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METAPHYSICAL PAINTINGS
E-mail interview with Julio
Mateo
by Doug Dement
April, 1999
Q: Metaphysics is a broad term that is generally defined as: "The investigation into how and why the Universe began. Metaphysicists normally theorize on the origins of the Universe but sometimes, scientific fact is the basis of an argument." Your artwork is self-described as "Metaphysical Paintings." Using this train of thought, your work seemingly deals extensively with ideas on "Creationism." Generally, the scientific community accepts the "Big Bang" and Darwinist theories. Judeo/Christian ideas paint yet another story that has some scientific basis with the discovery of monogenist theories that describe "Eve" mitochondria. Those who promote New Age doctrine often refer to the Sumerian and Hopi records that surprisingly resemble each other a great deal. Truthfully, there are too many such theories for me to list here. Through painting, you've been able to elaborate on these specific ideas. Is it possible that you can further describe your metaphysical beliefs here using words instead of paint? (Perhaps using examples from your paintings). I am curious how you as an artist define Metaphysics. A:
As an artist,
my work is based in metaphor. The formulation or even the illustration
of a metaphysical theory, complete or otherwise, is beyond the scope
of my work as an artist, which work is essentially of a poetic nature.
As such, art evokes and rhymes; it suggests and ponders; it expresses
and demonstrates; but it does so lightly, without holding too tightly
to the philosopher's, or the cosmologist's, or the theologian's propositions,
which are predicated on certainty: whether divined, reasoned,
or supported by evidence. I
use the term "metaphysical" in my work to signal my concern
with matters unlimited, and in particular, unseen. I use the term
in the sense that Aristotle meant "wisdom," "theology,"
or "the first philosophy," a discipline "to deal with
the first causes and the principles of all things," including,
in addition to material things and abstractions, "immovable substance,"
as well as the eternal, immutable and immaterial, and the divine presence.
A:
Regarding illustrations
in my work of "origins/how and why the universe began,"
some of my works have been about that, but treated from a poetic,
metaphorical point of view using the visual vocabulary of art. I
have "played" in my work with different creation stories,
such as Genesis, Darwinism and the Big Bang , as well as with other
schema, such as the I-Ching's
notion of Yin-Yang as a primordial polarity engendering all changes
and things, and even some of my own devising, using pictorial and
graphical elements alluding to sequential developments that lead to
growth, permutations, operations in the mathematical sense, cycles
and other such sequences, for my work has had a tendency to come in
related packages of suites, cycles, series and sets. Like the
mandala, creation stories bring a sense of wholeness and completion,
much as the golden section and other sacred geometry proportions do.
This satisfying sense of having a handle on things can be seen
as mysterious evidence of a higher intelligence at work, and therefore
reassuring, or it may be seen as a source of power and control, and
thus equally reassuring and satisfying.
A:
At this point it
may be fitting to point out that the works displayed on my website
are ten to fifteen years old, and that the ideas that engendered them
are close to twenty. Nonetheless, in retrospect it seems that
I was always in the business of making "Metaphysical Paintings,"
though I did not call them that then. |
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All works are available
for purchase.
E-mail: JMateo@Mateo.net
Copyright © Julio Mateo 1997,
2000
http://www.Mateo.net