Passion, Pathos, and the Human Potential

Works by Erin Currier | Acrylic and mixed media on panel

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.

―Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)

As a nomad of sorts, a wandering renderer and perpetual pasajera who has made her way to every continent over the course of twenty years, I have witnessed firsthand the passions such as tango dancing, poetry, meditation, or martial arts to which people have dedicated and committed their entire lives. For most, there is little to no chance of achieving fame, fortune, or even minimal recognition or earnings. Yet inevitably, and universally, the people in pursuit of such passions are driven by a deeper sense of inquiry and compelled by a higher ideal and aesthetic, one that transcends worldly success. For those engaged in flamenco dancing (the very embodiment of passion!), this is best described as duende —a distinctive Andalusian take on the Spanish term for mysterious and ineffable charisma, and what the poet/playwright Federico García Lorca describes as a “...mysterious power that everyone feels and that no philosopher explains.”

As a practitioner of Buddhism, I believe in its primary precept that the human realm is one of suffering. Yet it is also the most fortuitous realm in which to exist, because it is only through suffering that the opportunity for greater understanding, transformation, and liberation can occur. Many of my favorite portrait subjects over the years, such as the Mali-born musician Fatoumata Diawara and New Mexico’s own late boxing champion Johnny Tapia, have spoken of parlaying tremendous personal suffering into their respective passions. Diawara views the pain she has suffered as necessary for developing the gift of her music.

Today, the pathos of individuals, and the communities they represent, is hotly debated in Congress, in the courts, on the streets, and on social media. More and more people are beginning to recognize that the institutionalized suffering rooted in racist, sexist, colonialist, and discriminatory laws and practices must somehow be transformed, and that reparations must be made and justice realized. Many of my portrait subjects are engaged in this struggle. At the same time, there is a very human pathos that no amount of privilege, wealth, or prestige can shield one from, and that neither reforms nor revolutions shall ever change. Within this impermanence—the truth of our own mortality and the fact that everything and everyone we’ve ever loved will someday perish— lies what unites us in our humanity, what makes every moment of our lives ever more poignant and significant.

My investigation of late is of the individual’s potential to transform pathos through passion and, in so doing, to educate, unify, and be of service. One such individual is Deb Haaland of Laguna Pueblo, whose passion for uplifting her community, for the environment, and for human dignity led her from being a single mother on food stamps to earning a doctorate in law. She then became one of the first two Native American women ever elected to US Congress, and was appointed Secretary of the Interior of the United States! Another example is Paul Stamets, a shy, working-class young man with a stutter whose passion for mushrooms allowed him to cure himself and to become the world’s foremost expert on mycology. His numerous books, lectures, and tinctures have helped people worldwide to heal themselves from disease and depression, boost their immune systems, and clean up toxic environments. Other such individuals include Israel “The Last Style Bender” Adesanya, the unbeatable Nigerian-born UFC Middleweight champion and best striker of all time, who studies dance as well as martial arts, does charitable work, and is a role model for youth throughout the world.

My new series, “Passion, Pathos, and the Human Potential,” honors human excellence in its myriad forms—in the bright spirit of female mariachi musicians, in the powerful words of young poet Amanda Gorman, or the contributions of renowned New Mexico chef Fernando Ruiz, a former teenage gun-running gangster who uplifted himself and those around him through his passion for cooking and feeding the hungry. My new works are meant to transcend the many and growing divisions imposed on us by those in power, to recognize that all humans suffer, and to celebrate the passions that unite us and allow us to potentially overcome our existential pain.

Erin Currier, Summer 2021