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