There are people who make. Those who are driven, obsessively to make real their thoughts. To bring an imagined object or scene into being. An artist is a sort of materialiser of the mind. There is also no difference between visionary architects, landscape designers, ceramicists, watchmakers, aeronautical designers etc etc etc; when those that create are driven by an image that first arrives wholly in the mind. Some, the lucky few, create something which captures the imagination of the many; that is an embodiment of the zeitgeist. Many will receive this recognition later once the accepted linear narrative is established. They may become household names or receive a cult following but their output is perceived, once created, and entered into the circuit of things, as good. These objects seem exceptional, singular. But they are simply appropriate, even in a way which is perceived as prescient. The materialiser has achieved greatness, the objects are pronounced collectable and if the creator is fortunate enough to still be alive they can reap the rewards of renown and financial prosperity.
Crystalline, Acrylic on linen, 114 x 162 cm, 2025
To create with success in mind, other than the fulfilment of the imagined idea is, simply, the attempt to take a shortcut. To create a subspace wormhole directly from idea to acclaim. Perhaps even from before idea to acclaim. For some this works. The piece is made, the piece is sold, the awards are given. However the missing time and space is still gaping. What has been mislaid is the true enjoyment of closing the circle. It is exodus without genesis. It is temple without deity, only idol. And most dangerously, a continuation of this abbreviation begins; the repeated act of making what will sell.
Now waiting, Pencil on cotton paper 2025
So ask yourself this: Why have you made what you made? And more importantly: What might you have made if you had done so through the truth of authentic exploration? It is not to say Art should be without conscious context. It is right to respond. But do so because it feels necessary, not advantageous. You have only yourself to hide from.
The culture, better to call it a system, which has built itself around creation, The Art world, now in its most numerous guises offers the temptation of the shortcut more than at any time in history while at the same time standing at its furthest point from the potential for true greatness. Which, after all must be the mastery of outward materialisation. All other intentions are at best adjacent.
This is not a call to bleak, self righteous asceticism. Get out there! Market yourself. My god in an ocean of charlatans, it’s never been so necessary to employ effort towards exposure. But first, make the real work, then go fishing for the simultaneous intriguers to its genuine idea, and hopefully to those discerners, the resulting work will be irresistible.
Valencia Oct 2026