Similarly palpable was an experience of the embodied connection Australian aboriginal artists have to the ancient land of their people, during my visit to the Royal Academy in London, October 2013. It was as though waves of energy were emanating from the artworks and penetrating my body. Just standing in that gallery brought on such powerful sensations, I was convinced that the artists' spirits had permeated the air around me. One British critic wrote that the indigenous pieces were "infused with ancestral magic." Unfortunately, no photos were allowed--not that they could capture the inexpressible experience anyway. But I found a few examples of Australian aboriginal art on the internet, though none of them is what I saw at the Royal Academy.
I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions--tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on--and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions...The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.
All arts are capable of duende, but where it finds greatest range, naturally, is in music, dance, and spoken poetry, for these arts require a living body to interpret them....
What experiences have you had in which art moved you? Did they constitute a momentary response or something lasting?
How can a work of art actually shift us from one place to another, even change our life, whether subtly or dramatically?
Do you consider a work of art or music or literature more or less valuable when it has an emotional impact or when it conveys an intellectual message?