"PARA is a study in beauty, power and quiet, and the layers of activity that live within that state. Seeing this art is a beautiful immersion into the artist's experience and a taste of the inner reality that awaits those who quiet the mind. PARA is as much a compass as it is an artwork. Without pushing, without forcing, it leads the viewers into quieter realms. Like a perfectly prepared gourmet meal, the flavors tempt and charm, and then, layer by layer, surprise and awaken. This is art you taste and savor as much as see. Mr Strauch is a pioneer in the art of silence and the beauty and power of the quiet realms within. Pay attention because this work reveals a truth worthy of knowing: inside us all is a vast and infinite wellspring of power, creativity and beauty, beyond anything you can imagine. It can be only partially described, but it can be experienced fully. This is the message of the sages, and the message of Marc Strauch's beautiful exhibit."
Paul Schaefer
Writer, Director, 2-time Emmy Award Winner
Winner of Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Journalism
“I feel Totality - like I am at the bottom of the ocean - of consciousness, Yet I'm able to also perceive the whole creation - all the way to the surface of the ocean of consciousness - the whole manifest world because in fact, it is all under the water. I am reminded that the whole relative world is in fact, not relative at all - but within/under the ocean of consciousness. This is not a mood. I know that experience. That is the universal ME, where everything exists in potentiality. It brings me deep calm, bliss, and coherence. You rock in unmanifest dynamism.”
Lisa Ashelman, Ph.D.
"I love the unboundedness of these images, as if they are just emerging from the transcendent, with a barely recognizable form. There is a silence and a mystery to this show.”
Tony Ellis
TonyEllisArt.com
"So often the reflections of the inner world of depth and silence are reflected with soft, subtle, muted images ... I understand this and know why artists do this. For me, as a South African, deeply attached to and in need of bright reflections of inner joy, due to the power of South African light and sunshine, I often feel an inner thirst of dynamic, bright colors that are subtle and passionate. Your work gave that to me."
Marcia Abrahams
Director of Development
The Communiversity of South Africa (Johannesburg)
"Your images are unbounded, silent, beautiful, inviting. My experience of Para is visually in terms of points of light, akin to pixels, infinite in number and infinitely numerous between each point of light. While your image is a field of blue, my experience is a field of points from which emerge colors, images, and into which they submerge."
Judith White
Meditation Teacher
“PARA: Transcendental Light. How fitting. My first view of Mr. Strauch's images quieted my mind from its ever hectic thinking. A rest, a pause, a moment of taking my breath away. My second view drew me inward witnessing subtle strata of creation in the form of fine light particles. Correspondingly, my mind began to rest deeper and deeper in the softness of the images. It was as much a visual transcending as it was a physical settling into deeper values of my own awareness. PARA re-awakened in me the power of truly refined art as a medium to expand consciousness.”
Mary Rochè
Facilitator & Coach – Living An Exceptional Life
“Three of the art works drew me into an awakening ascension of a million souls, an experience of awe I had never before experienced. I look into these art works and they remind that art, science and theology are all intertwined like a piece of cloth and not compartmentalized. Add healing sound and vibration and the Soul becomes awakened!” I Am, We Are, Love, Light and Peace to ALL,
TJ Mc Heigh
"In the Yogic tradition when a disciple honors their lineage of teachers they recite a kind of prayer that at the beginning states 'Whether impurity or purity is permeating everywhere, whosoever opens themselves to unbounded awareness gains inner and outer purity. When I look at your images I experience a dissolution of the material world into unbounded awareness. Stepping back, your images dissolve into absolute non-material existence without form or boundaries. Yet, when approached and appreciated more closely, there appear slight, faint remains of forms, boundaries, waves, remaining 'stresses' or unresolved issues, very tiny, not much left to do before total 'reSoulution'. Whether from a distance or up close, I feel like i am experiencing an infinite unboundedness and a purity of permeating Divine Source that is not dry and ascetic but infinitely hydrated by an experience of ever new surprising and delightful wholeness and bliss. How appropriate are these works, since traditionally, water is often used to symbolize consciousness."
Charlie Glueck
Indranand
[BORDERS ] “Fabulous. My favorite experience watching the photos was that as you talked about how your awareness changed how you saw, it was if the photos took on a different light and life as your movie progressed … as if my own awareness was either seeing better photos or the same photos that seemed more clear, popping out more, more dimensional, with more perspective. The more I learned about your process or about photography or about the subject-object relationship, the more the actual photos seemed to reflect my own awareness shifting … capturing the moment is not enough … just having awareness is not enough … technique and skill are not enough if you don’t have the present moment awareness. If both are there, then the photo will reflect the real consciousness of the artist along with the perfect technique and skill. Really amazing."
Radhika Schwartz
Yogini
[BORDERS] “Borders is phenomenal! So soft and gentle and poetic. The photographs are stunning, The poetic movement and pacing of your words are a delight.’
Sej Sairaya
Photographer, Screenwriter, Software Engineer
[BORDERS] “Beautiful. Stunning … I especially love the commentary in the middle part, where you discuss your relationship with the process on a feeling level. Really, really beautiful work.”
Tony Ellis
Artist, Poet, Spiritual Traveler
[BORDERS] “Great … it was like transcending with the eyes open.”
Wally Devasier
Pilot, Meditation teacher
[BORDERS] “The gentle virtuosity with which you engineered the layers of the experience, stirred spontaneous exclamations rising into my vocal cords right from the center of my heart and all of my cells. The chills running through my legs, which always signals the metabolizing by my physiology of something auspicious and authentic, began to travel all the way up my body. You created in me exactly that experience that I began first began to know photographically, and then in Being - although years would go by before I fully understood it.”
Elisa Maria Argiro
Photographer, Poet
[BORDERS] “I could feel your passion and your inquisitive mind .. your longing … your brilliance. A lot of your photographs left me feeling that I am one with beauty, with nature.”