express

“The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.”

Samuel Beckett. A reluctant appellation of his own beliefs regarding creativity on a (or perhaps many – it’s not clear) hapless painter.  ‘Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit’.

what is worth attention – is anything worth celebrating? for beckett it seems life was doubtful in worth.

there seems little or nothing to add to the world – the notion of creativity seems shabby besides it. unless it is a creativity harmonising with nature.

seeing requires harmonising; to look past the petty static of consciousness or lose the rigour of tunnel vision is hard. there are shapes that reverberate in us and hold the key to deeply felt understanding. learning to look can bring these shapes out into the light.

the drawing below holds a stylization that has come from my need to order the drawing but also to harmonise my response to the rhythms of the shapes i observe. i chose this one for the clear accentuation of specific features in style and to give a little background – it was executed last year – i wish to show some older pieces before i bring up some newer. there are some strong analogies with music all along i think – something conterpuntal.

practice

‘This world of Imagination is a world of Eternity; it is the divine bosom into which we shall go after the death of the Vegetated body. The World of the Imagination is Infinite & Eternal, whereas the world of Generation, or Vegetation, is Finite & Temporal. There Exist in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Every Thing which we see reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature.’

William Blake (‘A vision of the Last Judgement’ in the complete writings of William Blake, ed. Geoffrey Keynes, 1975)

i should have some sort of statement of intent.
as an artist i intend to discuss art. my art largely but perhaps a little context  / other contributors / stuff.
art is currently – or in fact – always has been firmly, fashionably and inextricably linked to methods of maintaining  status and hierarchy. there is a hegemonic reality to the art world.
the times we are living in are looking to be extraordinarily bleak. basically the central rub of our society: that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is becoming a grotesque parody of itself. not since the 1900’s has the divide been so ruthlessly pursued by those ‘with’.
the art world is necessarily a considerable contributor to this state of affairs.

which leads to a necessary question; why practise art?