349. Soho to Peru to California: An Artist’s Heart Journey

“When I was young and couldn’t focus in class, I did a lot of doodling. And daydreaming. Which, by the way, my company today is called DreamSculpt Media, and it involves a lot of doodling and playing with concepts. I still love it. What happened was, I became very clear that I didn’t fit in. When I heard the metaphor of the square peg in a round hole, I knew it applied to me. As I wrote my book, I realized my mom had inspired me through the artwork she did as a hobby. I began to go deeper into art and the path of self-discovery very early, questioning the nature of reality. This was an odd thing to do, especially for a kid in grade school, sitting there and wondering about the nature of reality. I knew that I wanted to be part of a community of artists that would change the way we look at things.”

Jared plunged into the Soho art scene of Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. “I romanticized that life. I rented a place and was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, in a railroad flat apartment. There was a bathtub in the kitchen where I cooked, washed my dishes, my hands and, for me, my paint brushes. In the morning there would be dishes, toothpaste and paint brushes. I went as deeply as I could in the art world, but I burned out on all of it. I began to do yoga in 1980—before it became a multi-billion dollar industry—and got onto the spiritual path that led me away from my focus on the material world.”

Learning to follow his heart and to make life shifts, Jared says, “I went from being an artist to following my heart. I had come to feel like the New York art world was soul-less. I had been all excited and on fire about that world, but it burned me, and I needed to recreate my life. So I shifted, then shifted again. I have kept making these shifts, because they seem to be very organic. All of them seem to carry two threads: one is creativity, as in producing art; the other is serving people’s highest needs.

1.  Shift your primary focus from the outer world to your inner world.

2.  Pay attention to how your life is changing and learn to “shift your major.” Today’s major can become tomorrow’s minor.

3. Trust the process as you are led by your inner work.

On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

The Secret of Light, by Walter Russell

(Also, great poetry.)

Drowning in the Light: Memories of the New Age, by I.J. Rosen