Ariana Papademetropoulos in her studio in Los Angeles, California, 2024.
In the summer of 2024, Raphaël Stein, Creative Director at the David Lynch Foundation, visited the painter Ariana Papademetropoulos in her studio in Los Angeles, California. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Raphaël Stein: When and where did you first learn about Transcendental Meditation?
Ariana Papademetropoulos: I found out about Transcendental Meditation through a friend. I was going to CalArts, and I must have been around twenty years old. My friend asked me if I wanted to do TM, and I had tried different meditations practices, and I found them all quite difficult because my brain would just take over all of my thoughts. And then she told me that it was David Lynch’s foundation. And I think because I was such a fan of his, it felt like a gateway as he didn’t seem like the type of person to be very new age, and I liked that about his interest in Transcendental Meditation.
RS: What was the first time that you experienced transcendence?
AP: The first time I did Transcendental Meditation was not so far from here in Hollywood in this little bungalow house, and this lovely woman who had been working there since the sixties gave me my mantra. I think it just took a few times to go in [to transcendence] and I suppose the way it felt is like going under water—being calm and full, light but also grounded at the same time. I have been hypnotized for my whole life, and it was a little bit like that, in a way, but without having to have the hypnotist take me there. I could do it on my own.
I have been studying Dr. Masaru Emoto, and I have used him in some of my work. He did all of these studies on water and how consciousness has a direct impact on water in [its] physical form rather than just [remaining] non-physical. And I think I like relating him to Transcendental Meditation because everything we do has a direct impact on the world around us. If we are under water, then we are in this unified field and we’re connected.
RS: How do you feel that accessing the vibrations of the unified field transforms your painting?
AP: I think tapping into this unified field is a way to have a shortcut in some ways. I think of these paintings coming directly from that field. Sometimes we get a bit locked into—especially with art—having everything be intellectualized and conceptualized. I think that painting, like other art forms, is its own language. That's a visceral feeling that you get from the painting that is very similar to having visions when you are inside the transcendent realm.
I suppose I think of doing transcendental meditation as a shortcut. In our everyday life it feels like a lot to just take a pause for ten minutes a day to go into that field. But, I do think that once you go into that realm it allows you to bypass a lot of things that you wouldn’t be able to. In that unified realm you can get to other realms. You can connect with other people and it actually saves a lot of time and worry and stress because you get to the core and the source.