Art that Transcends in our Digital World: The Story of Colors In Motion

By: Christopher Graefe with Linda DeHart

What do we HAVE TOO MUCH of in the world?

We can all agree that our surroundings are often overstimulating. Video news programs and animated advertising are ever more in our face due to an increasing number of large televisions and digital billboards in public spaces, on top of what we’re already taking in through our smartphones and computers.

Is it possible to shift this imbalance? How can we choose differently?

I met artist Linda DeHart at her 2009 artistic launch of Colors In Motion® (CIM) with the screening of “The Human Journey” - 1,000 of her watercolor paintings beautifully synchronized to ten musical scores. Something remarkable occurred while a roomful of over 100 guests absorbed Linda’s slowly cadenced beauty of color, light, motion and sound. Everyone joined in a field of coherence. Attention was unified and focused.

Riding the subway home after, I realized that I had just been transformed. The city had quieted. Colors were brighter. My thoughts were clearer. My brain relaxed, and danced, and remembered, and forgot. I thought, “I WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS.“

How did LINDA do it? In our first meeting she asked me …

"What do we NEED MORE of in this world?"

The question hung there in the air, until we both acknowledged the answer at the same time. Calm.

This notion of more calm became an increasingly intoxicating thought. I am a commercial digital artist who also builds large LED installations (huge TV screens) in public places like Times Square, NYC. “Calm” is not part of the language in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, where one gains attention from being faster, brighter, and louder than the competition.

And yet, we each have struggled to ignore large, loud TVs in a waiting room or restaurant with unwanted content overwhelming our ability to focus. Even though we may be momentarily caught by the novelty, our gut reaction is avoidance. There is little conscious thought about how all of this content is affecting our psyches as more of these displays are installed in public spaces.

So, Linda and I set out to shift the momentum of this increasingly frenetic and overly fragmented culture. We became business partners with the mission “to bring beauty and centered calm into people’s busy lives” by using these very public screens.

We developed our first artistic piece together, “Taking Flight”, using Linda’s watercolors synchronized with a beautiful score by award-winning composer, Joshua Hummel. Josh, sensing the power of the work and its potential in the world, joined our team with an emphatic statement; “I WANT TO BE PART OF THIS.” Other artists, including poets, sculptors, dancers, sound healers, composers and photographers, began to join our creative team.

“Taking Flight”

We call these digital audio-visual works of art “Touchstones”. Through our growing email list, we reach people eager to experience an open-eyed meditation and feel transformed by taking time to be quiet, centered and calm. With each Touchstone production, the music and artwork provided by new groups of collaborators is a fresh start. Nobody is telling us what to do, so we are in service to pure creation. Every collaboration expands the scope of each individual artist, as well as the depth and breadth of Colors In Motion. Our most recent Touchstone, “Where Earth Sings”, is a perfect example.

"Where Earth Sings”

The calm we seek to generate through Colors In Motion is a fitting counter-balance to fears, anxiety, and depression. It is a new art that belongs everywhere. Many people, upon first experiencing it, agree that “it is so needed.” There is a shift in consciousness happening and we’re on the front lines.

Medcalm, a company that licenses programming to closed-circuit TV systems in healthcare environments, has placed the Colors In Motion Channel in high-profile hospitals around the country.

The Colors In Motion Channel promotes patient wellness via closed-circuit television programs in healthcare environments.

Colors In Motion is being used as a calming art-in-motion program on a video wall in a residential apartment building lobby.

Colors In Motion is part of a digital LED artistic program outside the Boston Convention Center.

Our especially designed programs have been featured internationally at spirituality, arts, poetry, healthcare and wellness conferences; in Kosmos Journal, and on Kripalu website. Colors In Motion crisscrosses the globe, introducing us to new artists and healers, and continuing to guide our own lives, while promoting calming as a state of mind to restore a much-needed balance to our fast-paced world. From “beauty and centered calm” comes a place of Love, where inspired action enters the world and positive change can occur.

Christopher Graefe and Linda DeHart, Partners, Colors In Motion. For more information, visit ColorsInMotion.com and sign up for complimentary quarterly Touchtone issues, or write to info@ColorsInMotion.com.