Page 11 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 15

came to believe that I was not my thoughts and
that there was a deeper presence that can be
experienced. As Pierre Teillard de Chardin has
clearly articulated, „We are not human beings
having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual
beings having a human experience.“

Which famous painters have inspired you?

My greatest inspiration in the past and now
is Vincent Van Gogh. His anguished and tor-
mented life, along with his sense of the Divine,
enabled him to produce the most beautiful and
authentic images that account for his unique
journey.
I have also been inspired by Matisse and the
German Expressionists for their use of vibrant
expressive colours.

Your work is characterized by symbols. Why
are they important for you and which are pre-
ferred?

My early work was generally about narratives
from the Bible. More recently I have moved to Finding God
an abstract expressionist style of painting. Ab-
straction allows a different engagement with the Can you focus in some sentences what is in
viewer. At a more basic level, the intent for me is your heart?
less about communicating an ideology or world
view and more about imagination and self-awa- Having arrived at this particular season of life
reness. However, I have still retained the image (I am 67) with the experiences that life has
of a bird in all my paintings. Images, like words, brought, I have a great sense of gratitude. What
speak of and point to another reality. This image enchants and allures me can be summed up in
for me represents the Sacred, Divine, God, or a four sentences, I am sure you are familiar with.
deeper reality. The bird stands apart from hu- Be still and know that I am God.
manity, it is a different being, separate from our The Kingdom of God is within.
world and able to view our world from a higher In him we live and move and have our being.
perspective. In this sense it speaks of the trans- God is Love.
cendence of God. However, its subtle presence I would hope that my art reflects the joy and
in all the images also speaks of the immanence beauty of this life we have, and also lead peop-
of God. Like the sacred, it is not easily identi- le to a greater awareness of the Sacred in their
fied, one has to look and seek in order to find own lives.
it. The divine, although veiled, is imbued in the
whole of life. https://www.johnfreemanart.com/

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