The Fall of Babylon Print

My journey into art began many years ago, taking many twists and turns along the way. My interest now lies in the area of Creativity and how that emerges. It has been apparent to me, over the years, that there have been two types of art that appear in me. One comes from mental ideas and the expression of those ideas that are thought-out and designed to create an effect. These can be very clever and conceptually valid ideas, but at their core I have found them to be essentially inauthentic. One can admire a painting for its skill and workmanship, its cleverness and mastery of the media, but, in the end, it can still seem dead to the heart and have no meaningful connection. The second kind of art that I have experienced Is far more interesting to me. This is art that appears ,seemingly from somewhere other, with little or no thought involved. It comes from the mystery of life if and it's source is unknown. It happens in the moment and is not artist-led. It leads the artist and tells the artist what it wants to be. As Picasso said ‘It is not about searching, it is about finding’ An African sculptor who I met told me that he would find a rock in the dessert and place it under his pillow at night while he slept until it told him what it wanted to be. HIs job was just to chip away the parts that weren't that. This is the kind of creative process that interests me and informs my work. It is a process of attempting to step aside from the conscious egoic mind and immerse oneself in the empty vastness of creative flow that lies beneath, where anything can happen. It is an exciting and everfresh experience where, having been absorbed for hours, there is a sense of ‘waking up’ and wondering ‘who did this?’ I hope to convey in some small way a sense of this experience in my paintings, which have been informed by over 30 years of meditation and a path of taking, and learning from, many wrong turns whilst working in many different types of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics , poetry and musical composition. I hope you like them and draw some benefit from them. Thank you.