Values, Ideas and Beliefs

We all inherit values, ideas, beliefs, objects from those that have brought us into this world, those that have preceded us. The character of these conditioning agents may be enhanced or negated by our own life experiences. May be supplanted or perhaps even discovered anew. The difficulty is recognizing these elements; the problem is understanding; the challenge is to use them. To apply them to a contemporary context; to let them assume a personal significance; to teach, to explain, to encourage, to elucidate.

Above all to give us an indication, even the answer.

Luis's visual vocabulary that he has developed in the past 20 years is all here. The Christianity of his youth, the Jewish inheritance discovered at eighteen, the indigenous art of his Angolan childhood, the myths of Greece, his two countries of citizenship Portugal and Australia. What is different with this recent output from Luis's studio is that all these elements are incorporated into single works. But each painting has a common element: the woman; indeed a particular woman.

But what our belief systems for if not to make sense of our own particular human predicament? Symbols can, indeed need to be, more than just iconographic elements.

I do not know if Luis has found the answer, I suspect not, but his search is producing some absorbing images.