Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning "circle" and a concept strongly associated with Zen.

Ensō is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy even though it is a symbol and not a character.

It symbolizes enlightenment, strength, elegance, the Universe, and the void; it can also symbolize the Japanese aesthetic itself. As an "expression of the moment" it is often considered a form of minimalist expressionist art.

In Zen Buddhist painting, ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create.

The brushed ink of the circle is usually done on silk or rice paper in one movement (but the great Bankei used two strokes sometimes) and there is no possibility of modification: it shows the expressive movement of the spirit at that time.

Zen Buddhists "believe that the character of the artist is fully exposed in how she or he draws an ensō. Only a person who is mentally and spiritually complete can draw a true ensō. Some artists will practice drawing an ensō daily, as a kind of spiritual exercise."[1]

Some artists paint ensō with an opening in the circle, while others complete the circle. For the former, the opening may express various ideas, for example that the ensō is not separate, but is part of something greater, or that imperfection is an essential and inherent aspect of existence (see also the idea of broken symmetry).

The principle of controlling the balance of composition through asymmetry and irregularity is an important aspect of the Japanese aesthetic: Fukinsei (不均斉), the denial of perfection.

The ensō is also a sacred symbol in the Zen school of Buddhism, and is often used by Zen masters as a form of signature in their religious artwork. For more on the philosophy behind this see Hitsuzendo, the Way of the Brush or Zen Calligraphy.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ens%C5%8D

I have several enso inspired works in my office - painted while in Maui with Max Gimblett. And this years visual diary - representing all my hopes, dreams and plans for the year is a "chalk" enso on red card - symbolising passion, "oneness" and spirituality to me.

Circle of infinity...emptiness with fullness, all things visible. All things unseen. To end and to begin....circle of life.

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life." Federico Fellini

Labels: Spirituality in art

In the 1990s there was virtually no secondary art market in India. Between 2000 and 2008, the price index of Contemporary Art multiplied by seven! While Anish KAPOOR and Subodh GUPTA are among the world’s fifteen top-selling Contemporary artists with auction revenues..

Read more >>>

I adore the vibrant colours of these two pieces by Anish Kapoor. They sing! Clearly the Indian colour palette incites joy!

Labels: Colour, Spirituality in art, Thecolourgirl.com

"I have always been able to see what others were unable to see; and what they did, I did not see."

- Salvador Dali

Several years ago while in New York I stumbled on a book that was to change my life - "Psychic living: tap into your psychic potential" by Andrei Ridgeway.

"In this technological day and age filled with busywork, " he writes, "many of us neglect our psychic potential. Our instincts are repressed and our inner voices buried...."

"...For many, the word "psychic" is so big, so titanic, they can't accept it. They don't realize it is a normal state of being, that as a lover, and a friend, we use this part of ourselves all the time."

Today as I continued to feel my way toward my preferred future, my true path with heart, and needing a boost I decided to try one of the exercises in the book - evoking the seer.

"For an artist, whatever, he is looking at has meaning. He doesn't need to use the word "clairvoyant, " because the whole universe is holy. Whether it be a spirit that appears out of thin air, or a piece of fruit on the table, it has soul," he writes. Then he encourages us to see the world as an artist and expand our vision to see into other times and places. "It is a wake up exercise, like a cup of coffee for the eyes."

Seeing exercise

Try Andrei's exercise - I just did and it was extra-ordinary! (I've posted my experience at the end of this entry)


Step one Go to a bookstore, library, art gallery or museum and visit the art section. You can make it a filed trip with a friend or lover. Give yourself time. Pretend you are living in the Renaissance, before the invention of People Magazine, when art mattered. Go through the books as if you have never seen any of those painters before, and be especially open to painters whose work you have never seen before. If you have not been in the painting world for a while and feel the need for a starting point, try one of these artists: Salvador Dali,Alex Grey (especially his book Soul Mirrors), Georgia O'keefe, or Claude Monet.

The books that you are drawn to will contain images and colours that resonate with your soul. Go through the pages/view the paintings at a leisurely speed. When you find a painting that really moves you, that stirs your optic cells, sit there and stare at it for a while. Let the light and the colour fill you up.


Step two Write a paragraph about your favourite painting, why it touched you, what is was about it that awakened your soul, Write stream of consciousness (IE just free write without "thinking") I liked the painting because it made me think of god and being a little kid and no end to wonder with yellow warmth and excitement in my belly. Let your pen go wild. No censorship.


Step three When you enter back into reality - your home, office, or the coffee shop next door - see if you can perceive in the objects and people around you the same level of beauty you saw in the painting. Rarely do painters create strictly from the unconscious. Most of them combine their hidden selves with the world around them, blending spirit with matter int heir own masterful way. See what it feels like to perceive life through this double lens, to bring your soul vision into the mundane, to see in the face of a stranger the same wonder and intensity that lived in the painting.

If the painting you chose was famous, buy yourself a print and put it somewhere in your home. It will act as a reminder of how your soul sees the world, keeping your eyes attuned to beauty as you pass through the day."

(excerpt from "Psychic living: tap into your psychic potential" by Andrei Ridgeway, pg 43)

Seeing Cass


Leap Away Girl 1969, Ian Scott

Today I went to Te Papa and after wandering around the many walls of art this painting "Leap Away Girl" by Ian Scott immediately called to me.

Here's what I wrote:

"Fresh yellow greens, clear blue sky and white puffy clouds - the colours call to me as does the name of the painting - Leap Away Girl. "go follow your dreams" the painting called, "look to the horizons and keep following your dreams, allow the fresh, invigorating colours of nature to guide and inspire you - the red energy of passion and goals, of motivation; green the energy of pastures news, of the heart chakra , of feeling energetic and alive, connected to nature, of following the seasons; blue the colour of peace and calm of warm days and summer skies of mother earth and the heavens that envelope her; white the colour of purity, marriage, union, partnership and marriage - contracts of love."

The energy and vitality of the painting arrests me, stops me in my tracks, draws me deeper still - it's joyful, hopeful, sensual,epxectant . The curvy shapes of the clouds in the sky and of the hills - dancing, playful, irregular, creative, uniform - heralding surprises, defying expectations.

"Let go. Let live. Follow your dreams," it challenges and encourages me. Allow the green of the heart - of courage and positive emotion, growth and renewal to nurture you; the blue of the horizon and sea to guide you - to flow like their currents to distant shores and new memories awaiting. The white of the clouds to soften your fears to life you higher still."


Now that I am back at the office the painting lives inside me still, whispering to and challenging my soul. I have printed out a copy of the painting and placed it on my inspiration wall, saved it as my screen saver, and pasted it in my inspiration journal. I see myself in the image of the girl - colourful, jubilant, happy beyond belief. It reminds me of my dream "I dream I am on vacation, it's the perfect career for me" - taken from a song by the Eagles. And of my morphing back toward art, writing, photography and photo journalism - and there on my business card for all to see is a reminder:
Cassandra Gaisford - Artist, life coach, author, photojournalist"


"Art washed from the soul the dust of everyday life." Pablo Picasso


Try this exercise yourself - I'd love to hear how awakening the seer within transforms your life.

Labels: Colour, Cultivating Creativity, happiness, intuition, Life coaching, Motivation, Spirituality in art, Thecolourgirl.com

In two days we’ll be launching the brand new Colour Girl website – www.thecolourgirl.com.

It’s very, very cool – or should I say hot...in no small part thanks to the fabulous logo that my old surfing buddy Lionel Taylor (www.taylormcallum.co.nz) came up with. If you need a very talented, creative, professional graphic designer he's your man. Not only is his work amazing but he's such a honey – when I asked him where my invoice for all the hours he put into creating my awesome logo he said he’d much rather have one of my paintings – so I’m going to send him two!

"Hey Girl, What invoice??" he wrote to me, "Don't think I ever mentioned charging you.... ha! Send me up an art piece - one of yours. It will appreciate more than any funds sitting in any bank these days. Studio colours are Black, Greys, White walls with lots of chrome and splashs of red and burgundy. x"

So instead of the currency of money we're trading passion, purpose and skill. Here are the two paintings I am sending up to Lionel today - both were created with extreme passion and joy with Max Gimblett at the Sumi Ink workshop he ran on the island of Maui last year.



I think they'll go perfectly with Lionel's new colour scheme. Here's hoping he likes them, so far he seems optimistic! ""Right, send me up a piece ... before I can't afford one - Carp Diem... Seize the Day, it will look good in my studio, talent of the year, with creds and a web address of course.... chur!!!"

Keeping it simple- making it real - the art of Sumi
I came across this while researching Max Gimblett who very much is a fan of this technique (as am I ...it is so serene and beautiful...even tho you may say at first "anyone could do that" I don't believe this is so....a good stroke is a beautiful thing and requires much skill)

"The Philosophy of Sumi-e is contrast and harmony, expressing simple beauty and elegance. The Tai Chi diagram demonstrates the perfectly balanced interchange of the two dynamically opposed forces of the Universe, the dot represents integration.

Sumi-e employs these principles of nature's vitality in its design and execution. The balance and integration of these forces and the eternal interaction of Yin Yang are the ultimate goal of Sumi-e. The art of brush painting, aims to depict the spirit, rather than the semblance of the object. In creating a picture the artist must grasp the spirit of the subject. Sumi-e attempts to capture the Chi or "life spirit" of the subject, painting in the language of the spirit.

Patience is essential in brush painting. Balance, rhythm and harmony are the qualities the artist strives for by developing patience, self-discipline and concentration.

The goal of the brush painter is to use the brush with both vitality and restraint. Constantly striving to be a better person because his character and personality come through in his work.

Sumi-e is more than a technique, it is a Spiritual Journey."

Labels: Commissioning a work of art, Spirituality in art

The other day after an incredibly stressful week out of the blue I received this email. It came from a lady who had come to view  my house:

“I am totally in love with your art.  The little white painting over the dining table is singing in my heart still. I was so thrilled that I found your web page! I would really like to know if the small white painting is available. If not, I'd like to look at any work that is.” - Violet

These few sentences totally transformed my mind in one quick brushstroke and illustrates the power we all have to uplift each other.

Tip - go forth and sow the seeds of kindness. Give unsolicited positive feedback as often as you can. The benefits are two fold - the recipient will feel better and so will you. Try it and see:)

The  painting Violet fell in love with was inspired by the work of CJ Twombly - an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. 

Labels: Cultivating Creativity, happiness, Spirituality in art

Yay! Finally the drought is broken - inspired partly by Piera McArthur and also enlivened by my new love interest:) While visiting Piera in her studio the other day she asked me if I was painting.

"It's too cold" I moaned, wrapping my arms around me for extra effect.
"Stop making excuses, " she frowned.

Duly, but lovingly censored, I headed off to my studio (my converted, and very draughty, garage.) Armed with a few deadlines - art awards and a friends upcoming birthday I was re-inspired.

The title, inspired by the words scrawled along the bottom, initially was...

"I love the way you make me feel.... When we kiss I shudder."

I've since shortened it to, "When we kiss I shudder."


As you can see from the image, I have a few other paintings lined up - one of which is my grandfather - sketched in pencil and awaiting glazes of oil. This has been requested my my mother to sit alongside the portrait I did of my Grandmother and which finalled in the 2008 Adam Portraiture Award

You can view "When we kiss I shudder" and learn more about the inspiration behind the painting here

Labels: Commissioning a work of art, Spirituality in art

Being free to be you often takes great courage. Not only does it mean taking on new experiences it often means changing who you are and who you want to be. Very often it also means breaking free from the expectations of others - maybe even disappointing them.

Louis Khan, regarded as one of the the 20th Centuries greatest architects, suffered well into his 70’s from his father’s disappointment that he was not working in a more “practical” profession. Louis’s architecture is so emotionally powerful it makes people weep.

Cricketing legend, Imran Khan’s father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and be an engineer. “It was the last thing in the world I wanted,” he said.

Entertainer Meatloaf’s dreams of being a singer were laughed at, “You’re too fat and too ugly to sell any records,” supposedly more enlightened folk told him. Meatloaf’s album Bat Out of Hell went on to sell millions of records and is still selling today.

Paris’s Pompidou Centre, with its exposed skeleton of brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems, caused such an outcry that the architects, Renzo Piano, Richard and Sue Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini, were belted with tomatoes and told to “get out of here!”. Reporting on Rogers' winning the Pritzker Prize in 2007, The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou “revolutionized museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city.”

Wellington based, Chinese born, natural healer and astrologer Alice Morris broke with a very strong cultural expectation that she would pursue her parents wishes and work as an accountant.

With all the negativity around no wonder people often put more energy into resisting change and preserving the status quo than they do in embracing a new beginning.

Changing can be hard work. It means taking a risk and stepping in the unknown. Some people fear change because they believe that they might lose what they have – even though what they have may be nothing at all. For many people change means taking responsibility and ending years of blaming others, being a victim, or living in denial or in a state of apathy. For others it can mean being left out in the cold, marginalized by family or society.

Everyone feels fear at some stage in their life, but the truly successful people nip it in the bud before it takes hold and squeezes their life from them.

People living courageously bring colour to the world. They live a life less than ordinary. Are you?

Labels: Spirituality in art

Many of the people who purchase my art often ask me, "what was the inspiration behind your painting?" They love to hear the story and see the painting as it progresses. One of my clients, who purchased Autumn Leaves, has been very, very patient. He emailed me before he headed off overseas, "Hi girl…off to Samoa for a friend 60th !...need some R&R, sun & vit D…look forward to your story on return …Cheers Richard"

I love being called a girl! It makes me feel young again. Anyway he purchased the painting at the Joy'ance exhibition and has been waiting ever since - I just want to get the story just right as this piece is very personally significant to me.


This time I thought I would start the story right from the beginning. What is the inspiration behind this piece? Once again I return to joy. Partially it is inspired by my trip to Italy several years ago- the gallery in San Gimignano called "Cassandra" and the sunflowers growing wild in the fields. Partly by the beauty and symbolism of the organic square (this will make sense as it evolves"; partly it is inspired by the joy that cheerful colours inspire. Largely it is inspired by the playfulness of artists like Henri Matisse and Max Gimblett who both paint with such glee.

As one of my favourite artists Mark Rothko once said, “Painting should be ecstatic or nothing.” So I'm planning a solo exhibition and returning to "jouissance" as my theme. This should dove tail nicely into the french lessons I have just started and my dream of living and creating in the south of France.


To add to the joy while creating I'm playing a completion I created called "happy music" Right now the fabulous Bee Gee's are playing, "you should be dancing." I'm doing a wee dance as I paint....just taking time out to keep you in the loop!

Better get back to it now:)


Back now! Here is San Gi - after a few hours in my studio....this time listening to Pink!

The cool thing about this process is I can see at least four other paintings within this painting - so I guess you could say that this is the mother painting from which all others will be created.....the thing I have worked out, about an exhibition is that similarly of style seems to be the way people go. So, unlike the Joy'ance exhibtion where I showed quite an eccletic range of paintings, the Jouissance show will have a similar, unifying theme. However, I will be

exhibiting figure work (my new passion!) alongside the more abstract pieces.....I'm also going to be working in a variety of mediums, including encastic (bees wax). This is another passion, my father was a bee keeper and apitherapist who passionately believed in the curative, healing powers of bees, and who also made his own beeswax polish.

The finished art work: Licorice and Butterflies

As the painting began to take shape I was contacted by a good friend and professional colleague Lawrence Green about having a joint exhibition next year. The theme is "art should make you laugh."

So I began some brainstorming re themes and came up with so many ideas - a key one being children's birthday parties. Hence the licorice theme here with all the cheerful colours. The butterflies were added to reflect the joy of dance and inner transformation that many people go through on the way to joy.


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Labels: Commissioning a work of art, Cultivating Creativity, Exhibitions and competitions, Spirituality in art

One of my favourite quotes comes from Picasso, "Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life." Art in all its many forms, whether it is poetry, sculpture, a play, a painting, or a beautifully designed building...even something as simple as a tap, has such a powerful ability to do this. For me this is what spirituality is....something that lifts me at a much deeper level and allows me to transcend the mundane. What does it mean for you?

Some of the artists who were making abstract works were on a quest to see if art could inspire a transcendental state akin to the sublime feeling that nature could inspire. Artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko hoped viewers would experience a spiritual revelation, or at least a deeply meditative feeling, while gazing at abstract surfaces or forms.

As you will have seen from the previous post Max Gimblett's work does that for me...so much so that I just had to buy one....and then another.....! (Now I have to work hard to pay for them!) ...here the wee beauties are...they may not be your thing ( the buzz factor is an individual thing) but for me personally every time I look at them I feel incredible joy and serenity....I feel strongly that the essence of the artist and the joy they experience while painting oozes out of their work and thus has a powerful impact on the receiver...I have watched a video of Max painting and he giggles and laughs and looks so playful and filled with joy when he paints...now i giggle and laugh and feel playful too!

The first one is called "cast" and is signed on the back "to Cassandra with love - Max" I purchased this one on opening night when he was here in Wellington in June - part impulsive, part due to my friend saying it's so you (note the upside down U!) - I love gold, and I love squares and to me this was classic, simplicity ...I could also picture exactly where I would hang it!

The second one is "choice" I fell in love with this one when I went into the gallery to pay for the first one! I love the pacific feel, the imperfections, the colour and the name! Every time I look at it it reminds me of the power of choice! This is my daughter's favorite too and hangs in the open plan kitchen/living.

The Power of Art to Heal
I am also interested in the healing power of art....esp after visiting my cousin as she had treatment for breast cancer and watching how much life and reason to live painting gave a fellow patient.

Yet I feel strongly that the artistic realm is often undervalued by many...at school I had a talent for art..but I wasn't encouraged to follow my bliss...in fact I was actively discouraged and told I could only study "USEFUL' subjects like accounting and commerce.....looking back as I now follow my creative callings, I can see these were useful skills to have learned..but oh how many wasted journeys I have been on working and living in ways that did not nurture my soul.

This sense of waste has strengthened my commitment and passion to raise the profile of artistic pursuits as not secondary but primary catalysts to the evolution of the human condition.......


As one of my fellow artists commented recently "In regards to healing, its terribly underrated how much art can be used in therapy. We all know what a buzz we get when painting or creating and rarely can describe the feeling (Time passes in a haze etc etc) as well as the intense irritation when unable to create. I deal with IHC students.. its poetry in motion to see these people come out of their shells and express themselves in a way they can't normally...as it is for all artists...who can say its easier to express themselves verbally than they can on canvas or in sculpture etc etc??? I cant!"

So art can be a powerful way to help people communicate. In my coaching practice (www.worklifesolutions.co.nz) I use a technique called interactive drawing therapy..it's an awesome tool to help people release blocks and move forward in their lives.

Interactive Drawing Therapy (IDT) uses powerful right-brain, creative tools to supplement the traditional talking processes. It makes visible the invisible by providing visual ways of seeing the big picture, and activating and empowering clients inner power and resources to help construct and design solutions to clients problems. IDT uses jointly-constructed visual imagery to review the client’s situation,re frame their conflict, generate insight, access inner resources, and start a remarkable process of constructive decision-making. It's creative, it's dynamic and it's very, very powerful. I love working with it and my clients do too. So many of us need and carve visual solutions and tools to make life simple, and easier to navigate. (check out www.interactivedrawingtherapy.com if you are interested)


Connect with your spirit - get inspired
Some people define spirituality as 'being inspired"...this is a positive, transformational process -one capable of passing from one to many as people come into contact with the works of the inspired creator. I love this quote I came across while researching the topic of spirituality in art:

“In any art that is alive and really creative there is an exchange between the artist and the art itself. In some cases you can almost feel a physical exchange. It's a recognition of each other, of the quality in each other. It's an exchange that speaks. And you know at that moment that there is something very much alive and working at that time. I remember one of the first great paintings I had ever seen in color. It was during a visit to the Chicago art museum. They had taken a very large religious picture of the holy family or some aspect of that, and put it on the stairway because it was so big they had to have the space around it. I remember coming up to that and the exchange was so great that I just simply burst into tears. And that's the kind of exchange that something real provokes. It's an overwhelming experience, something that only tears can absorb and soothe. In any great visual experience, whether it's in nature or in art or in music or any other form in which there is a transcending experience, there's always a bursting of light. There's an enlightenment. In painting it's really a quality of light. In nature it's an overwhelming light. That is the creative experience, the inspiration that one never forgets, the mystical experience if you want to call it that.”

-Sr. Lucia Wiley, CHSet Inspired!!

when I first "experienced a Rothko" I was in Paris at the Centre Pompidou. I was immediately inspired. It wasn't a rational.."what do I like about it" reaction, but a deep, heart felt attraction...couldn't afford a real Rothko but made off with 10 postcard Rothko's...may not be your cup of tea.. but Rothko and I are soul mates! I love the simplicity and colour of his work - only wish I done it first!


"A good Rothko is always an enigma: You can sense its beauty and feel its emotion, yet both are ineffable. It is very hard to believe, for instance, that if a given lozenge were a few inches taller or shorter, it would make a blind bit of difference. Yet the beauty seems intricately calibrated. And as with the formal, so with the emotional component. We can feel "emotion" without being able to quantify it, without really being able to say whether a given Rothko is cheerful or melancholy, tragic or ecstatic.
In the Nietzschean sense, Rothko's emotionality is "beyond" happy and sad. Emotion, like form, is abstracted from the particular and taken to a transcendent place. That is putting it in rather mystical terms. An equally valid approach would be to say that, more than most modern artists, Rothko demands emotional investment from the viewer: The artist's intuitions about color and shape set up ciphers for the feeling and thought of others. Where traditional art, drawing upon shared iconography, made demands on collective knowledge of myth and fable, a Rothko appeals instead to self-knowledge."

Finding your true calling
Art can even help you get over the devastating loss of work and help people find their true identity - came across this excerpt re this very gifted artist on Page Blackie gallery website

"Israel Birch connects his early interest in art to when his father was laid off work from the Whakatu works.
He returned to carving. This was great for my dad as it was a way of healing him and our family. Since then, art has always been part of my life. I have since taken small steps and have now found myself doing a Masters in Maori art."

Keeping it simple- making it real
I came across this while researching Max Gimblett who very much is a fan of this technique (as am I ...it is so serene and beautiful...even tho you may say at first "anyone could do that" I don't believe this is so....a good stroke is a beautiful thing and requires much skill)

"The Philosophy of Sumi-e is contrast and harmony, expressing simple beauty and elegance. The Tai Chi diagram demonstrates the perfectly balanced interchange of the two dynamically opposed forces of the Universe, the dot represents integration.

Sumi-e employs these principles of nature's vitality in its design and execution. The balance and integration of these forces and the eternal interaction of Yin Yang are the ultimate goal of Sumi-e. The art of brush painting, aims to depict the spirit, rather than the semblance of the object. In creating a picture the artist must grasp the spirit of the subject. Sumi-e attempts to capture the Chi or "life spirit" of the subject, painting in the language of the spirit.

Patience is essential in brush painting. Balance, rhythm and harmony are the qualities the artist strives for by developing patience, self-discipline and concentration.

The goal of the brush painter is to use the brush with both vitality and restraint. Constantly striving to be a better person because his character and personality come through in his work.

Sumi-e is more than a technique, it is a Spiritual Journey."

I am so excited to be going along to Max's Sumi Ink Painting course in Maui, Hawaii...only ten more sleeps til I leave! Who knows where this journey will lead or what indelible stain it will wash upon my Psyche...what I do know that is that it will be magical, life affirming and so, so wonderful.....a tonic for my weary soul at this point in time.....so Picasso was right...art CAN and does wash from the soul the dust of everyday life:)

Labels: Spirituality in art

Antony Gormley is one the most famous British sculptors working today. He was born in 1950 in London and after going to university he travelled to India and the Middle East. These travels and his interest in Buddhism and subsequent meditation practice (he studied Buddhism and meditation for 3 years in India) awakened a passion for how artists use their work to express spiritual ideas and beliefs.

Gormley learned the importance of just "being" not always thinking or doing and has set out to create art that encourages people to contemplate, and be more 'aware' and 'in tune' with our environment.

'Just being' is something I find very hard to 'do'...or should I say 'be''– perhaps this is the life lesson I am learning at the moment as I struggle with a severe neck injury (Which I funnily, or not so funnily, got while doing a yoga class.) I have been in so much discomfort I have been unable to do anything and feeling quite sorry for myself. So sorry for myself that I re-watched the inspiring story of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and reminded myself to get a grip. If you haven't seen the DVD it is a must see, re how, after suffering a crippling accident, told she would never walk again and being confined to bed for a great part of her life she began her artistic career and eventually got back on her feet - literally. She later went on to marry(twice) the very sensual and talented Mexican muralist Diego Rivera

One of Gormley's most famous and controversial sculptures is Angel of the North, which is located in Gateshead, England. Its wide-open wings greet visitors as they reach Gateshead by The AI road or east coast mainline railway.

Although the angel is a traditional image of western art, depicted in numerous paintings and sculptures, Gormley has recreated it in a thoroughly minimalist and modern way. Sculpted our of steel and standing 20 metres (66 feet) tall, with wings 54 metres (178 feet) - it is wider than the height of the Statue of Liberty.




The Angel of the North is as much a feat of engineering as a work of art. The sculpture has a greater wingspan than a Boeing 757, and has to be able to withstand winds of over 100mph. Due to its exposed location, 150 metric tonnes (165 tons) of concrete were used to create foundations which anchor the sculpture to rock 20 metres (66 ft) below.

The wings are angled 3.5 degrees forward, which Gormley has been quoted as saying was to create "a sense of embrace"

Construction work on the Angel started in 1994 and was completed in 1998. At first, Angel of the North aroused some controversy with local councillors and the British newspapers - largely due to the expenses incurred. The Angel of the North cost nearly £800,000 - which was controversial in a relatively deprived area of Britain. It has now come to be considered as a landmark for the North East of England and is one of the 12 official "Icons of England."

There is no doubting that Antony Gormley has created a powerful sculpture, which is seen and enjoyed by tens of thousands of people every day.



Gormley describes his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live." Many of his works are based on moulds taken from his own body, or "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside." His work attempts to treat the body not as a thing but a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical - a trace of a real event of a real body in time.

Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud was commissioned for a site next to the Millennium Dome in London. At 30 metres high, it is Gormley's tallest sculpture to date (taller than the Angel of the North). It is constructed from a collection of tetrahedral units made from 1.5m long sections of steel. The steel section were arranged using a computer model with a random walk algorithm starting from points on the surface of an enlarged figure based on Gormley's body that forms a residual outline at the centre of the sculpture.
The sculpture was completed in 1999 in time for the opening of the Millennium Dome.
The idea for Quantum Cloud came from a comment about algebra made by Basil Hiley, quantum physicist (and long-time colleague of David Bohm), in which he said "algebra is the relationship of relationships". The comment was made during a conversation between Gormley, Hiley and writer David Peat at a 1999 London gathering of artists and scientists, organized by Peat.

I first stumbled upon Gormley's work in a book about sculpture and instantly fell in love with Angel of The North, and as I began to learn more about him and his work, I fell in love with everything he does. To me that is spirituality in art - the ability to inspire love and transport the viewer to a world far away from the mundane; a place where one can contemplate life's mysteries and the simplest of joys. Thank you Antony Gormley!













Source: Wikipedia and various articles and websites to numerous and inspiring to mention:)


Interesting links: http://www.antonygormley.com/

Labels: Spirituality in art