On one of my many visits to art museums, when walking through the corridors, I unexpectedly came across a painting by Caravaggio, the fortune teller. I can’t explain the way I felt when coming across this work of art. It was a unique sensation that I’ve never felt before.

I felt that same sensation when experiencing the birth of my children- the beginning of life. There are moments in life where we perceive things differently. When I look up at the blue sky, I don’t just see the colour, shape and form, but I see and experience the existence of life.

This moment of inspiration that I experienced was narrated by philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich, where he described his encounter with the painting of Botticelli- the Madonna with singing angels. Tillich saw the painting hanging alone on a wall when he visited the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. This 1477 painting is also called Raczinski Tondo. For Tillich, this painting placed him in a state of ecstasy for the rest of his life. The painting had a huge influence on him, where he afterward spoke of it as a moment of revelation. An experience which he grasped, not only by its beauty and visual art but also by the reality of the absolute.

My work has been influenced primarily by two artists; an Italian artist, Carmelo Micalizzi and a Maltese artist Vince Briffa. They both have a different approach to art, but the message is the same, that of the human element. Both artists search the true meaning of the human’s soul whose aim is to discover and explore the Human dilemma.

Tolstoy states that the ultimate aim of his work is to seek and understand how an artist expresses his work to the world. For Tolstoy there is a connection between the visual art, spirituality and humanity. He believes that art communicates a combination of imagination and knowledge shared through intimate emotions and beliefs.

All works are meaningless if they don’t stand in front of the real masterpiece - that of humanity. Each individual is the image of the absolute, therefore art does not exist without the love, joy and suffering of the human element.

We are the mind, body and soul of art.