written by Keegan Steele, cinematography by Leigh Lugosi, co-directed by Ella Steele, Keegan Steele, Leigh Lugosi, produced by Ella Steele, edited by Ryan Steel.

STARRING

KEEGAN STEELE
the painter

MELANIE JOHNSON
the oracle

ARNE MACPHERSON
the priest

SCORE

WRITTEN BY NOLAN GOTTFRIED
saxophone

ELLA STEELE/DAVID LAFLEUR
tap dance

KEEGAN STEELE
harmonium/piano

RECORDED/MIXED BY ADAM FUHR

MASTERED BY DONOVAN OSTAPOWICH

SPECIAL THANKS

BARB BOTTLE
COLIN STEELE
CLAUDIA LACHANCE
NORM & KEN

FUNDERS

MANITOBA ARTS COUNCIL
WINNIPEG ARTS COUNCIL

WRITER’S STATEMENT:

I believe that art does not come from us, it comes through us.

I don’t believe that artists are artists because they possess some special skill or knowledge. To me, it all comes down to a willingness to attune yourself to nature, so that you can be allowed to draw from the wellspring of consciousness where all ideas reside. Too many people write themselves off as not being “creative”, but this wellspring is accessible to anyone, and it never runs dry. Everyone is an artist, and all art is mysticism. 

Hilma Af Klint, arguably the first abstract artist in history, claimed that spirits from higher planes did her paintings, and she was merely a conduit. William Blake's drawings and poems were almost exclusively inspired by the ecstatic visions he constantly received. The filmmaker David Lynch largely credited his ideas to transcendental meditation sessions. Music producer and author of The Creative Act: A Way of Being Rick Rubin once said that if someone else comes out with a work that you thought of first, it’s not that they stole your idea, it was simply that idea’s time, and they just beat you to bringing it into form. 

This piece, in essence, is a tribute to this attitude toward the creative process. Everyone involved in this project are all different kinds of artists. Visual, music, dance, film, writing, acting, we pretty much cover the gamut. Through this work our goal was to carry on with our pursuits like we usually would, but add in the exercise of removing our personal egos from the equation and viewing what we create as being given to us. To put it another way, we tried to see our bodies and minds as mediums, just like paint or clay. 

The story we’re telling together is about the making of one piece of art, using human actors as representations of the ‘spirits’ that work with the artist through the act of creating the piece. I/DEI\A takes inspiration from German expressionist cinema, Japanese kabuki theatre, Greek myth, early 20th-century modern dance, religious art, psychedelic visions, Buddhist and Hindu ceremonies, as well as the work of the artists mentioned above and those influenced by them.

Yours in Love,

KS