Strange Forms

Transcendence through art

Can the creative journey be planned?

So, out of curiosity, I decided to get a copy of 52 Weeks of Writing: Author Journal and Planner by Mariëlle S Smith. It’s a self-help guide, about 500 pages thick, on how to plan and organise a meaningful writing regime over the next year. I’m on my first week, and already I am made…

The art of being blue

One of my favourite pigments to paint with is lapis lazuli, the quintessential blue known also as ultramarine. The history of this precious blue goes back many millennia (Cleopatra is said to have used it as eyeshadow), and it later acquired the name owing to its having to be transported great distances from “beyond (ultra)…

Arrivals

“Beware of arriving,” I once read. It was implied that arrivals mark the culmination of a journey, and hence the motivation that drove us and gave us something to look forward to ceased at the end of that journey, when we arrive at our destination. For once we have achieved that goal, what lies ahead?…

When will we come to it?

In 1995, Maya Angelou delivered her poem, “A Brave and Startling Truth” at the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (https://youtu.be/UjEfq7wLm7M). Over a quarter of a century has passed since, and one cannot help but wonder if we are any closer coming to it than we were 25 years ago. Her heartfelt…

The art of not doing (part 1)

First part of my essay on the need to transcend the self and the way we perceive existence.

A philosophy of art

PDF of my paper: Strange Forms: Transcendence through Art

Creative journeys

I’m weird. I like to look at a beautiful blank book, feel the unwritten pages, smell the fresh leather of the cover, and imagine the possibilities that lie within those pages. But once the ink touches the paper, and words are coerced into existence from the ether of the subconscious, meaning (or the semblance of…