"Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing which will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving towards the summit of fulfillment.”

—John O?Donohue,
Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World

Note: If you want to know more about art and soul, read Divine Fire in the kül cha section inside the main site gallery.

"Art is magic. So say the surrealists. But how is it magic? In its metaphysical development? Or does some final transformation culminate in a magic reality. In truth, the latter is impossible without the former. If creation is not magic, the outcome cannot be magic. To worship the product and ignore its development leads to dilettantism and reaction. Art cannot result from sophisticated, frivolous, or superficial effects.”

—Hans Hofmann, from Search for the Real

Note: For more about what makes magic in art, see My Artist’s Statement inside the main site gallery.

"I was returning, immersed in thought, from my sketching, when on opening the studio door, I was suddenly confronted by a picture of indescribable and incandescent loveliness. Bewildered, I stopped, staring at it. The painting lacked all subject, depicted no identifiable object, and was entirely composed of bright color-patches. Finally, I approached closer and only then recognized it for what it really was—my own painting, standing on its side on the easel.”

—Wassily Kandinsky

The painting in question was, as I recall, of haystacks, not the detail of the painting shown above. I cropped this section from Kandinsky’s art painted on glass from an insightful book by Annegret Hoberg called Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter that chronicles their ill-starred love affair. Prestel Publishing

"At the age of thirty-two, I decided I was either going to commit suicide or discover what a penniless human could do on behalf of humanity. I decided on the latter and realized that human beings were introduced into Universe for an important reason. They’re like bees, you see, bees who go out and get honey without realizing they’re also performing cross-pollination. I realized that we are only throwaway, that we’ve never designed anything, that Universe exhibits a mathematical orderliness which naturally implies a greater intellect at work, and that we are part of that design. Then I made a commitment never to use this knowledge for personal gain or political power. My life has been, as a result, one miracle after another.”

—R. Buckminster Fuller

Note: I cropped the image of Fuller from a fine book called Photoshop 5.5 Artistry by Barry Haynes and Wendy Crumpler, New Riders Publishing.

If you’ve never heard Chuck Mangione’s Land of Make Believe Concert, you owe it to your self to hear his great flugelhorn backed up by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra with the suberb voice of Ester Satterfield, plus the support of other fine musicians.

First released in 1973, this ride of positive energy holds up nearly 30 years later. Quality does not diminish with time. I have music on when I’m painting. It sends a vibration into the room and it moves through me.

Music is unique. It is universal as it taps into feeling and transcends thinking—my kind of expression.

Wassily Kandinsky, the great Russian painter, wanted the spirit of his work to transcend in the same way the language of music liberated the soul, unbounded by the restraints of conceptualizations and dogma. That’s why he called many of his works improvisations and compositions.

The next time you want to visit a special space, put Chuck’s wonderful album on and soar into realms that are waiting for free spirits.

There is plenty of room.»