  | ||
| | |
Gaian Rants | |||||||
 | |||||||
Soul Paintings - An Interview with Robert DeIulio | |||||||
Water color artist Bob De Iulio is a remarkable man with an incredible talent. Using a technique called vitreous fluxhe creates what have been called “soul paintings”. Vitreous flux, originally developed by the late Jackson, NH artist David Baker, is a water color technique done on Masonite board or (more recently) yupo, a type of Japanese watercolor paper with a similar surface. Several coats of paint are applied to create texture before an image emerges. Bob describes his style as “impressionistic and abstract”. Though he has painted his whole life, when he got involved with vitreous flux just three and a half years ago magic happened. I first met Bob at an exhibit in Chocorua in 1999. I liked him right away and was impressed with his work. Then in the summer of 2001, I ran into him at a craft show and was completely blown away by his ability to express the essence of nature, especially trees. I remain in awe. This interview was conducted at Bob’s studio on Washington Street in Conway, a tiny space full of color and light and vibrating with energy. Pictures of all sizes in both vintage and modern frames, brilliant tiles, mounted limited-edition prints, and cards are all a feast for the eyes, and soul. Gaian Voices - Your work is so beautiful, so alive. How do you do it? Bob - I go into a Zen state of mind. Ninety percent of my process is sitting back and allowing the magic to happen, applying layer after layer of paint to create texture and energy. Eventually in that process I begin to see something that is unique to my imagination. I begin to highlight it and it’s in the highlighting that the actual images emerge. Each painting can go from something very abstract to something very realistic. Over the course of my life I have gathered billions of images that are stored in my unconscious — we all do. The unique vitreous flux process allows me the opportunity to create a background and then the images I’ve collected over the years fuse themselves onto the background. I’ve been blessed with the gift of being able to highlight those images and create - (He directs my gaze to the walls of the studio and the images of trees, flowers, Mother Teresa and Christ, mist, the ocean, waves, each unique, each pulsing with a life all its own ) — what I’ve been able to create. These have been described by many people as soul paintings. They are coming from my unconscious. It’s tapping into a universal energy and I’m fortunate enough to have it come out on the board. G.V. - One of the things that amazes me is your ability to show the different dimensions of life. The spirit or essence of the trees, the flowers, the water comes through. I can see it so clearly. Sure, if I was walking in the woods it wouldn’t look like that, but the feeling that I get when I’m in the woods when the light is a certain way or the mist is a certain way . . . what I feel when I walk through the woods is what I see in your paintings. Bob - That’s right. That’s why I say that I’m painting energy and texture. I’m very moved by how you expressed it. I don’t want to paint a tree like a tree. My paintings allow you to be free enough to walk through them and be a part of the energy. That’s what I mean about my gift. I’m able to tap into that universal experience. I don’t care whether you’re a tribal member in an aboriginal forest or you’re living in the Valley in North Conway, we all have the same opportunity to walk into that space, to feel that energetic universal connection and groove with it. Allowing others to share in the magic of this universal experience is what it’s all about. G.V. - And you’re so prolific. There’s so much here. Bob. I’m a man with a mission. My mission is to help people unlock their awareness of the universal connection. We’ve been taught not to feel the forest, not to feel the sunflower. You’re not supposed to do that. Well, I take just the opposite position. We’re supposed to feel connected, supposed to feel the trees, the flowers. That’s what it’s all about. We’re supposed to know the connection within ourselves that unites us with everyone and everything else. This knowing, this feeling leads you to a very different level of experience. Maslow talked about the highest human needs are the need to know and the need for beauty. Once you experience the beauty that you alluded to a moment ago, you know. You know instantly. And if you can experience it once you can experience it forever. G.V. - You don’t lose it. It’s always there. When people experience this connection it changes them forever. Bob - I will never look at reality the same way. G.V. - That’s my vision for Gaian Voices — to help people see the world differently. It’s so important in this day and age with everyone walking around with blinders on and so focused on the material and then on the terror and fear of war, too. And we’re bombarded with ads and media hype day in and day out. It’s almost as if there’s a conspiracy to keep us from waking up. Bob - It’s horrifying how people are operating in such a non-caring, non-feeling, non-connected level. It’s tragic. And it seems like there’s no middle ground anymore. It’s true of the economy as well. So many people are sliding right to the bottom. And they have nothing to lift them up. Except, of course, what’s inside. And that’s what this is all about. To help people realize that, wait a minute, you still have inside you a resource that connects itself to the universal energy. G.V. - These are intense times we’re living in. Greed and lust for power seem to be in control, yet people are waking up in spite of efforts to prevent it. There are a lot of aware people, more than just a few years ago. Thomas Berry talks about how there are appropriate times in the universe for certain things to happen. The impetus is there, if you know what I mean. Bob - I hear you loud and clear. It’s powerful moment. That’s why I feel that this is where I need to be. To give a glimpse of the light to the guy in the darkness. | |||||||
Robert DeIulio Born 12/12/34 -12/13/03 Bob DeIulio was a man who LIVED every day of his life. Every moment. In the moment. From the heart. With passion. With integrity. As a guidance counselor. As a school psychologist. As a therapist and body-worker in private practice. As a visionary artist following his dream to live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the final career of his life. Bob had the rare and, for me, treasured ability to see into the essence of whatever was before him. A child. An adult. A flower. A sunset. I was very fortunate to have Bob as a therapist, supervisor, mentor and friend for seventeen years of my life. He became a taproot for me. An anchor. A tribal elder. A wiseman. Someone who understood the value of long-term, sustaining and sustainable relationships, and knew how to care for the people in his life. He could speak the truth concisely, from the heart and reach the depths of my heart. His paintings reflect this same gift, just expressed in another medium. With no warning, and perhaps with the very passion, presence to the moment and fullness that characterized his life, Bob was taken from us the day after his 69th birthday, sitting in a chair in his living room in the company of his wife. A quick heart attack. His wife says, even Bob was surprised. And what a huge loss for so many. What a deep chasm left unfilled. For me, I both have profound gratitude for all of the conversations, all of the care and meaning Bob shared with me over the course of seventeen years of my life, and the sense of peace that comes from having been so fully watched over, mentored and cared for in the deepest ways. His art lives on, as does his spirit, in the world, and also in my heart. Perhaps one day, he too will be recognized as one of the great masters. But for those of us who knew and loved him, his absence is profound and deeply felt. Linda Marks
| |||||||
| | | | | | | |