Pensamiento

Bad weather continues; rough seas, strong wind... We are sailing along the coast of Bretagne, more specifically before the Saint Malo fortress. Many memories and images come to my mind, like that of the allies on D-day, Arturo Pérez-Reverte's pirate novels or my last trip with my 'Pirin'. We visited the Département Ille-et-Vilaine, with its 12th Century Basilica of Saint-Sauveur, where one can see Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque art come together in a single building. The 15th Century Church at Saint-Malo, the 12th Century Franciscan Convent, which underwent restoration in the 19th Century and our unforgettable visit to Mont Saint-Michel.

 About my last two comments, where I reflect upon art and artists, I want to make very clear that I completely agree on the need to talk about art. I believe we have to do everything in our power so that art, which is integral to human nature since the dawn of time, does not lose its role in keeping our spirits alive. Art helps us find the divine in the human and the soul in our own bodies. 

In that search for the union between the human being and its Creator (which is both love and God), artists find expression through their own methods. They do so because they feel compelled to; NOT in order to communicate their own feelings, NOT in order to denounce cruelty and injustice, NOT in order to idealize or demonize certain politics, NOT in order to get their message out, NOT with the intention of making a living… but because they HAVE TO. Because they feel an inner necessity that drives them to express themselves. And in that freedom and that imperative need lays the path that takes us to the human, but also closer to the divine. 

Jorge Rando, La Bretagne, May 2007