Atheist Irelands Response to Irelands new Blasphemy Law

From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentivises religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.

Publication of 25 blasphemous quotes

In this context we now publish a list of 25 blasphemous quotes, which have previously been published by or uttered by or attributed to Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, James Kirkup, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, Bjork, Amanda Donohoe, George Carlin, Paul Woodfull, Jerry Springer the Opera, Tim Minchin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, PZ Myers, Ian O’Doherty, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Dermot Ahern.

Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalised, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement.

Campaign begins to repeal the Irish blasphemy law

We ask Fianna Fail and the Green Party to repeal their anachronistic blasphemy law, as part of the revision of the Defamation Act that is included within the Act. We ask them to hold a referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Irish Constitution.

We also ask all TDs and Senators to support a referendum to remove references to God from the Irish Constitution, including the clauses that prevent atheists from being appointed as President of Ireland or as a Judge without swearing a religious oath asking God to direct them in their work.

If you run a website, blog or other media publication, please feel free to republish this statement and the list of quotes yourself, in order to show your support for the campaign to repeal the Irish blasphemy law and to promote a rational, ethical, secular Ireland.

List of 25 Blasphemous Quotes Published by Atheist Ireland

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy – he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: “Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!”

6. Randy Newman, God’s Song, 1972: “And the Lord said: I burn down your cities – how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That’s why I love mankind.”

7. James Kirkup, The Love That Dares to Speak its Name, 1976: “While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness. I was alone with him… I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death’s final ejaculation.” This extract is from a poem that led to the last successful blasphemy prosecution in Britain, when Denis Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence after he published it in the now-defunct magazine Gay News. In 2002, a public reading of the poem, on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, failed to lead to any prosecution. In 2008, the British Parliament abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979: “Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”

9. Rev Ian Paisley MEP to the Pope in the European Parliament, 1988: “I denounce you as the Antichrist.” Paisley’s website describes the Antichrist as being “a liar, the true son of the father of lies, the original liar from the beginning… he will imitate Christ, a diabolical imitation, Satan transformed into an angel of light, which will deceive the world.”

10. Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1989: “In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: ‘Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.’ Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.”

11. Frank Zappa, 1989: “If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine – but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good – and cares about any of it – to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”

12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: “The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas – uncertainty, progress, change – into crimes.” In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.

13. Bjork, 1995: “I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men… I’ve been reading about reincarnation, and the Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fuck the Buddhists.”

14. Amanda Donohoe on her role in the Ken Russell movie Lair of the White Worm, 1995: “Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can’t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages, and that persecution still goes on today all over the world.”

15. George Carlin, 1999: “Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”

16. Paul Woodfull as Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Ballad of Jaysus Christ, 2000: “He said me ma’s a virgin and sure no one disagreed, Cause they knew a lad who walks on water’s handy with his feet… Jaysus oh Jaysus, as cool as bleedin’ ice, With all the scrubbers in Israel he could not be enticed, Jaysus oh Jaysus, it’s funny you never rode, Cause it’s you I do be shoutin’ for each time I shoot me load.”

17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 2003: “Actually, I’m a bit gay.” In 2005, the Christian Institute tried to bring a prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer the Opera, but the UK courts refused to issue a summons.

18. Tim Minchin, Ten-foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins, 2005: “So you’re gonna live in paradise, With a ten-foot cock and a few hundred virgins, So you’re gonna sacrifice your life, For a shot at the greener grass, And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgment, He’s gonna kick my heathen ass.”

19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” In 2007 Turkish publisher Erol Karaaslan was charged with the crime of insulting believers for publishing a Turkish translation of The God Delusion. He was acquitted in 2008, but another charge was brought in 2009. Karaaslan told the court that “it is a right to criticise religions and beliefs as part of the freedom of thought and expression.”

20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim body, said it was a “character assassination of the prophet Muhammad”. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that “the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.” Pakistan’s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”. The European Commission said that “reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.”

21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007: “There is some question as to whether Islam is a separate religion at all… Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require… It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or ‘surrender’ as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing-absolutely nothing-in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.”

22. PZ Myers, on the Roman Catholic communion host, 2008: “You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university… However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.”

23. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: “(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.”

24. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, 2009: “Whether a person is atheist or any other, there is in fact in my view something not totally human if they leave out the transcendent… we call it God… I think that if you leave that out you are not fully human.” Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.

25. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: “They are blasphemous.” Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: “Given the Minister’s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,” and Minister Ahern replied: “Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.” So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.

Finally, as a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposing attempts by Islamic States to make defamation of religion a crime at UN level, 2009: “We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.” Just months after Minister Martin made this comment, his colleague Dermot Ahern introduced Ireland’s new blasphemy law.

An Atheist Christmas message.

Some festive Musings,
Hands up who thinks Santa is real, or elves, or flying reindeer. Anyone? Me neither.

But just because I still love the festive kitsch, carols, trees, traditions, stories and mistletoe doesn’t mean I have to believe that Santa is real any more than I do the tooth fairy, Easter bunny or the eldritch folk at the bottom of my garden.

I doubt that there is anyone who wouldn’t laugh if I, as a rational adult, were to be grievously insulted by anyone who denied the existence of the jolly fat man and his airborne rangifer tarandus.

As an Atheist, I quite simply don’t believe in those other splendid imaginary fellows, God, Allah, Yahweh, Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Brahma, Zeus, Poseidon and their ilk for whom tradition demands scorn upon the unbelievers, or at the very least smug superiority over those on the wrong path. I can’t help feeling that something is wrong here, and the pain and suffering in the world caused our own imaginary friends is needless and unnecessary.

So let’s think for a moment about it, put all this superstitious, dogmatic, intolerant needlessness aside and make the festive season about us, the evolved human mammals, and as Bill and Ted said, “be excellent to each other”

And here’s something to think about in 2010, remember, you can still be a tolerant, marvellous, warm and kind human being without believing in fairy tales or supernatural deities, there is enough magic in the real world, in nature and in your own person without looking for it in superstitions.

In the words of Santa “be good for goodness sake”

Best wishes, and have a happy Hanukkah, cool Kwanza, brightest Yule, Merry Sol Invictus, magnificent solstice, happy Christmas, or however you celebrate the season.

Derek

Art of Evolution, Not the god of the lego people

The god of the LEGOTM people,

I once conducted an experiment; I put lots of LEGOTM men, separated into their component parts, legs, bodies and heads into a bag and shook it. Nothing happened, so I shook it some more and added some squeezing, some jiggling some massaging, and some spinning it round and round. When I looked into the bag, most of the LEGOTM men remained in pieces, but there were some noticeable mutations. A head had become lodged on one of the pairs of legs, a body had joined with some legs, but utilising only one of the little lego connectors.

I repeated the process, for twenty minutes ( ok I carried it around ), the result, more mutations, and a head on a body along with a few other abnormalities. After many repetitions, and a few days of regular bag manipulation and a washing machine, I discovered that I did indeed have a connected head, body and legs, in the correct order. Admittedly, the head and legs were the wrong way round, and not entirely connected as firmly as they should be, but never the less, through random external forces, I had successfully re-created a LEGOTM man from his component parts.

It was random movement which rebuilt this LEGOTM man, not me. I am not the god of the LEGOTM people. Just as normal, natural, scientifically verifiable environmental considerations such as temperature, movement, and lightening are a far more likely candidate for the beginnings of life on earth than some supernatural being of literary fiction, so my kinetic manipulation of the bag was not evidence of a divine influence in the re-created man, but rather a real, albeit artificial environment produced by the normal and most definitely not mystical realm of natural physical laws.

I find the creative process involved in producing art is like a head full of LEGOTM people bits, the more you shake it, and the more bits LEGOTM people you add, the more creative I am and the better my paintings become.

The art of evolution,

The idea behind this exhibition is twofold, firstly, I want to establish that creativity is a natural phenomenon, available to all in a greater or lesser extent, and secondly, that my own development as an artist and that of my work adheres without contrivance or effort to the evolutionary laws of natural selection.

“creativity (is) a genetically encoded product of the evolution of the brain, favoured by natural selection, but influenced by the environment of each individual”
Karl H Pfenninge & Valerie R Schubik. The origin of creativity

An artwork is the end result of human creative process, a point of interest in a continuing process of creative evolution. Although the human mammal as we know it today, Homo Sapiens arrived on the scene some 200,000 years ago, the first clear evidence of creativity was not apparent until around 50,000 years ago, and the first cave paintings up to 35,000 years ago, the advantage of creativity in an evolutionary sense, was that of innovation, of new ways of solving problems, as a means of spreading information and as a means of storytelling and social control which evolved into what we now know as religion.

I won’t go into the development of creativity in great detail, but one only has to look at any book on art history and follow the timeline from cave paintings to Caravaggio, from statues of Dionysius to Damien Hurst, to see that there is a clear and logical progression in the development of art with lesser methods and styles becoming extinct and the most useful and popular surviving to the next generation.

This linearity shows that creativity evolved within our species and that the development of creativity in an individual, from building blocks and splodges of colour, to advanced creation and personal artistic development mirrors the development of creativity in mankind as a whole.

Why did creativity develop? Mammoths, it probably came from some problem which arose in our ancient ancestors probably involving hairy horny pachyderms. That is a big mammoth, how do we carry it home now we have killed it. We could all grab a bit and drag it, but then if the sabre toothed tiger came, we would have to run away, or we could cut it up into bits we could all carry and run from the tiger and probably kill it as well for desert. Ogg then probably came up with the sharp stone knife chopping up on cutting himself on a sharp stone.

It was a simple natural solution to a large and not to mention hairy problem.

The clan who thought of this would most likely have an advantage over other mammoth dragging clans and would, again following the natural desire to retain supremacy, need to pass the skill on to maintain its usefulness. We do not know what form of language our ancestors had, but they had the organs and bone structure necessary for the required noises. We also know that they passed on their hunting knowledge on the walls of their caves. In primitive evolution, creativity served an important survival function and flourished.

Why do we, modern man, and I am talking 10000 years of modern man, invest so much effort in creativity when the threat of mammoths and sabre toothed tigers are no longer present. Simply put, the threat of other homo sapiens is however very much present.

Art, the possession of artworks can be seen as a display ritual. A single bird will put itself in mortal danger to warn the rest of the flock of approaching kestrels, thereby showing itself to be strong and brave, or a song thrush singing at the expense of eating to attract a mate. The bower bird builds an elaborate display area, and the male peacock forfeits the ability to fly sensibly in lieu of his fantastic tail feathers.

Human beings constantly show their power by displaying their possessions. The possession of many artworks is unproductive in terms of feeding and clothing the starving and naked populous, but is very effective in giving the impression of power so great that it can afford to adorn its plumage with marvellous and impressive decorations.

Art from early cave paintings has evolved into a status symbol, owning an original artwork signifies that one has established a safe, secure and comfortable environment, free from the threat of famine, or pestilence, although certain organisations have used the threat of pestilence in order to acquire the wealth and art of these comfortable individuals in return for supernatural protection from such things as the plague, or a certain number of years of time in purgatory (if one believes such things)

What is certain is that art is a natural phenomenon, and not the result of some supernatural creator playing pimp my species. Creativity is a part of everyone to a greater or lesser extent, dormant in most, prominent in many and dominant in a few. Whether this takes the form of engineering, writing, music, ballet, dance or fine art, the important thing to remember is that your creativity is as much a part of you, the homo sapiens as your heart is.

“a god given talent”
Someone once told me that I had a “god given talent” ,which I was wasting by not painting pictures of “king william of orange on his horse, the virgin Mary and the likes”, I didn’t mind the king billy, or the woman with the best excuse in the world for infidelity who didn’t die because she flew off heaven one day ( man is she going to feel the odd one out, given that it exists of course). What I objected to was the notion that creativity and talent is in some way god given. This notion is, in light of sound evolutionary evidence, quite frankly absurd.

Talent is not something to be given out in measures, awarded for piety, or generously bestowed upon us by some god of the LEGOTM men, but is a natural gift, the result of many inherited and environmental influences.

Artworks do not just appear; they are not brought suddenly into being by the flying spaghetti monster, nor are they created from one of his meatballs. Artworks do not grow out of the ground, on trees, or appear slowly over time on walls of churches like mould in a poorly ventilated room.

On a personal note, I readily admit, that to my own standards, I can paint, and draw, and sketch in the same way that someone can play football, or write, or drive a car. I would not go so far, or be so immodest as to say I have talent, that is for other people to decide.

“Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. An alternative conception of creativeness is that it is simply the act of making something new.”
Wikipedia


In order to proceed, we have to take a step back in time, to the genesis of my art.

In the beginning was Scotch Broth,
For those who don’t know, a broth is a rather hearty soup traditional to my homeland of Scotland. Now imagine a large bowl of broth, much like the primordial soup of the first life on this planet, but instead of amino acids, the bowl contains random thoughts, ideas, impressions, experiences, inspirations, views, opinions and opportunities.

This preparatory[1] phase of creativity, is all in the mind. In our genetics, our DNA, may be a gene passed down from our ancestors, which gives us an increased level of imagination, or fantasy. We also have the ability to read, and read many books which encourage imagination and fantasy. And it is these two points which lay the groundwork for a creative persona, because without the ability to fantasise to imagine, the broth of creativity will be thin and tasteless, consigned to the sink, extinct before anything can come of it.

The literary example is a good one and supported by much evidence. If one looks at renaissance art, the three main subjects of paintings are nature (landscapes, animals and portraits), biblical scenes, or classical (greek, roman etc) themes in accordance to the literature available at the time. With the invention, here in Germany, of the printing press, came the widespread availability of published literature and this is belatedly reflected in the art world with an exponential increase in the range of subjects and subject matter.

The reason for the delay was that the main patrons of the arts, those individuals or organisations who could afford to employ artists stuck to the three safe, non-confrontational and certainly non-challenging subjects and themes in the same way that people buy ready made, mass produced paintings from the local DIY store, or IKEA. The reason that only this art exists now, is that only the artists who could provide it found patronage.

Da Vinci, hid many of his attempts at creative expression, anatomical studies and such to prevent being labelled a heretic. How wonderful it would have been to have full sized accomplished versions of his sketches on canvas rather than his conformist and allegedly subtly subversive religious paintings.

We may inherit excellent hand eye coordination from our ancestors, or we can learn it. I am useless at catching a ball as there is this moment where the ball is not in contact with my hand that I just cannot judge quickly enough to react. However if the ball is on a string, attached to my hand and I have some idea of its trajectory, I have no problems. I couldn’t hit a target with a bow and arrow, but let me touch a canvas with a brush and it becomes part of me, second nature.

Then came the thought
Stirring the broth, certain notions, come together, certain ideas are formed which work with each other for a while, become coherent and then dissolve, other ideas stick together, growing, forming the basis for an idea, an inkling of what would make a great picture.

Although still in my head, these ideas incubate in the womb of my head, they stick around, nurturing. My wife tells me that she always knows when I have a painting inside me by my actions and mannerisms. I don’t see it myself, but she is invariably correct. Quite what the outward signs are, I am not aware, but equally, I am certain that no supernatural influence is placing ready formed pictures in my head as each component part of the picture clearly comes from a particular element in my personal broth of creativity, an element which has evolved to an extent that it is a living idea, ready to make the first Devonian myriapod steps onto the land of realisation.


And into the idea was breathed the breath of life

Eating the broth. Sketchbooks are a wonderful invention, and I use them as an extension of my own mind, jotting down ideas and inspirations, notes on colours and textures, contrasts and emotions. In JK Rowlings Harry Potter series, professor Dumbledore uses a Penseive to store his silvery thoughts for later recollection. My sketchbooks are not just somewhat like that, but exactly like that. Some of the sketches in them are nothing more than a couple of squiggles and notes, but they act as a trigger to my internal memory, and this spark, this jogging of my memory is the moment where the evolution of an artwork gains sentience, it gains a meaning and personality of its own, however primitive.

This is a very vague understanding of the finished article, but an intimation nonetheless of what could be. Just as the lobe finned fish is our distant relative, so this sketch is a distant relative of a finished painting on the wall of a gallery.
Now the sketch could develop into a finished painting, or the idea could prove a weak one.
I once, in the middle of the night came up with the idea of painting with chocolate, not the actual painting, or the paint, but chocolate instead of a paintbrush. Naturally this idea melted into extinction of its own accord.

Or it could develop into a strong and powerful image, or beautifully atmospheric scene, at this stage in creativity, it is still half idea, half real but in a few cases, I have a gut feeling that a resolution is on its way.

Illuminating the Manuscript
Enjoying the broth. This is the stage at which most people would recognise a painting in progress, a stage in which the human influence is most apparent and one in which the idea, the preparatory, incubatory and intimatory stages are lost behind pure visual stimulus. The human mammal, applying an idea inspired by thousands of years of genetic inheritance, artistic development and a lifetime of experience onto a wall, a canvas, or piece of paper brings the creative idea from preconscious processing into consciousness and reality.

At this stage, the artwork in progress is alive, developing and evolving rapidly, held loosely by the initial idea, it may mutate, deviate or transform into something else, or another idea entirely, but it exists, it has form and being

Think of the painting in terms of evolution once again, we originate from the apes and are one of many varieties. Our earliest common ancestor represents the blank canvas, and the variety of species represents all possible outcomes of the final painting and the steps along the way. It could be that the idea for the finished work was that it should look like a chimpanzee, but it varied slightly and became a bonobo or dramatically and become an orang-utan or, it could die out, become extinct as an idea which didn’t work and have all its paint scraped off, destined never to be finished.

Another influence on the painting at this stage is that of technique. By a process of learning, trial and error the technique for a painting is applied to the work in progress. How one uses a brush, palette knife, pastel or pencil may vary depending on the desired effect. This technique may be know to the artist, for example, adding a dot of highlight to an eye to give it a glassy appearance, or scraping through the canvas to the lower layers of paint with a palette knife. These may be learned by accident through experiment from first principles, or learned through books, video or from other artists. I never know before I start a painting what style will be appropriate to it and personally find artists who stick rigidly to a particular style or technique throughout their catalogue of works without any apparent development or experimentation to be uninspired. The late Bob Ross, pontiff of method painting, illustrates how once his method had evolved, he was able to pass it on to a generation of “ars vulgaris” craft and hobby painters.

True artistic creativity encourages the influence of techniques and materials in the production of an artwork. When the pursuit of a fixed result dictates these, creativity ceases and only repetitive mimicry remains

This highlights, or illuminates the notion that constant mutation and experimentation is conducive to the evolution of creativity whilst blind acceptance of method causes stagnation and extinction.

The point of no return
Digesting the broth. As evolving animals diverge into separate species, there exists a point where they are no longer able to interbreed, despite similarities in appearance or habit. Our DNA is more than 98% identical to that of chimpanzees, share the same reproductive organs, and yet are genetically incompatible when it comes to interbreeding. Our inbuilt and inherited morals may also play a part in the natural qualm of revulsion which this idea holds, once again, morals are inherited, not awarded through the following of dogma.

By scraping off paint to obliterate one path, it becomes extinct, allowing the less developed idea to gain the survival of the fittest position.

Once however, the work in progress reaches a point as the idea progresses and works as an artwork, there becomes a point of no return where the ideas cohere with technique and material, the idea is elaborated upon and gains its final vitality and is verified as the final artwork by its being hung on a wall.

The painting is finished, and further work on it wouldn’t bring the idea any further. If the end result is successful, and to my liking, I will go on to paint similar, exploring another avenue of the ideas evolutionary possibilities, experiment with size, with materials and textures. If, at the end, I am content that the idea can go no further for the time being, then it is only a matter of time before I am trying out a new recipe of Scotch broth.

In every case however, the experience of creating the artwork, the mistakes, and successes go back into my mind, or into a sketchbook for later use and lie dormant until the next creative Cambrian explosion.

Java the hut, a word of warning.
There is a danger here of overworking a painting, often a single large brushstroke can add more movement and impact to a painting than a thousand small ones. It is knowing when to stop that can make, or break a finished artwork. A caffeine and music fuelled burst of creativity without taking a step back and considering the work can result in “hutting” the painting.

My wife coined the phrase Hutted, again bringing up the infamous Bob Ross, who tends to ruin what would be a perfectly acceptable landscape with a big brown wooden hut with twee chimney and a light on in the window.

The Art of Evolution
In this exhibition, you will find artworks at many stages of evolution. Some are sketches direct from my sketchbooks, and some are finished oil paintings. The ideas, remain firmly in my head, and I am quite happy to share them with you in the course of conversation. You will see a wide variety of themes, subjects, styles, techniques in my favourite mediums of Pastel, charcoal and Oil, I don’t use acrylic as I find it dries too quickly and absorbs light like a brick through butter.

You will also see a couple of series which follow the finished painting from sketchbook to pastel, to painting, back to pastel, to bigger painting and so on. It is your chance to see the evolution of a painting from its origins to its place on the wall at the exhibition.

All the works here today, are not the end of my creativity, as I am still painting, I am still evolving, still learning and gathering experiences and influences for my work. I could not, and would not ever be an artist know only for his horse paintings, or for his bluebell paintings, for his landscape pastels, or for his large abstract paintings. I would not like to be thought of as someone who always painted like van gogh, or made pastels like Degas, or sketches like Picasso. Although occasionally I may doff my hat to the style, I think of myself as neither impressionist or expressionist, abstractionist or realist, modernist or classicist.

As an artist, it is almost expected that I wear my heart, and my beliefs on my sleeve and I happily do just that, I sometimes wear my beliefs on the lapel of my jacket too, but I will leave that to you to find out. What you think about my work is important as we all evolve different visual tastes. You may love them, which I hope, or you may hate them, which is also ok, although I would prefer the former, you may think that the modicum of creative talent I have is completely wasted, or you may like my work so much that you would like to purchase it. In every case, I am very proud of my creations, and hope you enjoy them too.

I am Derek Beggs, homo sapien, human mammal, husband, father, atheist and an artist very much in evolution.

Thank you.




[1] based on the work of Graham Wallas on the origins of creativity.

Exhibition Press Release

Presse Spiegel
Für sofortige Veröffentlichung
17.08.2009
Schottischer Künstler versteigert TSV 1860 handsigniertes Ölgemälde für Kinderkrebskrankenhaus.

Die Endvorbereitungen zu Derek Beggs bislang grössten Ausstellung the Art of Evolution in Landsberg am Lech, sind im vollen Gange. Und lässt mit einem vielversprechenden Event überraschen.

Eines von Derek Beggs Öl-Bildern „The beautiful Game“ (das schöne Spiel) ist vom gesamten Team des TSV 1860 handsigniert worden und wird bis zum 6.September meisstbietend versteigert, wobei der gesamte Erlös krebskranken Kindern des Münchner Kinder Krebs Zentrums zu gute kommen wird

Die Ausstellung unter dem Namen “The Art of Evolution” findet vom 2.September bis einschliesslich 9.September in der Säulenhalle des Stadttheaters in Landsberg am Lech statt.
„The Beautiful Game“ sowie andere Austellungsstücke in Öl Pastel und Skizzen, zeigen Derek Beggs Stiel und Inspiration von Skizze bis hin zum fertiggestellten Werk.

Die öffentliche Vernissage findet am Donnerstag, den 3.September um 18.00 Uhr statt. Eine private VIP-nacht zu der ausschliesslich Eigentümer, Sponsoren, lokale Geschäftseigentümer nationale , wie auch internationale Prominenz geladen sein wird findet am 5. September statt.
Presseaufnahmen und exklusiv Interviews können am Mittwoch den 2. September ab 18.00 Uhr arrangiert werden.
Alle Events weden in der Säulenhalle des Stadttheaters Schlossergasse 381, in Landsberg am Lech abgehalten.

Derek Beggs:” ich hoffe so viel wie möglich durch die Versteigerung des Bildes, The beautiful Game,für diese besonders zu fördernde Einrichtung zu erzielen. Ich möchte allen Kindern somit für die Inspiration und Energie die Ich durch sie bekomme danken. Und Ihnen auf diesem Weg einen Teil Ihrer Lebensfreude zurückgeben. Als Vater, weiss ich welche Bereicherung Kinder im alltäglichen Leben für uns sind.“ Und ich fühle mich glücklich und geehrt so meinen Beitrag für ein zu unterstützungs würdiges Projekt beizusteuern.“

Auf Dereks Webseite unter www.derekbeggs.com können alle, denen es nicht möglich ist persönlich zur Ausstellung zu kommen für dieses besondere Stück mitbieten und Eigentümer werden.

Der diplomierte Künstler Derek Beggs lebt und arbeitet in der Nähe von Landsberg am Lech in Deutschland. Seine Werke erfreuen sich internationaler beliebtheit und werden in verschiedensten Ländern der Welt ausgestellt.
Seine Arbeit und Liebe zu Lichtverhältnissen, Textur und der Natur spricht einen weiten Liebhaberkreis an, von Student bis hin zu Hollywood Sternchen.

Update 8, The art of evolution

It’s all go on the organizational front as well and I am getting very excited about the whole thing.

Some Highlights for this week.

The VIP invites are sent out and we have a couple of replies already confirming attendance.
I got a very nice personal email from the German Chancellor, Frau Merkel, wishing me luck and saying sorry she can’t make it. One for the wall that one.
No response yet from the various other heads of state, royalty and political heavyweights I invited, but its early days yet, we can’t expect them to be as efficient as the Bundestag.
All the paintings are together and I am still labeling them and working out which I can afford to frame and which I’m leaving unframed.
The press release is written and being translated into German by the lovely and capable Karina (thank you). When it’s done, I’ll send it out to as many people as possible and try to drum up some interest.
Posters, It looks like even hanging posters on lampposts is going to be prohibitively expensive and I’m going to have to think of other places to hang them, but lets see. They are already hanging in many places in the area.
The Football painting and frame are being signed as we speak, they will sign the back of the painting in addition to the frame to keep the piece together, it’ll look great.
One of the major paintings from the exhibition is already tentatively reserved, but I cant say which one yet.
I have received enquiries about taking the exhibition elsewhere, to Frankfurt, to America and to the UK, lets see what happens.

Some Highlights for the next few weeks

Live Painting. I am off into Landsberg probably next weekend to do a spot of painting al fresco, hand out flyers, posters and generally make a public nuisance of myself.
Sneak Preview at the Gallery. If anyone is interested in reserving a painting in advance of the show, just let me know and I’ll arrange a sneak preview at my gallery.
On a non related thing, I’m off to Scotland on the 6th August to open a show in my home town as one of six artists participating in the “ties that bind” exhibition.

Help

For all my bravado and confidence, I still have the worry that no one will come (yes I know ) so please help me spread the word regardless of where you are, the more people who know about it the merrier.
Help on the night. I am looking for anyone who fancies helping out on either the vernissage night or the VIP night, if anyone feels like it, please let me know.
Please put my posters up in your company, office, school, shop etc. Let me know and I’ll send you a nice poster for the show.
Facebook. I have a facebook event page which is great for keeping in touch, if you would like to join up, please send me a friend invite to derekbeggs@yahoo.com, or do a search on my name, (I’m the only one)
Prize raffle. Remember, the prize raffle is still open to win one of my paintings, simply click on the “help us evolve” button on my website and make a donation of any amount (minimum is 1€) and you have the chance to win one of my pastels framed.


You heard it here first

Fundraising. I have mounted a large selection of my pastel sketches and drawings and will be selling them before, during and after the show. As they are not framed (just in the mount) they are very affordable and I will be doing a couple of Pre exhibition events beforehand to publicise it.


Thanks everyone for your continued support. And I apologise for these group emails. Email me back, I do answer everything personally.

Cheers for now, keep evolving.

Derek

Article on the origins of creativity

The god of the LEGOTM people,

I once conducted an experiment; I put lots of LEGOTM men, separated into their component parts, legs, bodies and heads into a bag and shook it. Nothing happened, so I shook it some more and added some squeezing, some jiggling some massaging, and some spinning it round and round. When I looked into the bag, most of the LEGOTM men remained in pieces, but there were some noticeable mutations. A head had become lodged on one of the pairs of legs, a body had joined with some legs, but utilising only one of the little lego connectors.

I repeated the process, for twenty minutes ( ok I carried it around ), the result, more mutations, and a head on a body along with a few other abnormalities. After many repetitions, and a few days of regular bag manipulation and a washing machine, I discovered that I did indeed have a connected head, body and legs, in the correct order. Admittedly, the head and legs were the wrong way round, and not entirely connected as firmly as they should be, but never the less, through random external forces, I had successfully re-created a LEGOTM man from his component parts.

It was random movement which rebuilt this LEGOTM man, not me. I am not the god of the LEGOTM people. Just as normal, natural, scientifically verifiable environmental considerations such as temperature, movement, and lightening are a far more likely candidate for the beginnings of life on earth than some supernatural being of literary fiction, so my kinetic manipulation of the bag was not evidence of a divine influence in the re-created man, but rather a real, albeit artificial environment produced by the normal and most definitely not mystical realm of natural physical laws.

I find the creative process involved in producing art is like a head full of LEGOTM people bits, the more you shake it, and the more bits LEGOTM people you add, the more creative I am and the better my paintings become.

The art of evolution,

The idea behind this exhibition is twofold, firstly, I want to establish that creativity is a natural phenomenon, available to all in a greater or lesser extent, and secondly, that my own development as an artist and that of my work adheres without contrivance or effort to the evolutionary laws of natural selection.

“creativity (is) a genetically encoded product of the evolution of the brain, favoured by natural selection, but influenced by the environment of each individual”
Karl H Pfenninge & Valerie R Schubik. The origin of creativity

An artwork is the end result of human creative process, a point of interest in a continuing process of creative evolution. Although the human mammal as we know it today, Homo Sapiens arrived on the scene some 200,000 years ago, the first clear evidence of creativity was not apparent until around 50,000 years ago, and the first cave paintings up to 35,000 years ago, the advantage of creativity in an evolutionary sense, was that of innovation, of new ways of solving problems, as a means of spreading information and as a means of storytelling and social control which evolved into what we now know as religion.

I won’t go into the development of creativity in great detail, but one only has to look at any book on art history and follow the timeline from cave paintings to Caravaggio, from statues of Dionysius to Damien Hurst, to see that there is a clear and logical progression in the development of art with lesser methods and styles becoming extinct and the most useful and popular surviving to the next generation.

This linearity shows that creativity evolved within our species and that the development of creativity in an individual, from building blocks and splodges of colour, to advanced creation and personal artistic development mirrors the development of creativity in mankind as a whole.

Why did creativity develop? Mammoths, it probably came from some problem which arose in our ancient ancestors probably involving hairy horny pachyderms. That is a big mammoth, how do we carry it home now we have killed it. We could all grab a bit and drag it, but then if the sabre toothed tiger came, we would have to run away, or we could cut it up into bits we could all carry and run from the tiger and probably kill it as well for desert. Ogg then probably came up with the sharp stone knife chopping up on cutting himself on a sharp stone.

It was a simple natural solution to a large and not to mention hairy problem.

The clan who thought of this would most likely have an advantage over other mammoth dragging clans and would, again following the natural desire to retain supremacy, need to pass the skill on to maintain its usefulness. We do not know what form of language our ancestors had, but they had the organs and bone structure necessary for the required noises. We also know that they passed on their hunting knowledge on the walls of their caves. In primitive evolution, creativity served an important survival function and flourished.

Why do we, modern man, and I am talking 10000 years of modern man, invest so much effort in creativity when the threat of mammoths and sabre toothed tigers are no longer present. Simply put, the threat of other homo sapiens is however very much present.

Art, the possession of artworks can be seen as a display ritual. A single bird will put itself in mortal danger to warn the rest of the flock of approaching kestrels, thereby showing itself to be strong and brave, or a song thrush singing at the expense of eating to attract a mate. The bower bird builds an elaborate display area, and the male peacock forfeits the ability to fly sensibly in lieu of his fantastic tail feathers.

Human beings constantly show their power by displaying their possessions. The possession of many artworks is unproductive in terms of feeding and clothing the starving and naked populous, but is very effective in giving the impression of power so great that it can afford to adorn its plumage with marvellous and impressive decorations.

Art from early cave paintings has evolved into a status symbol, owning an original artwork signifies that one has established a safe, secure and comfortable environment, free from the threat of famine, or pestilence, although certain organisations have used the threat of pestilence in order to acquire the wealth and art of these comfortable individuals in return for supernatural protection from such things as the plague, or a certain number of years of time in purgatory (if one believes such things)

What is certain is that art is a natural phenomenon, and not the result of some supernatural creator playing pimp my species. Creativity is a part of everyone to a greater or lesser extent, dormant in most, prominent in many and dominant in a few. Whether this takes the form of engineering, writing, music, ballet, dance or fine art, the important thing to remember is that your creativity is as much a part of you, the homo sapiens as your heart is.

“a god given talent”
Someone once told me that I had a “god given talent” ,which I was wasting by not painting pictures of “king william of orange on his horse, the virgin Mary and the likes”, I didn’t mind the king billy, or the woman with the best excuse in the world for infidelity who didn’t die because she flew off heaven one day ( man is she going to feel the odd one out, given that it exists of course). What I objected to was the notion that creativity and talent is in some way god given. This notion is, in light of sound evolutionary evidence, quite frankly absurd.

Talent is not something to be given out in measures, awarded for piety, or generously bestowed upon us by some god of the LEGOTM men, but is a natural gift, the result of many inherited and environmental influences.

Artworks do not just appear; they are not brought suddenly into being by the flying spaghetti monster, nor are they created from one of his meatballs. Artworks do not grow out of the ground, on trees, or appear slowly over time on walls of churches like mould in a poorly ventilated room.

On a personal note, I readily admit, that to my own standards, I can paint, and draw, and sketch in the same way that someone can play football, or write, or drive a car. I would not go so far, or be so immodest as to say I have talent, that is for other people to decide.

“Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. An alternative conception of creativeness is that it is simply the act of making something new.”
Wikipedia


In order to proceed, we have to take a step back in time, to the genesis of my art.

In the beginning was Scotch Broth,
For those who don’t know, a broth is a rather hearty soup traditional to my homeland of Scotland. Now imagine a large bowl of broth, much like the primordial soup of the first life on this planet, but instead of amino acids, the bowl contains random thoughts, ideas, impressions, experiences, inspirations, views, opinions and opportunities.

This preparatory[1] phase of creativity, is all in the mind. In our genetics, our DNA, may be a gene passed down from our ancestors, which gives us an increased level of imagination, or fantasy. We also have the ability to read, and read many books which encourage imagination and fantasy. And it is these two points which lay the groundwork for a creative persona, because without the ability to fantasise to imagine, the broth of creativity will be thin and tasteless, consigned to the sink, extinct before anything can come of it.

The literary example is a good one and supported by much evidence. If one looks at renaissance art, the three main subjects of paintings are nature (landscapes, animals and portraits), biblical scenes, or classical (greek, roman etc) themes in accordance to the literature available at the time. With the invention, here in Germany, of the printing press, came the widespread availability of published literature and this is belatedly reflected in the art world with an exponential increase in the range of subjects and subject matter.

The reason for the delay was that the main patrons of the arts, those individuals or organisations who could afford to employ artists stuck to the three safe, non-confrontational and certainly non-challenging subjects and themes in the same way that people buy ready made, mass produced paintings from the local DIY store, or IKEA. The reason that only this art exists now, is that only the artists who could provide it found patronage.

Da Vinci, hid many of his attempts at creative expression, anatomical studies and such to prevent being labelled a heretic. How wonderful it would have been to have full sized accomplished versions of his sketches on canvas rather than his conformist and allegedly subtly subversive religious paintings.

We may inherit excellent hand eye coordination from our ancestors, or we can learn it. I am useless at catching a ball as there is this moment where the ball is not in contact with my hand that I just cannot judge quickly enough to react. However if the ball is on a string, attached to my hand and I have some idea of its trajectory, I have no problems. I couldn’t hit a target with a bow and arrow, but let me touch a canvas with a brush and it becomes part of me, second nature.

Then came the thought
Stirring the broth, certain notions, come together, certain ideas are formed which work with each other for a while, become coherent and then dissolve, other ideas stick together, growing, forming the basis for an idea, an inkling of what would make a great picture.

Although still in my head, these ideas incubate in the womb of my head, they stick around, nurturing. My wife tells me that she always knows when I have a painting inside me by my actions and mannerisms. I don’t see it myself, but she is invariably correct. Quite what the outward signs are, I am not aware, but equally, I am certain that no supernatural influence is placing ready formed pictures in my head as each component part of the picture clearly comes from a particular element in my personal broth of creativity, an element which has evolved to an extent that it is a living idea, ready to make the first Devonian myriapod steps onto the land of realisation.


And into the idea was breathed the breath of life

Eating the broth. Sketchbooks are a wonderful invention, and I use them as an extension of my own mind, jotting down ideas and inspirations, notes on colours and textures, contrasts and emotions. In JK Rowlings Harry Potter series, professor Dumbledore uses a Penseive to store his silvery thoughts for later recollection. My sketchbooks are not just somewhat like that, but exactly like that. Some of the sketches in them are nothing more than a couple of squiggles and notes, but they act as a trigger to my internal memory, and this spark, this jogging of my memory is the moment where the evolution of an artwork gains sentience, it gains a meaning and personality of its own, however primitive.

This is a very vague understanding of the finished article, but an intimation nonetheless of what could be. Just as the lobe finned fish is our distant relative, so this sketch is a distant relative of a finished painting on the wall of a gallery.
Now the sketch could develop into a finished painting, or the idea could prove a weak one.
I once, in the middle of the night came up with the idea of painting with chocolate, not the actual painting, or the paint, but chocolate instead of a paintbrush. Naturally this idea melted into extinction of its own accord.

Or it could develop into a strong and powerful image, or beautifully atmospheric scene, at this stage in creativity, it is still half idea, half real but in a few cases, I have a gut feeling that a resolution is on its way.

Illuminating the Manuscript
Enjoying the broth. This is the stage at which most people would recognise a painting in progress, a stage in which the human influence is most apparent and one in which the idea, the preparatory, incubatory and intimatory stages are lost behind pure visual stimulus. The human mammal, applying an idea inspired by thousands of years of genetic inheritance, artistic development and a lifetime of experience onto a wall, a canvas, or piece of paper brings the creative idea from preconscious processing into consciousness and reality.

At this stage, the artwork in progress is alive, developing and evolving rapidly, held loosely by the initial idea, it may mutate, deviate or transform into something else, or another idea entirely, but it exists, it has form and being

Think of the painting in terms of evolution once again, we originate from the apes and are one of many varieties. Our earliest common ancestor represents the blank canvas, and the variety of species represents all possible outcomes of the final painting and the steps along the way. It could be that the idea for the finished work was that it should look like a chimpanzee, but it varied slightly and became a bonobo or dramatically and become an orang-utan or, it could die out, become extinct as an idea which didn’t work and have all its paint scraped off, destined never to be finished.

Another influence on the painting at this stage is that of technique. By a process of learning, trial and error the technique for a painting is applied to the work in progress. How one uses a brush, palette knife, pastel or pencil may vary depending on the desired effect. This technique may be know to the artist, for example, adding a dot of highlight to an eye to give it a glassy appearance, or scraping through the canvas to the lower layers of paint with a palette knife. These may be learned by accident through experiment from first principles, or learned through books, video or from other artists. I never know before I start a painting what style will be appropriate to it and personally find artists who stick rigidly to a particular style or technique throughout their catalogue of works without any apparent development or experimentation to be uninspired. The late Bob Ross, pontiff of method painting, illustrates how once his method had evolved, he was able to pass it on to a generation of “ars vulgaris” craft and hobby painters.

True artistic creativity encourages the influence of techniques and materials in the production of an artwork. When the pursuit of a fixed result dictates these, creativity ceases and only repetitive mimicry remains

This highlights, or illuminates the notion that constant mutation and experimentation is conducive to the evolution of creativity whilst blind acceptance of method causes stagnation and extinction.

The point of no return
Digesting the broth. As evolving animals diverge into separate species, there exists a point where they are no longer able to interbreed, despite similarities in appearance or habit. Our DNA is more than 98% identical to that of chimpanzees, share the same reproductive organs, and yet are genetically incompatible when it comes to interbreeding. Our inbuilt and inherited morals may also play a part in the natural qualm of revulsion which this idea holds, once again, morals are inherited, not awarded through the following of dogma.

By scraping off paint to obliterate one path, it becomes extinct, allowing the less developed idea to gain the survival of the fittest position.

Once however, the work in progress reaches a point as the idea progresses and works as an artwork, there becomes a point of no return where the ideas cohere with technique and material, the idea is elaborated upon and gains its final vitality and is verified as the final artwork by its being hung on a wall.

The painting is finished, and further work on it wouldn’t bring the idea any further. If the end result is successful, and to my liking, I will go on to paint similar, exploring another avenue of the ideas evolutionary possibilities, experiment with size, with materials and textures. If, at the end, I am content that the idea can go no further for the time being, then it is only a matter of time before I am trying out a new recipe of Scotch broth.

In every case however, the experience of creating the artwork, the mistakes, and successes go back into my mind, or into a sketchbook for later use and lie dormant until the next creative Cambrian explosion.

Java the hut, a word of warning.
There is a danger here of overworking a painting, often a single large brushstroke can add more movement and impact to a painting than a thousand small ones. It is knowing when to stop that can make, or break a finished artwork. A caffeine and music fuelled burst of creativity without taking a step back and considering the work can result in “hutting” the painting.

My wife coined the phrase Hutted, again bringing up the infamous Bob Ross, who tends to ruin what would be a perfectly acceptable landscape with a big brown wooden hut with twee chimney and a light on in the window.

The Art of Evolution
In this exhibition, you will find artworks at many stages of evolution. Some are sketches direct from my sketchbooks, and some are finished oil paintings. The ideas, remain firmly in my head, and I am quite happy to share them with you in the course of conversation. You will see a wide variety of themes, subjects, styles, techniques in my favourite mediums of Pastel, charcoal and Oil, I don’t use acrylic as I find it dries too quickly and absorbs light like a brick through butter.

You will also see a couple of series which follow the finished painting from sketchbook to pastel, to painting, back to pastel, to bigger painting and so on. It is your chance to see the evolution of a painting from its origins to its place on the wall at the exhibition.

All the works here today, are not the end of my creativity, as I am still painting, I am still evolving, still learning and gathering experiences and influences for my work. I could not, and would not ever be an artist know only for his horse paintings, or for his bluebell paintings, for his landscape pastels, or for his large abstract paintings. I would not like to be thought of as someone who always painted like van gogh, or made pastels like Degas, or sketches like Picasso. Although occasionally I may doff my hat to the style, I think of myself as neither impressionist or expressionist, abstractionist or realist, modernist or classicist.

As an artist, it is almost expected that I wear my heart, and my beliefs on my sleeve and I happily do just that, I sometimes wear my beliefs on the lapel of my jacket too, but I will leave that to you to find out. What you think about my work is important as we all evolve different visual tastes. You may love them, which I hope, or you may hate them, which is also ok, although I would prefer the former, you may think that the modicum of creative talent I have is completely wasted, or you may like my work so much that you would like to purchase it. In every case, I am very proud of my creations, and hope you enjoy them too.

I am Derek Beggs, homo sapien, human mammal, husband, father, atheist and an artist very much in evolution.

Thank you.
[1] based on the work of Graham Wallas on the origins of creativity.

Interview about the exhibition

Questions.

Q: So, Derek , Tell me a bit about yourself, a potted history of your life.

A: Sure, I was born in Falkirk, Scotland, and grew up in the beautiful town of Dumfries in the southwest. After school, I studied at the world famous Glasgow School of Art, where I graduated with an Honours degree in Fine Art. After college I did a business course and then worked as a set builder, props man and art director in the film and tv industry. In the following years, I got married, got unmarried, travelled to Australia and ended up living in Spain, working as a diving instructor.
It was in Spain that I met my wife, Tanja, and we decided on the toss of a coin to move to germany, heads Scotland, tails, germany. It was a decision that we never regretted, particularly now we have our son, great neighbours and this fantastic area to live in. I opened my gallery last year, and studio, and have been exhibiting pretty much constantly ever since, here in germany, in Scotland, in denmark and so on.

Q: Could you describe yourself in one sentence?

A: Ooh, difficult, but here goes… I am a creative, friendly, outgoing and open minded Scotsman, constantly in evolution like my art. Or something like that.

Q: Do you ever regret your move here,

A: Never, not for a minute. Ok there are some things I miss, like my friends and family, but it doesn’t stop me being happy here. My wife is german, and my son who is five now is just wonderful. As my wife says, having children is like being freshly in love every single day. He has a great quality of life, and is so open and friendly to everyone. I think that’s because he has been exposed to other cultures, cuisines and countries from a very early age.

Q: Artist, Diving instructor, Props man, you seem to have had a lot of interesting jobs.

A: That’s not the half of it, I have also done a bit of commercial diving, English teacher, Art teacher, painter and decorator, gravestone restorer, and even a tarot card reader when I was a student to fund my artistic endeavours.

Q: Did you paint and draw all your life, or did you have a pause.

A: I would say, most of my life I have been painting and drawing, or at the very least doing something creative, I cant stop myself. However within the space of a year, 1998 I think it was, my Mother died, my wife left, I folded my business. I went to Australia to visit my brother and a couple of months after my return, decided to go diving for a while, so sold up everything in a couple of weeks and landed in Spain with two rucksacks, no ties and nothing else. I think the pause must have been about oh, three years before I started up again in ernest though. Aside from that, there is always something arty on the go.

Q: Tell me about this show, “the art of Evolution”, whats it about?


A: Everyone knows about evolution, or at least heard about it. It is basically the explanation for our existence in the form we are today, it explains how through a process of natural selection, we slowly evolved over millions of years from amino acids, through single celled organisms to the hugely complex creatures by a gradual process rather than the previous held, and somewhat unbelievable idea that we suddenly sprang into existence on this planet ten thousand years after the domestication of the dog, and three thousand years after the invention of beer.

The exhibition, is also about evolution, following the same principle, from idea to sketch to drawing to painting, follows exactly the same path, exactly the same methods and principles as can be found in nature. It applies equally to my own development as an artist, and to the development of creativity in our species as a whole.

The best ideas survive to be paintings, the weakest become extinct. Creativity is a natural part of us, the end result of a biological evolutionary process. This exhibition is about my part in my own creative world, and my miniscule part in the continuing evolution of human creativity.

Art, and creativity is natural to people, all people, and all people are creative to a greater or lesser extent. I hope that by exhibiting my work, and showing the process, that it might encourage more creativity in life. They say Art mimics life, it’s quite true, I think you could go further and say creativity IS life, because without it we would quite simply stagnate, there would be no invention, no progress, no advancement, a permanent dark ages.

Q: Do you not think that encouraging people to paint somehow weakens your position as an artist, gives you more competition.

A: Absolutely not. I mean if there were several artists in one village that only painted fairies and angels, then yes, another fairy and angel artist would be competition. But the more artists that work together, with differing styles and techniques, the better it is for all of us as the appeal of the group can be exposed to a much wider audience, and can develop and grow, learning from each other. Again nature, survival of the most adaptable. That’s why I have started getting a group of artists together on my website with an idea to doing group shows and so on.

Q: So what are the plans in the future.

A: Well at the moment I am concentrating fully on the September show, and another exhibition in Scotland in August. After that, I would like to do a group show nearer christmas, and we’ll see what happens next. Whatever happens, I am looking forward to it.

Q: Thank you