A work of art arises as a gift from productive spiritual-cultural activity; surplus capital arises as a gift from productive economic activity. Both are “products” of will activity, of applied intention. Both mark a liberation of human consciousness—something has been freed up from matter to work in the world as spirit. What we choose to do with the material container of free deed—the art object or the bottom line—how we participate with it and toward what end, is another inquiry altogether. Surplus capital returned to the cultural economy becomes a transformed gift; it frees time and will activity. What we experience of a work of art travels with us while the object remains in place. The material value of the object is conventionally a matter of the economic marketplace; the spiritual and cultural value transcends space and time.

When I pluck a string on my guitar, a sound-tone is liberated from matter into spirit. It is perceived by our senses. Our senses re-materialize the sound until it is no longer sense-perceptible. The sound-tone itself continues past hearing into the music of the spheres. A sound-tone is the bearer of pure freedom, which over time and space shapes our evolving selves. The generative will intention, what passed through my fingers in the pluck of the guitar, infuses the moral atmosphere from which spirit will return to matter. This transformation from the physical to the sublime and the return of the sublime into the physical represents participation in a great cycle of gift.

Image ‹Tugenden› [Virtues], Laura Summer, 2025: Libra (lethargy – dissatisfaction, contentment > serenity)