Do you believe in magic?

I am lucky enough to be greeted every morning at work by a new image in my calendar of the art of Austrian born painter and spiritual ecologist Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) .  He  consistently worked with spiral motifs, primitive forms, spectral colors, and repetitive patterns. His name translated into English means “Hundred Waters”. In  the quote that follows, take note of the line,  And so I have succeeded in throwing windows open. After my illuminating experience with the skylight ‘affair’, this is so apt.

This visionary artist also designed a landmark apartment house in Vienna that has a “green” roof of dirt and grass, two trees growing from inside the house, and uneven floors…he felt the unevenness was more comfortable and natural to the foot.

Hundertwasser can be considered a “colorist” painter, as color is an essential, if not overriding element of all his work. He used highly saturated colors regardless of subject matter. Spirals first appeared in Hundertwasser work in 1953 and became the most consistent element in his work.

Paintings for me are gateways, which enable me, if I have been successful, to open them into a world which is both near and far for us, to which we have no admission, in which we find ourselves, but which we cannot perceive, which is against the real world. Our parallel world, from which we remove ourselves in one respect.

Yes, and that is the paradise, that is what we are in, what we are arrested in, and which some inexplicable power denies us. And so I have succeeded in throwing windows open.

How I succeeded is difficult to explain. On no account by force, nor by calculation, nor by intelligence, nor necessarily by intuition, but almost as though sleep-walking. I believe, and I am absolutely certain, and therefore I believe, that painting is a religious occupation, that the actual impulse comes from without, from something else that we do not know, an indefinable power which comes or does not come and which guides your hand.

People used to say in earlier times that it was the muse, for example, it’s a stupid thing to say of course, but it is some kind of illumination. And the only thing one can do is to prepare the ground, so that this extraterrestrial impulse or however else one might describe it can reach you. That means keeping oneself ready. That means eliminating the will, eliminating the intelligence, eliminating “wanting to do better”, eliminating ambition.

I should perhaps like to be known as the magician of vegetation or something similar. We are in need of magic. I fill a picture until it is full with magic, as one fills up a glass with water. Everything is so infinitely simple, so infinitely beautiful. Hundertwasser,  1975

What do you do when the rug is pulled out from under your feet?

“Chuck Thomas Close (born July 5, 1940, Monroe, Washington) is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits.

On December 7, 1988, Close felt a strange pain in his chest. That day he was at a ceremony honoring local artists in New York City and was waiting to be called to the podium to present an award. Close delivered his speech and then made his way across the street to Beth Israel Medical Center where he suffered a seizure which left him paralyzed from the neck down. The cause was diagnosed as a spinal artery collapse. Close called that day “The Event.” For months, Close was in rehab strengthening his muscles; he soon had slight movement in his arms and could walk, yet only for a few steps. He has relied on a wheelchair since.

However, Close continued to paint with a brush strapped onto his wrist with tape, creating large portraits in low-resolution grid squares created by an assistant. Ironically, while being one of the most successful portrait artists of his time, Close is also afflicted with Prosopagnosia (face blindness), a condition that prevents him from recognizing people’s faces. ” (Wikipedia)

Painting is the most magical of mediums. The transcendence is truly amazing to me every time I go to a museum and I see how somebody figured another way to rub colored dirt on a flat surface and make space where there is no space or make you think of a life experience. (Chuck Close)

I saw him in a documentary a few years ago and was awestruck with what Close has to go through just to get paint on the canvas. Close has the brush strapped to his wrist as he did not regain full mobility after ‘the event’. Now, whenever I start to feel sorry for myself over my health issues, I  draw inspiration from artists like Close.  Despite the major catastrophe Close had to face, he managed to pick himself up, dust himself off and continue to produce brilliant work. I love this man!

Self portrait (Detail)

Self portrait

What is my job in life?

“My job is to bring light into people’s lives.”

The man who just installed the skylight in my kitchen said that as he was leaving. I laughed and replied “What a wonderful job to have!”

Later, while eating my lunch and loving all the extra brightness in the room, it suddenly hit me. That’s my job too! If everyone we meet is a mirror of ourselves, then surely this chance encounter with a stranger has given me a clue as to why I am here. The never ending search for meaning in life has come to an end. One of those ah-ha moments that simply floors you.

My ‘job’ is to bring light into people’s lives. What is light? Love made visible. My artwork is my light and my love. What an awakening! What a gift this stranger has given me!

And now as I think about it further, perhaps this is everyone’s ‘job’ in life – we are all here to do the same thing – to bring light into being i.e. make manifest the light and love of God.  Many of us just don’t realise it.

LIGHT

How do you get new ideas?

Today I wondered into furniture designer Khai Liew’s showroom on Magill Road to check out his latest exhibition. Khai was in his forties before he designed his first piece.    I had the place to myself and I sat in his chair called Harvey. It felt like I was on a magic throne, transported to meditative solitude in the quietest place on earth. I was mesmerised by the timeless quality of his work.  Here is a quote from  an interview on ABCs Art Nation:

Simplicity is the key. Simplicity with a multitude of complexities – it looks simple, but it has been thought about. Only by challenging ourselves will we get new ideas. I want to make things that will enrich someone’s life. (Liew)

how fortunate can one person be?

Dale Copeland – Assemblage Artist

“How fortunate can one person be? Artist, mathematician, book binder, happy person. A mid-life career change from teacher of maths and physics to artist, mother, web page writer . . . .Living at Puniho in New Zealand, with painter Paul Hutchinson I consider myself to be one of the most fortunate people in the world. Rich in everything but cash. I love the things I make. “Junk” is collected, sits around for about 20 years, and finally finds its place. From collage postcards to a large motorised Not-Very-Merry-Go-Round of gargoyles, including my mother’s false teeth in a fish head, life is full of possibilities.”
dalecopeland.co.nz/default.htm

What do you do with 100,000 pin pricks of colour?

I love the ingenuity of Christian Faur. This man uses crayons to create his masterpieces….

I have an overwhelming sentimental attachment to crayons. (For some proof, check out the design of my Twitter page.) Not just the sense-memory of using crayons when I was a kid, but as an adult realizing the fundamental artistic ideas that those little sticks of wax represented to me; colour, creation, exploration, and (a particular sub-set of the general societal crayon fascination) the connection between word and colour. This, for a five year-o … Read More

via shape+colour

does it pay to tell the truth?

“The minute I sat in front of a canvas I was happy. Because it was a world, and I could do what I liked with it.”

I recently saw a documentary on the American portrait artist, Alice Neel (1900-1984). She really only became well known for her work in the last two decades of her life, even though she had been painting since her early twenties.    Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color.

“I do not know if the truth that I have told will benefit the world in any way. I managed to do it at great cost to myself and perhaps to others. It is hard to go against the tide of one’s time, milieu, and position. But at least I tried to reflect innocently the twentieth century and my feelings and perceptions as a girl and a woman. Not that I felt they were all that different from men’s.” (AliceNeel.com)

When does fear produce great art?

When your name is Edvard Munch!

‘The Scream’ is Munch’s most famous painting and Munch did  many variations of it.     The bridge depicted in the painting was a real one, not very far from where Munch lived was an abattoir, and also an asylum, in which one of the artist’s sister spent some time. ‘The Scream’ depicts isolation and fear.  Living so near to the abattoir and asylum Munch surely must have heard these cries.  As well as  an earlier  brother and sister who died from illness, Munch also lost his mother from Tuberculosis when he was only five.

This quote taken from the artist’s diary provide clues to the painting’s inspiration;

“I was walking along the street with two friends – the sun was going down – I felt a touch of melancholy.  Suddenly the colour of the sky changed to blood-red.  I stopped walking and leaned against a fence feeling tired to death….I stood there trembling with fear – and I felt how a long unending scream was going through the whole of nature.”