The Quietest Moments: Thirty days of destruction

What are the characteristics of love, after all? Attention, care, affection, eros, mystery, joy, comfort, fear, unity, possession, passion, sincerity. And yes, these are all characteristics of the emergent experience of great art. And the artist’s hand which shapes with care shares all these things.

Read More

Odd Nerdrum’s Crime and Refuge

The artist exiled from his home created a theatre of characters in his imagined world, armed, beaten, and alienated, caught in conflict, ritual, love and rest; the afflicted and exhausted; these abandoned self portraits of a bloodied Nerdrum, cast as criminal, then as a weary man whose companions are outcasts, mutilated and war-torn, abandoned to the stern, severely beautiful landscape. We find the dead and the dying here, the victims of the aftermath, a record of the conflict between survivors and their struggle against despair.

Read More

Metalheads: Brad Kunkle, Brooklyn, New York

“It’s the most controversial element in the history of mankind. It also implies love and spirituality. The spiritual implication comes from it’s use in organized religion. But if we look at gold outside this context, we can see why it has been used to inspire our spiritual senses, which for me is the way it reflects light.”

Read More

Metalheads: Pam Hawkes, England, UK

My figures are still, icon-like, but often trapped within luxurious, decorative patterns. There are narratives of love, desire, disappointment, cautionary and celebratory going on here; it all depends literally on the viewer’s standpoint.

Read More

Why Beauty Matters: Philosopher Roger Scruton & Theologian, Painter, Michael Pearce On Why We Need to Reclaim Art for the Soul, Part II

“We cannot reach a consensus on the definition of beauty, any more than on the definition of other such volatile terms. But we can reach a consensus on the importance of beauty, and its place in our lives. The test of time is important, but the important time is now. And that is why we must educate children in the love of the beautiful and the capacity to distinguish the true from the phony examples.”
~ Roger Scruton, philosopher, writer, Oxford University professor

Read More