David J. Lisle Arts

Musing for the day: With all the media shining a light on the American election one could be forgiven for forgetting about our real lives. While the temperature of the world rises, and the advance once again into a virus dominated situation here are some thoughts for all of us. Of course not everything will apply in equal measure for all of us, but most will be touched by the virus in some way. You are going through a complex period, loaded with doubts and self-questionings. ...Your intimate realm does not seem as consistent as it was. You may need to reconsider the bases of your private life and to discard compromises and shams. A rough time that could be painfully experienced. What you took for granted yesterday seems so heavy to bear now. You are doubtful of all the things you used to do out of habit. Your daily pace and your personal or family life, and in some cases, your couple life, may be shattered. It is important to understand correctly the stakes of such a period. It is true that circumstances are less promising than they used to be. However, you are invited to re-organize your life and to break habits with a view to building a daily reality that lives up to your deeper aspirations. In order to make the most of this viral configuration, it is necessary to relinquish your comfort to some extent and to strike a new, more essential balance. You must also accept with lucidity to pay the price for a peace of mind that is yet to come. Even though it means, sometimes, to sacrifice a few reassuring elements on which your stability and habits were based. Copied almost verbatim from my online horoscope for today. Having realised that horoscopes are generalisations and sometimes can speak to a person. I hand this out since I know so many are at their wits end and I felt it was speaking to us all. I hope some of this serves you well. David Lisle

Musings When I see animals in my garden, in a park, or anywhere really, I always greet them as if they were my brothers and sisters. They rarely run away, but they look at me; for me I hope they recognize me if they see me again, and believe like me, they see their brother. Similarly when I see my artworks after not seeing them for a while, I greet them heartily, for most often they mean more to me than when I first finished them and added my signature. Because I am seeking a...n inner meaning to what the things I paint possess, although I am a pragmatist when it comes to letting science rule the objective day, I let imagination rule my efforts to create, I seek out the metaphysical in things that Newton and Einstein would analyse and measure. In my garden of life I speak to and greet all around me as if they were family, particularly brothers and sisters. So various pieces I make have gender, they are male and female and some are both just as in nature, the objective fact. The morning is the best time for me, the time my imagination runs unbounded and uncaring for the worlds of Newton and Einstein. In the mornings I do my best, I do my business in the mornings, shop, bank, etc. The afternoons are for dreaming and wandering around my pied-à-terre. I am not a prophet, nor do I possess genius, I am simple and try to be humble; perhaps the most difficult thing any person can do. In the worlds of Newton and Einstein I am ill, I have complaints that plague me and with such I must live in objective reality, but really I can soar through the heavens and penetrate the mountains interiors and find the true names of trees and Wales. The objective world of the Industrial revolution is filled with filth and even death, the myriad men and women that plod wearily through their lives like slaves enchained give me cause to despair. I too have been imprisoned and even remain imprisoned by this dreary world of humankind, however, because I can see and feel every other living thing and even rocks, and mountains, and seas I can have a happy spiritual life free from those dark industrial engines. My creative subjectivity is my only happy reality. See more

Working forward: My current project - a Painting/3D piece that is absorbing much of what little time I have to work. My other duties are my wife Maria and her Cancer. Moving on I was pondering the surface of my work, which is a found object that had three separate incarnations as a useful object for me.... First it was a half door to a storage area underneath a front porch. Eventually rejected as an impediment to escape from fire I removed it. Second it became a bench top on which I worked building a 'Dagoba' for a client. It received many scars from this process. Finally set outside against a wall in the weather for many months I realised all the forms used to build it and the subsequent scars and injuries had formed an image of a theme I worked on. "Urban Sunset" I was curious what a rubbing would look like, so I made three using a carpenters pencil, black conté crayon and red conté crayon I produced the following three rubbings. The paintings structure is revealed in stark black and red and white. I chose random areas on the painting. They are about 12 by 18 each approx. Comment if you find this interesting.

An old piece from the 90's "A day in the life"

Some pieces from 2007 that I never intended to share. I have the originals but I am reluctant to rescan them. In 2007 I reached a dreadful point in my life that I would not wish on anyone. On the verge of losing my job and just six months after a heart attack that was very debilitating, anxiety about my family and marriage and the feeling that everyone was against me I sought help from my Psychologist. The end result was I ended up in the basement prison of St Paul's Hospital... in Vancouver, naked except for a hospital gown and a bare mattress on the floor. Later I was out into a locked Psychiatric ward and was there for three weeks. They allowed me to read and also to make some art with coloured pencils, I made three drawings, one I am uncertain of it's location. I put the copyright notice on both of these because somewhere in my mind I felt that one day they might mean something and I'd put them on-line. Well I did not because after time passed and my mind and body healed somewhat I became ashamed of them. Bu that was then and this is now. One is entirely done with coloured pencil crayons and the other was a line drawing I scanned and then filled in colour in my 'Gimp' digital art program. They are presented here with this story because they are nothing like any other art I have made. Make your own mind up about what happens to people and how this can be reflected in artwork.

From 2017 - 2018 work. Original Photograph taken in 1990's.