“Oh, what a friend chance can be when it chooses.” ~Winslow Homer (written in pencil on his studio wall, Prout’s Neck, Maine)

 Above: Bodhisattva Padmapani (‘the bearer of lotus’), Artist unknown (ca. late 5th c.). Cave painting, in situ, Cave 1,  at Ajanta, Maharashtra, India.

Stealing Away Our Personal History…

ARTES, a fine arts magazine, has recently been reporting on unusual finds in the world of art and architecture: From a Haitian artists’s retrospective in Nottingham, England; to a newly-identified Goya painting in Madrid; little-known, early modern architectural design in the Republic of Georgia, in eastern Europe; a 5000-year retrospective on Indian art; to stunning photography of the wide expanses of West Texas now being shown at busy, Marfa Contemporary, in a town of 2500! This is all thanks to the dedicated writers living around the world who see ARTES as a thoughtful , well-designed and carefully-edited platform for telling their story, bringing their discoveries to us so you, too, can know.

Right: Phil Bebbington: Untitled (2011) Courtesy of the artist and Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, TX. artes fine arts magazine

For every ‘find’ out there in the world, there are losses that we have also touched on, as well. There are ongoing threats to national treasures in countries where radical factions will spare no effort to destroy the symbols of other cultures and faiths (an age-old issue, with enough guilt to go around for everyone). In too many parts of the world to count, the intellectual future of large segments of populations are dissuaded and aggressively repressed, based merely for their thirst for knowledge and hoped-for desire to participate in their country’s future: Iran has shut down the World Wide Web inside their borders; a fourteen-year old Afghani girl is targeted in an assassination attempt for advocating education for girls; billions have been spent by a handful of anonymous sources to sway the US vote and curb voting rights for those less well-off who may disagree; house arrests in China are common for artists and their families who dare to speak out against the established political machine.

While these far-away issues may weigh heavily on the minds of everyone, our own natural disaster, in the face of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation, has led to incalculable human loss and suffering. When Gov. Chris Christie told the press that the New Jersey Shore of his childhood was ‘gone forever,’ and I saw a Staten Island woman, standing amidst an endless field of debris and sea grass where her home once stood, weeping over the discovery of a wedding picture of her mother—the only remnant of her past to be found—I was reminded of how attached we become to objects and the memories they come to symbolize. They are not only physical manifestations of our past, but serve as tangible reminders of our physical presence in a large and often harsh world…and a life being lived in that particular here-and-now!

Above: Post-Hurricane Sandy, Seaside Heights Amusement Park and Boardwalk.

These objects—our homes, our possessions, our memories, these ‘things’ which embody who we are—don’t compare to the loss of life we see at times like this, but they serve to anchor our feelings and actions for the future. Not looking at it in a cynical way, but stated with a finely-attuned sense of human nature: our actions and self concept are defined by what we think ourselves to be, and that stable identity derives, in large part, from what we possess…photographs, childhood treasures, awards and other documents, family heirlooms, houses, cars, etc. But no single object seems as heavily freighted with emotion as a photograph. Watch, as victims of disaster (or you, yourself) suddenly find these small mementos of people who are known and loved, and perhaps lost—as well as images of themselves in some past incarnation of youth, vitality and optimism. These tiny, often weather-beaten messengers from the past are, more than anything else in the debris fields of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and fires, the talismans that allow us to cling to hope, unrelentingly, in the face of unimaginable loss and grief.

Thanks for reading ARTES, where we are passionate about fine art, architecture and design. You are always welcomed to contribute articles or essays on topics related to fine art, architecture, design or theater that you think might be of interest to our international readership.

Best wishes for the upcoming holidays,

Richard Friswell, Publisher & Managing Editor

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