We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Percy Kleinops. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Percy below.
Percy, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
The answer to this question is best answered with reference to my painting “All Parts Matter”.
We all have heard and read similar declarations like what Rabbi Rami Shapiro said in an interview posted June 23, 2020 on www.awaken.com “To know yourself is to know God” and “to know God is to know yourself”; in Luke 17:21, we read that the “Kingdom of God is within you”; In Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, Polonius gives his son advise “to thine own self be true”; and Socrates, summing up all religious and philosophical commandments simply said “Know Thyself”.
I recognized late in my life that I had played many roles, except the role of who I truly am. I did not fully know who that was. While others may describe who you are, rarely do we fully take account of who we are for ourselves. We often describe ourselves by revealing those parts we want others to know and avoiding other parts. And the parts we reveal have very likely been sourced from what others say of us or from who we wish were. The sense of self is often acquired from external sources as you evolved in life, acquiring images of you unconsciously and unvisited never asking yourself is the person you project really you.
Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley describes a process for self-identity (sense of self) wherein individuals base who they are by looking at the judgements of people they connect with during their social interaction activity rather than in solitude. Cooley calls this theory “The Looking-Glass Self”. According to Cooley, this occurs in three steps:
- Imagining how the individual appears to others
- Imagining how the others judge the individual by their appearance
- The individual develops feelings about and responds to those perceived judgements
Finding who you really are takes traveling alone in solitude. You alone know your parts, which you have, which belong, which don’t and which are missing. The act of finding all your parts brings you to consciousness of what parts are the authentic you and what are not! After all, confidence and self-esteem require authenticity. I took such a journey.
My journey:
- Began with identifying the parts that I felt were me, the good, the bad, those I had hidden and those acquired unknowingly.
- I was the only judge, a brutally honest judge sometimes making very painful decisions.
- After several rounds over several months, I found myself with parts that I acknowledged willingly and fearfully, knowing they belonged to me.
- Next I added parts that I had given away to others, like those when I accepted another’s declaration that I could not achieve or do something.
- I added parts I discovered during the process, like my poetry and art, all discovered very late in life.
- Finally, at the end of the journey to the authentic ME, I took account of ME with all my parts.
My journey empowers ME. I am confident in myself and the choices I make and what I do, fearing no judgement, for judgement by others can only take parts away again, and I have no self-doubt, for self-doubt can paralyze ambition and blind direction in life. That does not mean I don’t reach out for an opinion. Having no self-doubt means being self-confident in whatever your decision brings, you accept the consequences. If it didn’t work out you learn from it and try again or move on to something else, knowing that success comes from learning.
In my journey I learned to love myself. We humans are not perfect but we learn to love that imperfect human we are. Reflecting on that imperfect self I love, I can love others, for others are imperfect too.
I discovered a greater spirituality, recognizing its importance to daily life. I have a spiritual love of God and a spiritual awareness in my life. Most importantly I feel the love of God.
The present now defines me. My past does not define me nor control me. I know who I am with all my parts. No one will ever take that away from me.
I am authentic, unique, as intended, and productive. There is peace within me and a contentment that I am finally free to be the person that was conceived and meant to be. I have empathy for people, understanding that life lived as someone else is not only difficult but disabling. With the awareness of the spiritual world around me, the world is full possibilities. My eyes are open wide to see life as it is and a desire to share it with all through my art and poetry.
I wrote this short poem to speak about the journey and to accompany my painting, “ALL PARTS MATTER”:
All Parts Matter
My bottle is empty
Once it was a bottle of plenty
Parts I have lost
At great cost
One at a time taken from me
Some I gave of me
Some I was told that part was not for me
Some I did not recognize as belonging to me
Now I am near collapse
Trying to survive with less than half
I have nothing left to give to me or another
All I do is continue to suffer
Oh I want my parts back
Reclaim what I lack
To live and thrive
To feel alive
I need all of my parts to see
Who I am and meant to be
To fill myself with love of me
To understand and give empathy
All parts matter, now and until eternity
©Percy Kleinops 2020
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am an artist and a poet now focusing on creating a visual with painting and writing about the reality of the human experience past, present and future.
The lens through which I see is forged within, from materials gathered over a lifetime with all of the baggage accumulated during my unique journey; first as a child in Latvia, carried by my Mother in search of safety during World War II; then as a young immigrant to America facing challenges and failures, accomplishments and successes; then discovering, observing, learning and experiencing the realities as a volunteer fireman, cop, lawyer, entrepreneur, a pioneer in the natural & organic food service industry; and from the many relationships and interaction with people from many countries with varied cultural identities. All of these have added richness to my work as an artist and poet.
Beneath the skin, we are all the same. Who we are in life is different. There are no duplicates. As a Poet, my reason for writing is to help us all reflect, understand and, ultimately, feel our humanity. As an artist, I want to paint my poetry.
When art and poetry are combined it gives a richer experience of words and a stronger visual. Words and art can trigger the imagination and can guide us to an emotional journey.
I hope that my poems and art may be a vehicle to bring about discussion and awareness of difference and how difference can enrich our experience of being human. And how these differences and sameness within make us human.
I follow the tradition of activism and pursue the humanist quest for equality and understanding.
Thomas Jefferson sent a letter to Thomas Paine in 1796, in which he wrote: “Go on doing with your pen [brush] what in other times was done with the sword.”
I believe we cannot escape the political bubble in which we live. All issues from birth to death and in between have been made political. But I also believe that my art is not political, it only mirrors the reality I see, feel, breathe, agonize and cry over.
In my work “Systemic Racism Hurts,” I depict a dagger representing the laws and actions that are thrust into the lives of people of color to control and marginalize but it also references any majority institutionally controlling and marginalizing a minority. Blood droplets become the visualization that systemic racism hurts. This is the first in a series of paintings addressing the issues confronting us as humans. By creating visual awareness of the nature of our humanness, I confront us to initiate a dialog that leads to understanding and improvement.
My paintings” Capital Rights Taking” and “Taking Rights Back” use flags to represent the fabric of who we claim to be as Americans. The fabric is being taken from us by those who rule in various state capitols. We want them returned.
My work “All Parts Matter” addresses the need for the individual to be whole and able to love oneself with joy and discover ones true potential; “The Greatest Vessel” challenges the spoken and written notion by men that women are the lesser vessel (“weaker vessel” in 1 Peter 3:17 ); “May Your Marriage Be Strong” is the visual that for any relationship to survive and thrive it needs to grow strong roots side by side in support of each other through times of wind and rain of life and not to smother the other; and “Affirmation Now” demands: recognition of individual uniqueness, individual gender, individual lifestyle choices; the freedom to be as created, to love who one loves and the freedom from confinement and discrimination of any kind; and to live equally as full members of the world society. After all our hearts beat the same.
Between time spent painting, writing poetry, advocating for Equality and Human Rights, I am writing my second book of poetry and art entitled “Our Hearts Beat the Same”.
Our Hearts Beat the Same is book about us. We are all different but the same and verified unique by our DNA. Our encounters with each other occur daily. At times we will see someone that stops us in our tracks or leads to pause or move to distance ourselves from them based on what we see on the outside. Some of us, perhaps many of us, make judgements before we even penetrate the skin of another human to learn more. It seems as if we really don’t want to know more about another human we meet. Perhaps, if we did know more, we may need to look deeper within and question ourselves.
The book suggests that we all want to belong, fit in, be part of something that others will cheer. I am convinced that being different in our humanity is what we were all meant to be. Being the same abandons the rarity and beauty of our nature as humans. When we restrain our differences, we restrain what makes us capable to contribute fully to fulfilling our destiny.
I offer my poems and art as a contribution to the quest to truly understanding our humanity, a quest that has continued since we first were created human. Why is much of discrimination over that which the human has no control: color of skin, sex, who is loved, gender, ethnicity, and looks? Why do we seek to highlight differences to separate? It is after all, the shared aspirations within our uniqueness that reveals our sameness which can empower all.
I share my observations of humans through poetry, some funny, some thought provoking, and some challenging. If even one poem touches a reader, evokes a response to see humans with different and kinder eyes, awesome. But I expect this book may make some uncomfortable, questioning or wondering. If it leads to a conversations about what we could call diversity, or I call humanity, I will have accomplished the purpose of this book: To bring to the surface the fact that our hearts beat the same.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1 – The Desire to be Authentic.
Being authentic means that I am who I proclaim. It means being honest in the work I do. In writing poetry I use words that are mine, revealing what I truthfully observe, feel and believe. I use words that do not hide the truth nor reduce the sting. In art, it is painting with attention to my inner voice and my creative spirit to guide me as I visually communicate what I must. Those who then encounter the poetry and art will recognize it as authentically me.
As Vincent van Gogh said, “I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.”
“Every artist dips his brush in his soul and paints his own nature into his pictures,” – Henry Ward Beecher.
2 – Seeking the Truth.
Communicating the truth provides a foundation for my work. As Pablo Picasso said, “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” This quote reflects his belief that art can be a powerful tool for exploring and expressing the truth. For me truth is vital.
Artists and poets have a voice that can visually and with words imprint an indelible image of what was communicated. Before I paint and write, I research the topic, in some cases as in “Affirmation Now” and “The Greatest Vessel,” it took weeks. What I find makes my painting and poetry better. Research provides a resource of information for my narrative that accompanies most of my paintings.
Seeking the truth provides me with understanding that I reference when speaking about my work at exhibitions or other venues. It often has made the word choices in my poetry more powerful and better connected to the topic. In art, my symbols I use in my painting come to me from my research of the subject matter.
Knowing the subject helps me build the visual in my poetry and art. In my painting “Systemic Racism – It Hurts” viewers have, on more than one occasion, been emotionally overcome by my visual metaphor of systemic racism. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see,” Edgar Degas. “The purpose of art is to make the invisible visible,” Paul Klee. Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
3 – Seeking to Prefect My Skills
“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” Salvador Dali. The best I can do is to know I did the best I could at the time I created my work. I know I will never please everyone, but I always want to please myself.
Learning new skills, exploring the work of the masters, associating with fellow artists and poets, and reading about the lives of the great artist and poets, are just some of what I do to improve my skills. Having someone to speak to about your work is very important and necessary. I am fortunate to have a very talented studio partner who provides me with an opinion to my questions and offers constructive suggestions as my work progresses. We look over each other’s shoulders.
Art is always evolving. Staying current with changes like new paints, new techniques, new substrates, and even new subjects to paint all are important in perfecting skills.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” Leonardo da Vinci
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Andy Warhol
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
As I am now.
Through my art and poetry I encourage people to explore who they really are to discover their true self and to see all humans as unique yet the same. This is baseline to achieving social justice and peace. My art and poetry, especially my poetry, speaks to the need for such a quest and the personal freedom and success it can bring, as it has me.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Aristotle
“To know yourself, you must sacrifice the illusion that you already do.” – Vironika Tugaleva (Author of The Art of Talking to Yourself, Published 2017)
“The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself, you will always be someone else. Become yourself.”-Myles Munroe (was a Bahamian evangelist and ordained minister, professor, author, speaker and leadership consultant)
“The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.”―Bette Davis (Two time Oscar winner for Best Actress)
This is the first poem I have ever wrote and it came to me during my jour
Contact Info:
- Website: www.percykleinops.com
- Instagram: percistyle
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