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 beneath varied names and inventive media, together with audio recordings, visible artwork, multimedia artwork, and sound artwork. He’s been practising the Transcendental Meditation approach for the previous two years. Right here’s what we realized about his inventive work and the way his TM observe enriches his life.
What are your passions? What does a typical day in your week seem like?
Certainly one of my largest 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 means out however up. Not for the height–I’ve lengthy since understood about that–however for the mountain. You create the mountain, and then you definately 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 at all times resonated with me as a result of I really feel course of is totally important to every little 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 concerning 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 these days. Usually, I’m engaged on music or art work in my studio for at the very least 6-8 hours a day. I’ve discovered it very useful and helpful to construction my day however to permit tons of selection inside all the completely different parts. Day-to-day I’ll be making radically completely different music, consuming completely different meals, and experiencing inspiration and sweetness in unknown locations.
Do you see your self as anyone who took a leap of religion to stay a extra inventive life or do you assume it sort of simply occurred?
Fortunately, it simply occurred
I’ve at all times been curious about self-education, mainly gaining extra data that may be recycled again into my inventive practices and day-to-day life. Creativity, intelligence, and bliss are important components to stay a fulfilled life, and I really feel it’s my pure being to evolve in the direction of a extra inventive life.
Studying Maharishi’s phrases, “Enlargement of happiness is the aim of life, and evolution is the method by which it’s fulfilled,” made me perceive why my thoughts at all times appeared naturally drawn to gaining data and in the end attaining my full potential. It’s related with the legal guidelines of nature. Creativity, to me, is pure success and happiness. My effective 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 converse extra about your drawing observe and its connection to transcendence?
I’ve at all times considered artwork as a collection of issues that should be solved, and I’m typically drawing myself clear options solely to create a brand new downside for a future work. Since I began practising Transcendental Meditation, I’ve observed the stream and feeling I skilled my whole life whereas drawing is similar to the best way I really feel once I transcend to extra delicate components of our thoughts and in the end attain the supply of pure inventive intelligence.
I’ve just lately discovered it helpful to attract instantly after my morning meditation as a result of I really feel extraordinarily settled and at peace. Many artists imagine that struggling, melancholy, or negativity assist give them a inventive edge. Once I was in my 20s, I additionally believed that you just wanted to carry on to that anger and struggling to in the end be inventive. I’m grateful I’ve lastly found that in my case, struggling isn’t essential to stay a lifetime of creativity and happiness, and, subsequently, the act of creation is at all times 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 take pleasure in occupied with macrocosm and microcosm and seeing the identical patterns reproduced in all ranges of the cosmos, from the biggest all the best way right 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 in the end with my environment and atmosphere, too.
How does your atmosphere play into your life?
I really feel a really sturdy sensitivity to my atmosphere, and I’m at all times attempting to assist elevate my very own environment. I’m a complete homebody and really feel fully content material staying at dwelling. Subsequently, I need to create an atmosphere and environment that assist service and assist my inventive intentions and needs.
Listening to Maharishi say, “The universe influences the person and the person influences the universe,” helps me perceive why I’ve at all times felt a connection to the atmosphere at giant. I’m one to ritualize not solely my home life but in addition my inventive practices as effectively, and sometimes these are one and the identical to me. My studio has at all times been in my dwelling, and, in a way, I’m creating art work and music for my dwelling. I’m repeatedly cultivating my area so it’s inspiring and always 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 also be part of that very same ritual.
Each you and your sister are artists. Was artwork and creativity a giant a part of your childhood?
My sister, Olivia Locher, is an excellent photographer recognized 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 goals. 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 remains to be centered round creativeness because it was in my childhood and adolescence, in the end, 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. Subsequently, I’ve discovered the Transcendental Meditation approach to be the best technique to pause and reset myself. Studying books gives me a lot data and inspiration. Probably the most grounding factor is consuming effectively. 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 take pleasure in rising and juicing wheatgrass; it’s an effective way to start out the day!
How lengthy have you ever been practising the Transcendental Meditation approach, and what impressed you to be taught?
I’ve been practising Transcendental Meditation for 2 years, though I’ve been surprisingly curious about Transcendental Meditation since 2011, once I learn Catching the Huge Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch. I at all times knew about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from The Beatles and different pop-culture data, however once I learn David Lynch’s guide, I believed to myself, “Wow! Now this appears 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 be taught the Transcendental Meditation approach. The subsequent day I attended a fast introduction and began meditating that very same weekend!
My sister has been practising TM since 2012, and the constructive results her meditation observe has performed on all features of her life are inspiring and vibrantly current, and seeing these outcomes instantly was a giant affect for me to lastly be taught as effectively.
What was your notion of meditation basically 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 job for the thoughts, however this was fully fallacious pondering as a result of I shortly found that Transcendental Meditation is an harmless, easy, and really straightforward approach.
You possibly can be taught extra about Brandon and his physique of inventive work at www.brandon-locher.com or observe him on Instagram.
To be taught extra concerning the TM approach, you’ll be able to join along with your native TM instructor right here.
