Paul Robert Mitchell

The Canvas as a Site to Translate Body and Mind

As a visual artist I explore the world through my senses rather than through my intellect. Being dyslexic, and consequently not academically inclined, I have always struggled with words and abstract concepts, but I am fluent in colours and images. My body has become the filter through which I understand and categorise reality, and the canvas is the locus where this process of translation takes place. Emotions and physical sensations unfiltered by ‘language’ are translated into shapes and colours onto the canvas thanks to the paintbrush: my dictionary, the tool that allows me to immortalise my world. My ‘source text’ is my body and my mind, and my paintings are the artifacts resulting from the process of intersemiotic translation as intended by Marais (2019), where language plays no role. My artistic practice is a creative response to an investigation (Barrett 2007), but not for academic purposes. It is rather a compulsion arising from the need to understand the world through my senses and to impress on the canvas whatever my body and mind perceive. In this process, words are unnecessary. As an artist, I am asking you: is this translation?

The works here presented have been painted between 2015 and 2023, and some were included in collective exhibitions in Hobart (TAS – Australia). The images will be presented as a slideshow with the artist’s voice reading the blurbs. The ekphrases below are not the complete blurbs. 

Works cited:

Barrett, Estelle. 2007. "Introduction." In Practice as Research Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry, edited by Estelle Barrett and Barbara Bolt, 1-14. London: I. B. Tauris.

Marais, Kobus. 2019. A (bio)semiotic theory of translation : the emergence of social-cultural reality, Routledge advances in translation and interpreting studies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Bio:

Paul Robert Mitchell is a self-taught artist, musician and lyricist. His paintings have been part of open exhibitions in Hobart (Tasmania - Australia) and have been selected for online competitions and exhibitions. “Mind Invasion” won the Underground ArtBar prize and the People’s Choice Award in January 2020.
As a musician, he recorded two albums as frontman: one with the band Prayers in Ashes and one with Blood Puppet, and played in several night clubs in Tasmania.
For him art is a hobby because, as he always says, "you can't take life too seriously".

Facebook page "The Doors That Scream"