ABOUT THE WORK

An art critic once remarked that it is not with one’s eyes but with one’s whole being that one looks at a painting. In looking, it is necessary to be quiet. There is silence in painting. a silence of painting, as in Lao’s “Temporary Exit from Reality” which has to be listened to if one is to hear its silence. Then, its discreet silence turns eloquent. Its silence speaks to us but only after we have approached it with our own silence. But what exactly is this silence? Perhaps, it is the silence that comes from laying down one’s head close to the ground. Like the reclining Buddha (whose large ears show that he is a fervent listener), one listens not only to one’s heartbeat but to the very pulse of nature. One then hears the wind whispering through the trees, the leaves touching the ground, a stream murmuring nearby. Who knows? One may even hear a stone growing. Paradoxically, to attain this silence, the artist must let himself go, allow himself to be so absorbed in what he is doing that he forgets himself. One loses oneself in rendering the invisible visible. One strips oneself of what is inessential. To truly appreciate Lao’s silence then, one has to be blessed with the gift of attention, “that purest and rarest form of generosity.”Only then can one hopefully hear the painting “Temporary Exit from Reality” imploring you: “You must change your life!”