ART & Artist

by Eugene Halliday

 

A work of art is “there” before the artist paints it. It has its own inner life and significance.

To allow its expression the artist must not rationally define it, nor interfere with it as it is proceeding.

For each artist his “now emerging” work of art is part of his being, seeking self-expression. We may say that the “conscious ego” of the artist is but a part of the total work of art which is his whole being; and that his action as artist is but an attempt to disclose himself to himself.

The fragmented parts of his conscious personality cry out for the revelation of the hidden relations which exist unexpressed between them, and between them and the whole ontological work of art of which they are a part.

The artist is to aid the disclosure of these hidden relations of the fragments of his being by highly alert supersensitive watching of the inner phenomena of his introverted awareness.

This discloses the cross resonances of all the hidden parts of his being.

The resultant insights into the inner relations are then fed back into the artist’s being-consciousness, to the greater integration of his psychosomatic unity.

 

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