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The artist Chris Martin of Coldplay was asked how his songs came to him - he replied:
"lyrics and music are floating in the air, if I'm persistent and lucky my antenna catches them"
This thought articulates my experience and artistic journey
I believe that many artists have a similar experience. When I complete a work, a title (if I'm on the right wavelength) pops into my mind. I begin to understand what my painting is about. When I layer a surface my mind is unfocused, my antenna is ready for inspiration. Magic can happen, but not always...If I'm lucky my finished painting is meaningful and important. Letting go and trusting this process is a "high wire" balancing act.
Facing the abyss:
from blank canvass terror to the quickening of strangeness come to life
Completing a successful painting reaffirms that my lifetime of learning can manifest (from psychic compost) a complex layering of material into a coherent meaningful idea, a creation with more gravitas than wallpaper.
Many artists describe the canvass as a "battleground." Manifesting important often intangible ideas that go beyond the visible is a battle of sorts.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Author of The Little Prince) explains it well:
"It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Revealing the invisible is an experience of surprises - I often cannot explain where my ideas come from nor completely understand how they arrived.
"TREES"
(Seymour Demonstration Forest, North Vancouver)
This acrylic painting is an example of an attempt to express my understanding of unseen elements and energies that vibrate within this ancient natural wilderness. Rather than what I "see" it is what I "feel" when immersed in such a place. Lawren Harris used the term "theosophy" to describe the spiritual aspects and beliefs that he infused into his landscape paintings, in response to a cathartic spiritual experience. I believe this captures the essence of Saint-Exupéry's statement: "what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"Wildfire Waltz"
Having lived through too many wildfires, this is a expression of those nightmares. As I see them race across the land I imagine the flames and burning trees dancing to a Strauss waltz "The Blue Danube"
Manifesting with paint what is invisible to the eye describes my process. It is my DNA and unique artist voice - encouraging unconscious thought - that allows my antenna to grab meaningful ideas from the ether. It might be an idea inspired by a half-forgotten dream, a childhood experience, a deeply held belief, or possibly an existential exclamation point expressing a human tragedy? As we live and breathe we cannot escape being deeply affected by the currents of past and present events - the weight of memory always is pressing down. Artists must be open and sensitive to both positive and negative (even painful) energy, bravely and fearlessly, without hesitation, when creating in an honest and truthful way.
Edvard Munch and his masterpiece: "The Scream" is a classic example of artistic bravery, sensitivity, and honesty. Munch skirted and danced on the edge of madness and melancholy to paint an iconic image many can relate to.
A challenge for me as an artist is being weighed and measured, judged and scored by economic systems, ultimately declared successful or not by critics unable to look deeply to experience what is invisible to the eye. It is our human nature to judge a withered rose without remembering its previous glory. Ironically, sometimes closing our eyes is the most powerful way to understand a work of art.
Mark Rothko said it well:
"I consider my painting successful if it can draw the viewer into a private and emotional experience, into a conversation of sorts, emerging with newfound wisdom, and sometimes carrying away a tear in the heart"