We are all artists.
Just like we are all enlightened.
We are what we are,
Just some of us have forgotten.
My art attempts a communication of subconscious, spiritual ideas which language itself cannot convey. The images are often from dreams and meditations where abstract concepts seem to coalesce into shapes and textures, and can feel primitive like hieroglyphics or cave wall markings, but also modern and timeless. They often contain the suggestion of lettering, and a mix of geometry and organic markings.
To add to the sense of history, my work is always several layers, much of which I cause to crack. I want art to feel obviously not AI – so ‘imperfections’, texture, and imprecision is embraced. I want the viewer to feel like they want to touch the work, and be dissatisfied with a photo.
Though I start with a loose image in mind, each painting usually takes weeks to make as I love the sense of slow discovery the surprise of layering. Painting for me is a type of tantric meditation, a practice where there is no self, only a flow of mind and matter, a co-creation of which I too can be a participant.
Rob McRae started painting in 2019 when, while travelling in Sweden, he came across an artist he had never seen before, whose work deeply changed him: Hilma af Klimt. Seeing these works, he was struck by the clear, alive spiritual messages being conveyed, and the sense that many of these images were reminiscent of things he had seen in his own dreams. He was inspired to try to recreate some of those dream images.
This timing was convergent with Rob’s work with the spiritual teacher Rupert Spira (also a renowned ceramic artist) through whose teaching Rob was learning to understand the interplay of mind and matter, the dance of spirit in the material world, and painting suddenly became a natural extension of his decades-long meditation practice.
Rob’s painting is an attempt to communicate non-verbal, subconscious ideograms that often speak of our spiritual unity and the psychological healing that interplays with this awareness. His work often fuses geometry, symbols, layering and texture, using acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencil, and graphite, to achieve images that feel timeless, transcendent, and hopefully, very human.
For more information, or just to send a note about any art or ideas, feel free to follow me on Instagram via @empty.fullness.art or email me directly for inquiries or comments.
