Have you ever wondered how artists’ life experiences change their art? We know that some events they encounter may serve as powerful catalysts for new creative frontiers and spiritual transformation.
Henri Matisse, The Snail, gouache on paper, cut and pasted on paper mounted to canvas, from his cut-out series. Photo: Public Domain as of January 1, 2025.
For example, Matisse’s “cut-out” series was a dramatic departure from his large paintings and have been referred to as among the best works of his entire career. What stimulated his new series was having to succumb to a wheelchair after cancer. Confronted by physical limitations he was challenged to find another way to create art. He wrote, “I didn’t expect to recover from my second operation but since I did, I consider that I’m living on borrowed time. Every day that dawns is a gift to me and I take it in that way.”
To explore this topic we asked members of the Manhattan Arts International online art gallery, “What event occurred or experience did you have during the last 12 months that’s had the greatest impact on your art and/or career?” I’m sure you’ll find their answers insightful and enlightening.
It will also offer you the opportunity to get to know these artists more personally and have a better understanding of their artwork. Please use the link to the artists’ pages to view more of their artwork and visit their websites. Contact them to exhibit or purchase their artwork.
Barbara Rachko
“My long-standing fascination with traditional masks took a leap forward in 2017 when I visited the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, Bolivia. One exhibition, with fifty+ festival masks, was spell-binding! The masks were crafted in Oruro, a former tin-mining center 140 miles south of La Paz. Depicting important figures from Bolivian folklore, they were created for use in annual Carnival celebrations. Each mask was installed against a dark black wall and strategically spotlighted. They resembled 3D versions of my ‘Black Paintings’, a pastel paintings series I have been creating for eleven years. I took my time composing photographs. The resulting series, ‘Bolivianos’, is arguably my most striking work to date.”
Sandra Duran Wilson
“I have finished my newest book, Awakening Your Creative Soul. This two-year journey has reconnected me with the passion and spirituality that animates my abstract work. I rediscovered the freedom and liberation that letting go of knowing provides. I walked the path for a year as I wrote the book, made the art, enacted the exercises and let my soul find its rhythm with the Earth. I have returned full circle to begin again.”
Very inspiring!
Thank you for this. My way of making art changed when I retired from a nursing career of 35 years. I realized I was not interested in making art for sale anymore, but was interested in making art for liturgical settings. Then I realized I had to be willing to delve deep, create without fear of censure, and believe in what I am doing even if no one “gets it”! My 3rd Liturgical Art Installation : “An Artist Looks at Forgiveness” went up for Advent.
Thank you Tracy for sharing your personal experience for this article and for always providing a beacon of light for us to follow through your art, words and deeds.