Hi Rupert,
I’m studying fine art and exploring how to express non-duality in art form. It has been quite challenging. I’m almost giving it up and just enjoying to do art. What is your motivation to create your artwork?
Thank you so much,
Naomi
Dear Naomi,
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, or, 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.
With love,
Rupert
