EDWARD EPP
Born in Saskatoon Saskatchewan in 1950, Edward Epp has given a lifetime to expressing himself through painting and teaching in Canada, Africa and China. Edward Epp’s work has been exhibited widely in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New York and Botswana. Edward currently lives in Terrace British Columbia with his family and continues to paint landscapes in oil and watercolour.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Landscape has long been for me a potent and suitable metaphor for expressing my desire to create, experiment and develop my craft as a painter. Nature’s universal forms serve as a generative vehicle for me to give expression to spiritual urges and insights as best as I can articulate through this medium.
One of my favorite contemporary artists, the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, spoke about the artist’s yearning:
We have a nostalgia for the Universal, and that nostalgia must bring a completely new art into being… Art – although an end in itself—like religion—is the means through which we can know the universal and contemplate it in plastic form.
Spirituality is what I desire to express in paint. I believe that the source of spirituality are the Manifestations of God and that the nineteenth century prophet, Baha’u’llah, was the most recent of these long series of Manifestations. A new Prophet, his faith teaches, breathes a reviving spirit into human affairs, and change is seen and felt in every aspect of life including the arts. I hope that my paintings capture in some small way the spirit that is associated with this powerful new spirit. One of the things that I love about painting is that it is a silent witness, and like deeds it shines more brilliantly than do words:
That Day will the Cause spread like wildfire when its spirit and teachings are presented on stage or in art and literature as a whole. Art can better awaken such noble sentiments than cold rationalizing, especially among the masses of people.
EDWARD EPP
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