Forward to works of
John Uzzell Edwards
The Millennium Exhibition
Tenby Museum & Art Gallery

by Robert McKee

The Hindu symbol for the human mind is the jabbering monkey, that cerebral Pandemonium only intense meditation can silence. For while the incessant rattling of self-debate, of repetitious mental tasks, of flitting memory and anticipation gets us through our days, this moil also builds an impenetrable frtress against deep experience. As long as the mind is whirling away, no substantive change can occur within us. The joy of art, therefore, is its power to silence the monkey. When in the grip of compelling work we slip into a spontaneous meditation. Then, in the quiet of aesthetic contemplation, we are filled with the artist's vision, our humanity is illuminated, our being renewed.

Thus I have a simple test that tells me whether or not a painting works, if, when I step up to a canvas, I hear my mind spewing thoughts such as "Clever juxtaposition of red against blue," "Interesting solution to that problem in the upper left," "That image...yes, I remember, it's the symbol for -", I know in a flash that this piece does not work. It has amplified the chatter. If, however, my mind falls silent as my eye travels around the surface for five, ten minutes or more with no analysis, no musing, no questioning, only pure sensory focus inside a perfect stillness of thought, then, as I finally look away, sensing a deep resonation of aesthetic experience, I know that this painting works. It is not merely decorative; it is expressive. It has silenced the chatter in my mind and caused a profound shift within such that I am not the same person I was just moments ago.

The paintings of John Uzzell Edwards have this power. I first experienced his magic a decade ago in Cardiff's West Wharf gallery. There were other painters on exhibit that day, solid professional artists, but the Uzzell Edwards canvasses drew me like a Siren's song. In this period his works were figurative... muscular outlines and vigorous matrixes created through a layering of oils, brush strokes and pallet knife, that generated the most amazing textures and colour combinations I had ever seen. I stood, I don't know how long, in wordless fascination. When at last I stepped back, I knew I wanted these paintings in my life, for if they had such power at first viewing, surely their force would grow day after day, year after year to give me endless, bottomless pleasure. Indeed, the six 'Uzzell Edwards' I've collected to date have done all that and more."