that may be recycled again into my artistic practices and day-to-day life. Creativity, intelligence, and bliss are important components to dwell a fulfilled life, and I really feel it’s my pure being to evolve in the direction of a extra artistic life.
Studying Maharishi’s phrases, “Enlargement of happiness is the aim of life, and evolution is the method via which it’s fulfilled,” made me perceive why my thoughts all the time appeared naturally interested in gaining data and finally attaining my full potential. It’s linked with the legal guidelines of nature. Creativity, to me, is pure success and happiness. My nice feeling lies within the act of being – bringing collectively values of absolutely the into relative existence with my expressions of music and artwork.
Are you able to communicate extra about your drawing follow and its connection to transcendence?
I’ve all the time thought of artwork as a sequence of issues that should be solved, and I’m typically drawing myself clear options solely to create a brand new drawback for a future work. Since I began working towards Transcendental Meditation, I’ve observed the move and feeling I skilled my total life whereas drawing is similar to the way in which I really feel once I transcend to extra delicate elements of our thoughts and finally attain the supply of pure artistic intelligence.
I’ve just lately discovered it useful to attract instantly after my morning meditation as a result of I really feel extraordinarily settled and at peace. Many artists imagine that struggling, despair, or negativity assist give them a artistic edge. Once I was in my 20s, I additionally believed that you simply wanted to carry on to that anger and struggling to finally be artistic. I’m grateful I’ve lastly found that in my case, struggling isn’t essential to dwell a life of creativity and happiness, and, subsequently, the act of creation is all the time a aid from any struggling or sorrow in my very own life.
My drawings are created out of an appreciation, admiration, and love for the pure atmosphere and universe. I drastically get pleasure from serious about macrocosm and microcosm and seeing the identical patterns reproduced in all ranges of the cosmos, from the most important all the way in which all the way down to the smallest scale. I imagine, on this system, the midpoint is Man, who helps summarize the thriller of the cosmos. Drawing helps me set up peace and concord inside myself and finally with my environment and atmosphere, too.
How does your atmosphere play into your life?
I really feel a really robust sensitivity to my atmosphere, and I’m all the time making an attempt to assist elevate my very own environment. I’m a complete homebody and really feel fully content material staying at residence. Due to this fact, I have to create an atmosphere and environment that assist service and assist my artistic intentions and wishes.
Listening to Maharishi say, “The universe influences the person and the person influences the universe,” helps me perceive why I’ve all the time felt a connection to the atmosphere at giant. I’m one to ritualize not solely my home life but in addition my artistic practices as properly, and sometimes these are one and the identical to me. My studio has all the time been in my residence, and, in a way, I’m creating art work and music for my residence. I’m constantly cultivating my area so it’s inspiring and consistently feels recent. It may be so simple as having recent minimize flowers that assist elevate my basic consciousness. I like to curate my area as a ritual for creating, and creating can be a component of that very same ritual.
Each you and your sister are artists. Was artwork and creativity an enormous half of your childhood?
My sister, Olivia Locher, is an excellent photographer identified for her sarcastic method to studio images. Throughout our childhood, our mother and father inspired us to daydream and to by no means flip away from our desires. I’ll be turning 37 in a number of months, and I really feel like I’m removed from being a “grown-up” as a result of my life continues to be centered round creativeness because it was in my childhood and adolescence, finally, because of my mother and father permitting us each the liberty to discover and develop with out too many pressures or constraints throughout childhood.
What are your three favourite “instruments” for a wholesome and glad life?
The quick tempo of life doesn’t enable an actual second of silence. Due to this fact, I’ve discovered the Transcendental Meditation approach to be the simplest technique to pause and reset myself. Studying books gives me a lot data and inspiration. Essentially the most grounding factor is consuming properly. I’ve been a vegetarian since 2000, and for a few years I mainly ate “vegetarian junk meals.” It now feels applicable to eat all natural and wholesome, home-cooked meals. I additionally actually get pleasure from rising and juicing wheatgrass; it’s a good way to start out the day!
How lengthy have you ever been working towards the Transcendental Meditation approach, and what impressed you to study?
I’ve been working towards Transcendental Meditation for 2 years, though I’ve been surprisingly eager about Transcendental Meditation since 2011, once I learn Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch. I all the time knew about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from The Beatles and different pop-culture data, however once I learn David Lynch’s e-book, I believed to myself, “Wow! Now this feels like one thing for me!”
Quick ahead 9 years, and I spoke with Bob Roth, who casually talked about how straightforward it was to enroll and study the Transcendental Meditation approach. The subsequent day I attended a fast introduction and began meditating that very same weekend!
My sister has been working towards TM since 2012, and the constructive results her meditation follow has performed on all elements of her life are inspiring and vibrantly current, and seeing these outcomes instantly was an enormous affect for me to lastly study as properly.
What was your notion of meditation generally earlier than you realized TM? Did that notion change after your first few experiences meditating?
Previous to studying Transcendental Meditation, my notion of meditation was that it concerned some sort of mental play. I believed meditation was mentally difficult or a barely troublesome activity for the thoughts, however this was fully unsuitable considering as a result of I shortly found that Transcendental Meditation is an harmless, easy, and really straightforward approach.
You may study extra about Brandon and his physique of artistic work at www.brandon-locher.com or observe him on Instagram.
To study extra in regards to the TM approach, you possibly can join along with your native TM trainer here.
