phillip flockhart

It has been said of my work (Spanish Radio Interview 2005) that is is very ecclectic.

This is true but I find the world and life so rich in texture, colour and drama and dare I say 'ecclectic' in its amazing diversity, that I fail to see how I could respond as an artist any other way than I do.

Having said this, I must add that my art philosophy is actually always present in the content of my work, although themes come and go and reflect other areas of my life- for instance I have been a street drugs worker since 1976 and an art educator/ facilitator in formal education and in the wider community for many years and these experiences have coloured and influenced the themes of my art- yet if examined the content of the work remains as it has for 35 years now- the attempt to disseminate the picure plane, with colour, real time space (Collage/Relief), imagery or optical device (perspective/opto-kinetism), to reveal the magic that lays beyond ....

I believe that this is what Marc Rothko meant when he said that his paintings 'invited' the viewer to step within the work ......... for when we do, when we look at what lies beyond the picture plane, the surface of the work- then we will see the truth. Sometimes we will find peace and harmony, sometimes horror or aversion but always what we find is truth and perhaps find a glimpse, for those that believe, of God.

After 35 years of image making- and after my journey through the Constructivist and Minimalist Schools (1970's-1980's) I find that my work and my beliefs put me firmly in 'The School of Expressionism', although my continued belief in the work of Carl Jung, especially his 'Catalytic Exteriorisation Phenomena' adds another layer of understanding to the traditional 'Expressionists' and places it somewhere more in the 'Spiritual'.

And so artistic expression has become for me, the thoroughfare of truth.

Art cannot lie and its content lay beyond human judgement.