ENTHEOS & EINFUHLUNG*

Creating these pieces of work is a rather meditative, contemplative act and contemplation is something to hopefully invoke in those viewing the work. I wish to evoke more basic, positive feelings and emotions that come from deeper within and meditation and contemplation are ways to find such states of serenity, comfort, delight and blessing. We all benefit from aesthetic pleasure – Plutarch suggests 'the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be lighted', and the prophet Mohammad said ‘If I had only two loaves of bread I would barter one to nourish my soul’ – and it is well known that beauty and symmetry are intrinsic to nature and natural selection and are beneficial to our well-being on many levels.

Though the work is endogenous and intuitive there are definite themes and sources I refer to, use and reflect in my work. Numbers, number sequences, patterns and geometry all excite me. Whether the Golden Ratio, prime numbers, polygon sequences or the Fibonacci series (seen throughout nature as a source of strength, symmetry and pattern) numbers and mathematics are a great source of inspiration and beauty.

*Entheos - a feeling of possession by or the presence of the divine.

*Einfuhlung (German) - ‘feeling into’

Notes.
On a more technical level the distant origins of the work were found in various forms of latticework and geometric patterns, from Roman leatherwork to Arabian woodwork and Japanese paper art. When first cutting paper I originally started copying such patterns and designs but found the results to be quite hollow and unsatisfying. Whilst working on these however, I was delighted by the nature and qualities of the cuts themselves and went on to spend quite a long time exploring these. Through other tangential routes I also began creating similar work with pens rather than blades and these two different forms continue to develop along separate avenues, though sometimes their paths do cross.
Experimentation included methods of mounting. The Scarified work particularly I found died the instant it was placed behind glass; so began a search for an alternative. With great help from artist Richard Devereux I arrived at a most satisfactory and completely unobtrusive form of presentation which uses neither glass nor frames.

Paul Kemp 2008.

Paul Kemp is an artist living and working in Lincolnshire, UK. He was born in Blantyre, Malawi in 1969 and spent much of his early childhood in the Middle East. He discovered a penchant and a talent for art as a teenager and has continued ever since. Having worked as a glassblower/designer in Britain and France for over a decade his creative output is now concentrated working on paper. His art has been exhibited throughout Britain and is in private collections in UK and Europe and the U.S.A. This site shows some of his available work.

All text copyright © by Paul Kemp 2008