About
the Art
“Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its
appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances
of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.” Goethe
“Schopenhauer
had a theory of art that in effect said:
"bad art
copies, good art creates and great art transcends".
By transcends he meant transcends
subject/object duality.
What all great art has in common, he said,
is the ability to pull
the sensitive
you out of yourself and into the all, so completely
that the separate
self sense disappears entirely at least for a
brief moment and
you are ushered into timeless awareness.
Great art is mystical no matter what its
actual content.” Ken Wilber
Great
art is a voyage of discovery, compelling the witness within us to move beyond
detached observation of superficial appearances to participate in a shared
experience of grace, intimacy, charisma and romance of the artist’s
sensibility, awakening the witness to pure inspiration of traveling time out of
mind, transporting your mind, soul and spirit out of your skin to unfamiliar
territory.
The intrinsic value of a work of Art is relative to the
quality of the experience; whether your experience is gratifying, and connects
you to who you truly are.
Whether the art is simple or sophisticated, the materials,
techniques, theories and ideologies that conditioned the artist’s mind and
perceptions are all irrelevant in the face of the higher truths of life.
Beauty
is truth and truth, beauty.
John Keats (1795 - 1821)
Great Art is priceless,
for there is no monetary value that may be placed on endowing inert materials
with the life force, containing the power to transform the mundane to the
exceptional and boredom to inspiration, if only for a moment. Inspiration is
the ambrosia that makes life worth living.
Great art is spiritual love
manifested through culture, a love affair, in which the artist develops an
intimate relationship with a work of
Art is
collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the
better.
Andre Gide (1869 -
1951)
Genuine
masterpieces are not just merely cleverly crafted objects or artifacts, but
timeless inspirations that that resonate
with a hallowed sense of our venerable ancient past, bathing in the fountain of
eternal youth, vital and fresh as they were finished yesterday, even when
yesterday was a thousand years ago.
I have endeavored to create works of
art that are pleasing, rich and fulfilling experiences that leave an indelible
impression in your memory, attracting you with a force like gravity or
charisma, to return time and again to cultivate an acquaintance, as the breadth
of appreciation and intimacy, become deeper and broader eventually become
treasured friends that they are worthy of your time because they enrich your
life. One of my objectives, is to create a sense of
the timeless floating world, beyond the profane summons of transient mundane
concerns. I also try to avoid right angles and straight lines, which are
unnatural, static and confining and whenever possible, try not to include any
objects that place my images in a contemporary context.
Visionary
Art:
“The visionary
artist creates gifts of beauty that wash the eyes and cleanse the soul of
life’s ugliness and misery. Beauty is a sacred transmission of wisdom, moments
of epiphany where all worldly concerns of life are forgotten, at least
temporarily, in the great wisdom and simplicity of the child’s awe.”
The visionary artist is another species entirely, for he considers the
aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their
inward significance. Through sense and sensibility life reveals the artist as
equal parts lyrical poet, inspired mystic and pragmatic scientist who possesses
logic, discipline and organizational skills to manifest his vision.
The visionaries mind’s eye
sees through the oceanic depths that the symphonic composer hears through
the inner ear, vibrating primordial
roots of pure sound connected to the first man who discovered that he could
mimic the sounds of nature by whistling and singing or when he struck a hollow
log with a branch produced pleasing tones and could create melodies and rhythms
he heard in his mind or the first painter who smeared clay or pigment on his
body or created an image on a cave wall or the first sculptors who modeled clay
or chipped stone to create images that were recognizable to the people of his tribe.
I see
the visual arts through the inner ear of the symphonic composer who is
connected to the primal roots of the first man who noticed that when he struck
a hollow log with a branch produced a pleasing tone and that he could create
rhythms.
The ancient Chinese had an aphorism: “Read
a hundred books and paint a picture”. The Arts are a visual language
and I interpret the meaning of this phrase as: know something worthy of hearing
before speaking. Since I find repetition boring, I try to avoid repeating
myself. Doing variations of the same work over and over again, is good for art,
artistic production and sales, as collectors
seem to feel comfortable with consistency, but mindless repetition is almost
pointless for
The arts
for me, is first and foremost an exploration of self, for which no subject
matter is taboo or out of bounds. Although I believe shock value quickly
becomes tiresome and that I have made a few things with which I have scared
myself, I see that the value of this experience as the conquest of fear and
exorcising demons. I also have a wicked tongue in cheek sense of humor and
sometimes create truly demented images to have fun and amuse myself.
I
believe it is the artist’s responsibility to speak as clearly, directly and
truthfully as possible. The artist should roam freely through the dark
labyrinths of unspeakable perversity, chaos and through angelic dimensions of
ineffable beauty, compassion, luminosity and lyric grace. We are all things and
every aspect of ourselves demands expression. I have read many references to
“The Yoga of Art” and although the arts are not a surrogate for yoga, the arts
are a legitimate vehicle to “know thyself” and “to thy self be true”.
The
essential drive and purpose of
It is
with profound reverence for the great masters of the past of all arts in all
media, I subscribe to the romantic notion of art as personal expression,
mitigated by the understanding, skill and expertise gained by dedicated work
and concentrated study, reaching toward universal awareness through self
transcendence.
Technique:
Usually, I do either a highly detailed drawing
or series of studies before I even begin to think about painting. After I have
transferred the drawing to the canvas and completed the under-painting, I build
the color up slowly with layers of glaze (Paint thinned with medium. I Use
stand oil, wax and paint thinner) that are nearly transparent, I call them “blushes”
of color. The point of this effort, is to
create subtle luminosities in ultra fine gradations of color.
The
easiest way to imagine this process is visualizing a series of colors on
separate sheets of glass that are stacked, through which you can see through
varying layers of opacity and transparency.
The
point of working this way, is to create vibrant
luminosities that are brilliant yet subtle; to create a jeweled canvas that
looks like sunlight passing through a stained glass window.
There
are many other essays in my books which include theories developed by the author
in formal practice including:
·
Organic Symmetry
·
Parabolic perspective
·
Composition
Excerpts from : “Illuminations” & “Draw”;
scheduled for publication in 2008 & “The Artists’ Studio of the New
Renaissance”, which is not yet scheduled fro publication; books by Eric M.
Gendell Copyright 2008 Ars Magna Fine Arts.
e-mail:
arsmagna@optonline.net