What do you consider to be your art education - both formal and informal?
I have always learnt on the job and still do, having recently joined the University of Malta's Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences in the Digital Department as Visiting Assistant Lecturer with Professor Vince Briffa, Head of the Department, who is also a good friend and esteemed mentor of mine. I work with undergraduate groups combining Critical Thinking with artistic skills to discern optimum ways to communicate a concept in the context of a client's brief and in the form of print and screen. In my Unit, which is part of the BA Programme in Digital Art, we work towards an evolving social consciousness mediating knowledge and experience, since digital skills give any art practice more professional opportunities and growth prospects.
Back in the 70's, art education was not very high on any school curriculum. Any fledgling talent I might have had developed spontaneously and included all sorts of crafts, which I loved. My family was musical and artistic. My mother, avant-garde in her thinking, was already reading about Edward de Bono's lateral thinking skills and attending practical philosophy classes much to my father's dismay. He was conservative but nevertheless spiritual. His mother had ESP and his paternal great uncle divined water wells in Gozo.
When I was about nine years old, my mother's sister Blanche, an artist under E. Caruana Dingli, taught me a simple ratio to create a grid and scale my drawings. At sixteen years of age, I painted my first public commission for the Fortizza in Sliema, and used to draw for dress designer Angela Simmonds and her clientele of fine ladies. Then I got employed in a printing press where I picked up the foundations in graphic design, dark room photography and plate making for offset printing. I made a few foreign friends who introduced me to art theory, artists and movements like the Bauhaus, which set my imagination in motion enticing me to quit my job in pursuit of becoming an artist. This was 1982. It was then I participated in my first collective exhibition: 'Maltese Women Artists' at the Fenici Gallery, Valletta, curated by the late Denis Vella and the artist Norbert Attard.
By this time, I was granted a scholarship at an art academy in Perugia, Italy, to study the figure under Prof Bruno Orfei, and my world fell into place. Art sustained me. I began to understand things through my drawings. Thankfully, my newly honed skills lightened up my deeper thoughts and I began to paint figuratively in water colour. This led to landscapes and still life, at which point I became a self-employed artist, soon to take an adventurous life at sea for six years in the Far East where I continued to paint and exhibit my work.
During my six years sailing the Indonesian archipelago and Australia, nature and adventure were unorthodox aspects of my art education. They strengthened me physically, taught me valuable lessons in the areas of marketing as well as in developing courage, stamina, ambition and resilience. I negotiated my frames directly from Balinese artisans and held exhibitions in Fremantle during America's Cup Final of 1986 and later in San Francisco. But after a while I longed to return home to reinstate my sense of identity. I am quite sure that this was the reason why I eventually tuned into the magnetic fields of our temples, to the forgotten memory of our ancestors. It was a coming home in a profound sense of spirit.
On my return, I was employed as assistant curator and PA to the owner and director of the Melitensia Art Gallery, Lija - Peter Apap Bologna. We displayed works of 19th century Maltese artists: Schranz, Cali, Bellanti, Brocktorff, Apap and others, as well as contemporary artists such as the late Isabelle Borg, Kenneth Zammit Tabona and Madeleine Gera including my own. I researched Vaastu, The Art of Placement and visited our temples while attending seminars on Geomancy, meeting people who worked with earth energy, and I began to collaborate with other artists such as Jeni Caruana, Isabelle Borg, Ebba Von Ferson Balzan, and Julie Apap on 'Il-Mara'.
In the late 90's, some prominent figures appeared on the scene. One of them was Richard Demarco who held a summer school for artists bringing interesting synchronicities and who encouraged my participation in the 1999 'Sacred Journeys' Exhibition during the Edinburgh Arts Festival; in 2000 at the City Art Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; and 'The Road to Meikel Seigge' at Picker Gallery, UK with Vince Briffa and Norbert Attard amongst others. In the run up to this time, the late Rev. Father Peter Serracino Inglott had called on us local artists to discuss the future of art in Malta at a meeting in the Cavalier before it was restored. This led to contributing towards the first 3 years on the interim board of St James Cavalier with Anne Monsarrat, Petra Bianchi, Artistic Director Chris Gatt and the rest of the board members in view of establishing an art and creativity centre. Sina Farrugia and I travelled to San Francisco to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, to gain ground on aspects of developing an art centre. By the year 2000, St. James Cavalier, lifted up phoenix style into the field of Malta's art education community and has held the space till today. 17 years later it is now known as 'Spazju Kreattiv'.
Is art in Malta today rising or falling?
Fast forward to Malta's current art climate - Valletta will be hosting the title of European Capital of Culture in 2018. The Valletta 2018 Foundation is responsible for the implementation of the Cultural Programme, which has provided an opportunity for our country to create a long-term plan for culture which goes beyond 2018 and in line with strategy 2020.
Art in Malta is today rising. Many people have worked intently on re-structuring the culture policy bringing it up to date with the European Cities of Culture programme which has now established itself as the Capital of Culture 2005-2019 by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. Many continue to work tirelessly within the artistic community, the Valletta 2018 Foundation and the Arts Council supporting and promoting the events presented by artists and NGOs, including all the inspirational local and foreign artists, artistic directors and institutions concerned. "Culture is in the foundation of society however way it describes the system" (Kafka).
In the future I look forward to seeing art programmes which will include the learning of Emotional Intelligence (Goleman) and I hope we will see artistic themes taking seriously our environment and building policies with sustainable development guidelines for the future of an ecologically sustainable land and its people. Art will play a vital role to place these topics and many others on contemporary platforms. So you see, spirituality brings another worldly comfort that no other worldly comfort can bring. Is this an escape? No. It's a method in seeing things holistically and filtering it down into society for the betterment of mankind.
What pushes you forward as an artist?
I find that the bringing together of all that I value creates within me a sense of purpose, a spring board from where to dive into my own creativity holistically. When I engage in the practice, my breathing changes, I tap into my understanding of spirit, an inner stillness provides me with the notion of stability and my heart beat changes. My mind opens, body relaxes and I let go - I trust, even though I don't understand why. My insignificance and uncertainty transform into an open field of possibilities, turning uncertainty into an opportunity to fill an empty space creatively.
This is what I believe Deepak Chopra refers to as pure potentiality.
"What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs." (Rumi)
What is the current concern of your work?
My interest in spirituality, science, geometry and archaeology help me to articulate my theories of thought with concept, colour and composition. For me art is exciting to experiment with, satisfying to achieve, and deeply rewarding when appreciated by others. Since the late 90's, the concern of my work has been to express the integration of matter and spirit - elusive and abstract, I know. And yet I search for tangible frameworks using different media in an attempt to capture energy, spiritual and physical, finding my own sense of equilibrium. Visual imagery brings insights and clarity to the unperceivable abstract and can identify and simplify some basic powerful values.
How do you interpret this 'spiritual energy'?
On a physical plain, our minds and bodies are in constant movement connecting us to all living things and to all energy at micro, macro, and quantum levels. Everything happens naturally through the universal laws of creation. Energy manifests. We see it according to our perception and limited human intelligence. And then there's spirit, which is also part of our existence - but which we cannot see because it has no boundaries. Yet it plays its part in the realm of non duality, no constant movement between polarities expanding the self "into the living ether" (Khalil Gibran, 1923) which extends infinitely and beyond our capacity to fathom. I feel that it is inner stillness which quietens the mind and opens portals to spirit, or spiritual energy.
Our ego inherently alienates us from our spiritual nature. Dualism, doubt, fears, ignorance - all take precedence as we are fundamentally trapped by our own limitations and constraints. But no one can deny that we are constantly changing with no stable self for any individual, the brain and the body are constantly in flux - like everything else in creation.
For me, it's all about energy. I don't have the answers to life's biggest mysteries. All I have are thoughts translated into drawings and paintings, in search for inner stillness from where my heart and mind open to filter universal knowledge into my sense of being, my psyche. What else can I do in the face of the void if not search? I'm lucky that I can paint through my feeling. In this process of discovery, life experiences forever unfold the secrets of nature, teaching the importance of alignment between matter and spirit, unity of being and inner stillness. This principle of alignment, which is also inherently a spiritual teaching, is what helps me to find the notional centre where spirit and matter interlock to create a force within that 'can move mountains'. This is a form of meditation, a system of health, healing and self-support as I go through life-defining consistencies in an ever changing world.
Unity of being is a method of coming into harmony with the Universe, first for our own growth then to help others grow and finally to bring balance to our transitory existence and strive for peace, love awareness and creativity. I believe this spiritual energy unites all living beings, transforms individuals, promotes insights and is a force for positive social change.
At the Viva Curatorial School of 2016 in the University Campus, Valletta, Japanese curator Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo referred to a current shift in art from the 20th to the 21st century. Categorising this shift with keywords to specify the changes from what she called the 3M's to the 3C's, which are: Man, Money and Materialism shifting to Co-Existence, Collective Intelligence and Consciousness. She states that in her museum, anything which could be termed as spiritual in the contemporary art world would be categorised as Consciousness. The word Consciousness opens up the subject in a more universal way.
What is the technique you are using and how are you using it?
I combine interdisciplinary practices which include drawings of the figure in pen, ink, chalk and charcoal, illustrations in mixed media and digital as well as large abstract paintings that emerge from the metaphysical realm. These deeper, more consuming ideas often suggest spiritual values interpreted through the use of beauty, form and design. By beauty I mean orderly properties, proper arrangement, symmetry and harmony. Sometimes, I design and compose within formulas like the golden ratio, other times the work is derived from pure intuition. And then there are the paintings which hold fragments of the memory of our ancient's culture, like 'Ancestral Mother', 'Passing on an Ancient Prayer', 'Aura' and 'Equinox'.
My art doesn't focus exclusively on spiritual themes though I can't deny that tuning in to my own spirituality has provided the base and apex of my ideology which I channel into my life. I suppose we all search for a balance between our mental, physical or spiritual aspects with each aspect influencing the other. What we do physically affects us mentally or spiritually, and what we perceive or absorb spiritually results physically. This I believe is the meaning of the term 'to be one': to belong to yourself, body mind and spirit. Here we are all equal in our humanity and in our capacity for creative energy. Our individuality brings on different forms of creativity, not just painting but anything which channels this sense of equilibrium or unity of being and generates the life force.
The practice of stillness permits the mind to stop thinking, to enter the zone of being, where consciousness leads us to an inner journey, towards a state of mind that has less fear and more trust. Like everything else, it comes with practice.
"One in all,
All in one -
If only this is realised;
No more worry about your not being perfect!
The believing mind is not divided,
And undivided is the believing mind -
This is where words fail,
For it is not of the past, future, or present."
Hsin-Hsin Ming (Faith in Mind) by Seng-ts'an (d. 605 AD)
To be continued in Part II next Sunday
All pictures copyright Anna Grima © 2017 Malta
Captions:
1. Language of Spirit, mixed media on hand made paper, 70 x 150cm - 2000
2. Moon and Earth Square the Circle, watercolour on handmade paper, 30 x 30cm - 2015
3. The World, mixed media on handmade paper, 24 x 24cm - 1999
4. Earth and Venus 8 Year Dance, watercolour on handmade paper, 30 x 30cm - 2015
5. Twelve Thoughts, mixed media on canvas 140 x 100cm, Malta's contribution to the Berlaymont Summa Artis II permanent collection
6. Ancestral Mother, mixed media on handmade paper, 50 x 70cm - 1999
7. Anna Grima with Ancestral Mother, 1999
QUOTE:
When I engage in the practice, my breathing changes, I tap into my understanding of spirit, an inner stillness provides me with the notion of stability and my heart beat changes. My mind opens, body relaxes and I let go - I trust, even though I don't understand why. My insignificance and uncertainty transform into an open field of possibilities, turning uncertainty into an opportunity to fill an empty space creatively