…As an artist I believe, and I attempt to convey in my production of these paintings and drawings my belief that it is not the image or the subject that is important, rather it is the need to make and to share something with others that will reflect that initial powerful internal visual experience that is both important and essential.
I love my eyes: they bring me joy. I love colour. I love, and need, both art and the practice of art.
Throughout my development as an artist I have been a pragmatist – in that the theories which underlay the work only came about through reflection upon the practice of art: action preceded thought. Further, my thoughts about visual art have been profoundly shaped by the way I think and have thought about music (which I have practiced as a performer, arranger, teacher and listener), because both disciplines derive from sensory experience, and both affect human beings in similar ways.
… so, firstly, this whole thing about the “need to make and to share something with others that will reflect that initial powerful internal visual experience” defines and categorizes my art as visual. The work is, essentially, a distillation and transformation of what has been perceived into a material form (the painting). I have always been profoundly affected by what I see – to the point of being able to recall in detail images seen decades ago, and to remember the feelings and emotions created by those images.
Secondly, I believe that what we perceive -whether visual, aural, tactile, or the scents and tastes we experience- creates firstly a physical reaction, and subsequently and occasionally an affective (emotional) state. Sometimes -and only sometimes- the intricacies of these perceptions can be understood intellectually. *
My paintings have always been preceded by visual experiences that have caused a profound physical reaction, and that frequently have also triggered an affective response. It is as difficult for me to stay unmoved in the presence of the striking and beautiful as it is to stay unmoved when I listen to Ravel’sPavanne Pour Une Enfante Défunte, or, say, Bill Evan’s composition Blue in Green.
And lastly, I believe, like Kandinsky, that the elements of visual art (form and colour and the arrangement of the same) “constitute the elements of a language adequate to express emotion.”**
Those elements are, of course, present in the initial visual experience, and in the completed painting – which is both a reflection of the initial experience and a new thing in and of itself. Just as music (Kandinsky’s first discipline) is a language entire of itself, so too is visual art. I also know, as Matisse has affirmed, that the act of seeing -vision- is a creative act.
I believe that this process of perceiving, making and sharing is important. It is communication -a special and unique kind of communication - and one that can touch a human heart in a unique, positive and joyful way.
*In the case of visual sense data, I believe that intellectual analysis can only superficially make sense of why and how the infinite combinations of colour, line, form and mass affect human sensibilities. The evolution of our species demanded that we acted upon what we sensed rather than come to an immediate intellectual understanding of it. Our intellectual toolbox –which contains the tools of critical thinking, synthesis, analysis, problem-solving skills and others- turns out to be a few (5?) tools short when we try to understand how the data we perceive through our senses affects us, probably because the simple act of experiencing something obviates (in large part) the need to understand it. It is very difficult to comprehend how and why the elements of music (pitch, texture, timbre, dynamics and rhythm) can meld together through time in such a way as to fill my heart with joy, make me want to get up and dance…or weep.
**Cited in Herbert Read’s excellent overview A concise history of Modern Painting.The question of how the elements of visual art can express emotion that is both tied to, and at the same time independent of, representational subjects is a topic I’ll address in a later post.