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| Wednesday, 16 July 2003 |
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Jayasiri Semage - Artist celebrating life By Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa Jayasiri Semage, the distinguished artist, lyricist, wielding the brush and the palette, has currently scaled the ordinary and has achieved a lofty peak that offers him a vantage point, to view the world and human life with a creative detachment. In a clear and uncluttered vision, he can calmly contemplate the tortuous path he had to tread, to gain the height he has now reached. As all significant personalities of the world of high art, he discerns, still more mountains to conquer, as the effort towards perfection never abates. Within the being of artist Jayasiri Semage, the little child who yearned to communicate the strange whims that stirred in his tiny soul still continues to exist. And, that child, was raised in a coastal village in the deep South, nourished by a staple died of sun, rain, sand and sea. The Southern rural setting, replete with strands and motifs of a wholesome traditional culture, prods the sensitive child to enter into a beneficial communion with the inspiring natural surroundings. Artistic creativity and a deep keenness to lisp in art, lodged in his childish heart. The lines and curves, he drew as a child, spoke to his compassionate and watchful teacher, allowing an awakening talent to be recognized quite early. Young Jayasiri found his vocation fairly early in life. He would have dreamt in colours, lines and curves. Artistic creativity came to him almost as a natural urge. The region that he inhabited possesses urges and trends that inspire and propel a child seeking avenues of imaginative expression. Jayasiri Semage entered the world-stage through the portals of his childhood village. To him, initially art was a pragmatic way of being. The spectacular pandals and decorative edifices of his native city, filled him with wonder and he felt challenged. In his youthful years, he excelled in the area of functional and public art, the unabashed purpose of which is to thrill the adorning masses, swayed by a religious devotion. Jayasiri Semage continued his creative odyssey and, this time, he began to turn inwards to search his own soul. This process, initiated a new phase in his development, allowing the childhood motifs and designs to become vehicles to convey his inner experiences. His brush eventually acquired an admirable fluency, while his palette yielded pigments to enable him to say his artistic say in his own style of line and colour. Artist Jayasiri Semage's distinct quality is that the feel of the spiritual never left him. However worldly or material may be the theme he portrays in his canvas, there is always a spiritual depth that elevates it above the ordinary. The creative secret that allows his works to be suffused by that elevating sense of deep contemplation, is that his works emerge from the recesses of his soul, and are not mere surface exercises. This, once again, explains quite vividly why art critics in the lands in which he has had the good fortune to exhibit his works, tend to praise him in eloquent terms. They discern the inner urges coming through his paintings. They are not eccentric experiments that pass for modern art in some instances. The satisfying synthesis of artist Jayasiri Semage's lines, colours and shades - exudes an ethereality that transforms any theme he selects into an elevated experience. Artist Jayasiri Semage, has, over the years, acquired a highly refined talent for depicting eroticism in a manner that soothes the viewer into tranquillity. His alluring female forms do not titillate a gross sexism. Instead, they enter into a partnership with the viewer on a journey towards the upper reaches of contemplation. The experience is quite akin to a spiritual transformation. Artist Jayasiri Semage's motifs and lines may still hold a distant and faint echo of the stylistic levels of the temple murals he would have been impressed by, when he was still a child. But, today these patterns and arrangements are all his own. There is not even a vestigial trace of the derivative in his works today. Artist Jayasiri Semage could very well be the only Sri Lankan artist to practise his vocation in so variegated situations, both here and abroad. To his credit there is a vast range of achievements. In many countries in the world discriminating critics hold his works in high esteem. In an exquisite tribute to his creative stature, the UN Office in Geneva decorates its walls with a painting by artist Jayasiri Semage. Today, artist Jayasiri Semage has been recognised by his own colleagues. He has been made the Chairman of the Ceylon Society of Arts - an organization with quite a prestigious tradition. Artist Jayasiri Semage can now look back upon a life in art in which his sheer effort at many levels, made the present status possible. He worked in the demanding vocation of journalism while refining his main form of creative expression through inspired painting. He does not want to stand still. His vision is focused unerringly on the future. His achievement in years to come is intimately linked with the fortunes of art in Sri Lanka as he has now been put in charge of the helm as President, Ceylon Society of Arts.
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