Ralph Stanton at Disorder, September – October 2021
“There’s a Crack in Everything (L. Cohen)”
What’s happening?
Good question. What is happening in the world now? Unprecedented, unstoppable global events: a dreadful, pandemic; drastic environmental and climate shocks; a major shift in our freedoms and in global power. And personal tragedies unfolding worldwide at enormous scale.
What are we to make of it all? I am intrigued by the feeling behind Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”: “Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering; There’s a crack , a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in”.
Is there something to be learnt here – at a level beyond the everyday? In any case, that’s what this, my imperfect offering, is about: a non-didactic attempt to imply the possibility of hope (or light) behind the enormity of what appears before us, collectively or individually.
Abstract art has been around for over a century. It appeals – like music – to our non-rational mind. My work evokes mood through colour, texture and overall effect. I rely on intuition, seeking feelings of space and beauty which arrive through process: layering, glazing, rubbing back, overpainting.
The work tends to suggest landscape, seascape or skyscape rather than tangible imagery, reflecting its expressive nature, “emotional residue” or tonal atmosphere. Actually it is an “inner landscape” that is reflected. And sometimes an “inner light.”
The following works are all Acrylic on Canvas.
