“Art gives the experience of eternity right here, right now.” – Joseph Campbell The work of Joseph Campbell and his ideas about the role of the mythological informs Gil’s aesthetic and gives his audience a lens through which to enter Gil’s world and imagination.

Happy 2010! Gil has lots of new designs and work, so be looking for announcements and shows.

         - Marianne & Gil, March 2010

In this issue, we continue our exploration of the magic realism, the mythological and Gil’s work.

“Perfume” Oil on Canvas, 26 ¾” x 21”

In the last issue, we talked about how Magic Realism, through its use of images and metaphors, contributes to a kind of common mythology in which we can participate. In part 2 of Magic Realism, we explore the function of this mythology in Gil’s work. Visionary Artist Gil Bruvel’s work has been devoted to exploring the unknowable not to define it or label it or know it, but to “experience it.”

According to Gil, while any artist can tap into the vast pool of Myth, the Magic Realist brings the myth, with its complex systems and dreamscapes, literally into focus and into the world. In this way, myth and mythology is rescued from the storybook, from the world of dream, even from religion, and is put on display, allowing audiences to experience the mystery of the universe in a form without words.

“The Last Clue” Oil on Board, 12”x16”	“The Music Box” Tempera on Canvas, 58” in diameter

“The Exit” Oil on Board, 29 9/16” x 39 7/8”	“The Night” Oil on Canvas, 41” x 27”

The “Real World”

For Gil, Magic Realism and his own work is a deeply spiritual art form. “You don’t have to be religious or even spiritual,” he says, but the work asks essential questions about existence and thinks about what is “real” right before our very eyes.

Melancholy
Oil on Canvas, 36" x 59"

“The canvases represent imaginative worlds and landscapes that are genuine, actual and true.” – Gil Bruvel

“The Encounter” - 1987 Oil on Canvas, 23” x 29”

In terms of what’s real and what’s not, Gils says: “My art locates me in places where my ideas are most real, that is, the canvases represent imaginative worlds and landscapes that are genuine, actual, and true.”

What results is an “eternal moment.” According to Joseph Campbell, when art or myth interact with our “deepest ideas of truth and being--- it gives us an experience of “eternity right here and right now,” which he says, is the “function of life.” Of course, says Gil, we find these moments of truth in other arenas, but it seems to him the special providence of Magic Realism to remind the everyday seeker that the timeless and the eternal are within reach, and to inspire us to “awe,” which, in the end, is what Joseph Campbell says, “moves us forward.”

“The Tenuous Light of Dream”
Gouache & Graphite on Board, 13 1/8” x 19”