John Searles' Artist's Statement #1
 |
There are two aspects of being an
artist - the act of doing and the end result. Which is more important?
As a spiritual being, during the act of creating a work of art I, in
turn, am created. A vision of the future is required, fortified with
discipline, perseverance, faith, determination. Then I begin and I learn
as I go. The media speaks to me. The flow experience ensues, one of the
great joys of being an artist. It's a great satisfaction to grow as an
artist and to be more and more conversant with my media.
But the primary reason I am an Artist is for the joy of it, that incredible rush of empowering energy when I've finished a piece and step back from it and say Wow! I did that! Big pieces make my spirit feel big. Small pieces capture my attention like wondrous jewels. Wow! And that's the response I hope to get from the viewer too. |
I call my artwork "Music for the Eyes" because, like music (music without words), most of my artwork does not have an obvious contextual reference. My artwork is designed to simultaneously soothe and stimulate the viewer, inviting the viewer to step out of his world and relax and reframe his vision of himself and his life. I am not particularly interested in endowing my pieces with meaning or stories. I prefer that they be experienced for themselves as themselves. I think of them as being meditation pieces, transporting the viewer beyond the limited scope of the mental sphere.
Copper has a number of unique qualities that fascinate me. With flame and chemicals, a wide range of beautiful patinas can be achieved. As a soft metal, it can be bent and shaped with ease, or it can be transformed into a hard metal with hammering. It can be glued to wood and made rigid, and then cut into forms that can be stacked and arranged. It can also be turned on a lathe, melted and cast, stamped in a die and various other techniques I haven't tried yet.
You will have noticed that all my artwork has an interplay of wild abandon within great structure and control. This is what many great artists do. The ballet dancers rehearse and rehearse their technique and then, during their performance, release themselves with wild abandon within the structure of those carefully choreographed moves. That's why we say that certain dancers are 'flying'. The jazz musician practices his improvisations prior to the performance, but it is his wild abandon within that pre-planned expression that thrills us. My designs may appear to be pure wild abandon, but they are made within the structure of carefully controlled technique and endless pre-planning. I get the greatest delight from working with both sides of my brain simultaneously and then infusing passion into the mix.
Sources of inspiration for me include Nature, mathematics, the paintings of Paul Jenkins and Jackson Pollack, the teachings of Zen Buddhism, Eckankar and the Sufi mystics, the Landmark Education programs, much of the body of modern glass art, geological patterns in rocks and minerals, Hubble telescope photographs, the polarized light microphotographs of crystals by Roman Vishniac and Howard Garrett, turbulence patterns in water and smoke and the magical colors dancing on the surface of soap bubbles.
We are spiritual beings living in the physical universe. We chose to be here and we choose to stay. We need visual stimulation, mental stimulation, emotional stimulation. We need warm relationships, people, friends, love. And we need to create environments that reflect our inner selves, that remind us of who we are, what we stand for, where we are going and where we have been. The non-artist sees what is there - the artist sees what is missing, what could be there. I am very blessed that I have the ability to see what could be there in the environments of myself and others. I am blessed to have the tools, skills and vitality to manifest those things. And I am grateful that I get to do what I love to do every day and make works of art that other people value.