Robert Venosa's foreword contribution to the book 'The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo' by Howard G Charing & Peter Cloudsley. Published by Inner Traditions

1. A Holy Message of Absolute Brilliance
A
Roberto Venosa
s is so often the case, we attract to ourselves Ayar Amazonian School of Painting, which flourished
that which we open up to with our conscious- and expanded exponentially, producing an abundance
ness: higher levels of thought, conundrums, and atten- of Amazonian master painters, such as Juan Carlos
dant enigmas are always waiting at the edge of our Taminchi and Anderson Debarnardi, among many oth-
abilities to recognize and, hopefully, understand them. ers. It was so typical of Pablo to compassionately share
Such was the case with my introduction to the art of the gifts that Mother Huasca had presented to him.
Pablo Amaringo. Although Pablo’s technique and color scale can be
In 1992, shortly after experiencing my first aya- considered somewhat primitive or naïve by fine-art
huasca journey, I was glancing through a friend’s library standards, his depictions of the yagé realms in their
and, either through intuition or serendipity, I pulled manifested power of emotion and otherworldly magic
out a book that would add significantly to my recently transcend all academic critique. Pablo was also a deeply
altered consciousness, as well as my artistic expression. versed master translator of the ayahuasca mythologies,
That book was Pablo’s Ayahuasca Visions and it featured in which snakes, leopards, celestial palaces, and aliens
paintings that amazingly captured, in form and color, and their spacecraft all converge on his canvas, present-
an authentic representation of the hallucinatory, holy ing an indigenous encyclopedia of the inner, outer, and
cosmic yagé opera that any other artist would consider transcendent worlds of yagé. Celestial architecture, as
difficult, if not impossible to execute. Those images, well as and in contrast to his underworld iconography,
however, were profoundly inspirational, and provided never fails to captivate the viewers and take them on
the initial stimulus for me to attempt my own interpre- a vicarious journey that offers a view into the dynamic
tations of the inexplicable, divinely mysterious, some- consciousness-altering experience magically exterior-
times terrifying but gloriously beautiful visual world of ized through Pablo’s brush and palette.
ayahuasca. The high mission of art, through its illusions, is to
After that, fortuitously, I had the pleasure of meet- foreshadow higher states of reality, and no one did this
ing Pablo on a number of occasions, both in the United better in the depiction of the ayahuascan worlds than
States and in the Amazon, and I can report that I never Pablo. Art should inspire, it should reach into the emo-
met a sweeter, more humble individual . . . but with a tional center and ring the bell that awakens us to our
brilliant intellect, an equally powerful spirit, the wisest higher self. This is what all great artists have attempted
of souls, and vast knowledge of the transcendent realms to do throughout the ages through their own inspired
he once traversed as the shaman—vegetalista—that he art—an art that comes not from them, but through
was. And although Pablo refrained from ingesting the them from some Higher Power that lures us onto the
sacrament in his later years, he continued to paint the path of light leading to the ever-elusive but divinely
wonderful visions that overflowed in his repository of attainable source and center of all Beingness. This is
yagé experience. I myself, as an artist, know it would what ayahuasca alludes to in its holy message, and in
take numerous lifetimes to be able to paint the visions its absolute brilliance, it has chosen Pablo Amaringo as
from just one aya journey. one of its divine messengers.
There is just too much, a delicious abundance, of
heretofore unknown forms and colors that inundate the b
inner eye during the journey. I discussed this with Pablo Fantastic Realism painter, sculptor, and film artist Roberto
and he agreed that there was not a canvas or palette Venosa has exhibited worldwide and is represented in many
large enough to capture the smallest iota of the overall major collections. In addition to painting, sculpting, and
ayahuascan visual storm. But Pablo’s creative output was film design (pre-sketches and conceptual design for the
nevertheless Herculean as well as generous. After his movie Dune, and Fire in the Sky for Paramount Pictures, as
retirement from active shamanism in 1977, Pablo started well as the upcoming Race for Atlantis for IMAX), he has
planning for more earth-bound activities, and opened recently added computer art to his creative menu. There have
his Pucallpa home to teach painting to orphaned and been four books featuring his work, including Illuminatus, a
abandoned children. In 1984, he turned it into the Usko retrospective collaboration with Terence McKenna.
Memories and Legacy
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