Statement

No matter what our individual beliefs or hopes we are all being threatend by a new European war. The horrors being perpetuated In Gaza in the name of Western Civilization are perhaps harbingers of more militaristic treats yet to manifest.

In the light of such gloomy reflections it often occurs to me to question the validity of putting paint brush to canvas or pencil to paper in the furtherance of mere pictorial illusion or decoration. What relevance can such micro personal activities have when we are continually being threatened by the ancient sword of Damocles wielded by our social superiors?

Why not give in to despair? Why not just get drunk? Perhaps ‘art’ is nothing more than a more or less sophisticated form of self indulgence.

However, even despair is perhaps a type of luxury not available to those in the midst of tragedy and the imperatives of that wanton whore necessity.!

The answer to these doubts must be simply this – in the midst of destruction and threatened destruction an apparently gratuitous self-originating act – nobody actually needs a ‘work of art’ – is automatically a statement of faith – because the outcome is unknown- and therefore a statement of hope and affirmation of the future in an uncertain and fragile world.

And we all need hope!