Sheldan C. Collins

Born on winter solstice 1943 in Louisville, KY, Sheldan Collins, having consumed Lachesis's earthly portion, and refusing to "battle" unavoidable physical health consequences, passed through the Big Bardo state on March 28, 2021, at 5:30 PM. The ultimate cause of death was the exhaustion of those karmic factors that support the continuance of life in a human body. He was predeceased by people too numerous to list. Family, Education and Music His father, a machinist, shoe factory superintendent, human resources executive and amateur photographer, with his mother, a voice teacher, photographer-painter and fine cook in the Southern tradition, provided a Fundamentalist Protestant ethical framework and a smooth croquet court for him and his three brothers. He attended several schools in Frankfort and Lexington, KY, where he often paid attention to teachers and generally behaved as asked. At age 8 he began playing piano, switching to brass instruments at age 11 to play in the high school band. As adult, he switched to playing various home stereo systems, and relished listening to "serious" music, including opera, with Valerie Shepherd, his inspiration, confidante, and wife of many decades. Conventional Work and Wandering Interrupted From ages 11 to 16 he ran a paper route on his bicycle after school. Between ages 16 and 21 he variously sold men's clothing, washed dishes, dug ditches, cooked and delivered pizza, proofread The Lexington Herald, and processed zinc in an Idaho smelter. Until age 23 he rode Bultaco or Norton motorcycles, or drove a 1954 Pontiac hearse. As college dropout, he hitchhiked around the USA, notably experiencing a mystical vision near Yellowstone Park, an episode of communing with the Anima Mundi that set him on a path of "showing beauty to other people." After a short stint in the US Army, where he worked in a post photo lab and earned an Expert badge in rifle marksmanship, he embarked on a career in photography. After eight years practice in the commercial catalog world, he moved into the fine art sphere, becoming a staff photographer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1977. In 1986, he launched Spontaneous Accomplishments to provide photographic services for art museums, corporate and private collectors in New York City, simultaneously holding the offices of Supreme Potentate and Janitor. His useful and positively influential textbook, How to Photograph Works of Art, was in continual publication for over 12 years. His personal photographs of landscape and architecture of India and Europe were leased through Corbis. A timid iconoclast, he never served on a committee or board. Spiritual Work Upon meeting Isabel Hickey of Boston in 1967, he abruptly abandoned his rebellious, atheistic stance, studied esoteric astrology with her, and began a lifelong search to sift experience for meaning and importance. Career became adjunct to, and a means of testing validity and skill of method in, the process Keats called "soul-making." In New York City he continued studies of practical mysticism with Reverend Ellen Resch for 18 years, achieving a ministerial degree in Spiritual Science (a misnomer) which he held until death. Through private and independent study, he gradually developed a quasi-teleological view of life and phenomena, an alchemical mixture interweaving several strains of theory and practice, chiefly among them Tibetan Buddhism, astrological metaphor, Jungian and Archetypal psychologies. His goal, partially accomplished, was to meld a balanced life of spiritual insights and material concerns for evolving a wholesome transformation of psyche through coordinating various modes, rational and irrational, scientific and poetic. Among efforts within his personal sanctum sanctorum, he gained moderate success in the following: taking responsibility for his thoughts and deeds; developing patience; curtailing outbursts of anger; reducing extravagance; increasing mental concentration; studying world history and current international relations; learning new skills for coping with adversity. Numerous obstacles to inner peace and helpfulness to others remained at the end: alluring distractions impeded progress; determination to complete projects was weak; artistic decisions wavered; self-confidence was variable; judgment of others' manifestations interfered with friendship. Fun Work Easing into a semi-retired status in 2011, he began making artworks in mixed media, deriving objects through an intuitive process independent of formal study, broadly characterizing the process as sculptage due to their combining techniques of sculpture, photography, woodworking, painting and assemblage. These were offered under the rubric Technical Fantasy Devices. Many notions, images and methods for making art arrived unbidden during his dreams. Gradually, honest reflection, grit and invisible guidance moved him a surprising degree along the joyful path toward becoming a Sheldanist. Throughout his life, he cuddled with, and learned from, many unique cats. At death he still had no favorite color. The end

Sheldan C. Collins

December 21, 1943 - March 28, 2021