Welcome to the dragon's blog...
Here you will find musings on the nature of Celtic art and perhaps some insights into its power and potential. Also, like a river, expect some meandering!
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Insights into Celtic Art
by Mike Terrett - 12:00 on 15 January 2016
An insight is seeing into something or alternatively, we might say: 'seeing from within'. It's an interesting experience. Words come originally from actual experience so if we look into the word we may come(t) closer to the original experience (giving us 'meaning') and perhaps even have an insight!
Many publications offer 'meanings' when it comes to Celtic art. I find many of these to be dissatisfying - not that there isn't some truth there, but meaning often depends on a particular relationship between things and not on a fixed definition.
It's lunchtime. More on this very soon...
I suppose a good illustration of 'insight' would, in this case, be a Celtic design or picture! A good illustration, that is! An illumination or an illuminated design...
Consider what an illuminated manuscript is. Be original! It suggests that the artists who made them were aware of creation arising from darkness, as the designs often arise from a dark ground - as do plants and planets and stars! - (and thoughts!) This is simple but illuminating! While we're on the subject, let's not fall into the trap of dividing light from darkness and then have them battling each other for supremacy. Images like 'St. Michael and the Dragon' fall into this category, where the archangel is depicted as spearing the dragon underfoot.
Again, it's not as if there isn't truth there, but you have to question it to see what is a basic reflection of reality and what is overlayed propoganda. The spear as the weapon of St. Michael seems right as he is the embodiment of the sun. The dragon 'below' is a remnant of the understanding of the fiery energies of the earth. What arises from this line of inquiry is that there may be a connection here with Lucifer and certain ancient stories. Lucifer comes from the latin: meaning 'light-bringer' and seems to be connected also to Venus - the 'morning star'. Nothing to do with 'Satan' or notions of what is corrupt (promulgated by corrupt organisations!). Why, then, should the archangel be seen killing the dragon if they are, in reality, as closely related as are the sun, the light and the Earth?! Perhaps, we get closer to the truth if we consider that what is being shown is, simply, a life-and-death 'struggle' involving energies and exchanges of an awesome nature!
Enough for now. More later...
Perhaps depicting creative forces as a battle was taking and using poetic licence, only it became entrenched as an idea and obscured the simple, primal reality. Perhaps it was a sign of the times in that battles were accepted as a way of life: 'the good' defeating 'the bad'. This antagonistic and insidious attitude is still with us. Perhaps it's time to return to the primal forces (bypassing a few dangerous, defunct unnecessaries along the way). I think this is a major creative role for artists today. Can we discover how to work with the world in a basic and foundational way? Art is discovery and the communication of this. A powerful language is a must for representing closely the forms and forces at play. Here we come back to the language of 'Celtic art' as a promising means of working with all this.
A good language can pretty much express anything and often in surprising ways mirrors what is 'hidden'. In short: it reveals!
Pause here, then read on...
I find that many insights and alternative views can be found by taking one thing and using it as a mirror for another. This utilises the living law of 'mirroring from afar in order to see near'. A very useful mirror of this kind is that of spoken and written language. We can direct this towards Celtic art and see whether they work in similar ways. I consider the language of Celtic art to be the equivalent to a spoken language - but with some advantages(!?). When we reflect one art form from another we see, amongst other things, that each form (painting, sculpture, music, literature, etc) has its own unique abilities in relation to the others - or, if you like, its own strengths and weaknesses. For example: a visual design or painting can be seen all at once, whereas a piece of music has to be heard gradually as it unfolds. The whole can then be reflected upon. This is putting things quite simply.
Celtic art is like folk music or perhaps 'classical music' (which is pan-European). In order to express so much (or so little) it has to have a broad vocabulary of motifs or patterns: spirals, steps, mazes, keys, knots and figurative work in the case of Celtic art. It was work of some genius for these patterns to be brought together and assimilated into one art language - and one that can be used in such an open-ended and protean way. In fact, Celtic art is now a global language. It has travelled all over the world and still travels well. Its motifs can be read by anyone, wherever they happen to be and whatever their particular cultural background. It has a distinct advantage over a native or regional spoken language in this respect. If you look at native art from around the world you can see that they share many common patterns.
What makes an expression of art unique - yet also have universal appeal?! In other words: just copying existing patterns is not necessarily using the language to express learning. Learning is coming into contact with something in the present and allowing that touch of relationship to unfold and express itself. That, to me is what is exciting and sometimes difficult about really saying something original!
Enough for now - it's lunch time...
Earlier, I was talking about mirroring as a way of revealing a different perspective or bringing something into a new light. I've worked with Celtic patterns and motifs for over twenty years yet I find it is the simple, obvious things that seed and underpin a good design - not something obscure and over-intellectualised. So although Celtic art can be complex, if it is done properly it is never cluttered and confusing. In fact it conveys amazement and wonder - not just at the infinite complexity of life because, interestingly enough, the underlying principles are very direct and simple. Which also makes them powerful. Simple is powerful. Unnneccesary complication dissipates power and meaning. Underneath the natural complexity of interweavings, interlockings and repetitions of pattern are the foundational qualities of life: mirroring and rotating of energies and forms. It is about creation and from this, interrelationship; coming to the mirror of the world so that we can see and learn. Of course it's also fun and intriguing.
How much detail can you see? How much can you follow? Stay close! (but not too close). The more you follow the more you see. The more you see the more you follow! Those that only glance and walk away may miss the deeper lessons. On the otherhand a fleeting glimpse is sometimes all we get or all that it takes! Patience! What is patience? Not always an easy winner. It can be ardous. As an artist, to create a complex but instantly appealing and seemingly direct and simple pattern means that we have to go right through all the detail before we emerge with something whole and finished. Every under-over and turn of the spiral has to make sense. This is the nature of exploration and following the designs of nature using the tools and methods of geometry. Ah, geometry...
Geometry and number are ever-present in Celtic art and design. Art and design are inseperable. Perhaps they are the left and right in us and in all things? This brings us to the mirror once more and to symmetry - another of those 'obvious' aspects we can easily judge as 'too simple to matter'. But aren't the foundational, deeper things always there? We never leave them behind. Haven't we all made symmetrical patterns or drawn circles and made petals using the single reach of a compass or looked, telescope-like, into that strange stained glass window (ever shattering / ever renewing) at the bottom of the well of a kaleidoscope. Probably: sometime at school before education was turned into a battle and ordeal, before the city was divided from the land, before the shining knight made an enemy of the dragon. Where is innocence? Where is power?
Basically, we can never abandon the simple foundational things of life. But, as we work and move through, we can take on more complexity and experience deeper powers... but the trick, as I see it, is to be a maze-walker (and 'the good thief'): go through confusion and emerge with a wondrous shield of ever-meaning.
Enough for now...
(This 'article' was last updated: 2nd February, 2016)
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