A blank canvas in a silent room. An artist in a deep and accepting meditative state, allowing inspiration to come from the deepest part of the soul. The artist picks up his brush, and a painting comes to life.

This is how Cleveland artist Brian Jones begins each of his paintings. Visit his Little Italy gallery, Cultura, and you will be surrounded by the sensuous colors, primally appealing shapes and spiritual symbolism that characterize his striking work. In spite of these shared characteristics, the style of each painting can vary so much that, looking at two of his works side by side, you might never guess that they were painted by the same person. This is an artist who is unencumbered by a need to be identified with a single approach. The spiritual imagery is more apparent in some of his works than in others, but all of Brian's paintings are alive with messages which reflect his deep spirituality, and his desire to share this with others.

Brian did not formally train as an artist, although he has been an avid musician nearly all his life. Prior to his career in art, he was a sales rep in the music industry. But several years ago, he suddenly found himself searching for a new career because of changes in the industry. On a whim, he asked his daughter, an art history major, to take him to the local art supply store and help him select painting supplies.

By his own admission, Brian's first painting was less than brilliant. When his next attempt yielded better results, he began to paint in earnest and undertook a strict regimen of studying the works of the masters. Within a year, he says, “people were starting to take an interest in what I was doing,” and before long he had sold his first painting, 'Big Blue Kitty,' which remains one of his most popular prints. Brian began to consider becoming a full-time artist. “I thought, I'm going to take everything I've learned in life, and I'm going to apply it. All my sales experience, all my marketing, all the skills I learned from playing music…I just merged everything into a complete wholeness, a balancing of the material and the spiritual life together.” A hobby taken up on a whim had become a career, as well as a way to share his spiritual philosophy.

Brian credits his long-time commitment to daily meditation as the key creative component in his art. “I've been meditating since I was twelve,” he says. “Throughout my whole life, I've felt that I've been on the spiritual path, and it's the central, most important thing in my life.” When he was eighteen, after an intense period of soul-searching, he ended up in a Hatha yoga class. This, in turn, led him to the style of meditation he now practices, Sahaj Marg, which means ‘The Natural Path.’

His first introductory sittings with his Sahaj Marg teacher did not yield a powerful spiritual connection. “I didn't feel anything,” Brian says. “And so I didn't go back and do the practice.” A year passed before he decided to give Sahaj Marg another try, and this time he had an experience that he calls “a genuine transcendence.” Since then, he has been deeply involved with this method of meditation.

Brian and his wife Christine dedicate between twenty and thirty hours a week to teaching Sahaj Marg meditation. They facilitate group meditations for “regulars” while also devoting time to introducing new people to the practice. “Everyone who is interested gets an individual meditation, called a sitting, with a preceptor – the name for the person teaching the meditation. In any given week we might give from six to twenty sittings, each one being from half an hour to an hour,” Brian explains. He adds that he does not charge for these sittings. “It's free,” he says, “because the whole premise behind it is that spirituality can't be sold.”

Brian says that of the people who participate in initial sittings, few remain committed, but he adds that this trend is changing for the better. “People work all day and then just want to veg out, and meditation is a time commitment. But a lot of people are realizing that what they receive from their commitment is priceless. It cannot be valued in terms of money or time. It is a way to connect with yourself deeply, to clearly feel the heart, to clearly see and make decisions and choices in life, to clearly act every day; to become so much more intuitive, focused and effective, and to work from a center in yourself.”

Working from his own center is how Brian paints. The result is the profound spiritual meaning found in so many of his works. One of his paintings, 'Coming Home,' is found in several psychologists' offices, and is used to help patients open up by talking about what the painting means to them. The painting, Brian explains, “…deals with the cycle of life, and releasing ideas which keep us from realizing our true potential. Taken as a whole, the painting depicts the soul's growth on the spiritual path, and Nature's cycle of life and death.”

Brian enriches the community through his artwork, the sharing of his meditation practice, and his generous and genuine desire to help others realize their true potential. He expresses his joy at being able to give through his painting. “To me, everything that I'm doing with my art is a gift. It's a vehicle for me to be able to make a living in order to spend all the rest of my time giving more and helping other people learn to connect to their hearts.”


Brian Jones's gallery, Cultura, is located at 2037 Murray Hill Road in Little Italy. He is hosting an art show called “Fresh Art Affair” at Westfield Shoppingtown Great Northern July 16-18. He will also host a solo exhibition at Cultura Gallery in August. Please visit Brian's website for details: www.brianjonesart.com. He can be reached at (440) 724-7882.

Attend a lecture on meditation by Brian on Saturday, October 2 at the Fall Wellness Festival presented by Balanced Living Magazine and Trillium Creek, to be held on the Trillium Creek Campus in Medina. Go to our home page for more details.