Hong Sau with reverance
illumination of the temple by a hundred thousand lights, lakshadipam*
crumpled paper is really satisfying

Project: WHITE DIARY
Image: abstract collage, calligraphy, Chinese bamboo pen
Media: Khadi paper, Khadi Nepalese-dyed Lokta, Indian ink

* Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda

Clouds on a warm Tuesday evening

…the Bernard Jacobson Gallery held a preview of William Tillyer’s new paintings, a series of innovative metal lattice works inspired by Tillyer’s cloud study of the Helmsley sky in Yorkshire. Clearly a man of his word, Mr. Jacobson had promised to introduce my friend & I to the artist, and indeed, Mr.Tillyer snuck up on us while we were enthusiastically flicking through an archive book of his exceptional water-colours. It was a real treat actually, and a privilege, I mean how often does one get the opportunity to ask an accomplished artist such daft questions as ‘what prompted you to start painting?’, it was like asking a fish why they like swimming. More insightful, however, was Tillyer’s description of his long-term love affair with employing interactive materials as part of his creative process, while using the archive book as a reference point to demonstrate. ‘Do you remember every piece of work you’ve ever created?’ asked my friend, ‘oh yes, every one’ Mr. Tillyer replied. At the age of 71 that’s not bad going, given that I seldom remember what I had for breakfast. The last two paragraphs of the artist’s wall-mounted notes are especially poignant, and for me, sums up the motivation behind artistic endeavor:

‘This simple observation states my need to ‘prick the bubble’ and operate in today’s ever narrowing gap between order and chaos, the romantic, scientific, rural and urban, and most of all between control, and letting go.
In setting down these brief notes, I have started with the least important aspects of theme, or any other body of work. It is the very last point, that gap, that space between, for which I have no real name that is important, and in the end that which I am unable to verbalize.’ William Tillyer 2010

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I definitely floated away on a Tillyer Cloud 9.

V

William Tillyer etching Clouds 2010

Tillyer etching Clouds, work in progress 2009

Tillyer Bloworth Blue

Ed: note that from June 24th, the Bernard Jacobson Gallery is holding the first exhibition of new work by Pierre Soulages in London since 1972 – not to be missed!

www.TILLYER.com

www.jacobsongallery.com

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…Soul Fragments

…a group of paintings on paper, using blue and black ink. I’m blending calligraphic style brush work with the mental domain of geometric forms. Narrowing the colour palette allows for concentrated experimentation with form and texture. The calligraphic and textural elements are indicative of the etheric body, while the geometric personalities represent thought forms.
This current project has been inspired by the shamanic practice of soul retrieval, of which the aim is to reintegrate soul fragments that have become disconnected through trauma. Soul Fragments will be launched on VA later this year.

V

sounding out

On Saturday 10th April, I took a walk over to Madame Lillie’s gallery in Stoke Newington, to view Sounding Out, an exhibition of artwork, photography & sound by Richard C Beard. I originally met Richard during an open evening at his artist studio on Manor Road, every inch of wall space was covered with various experiments as if his mind had literally exploded over four walls… I’m amazed the ceiling escaped.
By utter contrast, there was a neat folio on the desk filled with his most recent work, of which i1123 0926 grabbed my attention; linear mark-making, primary-colored minimalism with texture and a sense of purpose.

∞
A few weeks later, the same image turned up on my door mat in the form of a postcard invite to Madame Lilly’s. Cazenove Road is tucked away and yet a stone’s throw from Stoke Newington Church Street, which is full of great pubs, cafe bars and general buzz on a Saturday afternoon. The gallery space used to be a corset factory and has retained some of its old character. Abstract sounds mixed with bird song chirruped along with Richard’s works-on-paper, delicately pegged, pinned, and having dispensed with costly framing formalities – this was art at it’s most raw. It was hard not to get excited about it, I’m so used to seeing art displayed in a clinical fashion whereas this felt immediate, welcoming and unpretentious.
It’s easy to spot various influences in Richard’s work, Rothko and Hodgkin being the most obvious, nevertheless, Richard’s voice is making itself heard; the leap he has made only in the space of a few weeks was marked and I can’t help feeling excited about what this artist could ultimately contribute if he persists… and I really hope he does. The thing that makes Richard an artist at heart is his unequivocal child-like courage for experimentation, and I find this incredibly inspiring. The enhancement of mixing sound with art seems obvious to me, and yet I can’t help wondering why sound isn’t used more often in artist exhibitions; engaging as many of the senses as possible has become an art form within the retail sector, and yet barely used where real soul engagement is possible, and preferable.
The bottom line is that the Richard C Beard experience was enjoyable and memorable. To paraphrase Elizabeth Gilbert, keep turning up for your job Richard, Olé !

V

TED. com Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity
www.madamelillies.org
www.theothers.uk.com

#107

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#107 © vesna milinkovic 2009

GABRIEL

The Annunciate, incorporeal being in blue, witness of Passion.

Gabriel, spirit of truth and personification of the Holy Spirit.

Gabriel, 2009

acrylic on canvas
100cm x 100cm

A new abstract painting
by Vesna Milinkovic, also available as a gicleé print, online at

Vesna Abstract

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related article: angelgirl

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]]> http://www.vesnaabstractart.co.uk/news/gabriel-1090.html/feed 0 http://www.vesnaabstractart.co.uk/news/project-1111-the-synopsis-887.html http://www.vesnaabstractart.co.uk/news/project-1111-the-synopsis-887.html#comments Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:11:32 +0000 V http://www.vesnaabstractart.co.uk/news/?p=887

11 months in conception

11 works completed

11:11

the new art collection

PROJECT 11:11

• – - – - : • – - – -

coming soon

Concerning The

Spiritual

In Art

Why spiritual art?
Why not just art?
You’re weird aren’t you… you’re one of those?

Back in early 2000 and something, I did a couple years of undergraduate study in philosophy with The Open University. I was really excited about it. I experienced an amazing first year exploring The Human Situation, and my second year was a focus on the field I love the most… art.
What could possibly go wrong?

Music Conducted In The Rain

I was really organised, mind-maps at the ready, prepping from word go for my end of year exam.
While almost having completed the course, I spent one evening reviewing my notes. In doing so, I became aware of feeling intensely frustrated; I realised that I didn’t believe in any of the information I was willingly committing to memory.

When it came to exploring the question What Is Art?, nothing I had been instructed to read came even close to tapping the truth. At the time, I couldn’t quite grasp what the truth might look like… but I knew it was out there, like space… another frontier, hopefully not so final. This particular realisation came as a bit of a blow at the time, which presented me with a dilemma. Do I memorise utterly useless information and outdated concepts for the sake of passing my second year, or do I quit now before I do any lasting damage to my synapses?
I decided that encouraging my ability to think for myself was more important, and so I defiantly boycotted the exam.

While I continued to read the odd bit of Bertrand Russell, my imagination was being gently captivated by the metaphysics section of the book store. One mind-bending book led to another, which would thus lead to another five, and so on, multiplying like rabbits on Viagra. Years later, my home resembles some strange landscape of totem stalagmites, made entirely of books, depositing in obscure places, and in alternate subject layers of art and spirituality.
A good friend and Demartini practitioner said to me ‘ten minutes in a persons home and I’ll tell them exactly what their life purpose is.’

Well. It took me a little longer than ten minutes. Try ten years.

I now realise that the frontier had come to me; a precipitated truth in the shape of book deposits. The concept of spirituality in art was now dripping upwards from my book totems and slowly crystallizing between my ears.

Synchronously, in the summer of 2006, Tate Modern exhibited The Path To Abstraction, an impressive collection of 80 Kandinsky works charting his journey through The Blue Rider group and Bauhaus periods. The Tate describes Wassily Kandinsky as;

‘a modernist master’ who ‘began to conceive of painting as an alternative pathway to spiritual reality… In abstraction, Kandinsky felt that he had discovered a spiritual reality which was more powerful for not being tied to the outside world – an alternative music for the senses.’

Swallows In My Dreams

This was one art exhibition I felt compelled to visit. Even so, it was yet another two years before I read Kandinsky’s seminal work, Concerning The Spiritual In Art. The artist explores concepts of inner resonance or vibration of the soul as spiritual experience, facilitated by art, specifically the cause and effect of painting and colour on the soul.

It began to dawn on me that art and spirituality, within the current context of western culture, generally appear to be presented to us with an inference of mutual exclusivity. Mixing the two feels very much taboo. While there has been a renaissance in mind body spirit associated subjects in the past decade, there seems to be a black hole when it comes to serious exploration of the spiritual within art. This only serves to highlight, not only the significance of Kandinsky’s work, but the courage it must have taken to propose such theories, especially in a time devoid of the spiritual awakening we are now experiencing.

The spiritual in art is a part of every indigenous culture, indeed the indigenous Way is one of Spirit which guides every aspect of life, and is therefore inseparable from their higher forms of expression. This is not a new concept, this is an ancient practice that has been marginalised (as have the indigenous) in the race for egoic power. However, times are a changing, the feminine principle is making her presence felt, we are in the throws of rediscovering our spiritual roots once again. This is the early train to recovery, destination: Spirit.

Michelangelo is quoted as having said ‘the true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.’ This implies a creativity that strives for such perfection. Our creations can only ever be a reflection of our true state. It is impossible to escape the reality of what we have created for ourselves thus far, and yet it is entirely possible, critical even, that we take responsibility for our creations. Only then can we truly expect to elevate ourselves from mere struggle for survival. It is in the striving, the creative process, that we reach for a better version of ourselves. It is time that we recognise, openly acknowledge, and celebrate the relationship between art and spirituality, contrary to what society would have us believe, as inseparable. Like Picasso once said, ‘God is really only another artist.’

V

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