Wednesday, November 08, 2006



The picture above is called " Looking " an appropiate title!

These words are a piece I once wrote to answer someone who was asking intrusive questions about Bella Mullen,someone who felt they had some 'right' to know 'more'.I came across it again yesterday and thought it is something always worth remembering when looking into any human beings activities, in short be grateful for what they have already put on offer.Enjoy.

" MORE "

To decide what to write here is difficult
not because there is so little to say
but because there is so much
that could be said
but to say it
just now
just here
wouldn't help.

I am presuming you have already looked at the pictures
more presumptiously I am presuming
you want to know " more " .

" More " is a concept that many
without thinking
accept as part & parcel of " knowing " an artist's work.
An artist
in any field
from gardening to dancing
from performing to painting
knows
it is the work itself
upon which attention should be concentrated.

Bella Mullen's work could be labelled :
Outsider ; Naive ;
Innocent ; Visionary;
Spiritual ; Surrealist ;
but any of these labels only suggest a part of her
works true identity.

You may well wonder :
why no portraits ; why no landscapes ;
why the stars ; why the connectivity ;
why the patterns ; why the dots ;
why such colours ; why such movement ;

I did.

The questions can, will & do,
just keep flowing
but the answers
are most directly & most beautifully found
purely by observing the pictures.

With time these paintings swell well beyond
the boundaries of the frame
within which they are held.

With time it becomes increasingly apparent
these are inspirational glimpses
into a dimension which only increases
for the rest of us
an awareness of such
ecstatic transcendent existence.

To want to know " more "
from someone who has already
so generously " given " so much
seems inappropiate.

The dedication evident in these works
increases our appreciation of their beauty
proportionately in ratio
with the level of our own input.

Simply put
the more we look the more we see
the more we see the more we can look.

As much " more "
as any of us could wish for
already exists within the paintings themselves
should we wish to look.

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