The Look Photograph

It is possible, though not proven, that abilities of whatever nature, come from our genes, passed on by parents. In my case, my mother. My mother dripped art. Her sister, whom I never met, was a concert pianist though both brothers were engineers as was their father. My mother lived entirely in the arts world and I grew up in Edinburgh surrounded by artists of all nationalities. I remember visiting one, a painter. Long after my mother had left us, my two brothers and I visited an artist friend of hers. He was as poor as were we and he gave us bread slices covered in sugar. My father, an intellectual and self appointed scholar, had chosen not to work; defeated by the breakdown of his marriage. We went overnight from among the very wealthy in the city into genteel poverty since he had lost his job with the Royal Society of Edinburgh as a result of his withdrawal from the outside world. This was a peculiar upbringing. What it meant for me is that I could not do anything but choose a career which guaranteed security of employment and income throughout my life. A natural choice was engineering. I spent my life in this career for which I was quite unsuited and quite alien to me but I was good at it, I am tempted to say, very, very good, unfortunately. Now I have reached a point, with that career behind me, where I can pursue what I love and am good at. Well, better at. All those years, in every waken hour outside of the demands of the intensity which engineering requires, were spent pursing knowledge and practice of arts; art, literature, theatre and music. At college I hung around with the artists. My fellow engineering students seemed alien beings to me. I was fortunate indeed to grow up in Edinburgh and one could not wish for a fuller cultural environment. Since my mother was an artist, I was exposed early to the creation of art, both hers and that of her artist friends. Before coming to this country to join family, I lived in South Africa for a period of years, which has influenced me in ways that are not readily apparent in any of my art works. I think the profundity of influence is due to the particular light that fills the landscapes of that part of the world and the people. There is, too, a deeply felt sense of being connected to the world and to the soil upon which we stand and live. I suspect that the political situation of the time made me aware of power abused to subjugate others and to deny them their freedom.