An interesting and thought provoking evening was spent on 12 October at one of the occasional London Group salons.
Rev. Mark Dean, Chair, with Mike Phillipson / Belief Salon 2, 9 Oct 2017
The London Group Belief Salon 2
by Judith Jones LG
Open to all London Group members and friends, the salons provide a friendly informal evening to muse over a given topic. The concept of ‘belief’ was introduced by Rev Mark Dean, Chaplain to the University of the Arts and an artist, who as chair of the meeting, explained and explored how he linked his artistic works with his personal spiritual beliefs and asked us to consider what sort of manifesto or belief system underpinned our artwork. He raised the question – Did we as individual artists or The London Group as a whole have any sort of underlying manifesto? This led us to discuss if we felt there was any sort of belief, spiritual or otherwise that we felt sustained our work as artists.
We mused over these concepts and felt that as individuals there seemed to be an underlying value system whereby we have what could be termed a spiritual need or desire to be creative which many of us also agreed was somehow personally therapeutic. The consumption of the artwork produced, that is the viewer or audience was also discussed in the light of its value or spiritual influence. How this then produced another layer of meaning to our work. It is perhaps this other layer, the perception of our audiences, where I felt our intentions and beliefs varied.
Being an artist is often a solitary occupation and these salons are a valuable and, I find, enriching way for members to meet and discuss matters relating to our artwork over a relaxing glass of wine or beer in a convivial atmosphere. Thank you to our president Susan Haire for her generosity in hosting the salon and of course to the Rev Mark Dean for chairing the meeting.
Judith Jones LG