Moksananda
Valencia (Spain)
Age 64
What keeps you excited in the studio?
Working, just getting on and doing it, knowing that at some point the magic will happen.
Looking back at your trajectory as an artist, how would you say your work has developed?
It’s always developing. Each painting shows the way to the next, including the ‘failures’. I trust that process more now, so perhaps I could say that it’s the creative process that has developed, and the art works themselves are just a result of that. I think it’s the process, and the way of being which that involves, that is the essential thing.
What role do you think the artist has in today’s society?
Art’s function is above all ‘spiritual’. It keeps people’s minds and hearts open and alive. One of my favourite quotes is from Agnes Martin’s writings: “The artist tries to live in a way that will make greater awareness of the sublimity of reality possible.” I think that the artist today above all has the opportunity to keep alive for us all an awareness of the preciousness, mystery and utter wonder of life itself. I think that our polarised and crisis ridden society desperately needs that.
What’s the most important advice you could give to an aspiring artist?
Trust yourself, trust the process. Listen to that inner voice that is drawing you on.
Does age matter in art? Why or why not?
It matters because the art world always wants the new, and the new is associated with the young. It matters because most of us though only come to real maturity as people, as individuals, later in life. And it is that maturity that needs to be present too in the art world. Whether in the creator of art or in the beholder of art. And at the same time it doesn’t matter, because art itself is a kind of ageless spirit.
What can we look forward to from you next?
I will be starting soon on a new body of work for a show I have opening in November here in Valencia.
Is there anything else you would like to share about being an artist later in life?
You know that however long you’ve got to make art, it’s not going to be that long.
moksananda.com
@moksananda
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