John Moore is a Master Printmaker and Fine Artist whose affinity for the mystical is brought to life by his technical mastery of printmaking techniques which include etching, linocut, lithograph, woodblock and mezzotint.
John has always been fascinated by the fauna and flora of Southern Africa. During his childhood, the love of his surroundings was deeply ingrained as he travelled with his family through Southern Africa. His artistic career has highlighted the beauty and diversity of Southern African wildlife. He is deeply spiritual and enjoys walking and meditating in natural environments.
Since childhood, John believes that he holds a sacred connection with the fauna and flora of Africa. He believes he is a mediator, a Shaman who interacts and communicates with animals, telling and representing their stories to the world of man.
John has a strong connection to the San people. Having studied their iconography, he concludes that this ‘sacred text/writing’ connects us together in a time/space, which brings us close to the source. He uses this information to compile his artwork and to represent the animals and the trance-dance sacred state, which the San believed was a space where they could interact with and be in the environment.
The printmaking medium is used as a source for creating John’s images for several reasons. Printmaking is a way of creating multiple images. He also likes the “traditional printmaking techniques” namely lithography, etching, silkscreen and woodcuts as they are processes that allows him and viewers to get involved and immerse themselves into the medium and the images he creates. He also loves the printmaking medium because there is a process of repetition and rhythm.
In San society, when a trance-dance is performed, all members come together as a community. Repeated chanting and clapping creates (sonic) sounds, which allow the Shaman to enter the world of spirit and the trance. John uses the repeated processes of printmaking to charge his images with energy and intent and like shaman of old, intentionally empowers his image to do the same. San mythology looked at three realms in their universe: the realm of the sky or 3D reality, extending from the cave wall into the landscape, the realm below or behind the cave painting, which represented the spirit realm. The third reality is the cave surface itself. This was the sacred veil, the space where both the 3-D reality and the spirit realm came together. The paintings were revered in San
society in the same way sacred texts are revered in other belief systems.
John creates his images with the same reverence. Each image holds the 3 realities: the realm of human, the animal/spiritual realm extending behind the image and the charged surface of the image, which John has created filled of sacred power and potential.
