I have always been reluctant to view and review art from an intellectual point of view. Indeed it is important to understand context and biography in an artwork; but I do feel that we've intentionally been missing something, something profound that cannot be boxed in mere intellectual constructs. It's no secret that I have been through my own psycho-therapeutic journey - a lot of it aimed toward unlocking emotions. And it's also no secret that I have had experiences with healing psychedelics/psychotropics. Though all of these, I have gained an immense appreciation in the "experience" of beauty - that emotive power it holds - and how we as artists have the privilege of chronicling these experiences. I have come to believe that our works stir something more in the heart than in the head. Not quite hippy, new age dogma I preach. But what I do know is that it's in beauty that I have experienced the closest to opening up a frozen heart.
Imagine, at the corner of your eye while walking down the seaside, you glimpse a golden sunset. It catches you off guard, you gasp and suddenly blanked in a sense of awe. Your thoughts, your neurosis, your worries and regrets, in that brief instant, vanishes, and you're suddenly in just WOW. I mentioned before, it is probably the closest to enlightenment that I've experienced; it is in these moments that I personally feel connected to everything, that non of my bullshit matters. That is, perhaps, why I choose the be an artist. It is an amazing opportunity to get healed, to step out of the conditioning that we have experienced, and to just be. To be full, and perhaps grateful, that we are offered a special window to a divine space. That we can then capture it and share it to a wider audience. And in all our intention-filled works, we also capture emotions and feelings and offer this to an audience who, perhaps, have been starved, as modern life has been more of an assault to the intellect. Beauty is feeling and emotion, and that brings colour and healing to anyone's life.
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Francis graduated cum laude as an an architect, and has since worked in a world Top 100 architectural firm, as well as in the Brussels EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asian) innovation hub of one the world's leading brands. He is also a visual artist (with commissions for the HSE), interior and graphic designer, and creates fashion jewellery and millinery. Art and design, he says, can be very healing and restorative, and will always tell a story - and this is part of his creative ethos. If you need his services, please send an email to: [email protected] ArchivesCategories |