Discovering The Nature Of Existence
Through Art
by Arthur RobinsMy art is simultaneously personal, political, art historical, universal and religious.
It is personal in that all my images are developed through a very personal vision. They are created to depict my own personal vision, for my own growth, and my own understanding of whatever it is I am trying to understand or study.
It is political in the sense that any individual proclaiming his own ideas is political in and of itself; and it is political in that much of my work is critical of many other pre-existing ideas, and extends itself (in my view) as an equal or superior idea.
It is art historical because it addresses all real art that came before it, from cave painters to the present. I exclude no actual idea presented from the past, but instead include them, resynthesize them into a new and more "complete" version while attepting to push it into a new language.
My work is universal in the sense that my language is universal. All people from all lands and times can interpret my images. My art transcends this culture and this century even though it addresses it and includes it or criticizes it. I believe all art should be a universal language accessible to all people everywhere.
My work is religious, not in terms of "religion" and not iconoclastic, but in a truly personal relationship between me and the Creator. All art, in order for it to attain any innate value, must be created with the Creator. Any attempt to exclude His participation in the process will result in emptiness and failure. Every stroke, every idea, every approach that includes the Creator's input, will be successful, inasmuch as an artist allows Him to participate.
An artist can tap into the Creator's vast eternal creative power subconsciously or unconsciously. But during and after 1984, my conscious effort to do this resulted in art that I was continually able to learn from even years after its creation. Technically, I have hundreds (if not thousands) of "approches" to my work. Just as the Creator approaches His "canvas" with new ideas each time, an artist who taps into this source will naturally try to do the same.
Over the years, I have discovered that, in a creative process that is in harmony and participation with the Creator, there are certain rules and laws. The rules can (and often should be) broken. But the laws must be kept. The laws may be bent but never broken. All laws are created by the Creator and are perfect. Alll rules are created by man and are flawed.
Finally, my art is not merely about how I "feel" or my "mood" or my own "opinion". It is not transient or temporal or cultural. It is not stylized or iconic or superficial. All my work is an attempt to study how the Creator creates things, by allowing Him to show me, through His direct participation in the process. When successful, this is the highest state of joy. Through this process, I discover what I think, how I feel about what I think, and how He feels about what I think. I believe that through this process an artist can learn about the very nature of existence itself.
Arthur Robins