Artist and gardener Laura Blackwood talks to Elizabeth Roberts and Kawther Luay about the importance of connecting with the natural world
“There has to be a certain receptivity, alertness or quietness to your approach. It’s a real thing to just be completely receptive.”
Robert Hirschfield on the contemplative practice of a remarkable 20th-century poet/mystic.
“For Lax, there was no seam between walking, praying, writing. All experiences were to be fully absorbed, integrated into a life fully lived.”
Kira Perov, wife and long-term collaborator of the video artist Bill Viola, talks to Jane Carroll about the ideas and experiences which inspire their work
“These video works give us the gift of time. They give the viewer time to spend with these images, to move from our physical ‘real’ world to a metaphysical one.”
Distinguished calligrapher Ann Hechle talks about her lifelong quest to understand the underlying unity of the world
“As I grapple with putting letters, words and drawings together, I am using strategies that belong to a much bigger and grander world, which are part of universal law.”
Michael Sells and Simone Fattal talk about a new translation of Ibn ‘Arabi’s famous cycle of love poems Translation of Desires
“For Ibn ‘Arabi longing or desire is a cosmic force. It goes beyond all boundaries, and it is the closest taste of the infinite that people can have in their own experience.”
Mark Boston reflects on painting the film Loving Vincent
“The entire movement of the world sometimes seems an endless, elaborately painted masterpiece, with every moment in a slightly different configuration from the last.”