The artist’s life/1

Notes from the studio

“Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is “man” in a higher sense — he is “collective man”— one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic forms of mankind.”  – Carl Jung –

How does one become an artist? Is it a matter of choice? Or is it a matter of fate or luck or even bad luck for some? Or is it because of a desire or passion that emerges from deep within the soul, evoking a vague feeling of making meaning through art in a seemingly meaningless world?

James Allen wrote: “The dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know. Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after- world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity would perish.”

I’ve been making paintings for over twenty years. Lately, I am beginning to feel the need to write down and share some of my experiences as a visual artist along the slippery road to “Fame and Fortune” (note the quotation marks!).

First of all because the rational part of me likes to get a better understanding, if possible, how an abstract painting can convey sensations like meaning, purpose, harmony, rapture, beauty and joy to the spectator and how I “allow art to realise its purpose through me”. Secondly because I think it will shed some light on the backgrounds that drive me in my work, which might be of interest to the potential spectator and collector of my paintings. Thirdly because I think my experiences in the Art World might be of practical help for emerging artists. And finally because I just like to write about a subject so close to my heart; the visual arts.

If you’re interested in my voyages through the wonderful landscape of lyrical abstract painting, click to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Pictures can be enlarged by clicking. Words or sentences underlined contain links to more information.

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References:

Carl Jung – Psychology and Literature, (1930)

James Allen – As a Man Thinketh (1903)

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(I have decided to write these blog posts in English which is not my native language. So beforehand I want to apologize for any textual and/or grammar mistakes).