Archives: Essays

I first came across Odilon Redon and Edgar Allen Poe as in 1986 at school when I was a teenager my art class took an excursion from Sydney to Canberra to visit the National Gallery and it was to see the Twentieth Century Masters show from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and […]

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”  Albert Einstein I love this quote by Einstein but I disagree and feel that imagination is best when in balance with knowledge or rational thinking or knowledge and imagination or creativity. “The relationship between high IQ (analytical, data-processing intelligence) and creativity (divergent […]

“A mandala is the psychological expression of the totality of the self.” Carl Jung I have seen Tibetan monks making colourful sand mandalas twice both on tables outside once at the Bellingen World Music Festival in the late nineties and once at a new age festival on the outskirts of Byron Bay about ten years […]

I’ve used this title in an essay and my master’s thesis before once as the final chapter in my master’s thesis in 1997 and in an essay in my first book Mothers Love around 2023. Both times I wrote about a new art movement based around a sort of travelling art festival. In my drawings […]

“Christian Liberté Boltanski (6 September 1944 – 14 July 2021) was a French sculptor, photographer, painter, and film maker. He is best known for his photography installations and contemporary French conceptual style.” Wiki “Art making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt.” Christian Boltanski I chose this Boltanski quote about making […]

Angels have appeared in Western art through history starting with human like messengers in early Christian catacombs. But my favourite is Leonardo da Vinci’s, Annunciation, circa 1472. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelangelo I love this quote by Michelangelo and his sculptures are amazing and have […]

This book is about spiritualism in art and life and I have been writing an essay a day for roughly two months in late 2025 and early 2026. Currently I am just posting the essays daily on my website with great thanks to Ross Tesoriero my web guy. I aim to have it finished in […]

Contemporary spiritual painting takes many forms and I have included three Australian artists: Imants Tillers, Gemma Smith and Del Kathryn Barton in this essay but there was, many more international artists to choose from when I researched this essay and I have included an equal number of male and female artists. I think that there […]

I have loved Bjork’s music since the early nineties when she did the MTV live Unplugged gig in 1994 and I recorded it on VHS tape and watched it over and over. When I just did some research on Bjork quote’s I realised that she is one of the most quotable creatives throughout history. Bjork […]

“William Blake, an English poet and artist (1757–1827), is renowned for his visionary, romantic, and often rebellious insights on imagination, spirituality, and human existence. “ Wiki When I was a child, I was very creative and loved drawing but it was my older sister Leanne that had the greatest artistic gift so my mother encouraged […]

Postmodern definition: “Postmodernism is a late-20th-century intellectual, cultural, and artistic movement that emerged as a sceptical reaction against the certainty, universal truths, and “grand narratives” of Modernism. It emphasizes irony, relativism, the instability of meaning, and the idea that knowledge is socially constructed rather than objective.” Google Sublime definition: “Something of such excellence, grandeur, or […]

I have long had an interest in all things about mortality and even when I was 17 in high school, I made a big crayon drawing on board titled: Contemplating Death (1999) and it had a portrait of me as an old man with many wrinkles in a church with a stain glass window behind […]

“Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer, and clearer still.” David Hockney. I like this quote by Hockney and I feel with my daily drawing that it improves my vision of the world more and more clearly. I have been doing a ten-drawings a day project for about five years but sometimes I do […]

“Photography by nature is spiritual, considering it comes from the darkness to show the light.” Kevin Russo I love this quote about the spirituality of photography about showing the light in life and it reminds me of one of my favourite Saint Francis quotes:  “A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.” I […]

“My brush, above me all the time, dribbles paint so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!” Michelangelo It has for a long time on my bucket list to visit the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City Italy. I went to Rome about three years ago and had booked a tour of the Sistine Chapel […]

Print by Hokusai a precursor to contemporary Japanese spiritual art. “Spirituality in contemporary Japanese art often merges ancient animism and Buddhist philosophy with technology, emphasizing interconnectedness, impermanence and the “invisible” through minimalist gestures and light. Key artists like Tatsuo Miyajima, Mariko Mori, and Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara and Yoko Ono use light, and nature to […]

The book Man and his Symbols by Carl Jung is a book about mainly analysing dreams through their lessons and symbols that reveal truths about our lives through our subconscious and unconscious. “Man and His Symbols is the last work undertaken by Carl Jung before his death in 1961. First published in 1964, it is divided into […]

For quite a few months now I have been having a banana smoothie once a day usually with two frozen bananas and sometimes a scoop of organic protein powder mostly once I get home from my swim at the pool on weekdays with lactose free milk as I am lactose intolerant. Sometimes I have it […]

“Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary network of artists, composers, and designers in the 1960s and 70s who blended different media to break down the boundary between art and daily life. Founded by George Maciunas, it was a “shared attitude” rather than a strict movement, often using humour, performance, and “anti-art” to challenge institutional art conventions.” Key […]

“At the end of the day, you can’t compete with Mother Nature. If you’ve got a great tomato, just a pinch of sea salt is all you need.” Zac Posen I agree you can’t compete with nature but you can live in awe of it and enjoy its complexity and beauty. “People must feel that […]

I first read about female and male environmental artists through reading the book Overlay by Lucy Lippard in undergrad at art school recommended by my lecturer Bonita Ely. I tried to have a balanced essay with two female artists and two male artists and then as a footnote my environmental art. One of the artists […]

There are many great Australian video artists but the video artists I mentioned in the title I met at art-school or just after art school at the artist collective gallery called Imperial Slacks in Surry Hills Sydney. I also had a connection to some of the artists as me and my artist friend Katthy Cavaliere […]

“Hinduism, often termed Sanatana Dharma (“eternal tradition”), is the world’s oldest living religion and a comprehensive way of life with no single founder, originating in India over 4,000 years ago. It encompasses diverse philosophies, including polytheism, monotheism, and pantheism, with central beliefs in karma (action), reincarnation (samsara), dharma (duty/order), and the ultimate, all-pervasive reality, Brahman. “ Google While […]

“Jainism is an ancient Indian religion, originating around the 7th–5th century BC, that emphasizes a path to spiritual purity and liberation (moksha) through nonviolence (ahimsa), non-possession, and non-absolutism. As a non-theistic faith, Jains believe in karma, reincarnation, and the immortality of the soul, aiming to free the soul from karmic bonds by respecting all life, […]

“Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman is a foundational work of American poetry, celebrating democracy, nature, and the self. Its most famous lines include, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”.  Google  I first read part […]