2013/03/27

Art Walk, Radiolarians, Diatoms and Coccolithophores



Victoria and Gulf Islands have a good number of artists, also here in James Bay, our village neighbourhood.  There is an “Art Walk” which allows us to visit the art of the creative human family, right in their studios or sanctum sanctorum.   


Kispiox Village, BC, 1929 by Emily Carr (same year I was born)
 
Of course, Victoria, being home to Canadian icon Emily Carr, has many followers who express themselves by rendering landscapes. At any rate, 95% of the art is done in a representational, figurative manner.  Myself, I have no studio, and spend more time writing nowadays than painting, other than playing Billiards, my new ‘hobby’. (Zen/Russian/Snooker and regular billiards.)  
Our latest form of recreational exercise
Of course curiosity wins over ignoring, which makes us go and experience those “Art Walks”. Artists are very sensitive and if you criticize it should always be positive.  Not easy.  But that way you leave their quarters / abode unharmed. Sometimes I cannot help saying, “Have you ever heard of photography?”, indicating how some painters try to outdo Nature and reality.  If there is indeed an urge to express oneself realistically, why not look into the beauty and splendour of the unseen realm?  Not in order to copy, but to get that feeling and insight there is another “real” world out there.




Coccolithophores

 For inspiration, take for instance Coccoliths, Diatoms or Radiolarians – all dwelling in the vast oceans. The realm of Neptune and mermaids. These are blueprints of new artforms, for painters, sculptors, or even architects. The realms revealed by the micro and electron-microscopic world are often awesome in colour and design.  A whole new world opens up, by just ‘looking’ at this phenomenal phenomena.

Radiolarians


A picture says more than . . . So here are some examples and maybe let you pause and wonder about such beauty, which indeed words cannot describe.  Don’t you agree?  Hoppy Easter.



Diatoms
Henri van Bentum