acrylic on textured board, oyster-bed netting, slate roof-tile
The faculty of creating is never given to us all by itself.
It always goes hand in hand with the gift of observation.
And the true creator may be recognized by his ability to find about him,
in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.
– Igor Stravinsky
painted silk Habotai, textured card, fiber reactive dyes
The only real experiences in life [are] those lived with a virgin sensibility
– so that we only hear a tone once, only see a color once,
see, hear, touch, taste and smell everything but once, the first time.
All life is but an echo of our first sensations,
and we build up our consciousness, our whole mental life
by variations and combinations of these elementary sensations.
– Herbert Read, The Innocent Eye
acrylics on textured canvas
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
– Edgar Degas
canvas, recycled corrugated card, acrylic paints, painted silk, fiber reactive dyes, cotton cord,
gold lurex thread
Every creative act involves … a new innocence of perception,
liberated from the cataract of accepted belief.
– Arthur Koestler
Bowl by Rupert Spira
Cézanne said, “A time is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will trigger a revolution.”
The purpose of his art was to trigger this revolution, this complete ‘about turn’ in the way we see ourselves and the world. On another occasion he said the purpose of art was to “give us a taste of Nature’s Eternity,” that is, to give us a taste of that which is ever-present in the experience of nature or indeed in any experience.
Insofar as my work as an artist has a motive or a function, I share Cézanne’s vision although not, alas, his talent!
Just as the essence of all thought is understanding and the essence of all relationship or friendship is love, so the essence of all perception is beauty.
Therefore the highest function or motive of an object is to point towards or reveal this Beauty, that is, in Cézanne’s words, to give a taste of Nature’s Eternity.
A work of art is a work that comes from this intuition and that, as a result, bears the signature of its origin. The potency of art is that it bypasses the rational mind, that is, it is not abstract. It delivers intravenously, so to speak.
Many years ago I saw a man standing in front of one of my bowls at an exhibition. When I returned twenty minutes later he was still there just looking.
As I approached him he turned round and I saw that tears were streaming down his face. He smiled and left.
It is for that smile and for those tears that I work.
– Rupert Spira
Source – http://www.rupertspira.com/
See also http://www.theawakenedeye.com/artisans/spira.htm/
and http://www.theawakenedeye.com/natureseternity1.htm/
miriam louisa simons 