musetouch_issue_18

musetouch 

Visual Arts Magazine 

ISSUE 18 FEBRUARY 2012 

Thierry Bruet Hamish Blakely Nikolay Blokhin Johanna Knauer Patty Maher 

Paul McCloskey JungShan Ink Mark Henson Ana Cruz Alex Stoddard 

musetouch.org

Once upon a time, in a small coffee-house at the end of the world, an 

odd group of people gathered. A few journalists, two rebels with a 

cause, one writer and one lost soul. He was the writer and I was the lost 

soul. 

Everybody were noisy, talking, only two of us were quiet. But our eyes 

were sending secret messages. Mine were screaming “Save me!”, and 

his were answering “ I wish I could...I wish that so much, but I can’t.”. 

The dawn departed us all. The magic had gone. I never saw him again. 

Maybe we were the right persons, but the time was wrong...or maybe 

the time was right and we were wrong. Maybe is a beautiful, mysterious 

word. 

Happy Saint Valentines Day to you! 

Special thanks goes to Ljiljana Bursac, Nini Baseema, Kiyo Murakami, 

Murielle Mirabelle Velay Michel, Jelena Grujic, Ian Furniss, Bolek 

Budzyn, Thierry Bruet, Gines Serran, Mark Sadan and to all of you. 

Maia Sylba

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THE FORM OF 

BEAUTY 

blog 

by Nini Baseema 

KIYO MURAKAMI 

photography 

theformofbeauty.tumblr.com 

www.kiyomurakami.com

Strychnin Galery 

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ACADEMY OF ARTS FOUNDATION 

To draw public support and to popularize the Russian Academy of Arts I. E. Repin Institute 

of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Saint Petersburg “Academy of Arts” Foundation 

has been founded in 1996. 

General objective, pursued by The Foundation, is domestic and foreign promotion of I.E. 

Repin Institute’s students and graduates through expositions and media projects. 

Web site of the “Academy of Arts” Foundation (www.academart.com) has been created in 

1999. To familiarize the broad audience, comprising museums’ and private galleries’ personnel, 

collectors and amateurs of fine arts with the avenues, explored by The Foundation, 

it was further revised and updated on 2002 and 2011 years. 

Website organized as online galleries of the artists graduated, teaching and studying in 

the I. E. Repin’s institute. Main goal of the gallery is providing the best creative artworks 

by academician artists all around the world. Foundation’s online gallery united over 50 

well known figurative artists with recognizable manner and progressive style from Saint- 

Petersburg. 

Worldwide promotion of Saint-Petersburg modern figurative art is main strategy of the 

Foundation’s activity. 

Outstanding paintings of the most of participants in Foundation’s projects combined 

classic traditions of figurative paintings with contemporary mentality. 

In the nearest perspective of the our activity is creating of wide database of I. E. Repin’s 

institute graduates for last 50 years. We also provide online exhibitions of the best works, 

artists and important art themes. 

www.academart.com

MUSETOUCH MAGAZINE February 2012 

Editor 

Maia Sylba 

Graphic designer 

Dejan Silbaski 

Contributors 

Nini Baseema 

Ian Furniss 

Cover 

Kiyo Murakami 

MUSETOUCH is a magazine about visual arts. It has been created by Maia Sylba out of a love and passion for 

art with the hope that people will be able to use the publication and website as a platform to showcase their 

skills and gain recognition. 

Facebook 

facebook.com/musetouchvisualartsmagazine 

Twitter 

Linkedin 

Mail 

twitter.com/musetouchmag 

linkedin.com/in/maiasylba 

maiasylba@gmail.com 

Submission Guideline 

If you want to contribute to the next edition, you can send us an email with your data and a PDF file that 

shows your works, also a link of your website if you have any. 

We would love to see your art so don’t hesitate to contact us and welcome. 

All artwork in this magazine is copyright protected under the MUSETOUCH Magazine brand or remains 

property of the individual artists who have kindly granted us permission to use their work. 

musetouch 8

Johanna Knauer 

Feel No Pain 

JungShan Ink 

Emotional Release 

Hamish Blakely 

Late Bloomer 

010 

Mark Henson 

The Answer 

168 

Patty Maher 

She Creates Anyway 

044 

Ana Cruz 

Imagination 

192 

Nikolay Blokhin 

The Young Master 

076 

Paul McCloskey 

Divine 

218 

Thierry Bruet 

Playing The Illusion 

108 

Alex Stoddard 

I Am Here 

240 

138 

260 


Johanna Knauer 

Johanna Knauer is talented female photographer. Johanna was born in 1988 in Passau, Germany. 

She is doing media studies since 2008 and is dedicated to photography and image editing 

since about 2 years. 

musetouch 10 

johannaknauer.de

Feel No Pain 








musetouch 18



























“A painting should speak for itself. As Fritz Lang, the great Austrian film maker and director of 

“Metropolis” stated, “When a director makes a film and it doesn’t express what he wants to say 

and he needs to give an interview to explain to an audience why and what; he is a lousy director.” 

I certainly don’t suggest an Artist be aloof or even this dogmatic, as I have enjoyed countless 

discussions with collectors that have left me with a vivid and refreshed perspective of my work, 

but it is a striking remark that applies to Art; a painting should grab the viewer without an essay 

or speech, leaving further explanation supplementary rather than vital. Where possible, my own 

thoughts should recede to allow space for the views of the audience. 

I am a late bloomer and it’s taken a while to find my own voice. When I was very young, I 

taught myself a great deal, slavishly trying to copy any picture that appealed. This was a good 

way to absorb some idea of technique but a means to an end. Things have moved on thankfully 

and while I count Caravaggio, Degas, and Velázquez amongst many influences, I have no interest 

in emulating another Artist. Once you have found your stamp, there’s no going back and this 

is something I can not take for granted. Each bare canvas brings enough self doubt and nerves 

to keep me on my toes every time. I splodge the paint on and hope that I win the battle as sometimes 

the brushes and paint have their own peculiar ideas about how things should look. Not 

every piece can be of equal merit and it is this uncertainty that makes my heart leap when I have 

had a breakthrough. The first significant one of these arrived when I was 18 years old. It was a 

portrait of my Dad and I simply had not produced anything like it previously. Once completed, it 

made it possible for me to imagine painting as a vocation.” 



hamishblakely.com

Late Bloomer 
































Patty Maher 

Patty Maher lives near Toronto, Canada, not far from the forest which provides the magical 

backdrop to many of her exquisite self-portraits. 

“I think the best thing I’ve discovered through self-portraiture is that my inner 5 year old is alive 

and well and still loves dressing up in costumes! However the most rewarding discovery has been 

the process itself – spending time with myself creating something. It’s very quiet and almost meditative, 

and I find no matter what kind of day I’ve had I emerge feeling calm and centered.” 

Patty Maher 


wix.com/pmaher/portfolio

She Creates Anyway 
































Nikolay Blokhin 

Nikolay Blokhin was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1968. His education in art began very 

early at the Art School for Gifted Children in 1980, and continued through his postgraduate 

work and professorship at the prestigious St. Petesburg Academy of Art. With more than 20 

years of artistic studies Nikolay is a young master with unequaled genius. His paintings are 

the embodiment of the classics with a contemporary approach. 

The unique style of his paintings has not gone without notice. Nikolay has been the recipient 

of many awards, including the Russian Academy of Arts prestigious gold medal award for 

“Young Artist of the Year”, the coveted Grand Prize at the American Society of Portrait Artists 

2002 competition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Best of Show in the International 

Portrait Competition of the Portrait Society of America ,Boston, 2004. 

He is well versed in landscape and still life, as he is in portraiture. Nikolay’s paintings are 

represented in some of the world’s greatest collections, in Russia, the Netherlands, China, Belgium, 

Finland, and the United States. 


academart.com

The Young Master 










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Thierry Bruet 

A trained architect, Thierry Bruet born in Paris in 1949, painter and sculptor for more than 

30 years is a Master of the traditional technique of oil-base painting, specialising in large portraits 

of well-known figures in society and decorative monumental works. Commissioned by 

famous decorators such as Alberto Pinto, Frederic Méchiche, and Pierre-Yves Rochon. 

His works can be found in many collections throughout the world, as well as in many prestigious 

and luxury palaces such as the Hotel GEORGE V Paris (France), the hotel FOUR 

SEASONS in Alexandria, the MERIDIAN HOTEL in Bahrain, , the hotel FOUR SEASONS 

in Florence , SOFITEL HOTELS of New York and London, the INSTITUT PAUL BOCUSE , 

the Hotel BRISTOL and the Hotel SHANGRI-LA in Paris, HENRY BENDEL STORES in New 

York and the HERMES STORES in Paris. 

His personals exhibitions, include one in Metz (France) sponsored by the French Minister of 

Culture, in the Thiers Museum, Paris ( France) sponsored by the French Institute, in the Arab 

World Institute, Paris, but also personals exhibitions in London, Vancouver, Bale and Ibiza. 

Thierry Bruet dream is to tell a story of time which gets through his paintings and his sculptures,. 

He likes building big formats and playing on the illusion, the mockery, the contrast 

between the beautiful and the ugly. 

Studio: CREATURE SARL 22 rue Emile Lepeu 75011 Paris France 


thierrybruet.com

Playing The Illusion 






























JungShan Ink 

“I am JungShan Ink, as “Jung Shan” is my given name, while the “Ink” part represents the Chinese 

ink I use in my work. I currently live in Taipei, Taiwan. I’m a freelance illustrator 

working from home and my clients can be anywhere in the world. 

My illustrations are Chinese ink combined with digital pen (Photoshop brush) and Photoshop 

effects. I like to combine Eastern style with Western techniques. Most people think the Chinese 

ink technique is an ancient and serious art tradition in Asia, but I believe it can be modern and 

fashion. 

Music is one of the most important inspirations to me. When I’m listening to music, I start to 

imagine the story of the song and try to catch their emotions. My art style is less color, and I use 

the character’s emotion or make the atmosphere to describe the theme of the drawing. Like the 

brush stroke or ink stain. I love to add the petals fly and snow or rain in the background, it is 

meaning to the emotional release. 

Traditional Chinese ink painting created by the nature of the atmosphere and level of digital 

drawing is very difficult to achieve, so I made many traditional Chinese ink textures and tried to 

mix them with different material and technique * (like tattoo or graffiti and photographic..etc.)” 

JungShan Ink 


jung-shan.blogspot.com

Emotional Release 












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Mark Henson 

Who are you Mark? 

I am one of the now 9 billion human inhabitants of this small planet at the present time. I am 

very fortunate, as I have been able, for the most part, to follow my heart’s desire. I wanted to 

live a creative life filled with artistic magic of all kinds, and to know and work with interesting 

and colorful people. I wanted to explore myself and find something of lasting worth to share. 

I am thankful for my good fortune, for many of my wishes have, over time, become reality. 

Now that I am past 50, I am more sensitive to the passing of the days, and so I like to hang 

around the studio as much as possible, painting, sketching and making things. 

I am person who came of age in the time of social ferment known as the ‘60’s. I lived in suburbia 

near San Francisco and experienced the hippie days there in all their glory, the sights 

and sounds that filled the streets. In those days we wanted to change the world from a place 

of conflict and war into a paradise on earth, and we were willing to make some sacrifices to 

make it happen. Most of the ideals we worked for in those times are my guideposts today, 

and I am convinced that only by working together can we bring about a world with peace and 

justice for everyone. 

I live in a rural county in Northern California where I can be close to nature and grow some 

food in a garden. I live in a 150- year old schoolhouse with my wife Monti and a couple of 

cats. I do like to visit the big city on occasion, or travel outside of the United States. I enjoy 

learning about other cultures, trying to learn their languages, enjoying their music, hearing 

their stories, visiting the artists there, and of course, sampling the culinary delights. 

I have always had an interest in consciousness- Don’t we all wonder where we come from, 

who are we, where are we going? It seems like these questions have always been on my mind. 

I don’t have any answers- I like the mystery of it all. I am not a person who believes in any 

particular spiritual path, but I do know that consciousness is present- filling us every moment 

with knowledge and light. I think that solving the puzzle is more fulfilling than just knowing 

the answer. 

Why are you an artist, and when did you first become one? 

I have always felt the urge to make stuff with my hands. I cannot remember a time from 

childhood, when I was not involved in some sort of project or another, from drawing on 

the wall or stacking up blocks to building treehouses or models of ships and airplanes. I was 

tagged as an artist by my very first schoolteacher when I was 5 years old- I think she liked my 

drawings. Artistic inclinations were not discouraged in my family and I had some ancestral 

predecessors on the art trail - my great Aunt and Uncle were successful artists and designers 

in Los Angeles during the 30’s 40’ and 50’s, and many of their creations graced our family 

home. I don’t think I ever seriously considered being anything else, except perhaps a scientist 

of some kind. 


The Answer 


I was very lucky in my middle and high school years to have attended schools that actually 

had art classes- and excellent art teachers, who moonlighted as professional artists, showing 

their work in big-city galleries in San Francisco and New York. By the time i was 15 or so I 

could see the path ahead for me. I had no idea of what I wanted to do, media or “style” other 

than master the techniques required to make fine art. I did come to an epiphany of sorts- One 

day while I was thinking about the creative process and pondering the source of inspiration, 

i.e: trying to figure out what to do next, it dawned on me that all of the artists all down 

through history did not sit around in Art class wondering what to do- they just looked inside 

their minds and hearts, found their vision, and got to work. I realized that all of my wild and 

crazy hormone-driven musings were just as valid as subject matter for painting as classical 

mythology, dogs and horses, or bowls of fruit. I realized that all those theories about what art 

was supposed to be were just the thoughts of individual artists going about their business, 

or the ravings of wanna- be artists, critics and writers who rarely touched a paintbrush. So I 

immediately set to work making some drawings depicting all kinds of psychedelic monsters 

having sex orgies. These got my art teacher laughing and horrified yet fascinated all the girls 

in class- And one of the drawings sold immediately to a friend of my parents’- making me a 

professional artist! So I knew I had struck gold somewhere in the cesspool of my mind, that 

my ideas were as good as anyone else’s, and that I was, indeed, an artist. Why am I an artist? i 

have no idea, other that for me it seemed like the thing to do- I am just thankful I was given 

the vision. 

I had a dream once, when I was 12 years old or so- I dreamed that I was in a room filled floor 

to ceiling with many beautiful pictures- each one a colorful painting with marvelous imagery 

depicting all sorts of amazing things. I realized somehow while enjoying the gallery of my 

dream that I was in fact dreaming…I could sense that these wonderful paintings were on 

exhibit in the gallery of my mind- viewable while dreaming, certainly, and perhaps viewable 

in waking life as well, if I could only remember them, and bring them into view by applying 

colored goo to a piece of cloth. Naturally I cannot remember the images I saw in the dream… 

So I imagine I am seeing them again as I touch brush to canvas. 

Could you tell us some more about your painting? 

On the technical side of things, I mostly stick to oil paint on canvas, though occasionally I 

will mess around with acrylics, especially if I am painting live in a performance situation. 

Most of the time I do some preparatory thumbnails and then some more worked up sketches 

to get a fix on the composition of the piece, and the pictorial elements I wish to include. Often 

I will make a rather finished drawing before beginning work on a large canvas. There’s really 

nothing too complicated about the painting part. I often will use a colored- ground canvas or 

apply a thin layer of paint to stain the canvas darker and set a tone- then I will make a monotone 

version as an underpainting, to set the dark and light arrangement, and over this I apply 

the colors, sometimes in layers thinly letting them dry between, sometimes all at once with 

all- wet paint. The final details come towards the end of the process. I like oil paints because 

I often make changes while working, and oils allow the freedom to do things over, and I like 

the inherent luscious richness of oils. The secret ingredient is time- I can easily lose myself in 

the work, and large, detailed pieces can take a bit of time to make, even working very quickly. 

I work until something is finished, and don’t mind if it takes a while. 



I enjoy the making of the art. I am fluent i n digital art, but I vastly prefer to play with the 

colored goo. There is something supremely rewarding in being able to arrange a few simple 

materials into a magical depiction of whatever I desire. It’s fun, and doesn’t require batteries! 

What famous artists have influenced you, and how? 

I love museums- The art of the ages, waiting there for all to see in the People’s Temple of 

Art! All sorts of art appeals to me, and I am always up for a museum of gallery visit. I also 

explore art on the internet, where I meet my contemporaries and see what they are creating. 

So many influences….The first art I probably really looked at besides work by my Aunt and 

Uncle might be covers on the “Saturday Evening Post” by Norman Rockwell in his heyday. I 

also would study meticulously the illustrations in books- there were some really fine illustrator 

back in those times. When I got a little older I lived near San Francisco, which has some 

wonderful museums. San Francisco was also the home of the hippies and all things psychedelic. 

There were some amazing artists like Stanley Mouse and Rick Griffin making posters 

that could be seen all around the city plastered to walls and telephone poles, just waiting to be 

pulled down and taken home. I liked to collect these, and started making some of my own for 

local rock and roll shows. I would look at all the underground newspapers that often had a lot 

of art included in the mix. There was also a fancy magazine from New York that always had 

some art features. This magazine, Avant Garde, prided itself on offering the best from the “underground” 

in writing, poetry, art and photography. Between its’ covers I discovered the work 

of artists like Ernst Fuchs, Mati Klarwein, Robert Venosa, De Es Schwartberger, and George 

Tooker- artists I didn’t see in any of the other art magazines of the time. There is no one artist 

that was my main influence. I learn something new every time I can see an excellent piece of 

art in person. 

What inspires you to create? 

Magic. When you can take almost nothing, and make of it something beautiful that tells us 

who we are, that’s magic. I am inspired by everything that happens to me! I think consciousness 

swirls around us like a breeze- all the ideas and concepts that ever were are floating 

around just waiting to be noticed and acted upon. I wish to take my favorites of these breezy 

things and manifest them as pictures- for unknown reasons it is mysteriously important to 

share the vision with everyone who cares to look. I think art has another magical property- it 

can communicate across time-sometimes hundreds and thousands of years, and still touch us 

both personal and universal levels. 

What is the message of your paintings, and also your own personal message to the world? 

It’s really all about love. Love of life, love of nature, love for the birds and the bees, love for 

all creation- it’s so good, you just have to share! That’s the message. It’s hard to show in one 

big picture, so I share it in smaller pieces, each emphasizing a theme pertaining to the whole. 

There is an infinitude of ways to express this message, which is why we can all be artists! My 

personal message? Let’s grow our world into a place where peace and justice prevail, where 

folks treat each other with kindness, love and respect, where each person has the opportunity 

to manifest their potential as a human being. 



How do you see yourself and your art in the future? 

In the near future, I’ll be busy painting, getting together a book of my work, maybe some 

group projects. Sometimes I get guest curate an exhibit, which is always interesting. Painting 

has been around for a very long time, so I think it won’t go obsolete anytime soon. 

In the later future, I won’t be around! Most of my creations are made using antique technology 

that has been in use 500 years or more. Our ancestors made wonderful things that amaze 

us today with the excellence of aesthetic and skill of craftsmanship. If I make anything at all 

up to these standards it is my hope that it may be treasured for itself long enough to survive 

into the future, and so continue working the magic of art. 

MS 


sacredlight.to




















Ana Cruz Imagination 

Ana Cruz is a Digital Artist from Portugal, Europe. 

Her special passion is Photomanipulation and her main focus is Dark/Gothic art, always with 

strong emotional charge. 

Always aiming for perfection and evolution, Ana started to add painted elements to her work, 

in order to achieve bigger and deeper focus on the visual aesthetics of her art. Ana’s interests 

also grew so now she’s exploring her new sides of the art, such as Photography and Graphic 

Design. 

Currently dividing her time between her own business “Ana Cruz Arts”, Ana is also getting a 

Graphic Design course, in order to enlarge her knowledge and areas of expertize. 

Ana’s passion for the arts already captured the attention of many clients and admirers, such as 

Printing Companies, Publishers, Writers, Music Bands, Photographers, etc. 

Her work and portfolio is growing more and more each day... and so is her passion for the 

arts. 

musetouch 218 

anacruz.carbonmade.com























Paul McCloskey was born in Carrickmacross Co. Monaghan, Ireland. But is now living 

and working in Gorey Co. Wexford. Paul attended the National College of Art and Design 

(N.C.A.D) Dublin from 1981 and graduated with honours in 1986. Paul also attended De 

Montfort University UK and was awarded a Masters Degree in Fine art painting (MFA).Paul 

is a full member of visual artists Ireland. He has been involved in art and design education 

for the past 22 years. 

He has exhibited widely throughout Ireland and internationally with great success. He has 

been short listed on a number of occasions to represent Wexford both at home and abroad. 

He has travelled and worked throughout Europe and Australia. 

“My most recent series of paintings called ‘Awakening’ and ‘Awakening Reloaded’ (oil on canvas/ 

board) attempt to highlight the familiar, the places and things we see every day, to see with fresh 

eyes the beauty that’s all around us and to awaken, refresh and enlighten us to the fact that everything 

we need to know is already inside and all around us. Currently I’ve been working with 

landscape, for now it facilitates me in portraying that sense of immensity and space which in 

turn assists me in expressing the power of spirit, the glory of something greater than me but connected 

to me. This is intended to evoke to some degree a sense of spirit, of enormity through the 

ethereal qualities of the paint using this vastness of landscape of matter and space as the catalyst 

in which to express this. I have also used the theme of seasons as a way to suggest the beginning 

and end, the circle of life. My paintings attempt to summon a primordial energy and reveal 

a sense of the power of nature, energy and Spirit. The use of gold within the ‘Reloaded series’ 

of paintings stems from this concept of the halo and the flat gold leaf backgrounds of the early 

Greek iconography. Although these gold areas coexist with the painted areas of light perceived as 

being more natural to the painted landscape, its purpose however is principally to separate divine/spiritual 

light from earthly light, gold being precious and standing out as extraordinary, intending 

to evoke a sense of the sacred aiming not so much to evoke particular emotions although 

that may well arise but to evoke a sense of connection to spirit. 

The beauty of my surrounded environment, the wonder of its creation is the starting point and 

one cannot be but moved by the splendour of creation, however that connection to this splendour 

with the absence of ego is expressed from inside. I have built up layers of paint under some of 

the gold areas to add texture and shimmer thus adding further to the dimensional element of the 

paintings, as the idea of spirit is that it is all things and all directions simultaneously. I attempt 

to reflect this dichotomy by allowing the shapes and colours to interchange from solid (enhanced 

by impasto layers) to atmospheric on the canvas surface. The intention is to bring all things 

together, textural, atmospheric, dark, light and gold causing a tension and cohesion forming 

explosive qualities that transcend the two dimensional surface of the canvas. The emergence of 

the landscape bathed in light, giving glimpses to its vast splendour and adds a mystical element 

to the paintings. In places sky and earth are as one, evoking for me the sense of personal growth, 

the sense of awakening to the beauty, divinity and perfection, to the divine order within all 

things. This suggestion of heaven and earth in constant struggle, merging yet separable, solid yet 


Divine 


amorphous all suggest the dichotomy of the spiritual, the beginning and the end, the alpha and 

omega, the struggle within between the conditioned self and the divine/spiritual self. 

The Landscape itself is important to me in this series ‘Awakening’ and ‘Awakening Reloaded’ the 

visual influence is determined by the surrounding landscape of my environment, but its intention 

is primarily as a catalyst in expressing divinity and is therefore secondary to this expression, 

it’s my intention to evoke a sense of spirit, of enormity through the ethereal and tactile qualities 

of the paint and aiming to suggest the vastness of landscape, both earth and sky, matter and 

space as the catalyst in which to express this sense of spirit, as indeed was the work of the great 

British romantic painter Turner, where he used landscape as an arbitrat to the realisation of the 

divine. His subject matter could generally not be regarded as spiritual and especially religious, 

yet he sought to express the power of the divine, the ethereal spirit in landscape. I strive for expression 

of spirituality in my works, rather than responding just to what I see. 

My Role as artist - To express honestly without ego the divine within and without......However 

ultimately I can only be honest in the visual language I speak and trust that when the viewer 

looks at my work they too will somewhat experience its intention. In creating this language the 

onus for the painter is to have honest openness, to truth, to free expression without ego. This alert 

awareness with the absence of ego in the making of my paintings is primary, how any painter 

reaches this state can be a deeply personal one and is as varied as there are individuals, for some 

it may be to delve into their past or to use meditation or work from imagination to working 

directly from life, for me it is the process itself. Being inspired within and without, this inspiration 

which is easier understood when felt rather than explained in words. When felt then the choices 

of colours, composition and marks made become inspired rather than contrived. It is here, in 

that place, where I believe I am most open and most susceptible to creating my best paintings 

and therefore fulfilling my role with truth. 

Bridget Riley refers to this place that is beyond logic, beyond ego, beyond thinking, ‘There is an 

area, and a very sensitive primary area for an artist, which cannot be referred to directly without 

damage. It is as though the impulse which is about to be expressed should remain unavailable 

to the logic of the intellect in order to find its true form in whatever field or metier the artist has 

chosen’. This spiritual awareness, this openness to the divine inspiration, plays an integral part 

and is an indispensable component in the process and expression of my artistic vision. 

So as a painter I must be ever vigilant, open and alert to this sensitive primary area. Thus the 

burden or struggle for me is to assess the level to which I’m open and alert when new work is 

being created. Each of my paintings have their place in my evolution as a painter, but it seems 

inevitable as each new work is produced to experience this latest one as more special, this one 

satisfies my soul or hunger to create more than the previous work, perhaps this is because the 

latest work naturally reflects that moment of expression of where I’m at now. But this paradox of 

exhilaration and torment of each new work overshadowing the previous one is a constant recurrence 

for me as a painter, until time and distance is given, sometimes weeks or even years, I, the 

painter struggle to be truly impartial when reviewing the success of a series of works. Often it is 

only when reviewing or revaluating works with retrospection that I as the artist, have then become 

the viewer and am now more fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses within the series. 

Painting for me is an intuitive and instinctive act allowing me to enter that place of no mind, this 

place of no mind or alert awareness is a connection to the divine. But ultimately the success of 

the painting can only be truly judged by the painter himself, as only the painter can truly know 

the level of honesty given to its creation and therefore how more open he was to inspiration or 



divine influence, how open was I to the creative process, of allowing, in the making of my work? 

This is the ongoing question that perhaps takes a lifetime to fully answer and for me painting is 

a lifetime pursuit. However a point comes when I know I have to let go of a particular work or 

perhaps if has let me go? a catharsis has taken place and released me from that particular work, 

until the next one, this is when I become an observer to its creation, that is probably one of the 

most compelling desires for me as a painter, is to witness it as a creation.” 



irish-artist.net
















Alex Stoddard 

“The American youngster, originally from Jacksonville Florida, now living with his large family 

- that helps him set the elaborate installations for his shots - in Georgia, is only 17. The age 

factor is probably what makes the news, as it always happens, each time we talk about Rimbaud 

we can’t help but remember he was so young. For some, a human being is already complete no 

matter what his age. Alex exists at 5, as he does at 17, as he will at 56. His image will change as 

do his shots every day of the year without losing their essence. Even if it’s digital, even if it’s experimental, 

even if the image can and will be perfected with maturity, Alex’s 365 days are unique 

and cut through the screen, get to us for their linear research, profound sense of an almost scientific 

data collection that uses logic, sequences, conclusions. As ephemeral as are his photographs, 

as dreamlike and hanging behind a state of unconsciousness, clinging to whatever surrounds him 

with the intention of uniting with and belonging, each day says: I am here even when I am not 

breathing. When I was 17, whatever work I had produced stayed put on my desk, maybe stained, 

maybe I had a few people read my work or see my paintings, it was nothing like today where if 

you want someone to know you have something to say, to express, at large you will be heard. 

We can keep on asking ourselves, how does art in the 21st century exist? Can we still talk about 

“emerging” artists? No one emerges from the unknown, but is there, somewhere in the internet 

waiting to be found.” 

Acelya Yonac 


alexstoddard.tumblr.com

I Am Here

musetouch_issue_18

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