I am intrigued by how insistent I have been over the years to maintain my identity as an artist. I am fortunate not that I stumbled across found and recycled objects and saw their artistic potential – but that I had the courage to envision an entirely new art form and risk ridicule, and my reputation as a fine artist, to create this new body of work.
This courage led me into the pioneering realm of environmental art and provided me, at long last, with definitive direction as an artist. It also paved the way for my success. Over thirty years of my active life as an artist, I have managed to create a huge body of work, with thousands upon thousands of works begin created. When I look back on my life’s body of work, I find a clear thread that intellectually ties most of it together.
I’m obviously a colourist and I have clearly refined my concerns with colour, line and with certain compositional elements and form.
I have been relentlessly committed to the creation of my art, constantly examining what it all meant to me.
What was it that SO much needed my expression? This is one of the questions I ask people I mentor when I first meet them. At the same time I have become increasingly interested in the dis-identification of the ego and this has naturally included the artist’s ego construct.
I have found my biggest and best breakthroughs have been achieved when I have let go my artist’s ego and any form of rigid or limiting beliefs or expectations.
This has the resulting effect of leaving the door wide open to the new, the unexpected and the potentially limitless.
The artist’s identity will evolve and it may only be in hindsight that this identity becomes clear. Young artists should not panic if their identity is obscured. The artist’s identity will always materialise with maturity.
See John Dahlsen’s Recent Works
