Suddenly Awakened.
Author Colin Wilson interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: How would you define your sense of artistry? Would you consider yourself a writer, philosopher, mystic, or perhaps a critic? [1] Colin Wilson: Well, as an artist/philosopher, I would say. You see, when I was in my early teens I was deeply impressed by Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, which still strikes me as the most exhilarating play...
Read MoreOverlapping Morphic Fields.
Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, biologist and author, interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: If the mind is ‘extended’ as you seem to suggest, how then do you see human-kind in general? As individuals that are inter-connected, or perhaps as one ‘entity’ which is separated to six billion awareness? [1] Rupert Sheldrake: I think that we – humankind – are connected to ...
Read MoreWhen The Impossible Is Realized.
Interview with Alan Steinfeld, author and founder of NewRealities.com. Gil Dekel: You are writing about the artist’s role in creating new realities. Do you think there is a unique or specific way that artists see or experience reality? Alan Steinfeld: The artist feels something on a subtle level and is driven to express that, not from a conscious mind but from a subconscious mind....
Read MoreThe Image of Ourselves.
Performance artist Roi Vaara interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: Would it be correct to say that you are a ‘performance artist’? [1] Roi Vaara: I am known for my performances, so yes, it is correct to say I am performance artist. But when I am asked what I do, I reply that I am an artist, originally a painter who now presents his visions in a live format. [2] And you have mentioned...
Read MoreEmotional Slices of Light.
Photographic installation artist Katayoun Dowlatshahi interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: You are tracing light onto glass using a method called Carbon Photography. How did you develop the idea of ‘light drawings’? [1] Katayoun Dowlatshahi: In 1998 I spent a year as Artist in Residence at Durham Cathedral. It was there that I began a journey investigating the relationship between...
Read MoreExtra Light in the Mind.
Installation artist David Johnson interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: Your work has undergone an interesting evolution over the years. [1] David Johnson: When I was young I used to paint and draw and make mono-prints. I studied architecture originally, but gave that up to go to art school. As soon as I got there I started to do works about the idea of the invisible. The invisible was just...
Read MoreMeaningful Objects.
Installation artist Ken Devine interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: Your art project Colours of the Sphere looks at the ways in which people create meanings with the world around them and especially with colours. [1] Ken Devine: Yes, the project started ten years ago with a brief to work in a junior school. I had a six months’ residency then and I scratched my head for some time to find...
Read MoreLife is a dream.
Interview with painter, photographer and installation artist Pablo Avendaño. Natalie Dekel: When was it that you first decided to paint or express yourself visually? [1] Pablo Avendaño: I cannot recall when it began except for the very early visits to the Prado with my father and afterwards studying reproductions of Velazquez. I was then around eight years old. However, I decided to...
Read MoreThe Beauty in Temporality.
Watercolour painter Melanie Chan interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: You specialise in watercolour paintings of flowers. What do you see in the flower? [1] Melanie Chan: I see the beauty of nature in flowers, and I am amazed by their perfection and their symmetry. Once I start painting my mind starts to become calmer, as if the flower is encouraging me to be in the moment. I pay...
Read MoreUnfoldment
Mandala painter, Barry Stevens, interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: Mandalas are usually round, or I should say circular around a centre. As such they do not seem to have an up or down, left or right. How do you then ‘plan’ the painting? [1] Barry Stevens: The reference point is the centre. First thing is to find the centre of the paper and then to place the point of the compass ...
Read MoreI Am a Painter.
Perspective-localized painter, Felice Varini, interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: You do not paint on canvas but rather on architectural and urban landscapes, such as buildings, walls, streets. Your works have only one view point, or a vantage point, from which the viewer can see the complete painting, usually a simple geometric form (a circle, square, triangle). From other view points the...
Read MorePortals of the Mind and the Soul.
Painter, poet and philosopher Paul Hartal is interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: What is your view on the sources of creativity in art? [1] Paul Hartal: Creativity is a cognitive process that results in new outcomes. It generates original ideas and novel products. Since creative faculties are not distributed evenly at birth, we come to the world with significant differences in levels of...
Read MoreOn Every Beach the Sand is Different.
Portraits and Encaustic Wax painter, Natalie Dekel, interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: When did you start painting? Natalie Dekel: I was left-handed and my mother was worried that I will not be able to use my right hand. Where I was born and grew up, everyone had to be the same and had to write in school using their right hand only… So at the age of one my mother gave me a lot of...
Read MoreIntrospection.
Matt Manley (painter, teacher, digital artist, and illustrator of Rumi wall calendars published by Brush Dance) – interviewed by Natalie Dekel. Natalie Dekel: Your work seems a mix of symbols and memories – a puzzle leading the viewer to discover a story. Is this correct? Matt Manley: I think this could be an accurate view of my work, as long as the story being...
Read MoreTurning On the Light Without Choosing Which Way It Will Spread.
The authorial-Self, a ‘Muse’ of poetry, is interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: I am very happy to be able to interview my own ‘Muse’, my own creative self, and ask him about processes of inspiration in writing poetry. [1] I would like to thank you, the authorial-Self, for ‘descending’ from the so-called ‘collective unconsciousness, the spirit world’, and coming over here,...
Read MoreIn You We See The Light.
‘The Band of Brothers’ in an interview with Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: This interview is taking place through an automatic-speech experiment, where spiritual intelligent forms (‘beings’) are channelled through a medium. So, can I start by asking you: what is your name? BB: We do not give names, because it is unnecessary where we are coming from… We do not wish to...
Read MoreI Was Always a Genius.
Poet Alan Corkish interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: I get the feeling that your poetry is based mainly on telling a story, an event, rather than depicting a picture. Is this correct? [1] Alan Corkish: I’m not sure about what you mean Gil. Language is complex, I don’t think you can hang labels onto anyone’s poems that are that simplistic. To be honest, I sometimes write stuff just...
Read MoreBecoming Something Deeper.
Poet Myra Schneider interviewed by Gil Dekel. Myra Schneider: Hi, Gil, welcome… would you like some tea? [1] Gil Dekel: That would be nice. [2] [getting tea] [3] Gil Dekel: Did you always live in London? [4] Myra Schneider: I have been living here a long time now, since 1955, in this house. This room was my son’s bedroom, and it is now my poetry workshop room. [5] Your wonderful book...
Read MoreWhirlpool of Emotions.
Poet Clive Wilmer interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: Hello, Clive… [1] Clive Wilmer: Nice to meet you, Gil, at last… [2] I wasn’t sure if this is Cambridge Central Station, because it looks so ‘open’; quite wide… [3] Yes, it’s an unusual lay-out here. This part of England is very flat, like Holland… [4] In The Mystery of Things, your recent book, there are...
Read MoreInsight into Words.
Poet Maggie Sawkins interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: You have been writing since the age of nine. How does the process of writing poetry work for you? [1] Maggie Sawkins: I think that there are different processes for different poems. Sometimes it is two things that seem opposites, and you make a connection. That is, a tension between two things that a poem can grow out of. For example,...
Read MoreThe Arc of Grace.
Poet Sylvia Paskin interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: How do words come to you? [1] Sylvia Paskin: Often they come as a burst of emotion. Sometimes I hear or read something, or something happens to me. And around this set of feelings you find yourself writing about it. That’s how the poem begins to form. I usually write long-hand, I don’t write directly to the computer. I make notes....
Read MoreRising to the Surface of Language.
Poet Anne Stevenson interviewed by Gil Dekel. Gil Dekel: Can we talk about your creative process of writing? [1] Anne Stevenson: For me, writing poems is not so much a process as a way of feeling my way in the dark. Lines come to mind; I work them over in my head and then somehow collect a poem out of them. Ideas usually arrive after the lines. For example, the first five stanzas or so of A...
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