The PureStream Method: Start at the source of the pure waters, the origins of all clear water.
Duncan Stroik understands what so many have forgotten—that sacred art and architecture are not mere stylistic choices but are rooted in transcendence, order, and divine proportion. I write to him not simply as an artist but as one who has walked the path of creation, loss, and revelation, one who has lived within the collapse of modern artistic institutions and has emerged from its ruins with a vision: to restore, to rebuild, to carve anew.
From my earliest years, I knew my purpose was in art. I sought to sculpt like Bernini, to learn from Michelangelo, to trace the marks of the chisel where form meets eternity. But the world I stepped into was not built for mastery. The institutions that once formed great artists had abandoned the sacred, the classical, the eternal. I was told my aspirations were naive, that my dedication to beauty was outdated. So I turned away from the academies, seeking instead the truth of the materials, the discipline of the hand, and the wisdom of lived experience.
I have worked in the gas fields of West Texas , along the Columbia River Gorge on the docks and the ranches of New Mexico, in the places where life is raw and unfiltered. I have seen the world rise and fall, watched men shrink beneath its weight or be forged into something greater. Through it all, I have sculpted—not only in clay or stone, but in my own soul.
As Ringo Starr once sang, “If you’re going to play the blues, you’ve got to pay your dues, and you know that don’t come easy.” I have paid those dues. I have learned that suffering is the chisel that refines both the artist and the man. Now, I step forward to establish my bona fides and outline the core truths that guide my work.
Where Do You Go From Here?
This is the question. My life, experiences, suffering, and craft have prepared me for this moment. Now, it is time to step forward, speak, create, and rebuild.
This is the PureStream Method. It is not a rejection of the past, but an unbroken line leading back to the very principles that have always guided true artists, true architects, true craftsmen of the eternal.
Duncan Stroik is one of the few who understands this. His work stands against the tide, proving that the classical is not dead—it is waiting. And I write to him not to offer admiration, but to extend a hand in the shared pursuit of something greater than ourselves: to carve a world worthy of the sacred once again.
Alan Watts Philosophical Entertainer started the Zen Center in San Francisco with just 3 Students, it has since grown to the largest Zen Center in the world.
I think we find an old Basilica and turn it into an art school.